Fear as a Political Instrument. J. P. Dupleix and Euro – Indian Relations in Bengal (1730-1740)

Abstract

In the first half of the 18th century in India, the trading companies of Holland, England and France were the protagonists of a political and economic expansion. In this paper, the Author aims to highlight the colonial experience of the French governor Joseph-François Dupleix’s in Bengal in the 1730s. In particular, the Author wants to refer to the shift in the balance of power relations between Europeans and Indians, and He wants to highlight a slow and progressive shift of the balance towards European players. In fact after the 1730s, progressively, the use of force becomes, thanks to the fear it generates, a normal modus operandi on the part of the European Companies in India.