Murshidabad in the context of "Sarfaraz Khan"

The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of the British East India Company, under the leadership of Robert Clive, over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies on 23 June 1757. The victory was made possible by the defection of Mir Jafar, Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah's commander in chief, as well as much of the Bengal Subah's armies being earlier committed against an Afghan invasion led by Ahmad Shah Durrani against the Mughal Empire. The battle helped the British East India Company take complete control of Bengal in 1773. Over the next hundred years, they continued to expand their control over vast territories in the rest of the Indian subcontinent and Burma.

The battle took place at Palashi (Anglicised version: Plassey) on the banks of the Hooghly River, about 150 kilometres (93 mi) north of Calcutta (now Kolkata) and south of Murshidabad in West Bengal, then capital of Bengal State. The belligerents were the British East India Company, and the Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal. He succeeded Alivardi Khan (his maternal grandfather). Siraj-ud-Daulah had become the Nawab of Bengal the year before, and he had ordered the English to stop the extension of their fortification. Robert Clive bribed Mir Jafar, the commander-in-chief of the Nawab's army, and also promised to make him Nawab of Bengal. Clive defeated Siraj-ud-Daulah at Plassey in 1757 and captured Calcutta.

The Nawabs of Bengal were the Independent hereditary rulers of Bengal. In the early 18th-century, the Nawab of Bengal was the independent ruler of Bengal (Bengal, Bihar and Orissa which constitute the modern-day Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha and the sovereign country of Bangladesh). The Bengal Subah reached its peak during the reign of Nawab Shuja-ud-Din Muhammad Khan. They are often referred to as the Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa (Bengali: বাংলা, বিহার ও উড়িষ্যার নবাব). The Nawabi Bengal's capital were based in Murshidabad which was centrally located within Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha. Their chief, a former prime minister, became the first Nawab. The Nawabs governed as independent monarchs. The Nawabs, backed by bankers such as the Jagat Seth, became the financial backbone of the Subcontinent court.

The Nawabs, especially under the rule of Alivardi Khan of 16 years, were heavily engaged in various wars against the Marathas. Towards the end, he turned his attention to rebuilding and restoring Bengal.

Jagat Seth was a wealthy merchant, banker and money lender family from Murshidabad in Bengal during the time of the Nawabs of Bengal.

Though not at the same scale, but the influence exercised by this family in the finances of the Mughal Empire during the 17th and 18th century would be akin to that exercised by the Rothschild family in Europe.

Khoja Wajid (also spelled Wazid, Wazeed; d. 1759) was a wealthy Armenian merchant who played a prominent role in the economic and political life of Bengal in the 1740s and 1750s.

He was the son of Khoja Mahmet Fazel, another notable Armenian merchant. Based in the port town of Hughli, he used his business prowess and influence at the court of the Nawab of Bengal to consolidate his commercial empire, gaining control over the economy of Bihar and establishing highly profitable monopolies over the trade of saltpeter and salt. He also controlled most of the opium trade. After consolidating his control over Bengal's inland trade, he expanded his operations to maritime commerce and acquired a trading fleet which, according to Sushil Chaudhury, "dominated the Asian maritime trade of Hughli." He had extensive business connections with the French, Dutch and English trading companies in India. In the early 1740s, Wajid became the official representative of the Armenian merchants of Bengal at the court of the faujdar of Hughli, later gaining a place at the court of the nawab in Murshidabad. By the early 1750s, he had become a political figure of great influence and a close ally of Nawab Alivardi Khan and his successor Siraj ud-Daulah. When Siraj came into conflict with the English, Wajid was sent as the nawab's emissary to negotiate with the English prior to the Siege of Calcutta. Wajid's commercial interests suffered after the English sacked Hughli, ostensibly in retaliation for Siraj's capture of Calcutta. Seeking to restore his fortunes, Wajid advised the nawab to ally with the French against the British, but fell out of favor at court when this plan failed. He was one of the last to join the conspiracy against Siraj ud-Daulah in May 1757.

Jafarganj Cemetery is located in Murshidabad, West Bengal, India.

Murshidabad district is a district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Situated on the left bank of the river Ganges, the district is very fertile. Covering an area of 5,341 km (2,062 sq mi) and having a population 7.103 million (according to 2011 census), it is a densely populated district and the ninth most populous in India (out of 640). Berhampore city is the headquarters of the district.

The Murshidabad city, which lends its name to the district, was the seat of power of the Nawabs of Bengal. All of Bengal was once governed from this city. A few years after Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula lost to the British at the Battle of Plassey, the capital of Bengal was moved to the newly founded city of Calcutta, now called Kolkata.