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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

After the battle of Plassey, the mercenary became the Kingmaker.

  • UPSC 2024
  • European Penetration into India

Plassey converted the English East India Company — legally a commercial enterprise employing hired soldiers for trade protection — into the decisive arbiter of who ruled Bengal, inaugurating a durable pattern in which Company military force, not hereditary legitimacy, determined succession to Indian thrones.

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What the full answer covers

  • The Company as "Mercenary" Before Plassey
  • The Mechanism of Transformation: Plassey as Kingmaking
  • Kingmaking as a Repeated Pattern, Not a One-Off Event
  • Wider Significance of the Shift

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