dastak, in 18th-century Bengal, a permit exempting European traders, mostly of the British East India Company, from paying customs or transit duties on their private trade. The name came from the Persian word for “pass.” The practice was introduced by Robert Clive, one of the creators of British power in India, when he had Mīr Jaʿfar installed as nawab of Bengal in 1757. The attempt of Mīr Jaʿfar’s successor, Mīr Qāsim, to annul the use of dastaks led to his overthrow in 1763–64 and the exercise of overt control of Bengal by the British.
Free dastaks for private trade were finally abolished by Warren Hastings, governor of Bengal (1775). The system put the Indian trader at a grave disadvantage in competing with the European and was an important factor in the impoverishment of Bengal under early British rule.