From Trade To Territory

Key Terms:
1. Subadars: The chiefs of the provinces, commonly known as governors.

2. Zamindars: Big owners of land or landlords.

3. Charter: An official document stating what a ruler or government allows.

4. Mercantile: A business enterprise that makes profit primarily through trade, buying goods cheap
and selling them at higher prices.

5. Puppet: Literally, a toy that we can move with strings. The term is used disapprovingly to refer to a
person who is controlled by someone else.

6. Meddling: Interfering.

7. Negotiation: A formal discussion between people in order to find a solution.

8. Subsidiary alliance: According to the terms of this alliance, Indian rulers were not allowed to have
their independent armed forces, they were to be protected by the Company and had to pay for it.

9. Confederacy: Alliance or a union of states, groups of people or political parties with the same aim.

10. Paramountcy: Being paramount or supreme.

11. Doctrine of Lapse: According to this rule, if an Indian ruler died without a male heir, i.e. did not
have his son, his kingdom would 'lapse', i.e. become part of the Company territory.

12. Misgovernment: Malfunctioning of the government.

13. Qazi: A judge.

14. Mufti: A jurist of the Muslim community responsible for expounding the law that the qazi would
administer.

15. Dharmashastra : Sanskrit texts prescribing social rules and codes of behaviour, composed from
century 500 BCE onwards.

16. Sawar: Trained soldier on horseback.

17. Musket: A heavy gun used by infantry soldiers.

18. Matchlock: An early type of gun in which the powder was ignited by a match.