MODERN HISTORY OF INDIA

ARRIVAL OF THE EUROPEANS

 Vasco da Gama led the first documented European expedition to

India, sailing into Calicut on the southwest coast in 1498.
 In 1510 the Portuguese captured Goa, which became the seat of
their activity. Under Admiral Alfonso de Albuquerque, Portugal
successfully challenged Arab power in the Indian Ocean and
dominated the sea routes for a century.
 Jesuits came to convert, to converse, and to record observations of
India. The Protestant countries of the Netherlands and England,
Vasco da Gama
upset by the Portuguese monopoly, formed private trading
companies at the turn of the seventeenth century to challenge the Portuguese.
 Mughal officials permitted the new carriers of India’s considerable export trade to
establish trading posts (factories) in India.
 The Dutch East India Company concentrated mainly on the spice trade from present-day
Indonesia. Britain’s East India Company carried on trade with India. The French East
India Company also set up factories.
 During the wars of the 18th century, the factories served not only as collection and trans-
shipment points for trade but also increasingly as fortified centers of refuge for both
foreigners and Indians.
 British factories gradually began to apply British law to disputes arising within their
jurisdiction. The posts also began to grow in area and population. Armed company
servants were effective protectors of trade.
 As rival contenders for power called for armed assistance and as
individual European adventurers found permanent homes in India,
British and French companies found themselves more and more
involved in local politics in the south and in Bengal.
 Plots and counterplots climaxed when British East India Company
forces, led by Robert Clive, decisively defeated the larger but
divided forces of Nawab Siraj-ud-Dawlah at Plassey (Pilasi) in
Bengal in 1757. Robert Clive

THE MARATHA CONFEDERACY

 The tale of the Marathas’ rise to power and their eventual fall
contains all the elements of a thriller; adventure, intrigue and
romanticism.
 Maratha chieftains were originally in the service of Bijapur sultans
in the western Deccan, which was under siege by the Mughals.
 Shivaji Bhonsle (1627-80), a tenacious and fierce fighter
recognized as the “father of the Maratha nation,” took advantage of
this conflict and carved out his own principality near Pune, which
Shivaji Bhosle
later became the Maratha capital.
 Adopting guerrilla tactics, he waylaid caravans in order to sustain and expand his army,
which coon had money, arms, and horses. Shivaji led a series of successful assaults in the
1660s against Mughal strongholds, including the major port of Surat.
 In 1674 he assumed the title of “Lord of the Universe” at his elaborate coronation, which
signalled his determination to challenge the Mughal forces as well as to re-establish a
Hindu kingdom in Maharashtra, the land of his origin. Shivaji’s battle cries were swaraj
(translated variously as freedom, self-rule, independence), swadharma (religious
freedom), and goraksha (cow protection).
 Aurangzeb relentlessly pursued Shivaji’s successors between 1681 and 1705 but
eventually retreated to the north as his treasury became depleted and as thousands of lives
had been lost either on the battlefield or to natural clamities. In 1717 a Mughal emissary
singed a treaty with the Marathas confirming their claims to rule in the Deccan in return
for acknowledging the fictional Mughal suzerainty and remission of annual taxes.
 The decline of the Mughal Empire following the 27-year Mughal-Maratha war (1680–
1707) had led to rapid territorial gains for the Maratha Empire. Under Peshwa Baji Rao,
Gujarat and Malwa came under Maratha control.
 Finally, in 1737, Baji Rao defeated the Mughals on the outskirts of Delhi, and brought
much of the former Mughal territories south of Delhi under Maratha control.
 Baji Rao’s son, Balaji Baji Rao (popularly known as Nana Saheb), further increased the
territory under Maratha control by invading Punjab in 1758. This brought the Marathas
into direct confrontation with the Durrani empire of Ahmad Shah Abdali.
 Marathas soon captured Malwa from Mughal control and later moved east into Orissa and
Bengal; southern India also came under their domain.
 The Third Battle of Panipat: The Marathas, despite their military
prowess and leadership, were not equipped to administer the state or
to undertake socioeconomic reform. They lost the battle very badly.
It is among the most significant battles of the 18th century in India.
―Pursuing a policy characterized by plunder and indiscriminate
raids, the Marathas antagonized the peasants.
―They were primarily suited for stirring the Maharashtrian regional
pride rather than for attracting loyalty to an all-India confederacy. Ahmed Shah Durrani
―They were left virtually alone and without supplies before the
invading Afghan forces, headed by Ahmad Shah Abdali (later called Ahmad Shah
Durrani), who routed them on the blood-drenched battlefield at Panipat in 1761. Marathas
lost suzerainty over Punjab till north of Sutlej river to the Afghans.
―The shock of defeat hastened the break-up of their loosely knit confederacy into five
independent states and extinguished the hope of Maratha dominance in India.
 Recognition of their political power finally came when the Mughal emperor invited them
to act as auxiliaries in the internal affairs of the empire and still later to help the emperor
in driving the Afghans out of Punjab.
 Maratha Wars―three conflicts between the British and the Maratha confederacy,
resulting in the destruction of the confederacy.
―The first war (1775–82): The British were defeated at Wadgaon in January 1779, but
they continued to fight the Marathas until the conclusion of the Treaty of Salbai (1782).
―The second war (1803–05): When the Peshwa Baji Rao II was defeated by
the Holkars, it resulted in his acceptance of British protection by the Treaty of Bassein
(1802). Sindhia and the Bhonsle clans of Maratha Confederacy contested the treaty, but
they were defeated by the British. The Holkar clan then joined in, and the Marathas were
left with a free hand in the regions of central India and Rajasthan.
 ―The third war (1817–18): Pindari invasions and British governor-general Lord
Hastings interventions in the Maratha politics resulted in Peshwa’s forces, followed by
those of the Bhonsle and Holkar, to rise against the British (1817). However, since the
Sindhia remained neutral, the British swiftly defeated the Marathas. It was followed by
the pensioning of the peshwa and the annexation of his territories, thus completing the
supremacy of the British in India.

The Nizams of Hyderabad

 Maratha raids into Berar, Kandesh, Gujarat and Malwa resumed after
the death of Aurangzeb, and loosened Mughal control in the Deccan.
 In 1724 Asaf Jah I, the Mughal Nizam ul Mulk, (or viceroy of the
Deccan) defeated several contenders for control of the Mughal
southern provinces, and established himself as ruler of an
independent state with its capital at Hyderabad.
 The death of Asif Jah I in 1748 resulted in a period of political unrest
as his sons, backed by opportunistic neighbouring states and colonial
foreign forces, contended for the throne. Mughal Nizam ul Mulk
 The accession of Asif Jah II, who reigned from 1762 to 1803, ended the instability. In
1768 he signed the Treaty of Machilipatnam, surrendering the coastal region to the East
India Company in return for a fixed annual rent.
 He and his successors ruled as hereditary Nizams, and their state, known as Hyderabad
after the capital, outlasted the Mughal empire, persisting until it was incorporated into
newly-independent India in 1948.

The Kingdom of Mysore

 The Kingdom of Mysore was a kingdom of southern India, which

was founded around 1400 CE by the Wodeyar dynasty.
 The rule of the Wodeyars was interrupted by Hyder Ali and his son
Tipu Sultan.
 Under their rule Mysore fought a series of wars sometimes against
the combined forces of the British and Marathas, but mostly against
the British with some aid or promise of aid from the French. Hyder Ali
 Initially, Hyder Ali (1722-82) was an ordinary soldier in the Mysore
army. His ambition and determination helped him rise to the position
of commander. Hyder Ali founded the Sultanate of Mysore and became Sultan Hyder
Ali Khan.
 Under his reign (1761-82), Mysore became a prosperous and powerful state and a
formidable adversary of the English East India Company in the South.
 Tipu Sultan (1750–99), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the
ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore during 1782-99. He was also a scholar,
soldier and poet. Tipu was the eldest son of Sultan Hyder Ali of
Mysore and his wife Fatima Fakhr-un-Nisa.
 He bitterly and effectively opposed British rule in southern India,
posing a grave threat to the East India Company.
Tipu Sultan
 After the death of Tipu Sultan in the Fourth War of Mysore in 1799, the Wodeyar
dynasty regained limited power as a Princely State under the British.
 The Kingdom of Mysore became part of the modern day, Indian state of Karnataka.

The Punjab

 The Afghan defeat of the Maratha armies accelerated the breakaway

of Punjab from Delhi and helped the founding of Sikh over-lordship
in the northwest.
 Rooted in the bhakti movements that developed in the second
century B.C. but swept across North India during the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, the teachings of the Sikh gurus appealed to the
hard-working peasants.
 Facing extended persecution from the Mughals, the Sikhs, under
Guru Gobind Singh formed the Khalsa (Army of Pure). Guru Gobind Singh
 The Khalsa rose up against the economic and political repressions in
Punjab toward the end of Aurangzeb’s rule.
 Guerrilla fighters took advantage of the political instability created by the Persian and
Afghan onslaught against Delhi, enriching themselves and expanding territorial control.
 By the 1770s, Sikh hegemony extended from the Indus in the west to
the Yamuna in the east, from Multan in the south to Jammu in the
north.
 But the Sikhs, like the Marathas, were a loose, disunited, and
quarrelsome conglomerate of twelve kin-groups.
 It took Ranjit Singh (1780-1839), an individual with modernizing
vision and leadership, to achieve supremacy over the other kin-
groups and establish his kingdom in which Sikhs, Hindus, and
Muslims lived together in comparative equality and increasing
prosperity. Maharaja Ranjit Singh
 Ranjit captured Lahore in the year 1799, which is also considered as
the turning point for the Sikh Empire. He was crowned Maharaja in 1801 only at the age
of 20.
 Ranjit Singh had eight sons, but he acknowledged only Kharak Singh and Duleep Singh
as his biological sons.
 Ranjit Singh first fought in a battle when he was only 10 years old, and at the age of 17,
he failed the king of Afghanistan Zaman Shah Durrani's invasion of India.
 Zaman Shah Durrani was yet again defeated by Ranjit Singh in the Battle of Amritsar
(1797), the Battle of Gujarat in the same year and the Battle of Amritsar the next year.
 Ranjit Singh employed European officers and introduced strict military discipline into his
army before expanding into Afghanistan, Kashmir and Ladakh.
 He is also known as the Sher-e-Punjab (Lion of Punjab) for his bravery and is respected
as one of the most revered heroes in the Indian history.
 Maharaja Ranjit Singh is remembered for the possession of the Koh-i-Noor diamond
which he left to Jagannath Temple in Odisha and was given to him by Shuja Shah Durrani
of Afghanistan.
 The golden part of the Golden Temple and even some of the intricate marble work was
done under the aid of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
 The Anglo-Sikh wars were a series of 1840s conflicts between the British East India
Trading Company and the Sikh Empire. There were two Anglo–Sikh wars:
 (i) The First Anglo-Sikh War (1845–46): Raja Lal Singh led Sikh forces against the
British during the First Anglo-Sikh War. The Sikh army was defeated in the first
Anglo-Sikh War and under the terms of the Treaty of Lahore and the Treaty of
Bhyroval, all major decisions were made by the British East India Company.
(ii) The Second Anglo-Sikh War (1848–49): Though Sikh forces
won the Battle of Chillianwalla, the Battle of Gujarat was
won by the British. Later, the surrender of Chattar Singh and
Sher Singh at Rawalpindi resulted in British reoccupation of
Attock and Peshawar. Duleep Singh signed off all claims of
Punjab, and there on in the last Darbar of Duleep Singh the
proclamation by Dalhousie, annexation of the Punjab, was
carried out.
Duleep Singh
 However, the Sikh Wars gave the two sides a mutual respect for each
other's fighting prowess and later there was an increased recruitment of people from
various communities of the Punjab in the Punjab Irregular Force under British command.

THE COMPANY RULE

The Foundation Years

 The East India Company was founded as The Governor and

Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies
by a coterie of enterprising and influential businessmen, who
obtained the Crown’s charter (the Charter of 1601) for
exclusive permission to trade in the East Indies for a period of
fifteen years.
 The Company had 125 shareholders, and a capital of £ 72,000.
Initially, however, it made little impression on the Dutch
control of the spice trade and at first it could not establish a East India Company's Coat of
lasting outpost in the East Indies.
 Eventually ships belonging to the company arrived in India, docking at Surat, which was
established as a trade transit point in 1608.
 In the next two years, it managed to build its first factory (as the trading posts were
known) in the town of Machilipatnam in the Coromandel Coast in the Bay of Bengal.
 The high profits reported by the Company after landing in India (presumably due to a
reduction in overhead costs effected by the transit points), initially prompted King James
I to grant subsidiary licenses to other trading companies in Britain.
 But, in 1609, he renewed the charter (the Charter of 1609) given to the Company for an
indefinite period, including a clause which specified that the charter would cease to be in
force if the trade turned unprofitable for three consecutive years.

Footholds in India

 Traders were frequently engaged in hostilities with their Dutch and

Portuguese counterparts in the Indian Ocean.
 A key event providing the Company with the favour of Mughal
Emperor Jahangir was their victory over the Portuguese in the Battle
of Swally in 1612. Perhaps realizing the futility of waging trade wars
in remote seas, the English decided to explore their options for Sir Thomas Roe
 gaining a foothold in mainland India, with official sanction of both countries, and
requested the Crown to launch a diplomatic mission.
 In 1615, Sir Thomas Roe was instructed by James I to visit the Mughal emperor
Jahangir (who ruled over nearly 70% of the subcontinent).
 The purpose of this mission was to arrange for a commercial treaty which would give the
Company exclusive right to reside and build factories in Surat and other areas. In return,
the Company offered to provide to the emperor goods and rarities from the European
market.

Expansion

 The company, under such obvious patronage, soon managed to eclipse the Portuguese,
who had established their bases in Goa and Bombay (which was later ceded to the British
as part of the dowry of Catherine de Braganza).
 It managed to create strongholds in Surat (where a factory was built in 1612), Madras
(1639), Bombay (1668) and Calcutta.
 By 1647, the Company had 23 factories and 90 employees in India. The major factories
became the walled forts of Fort William in Bengal, Fort St George in Madras and the
Bombay Castle.
 In 1634, the Mughal emperor extended his hospitality to the English traders to the region
of Bengal (and in 1717 completely waived customs duties for the trade).
 The company’s mainstay business was by now in cotton, silk, indigo and tea. All the
while it was making inroads into the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade in the Malaccan
straits, in 1711, the Company established a trading post in Canton (Guangzhou), China, to
trade tea for silver.
 In 1657, Oliver Cromwell renewed the Charter of 1609, and
brought about minor changes in the holding of the Company. The
status of the Company was further enhanced by the restoration of
monarchy in Britain.
 By a series of five acts around 1670, King Charles II provisioned it
with the rights to autonomous territorial acquisitions, to mint money,
to command fortresses and troops and form alliances, to make war
and peace, and to exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction over Oliver Cromwell
the acquired areas.
 The Company, surrounded by trading competitors, other imperial powers, and sometimes
hostile native rulers, experienced a growing need for protection.
 The freedom to manage its military affairs thus came as a welcome boon and the
Company rapidly raised its own armed forces in the 1680s, mainly drawn from the
indigenous local population.
 By 1689, the Company was arguably a “nation” in the Indian mainland, independently
administering the vast presidencies of Bengal, Madras and Bombay and possessing a
formidable and intimidating military strength.

Trade Monopoly

 The prosperity that the employees of the company enjoyed allowed them to return to their
country and establish sprawling estates and business and obtain political power.
Consequently, the Company developed for itself a lobby in the British parliament.
 However, under pressure from ambitious tradesmen and former associates of the
Company (pejoratively termed Interlopers by the Company), who wanted to establish
private trading firms in India, a deregulating act was passed in 1694.
 This act allowed any British firm to trade with India, unless specifically prohibited by act
of parliament, thereby annulling the charter that was in vogue for almost 100 years.
 By an act in 1698, a new “parallel” East India Company (officially titled the English
Company Trading to the East Indies) was floated under a state-backed indemnity of £ 2
million. However, the powerful stockholders of the old company quickly subscribed a
sum of £315,000 in the new concern, and dominated the new body.
 The two companies wrestled with each other for some time, both in England and in India,
for a dominant share of the trade.
 But it quickly became evident, that in practice, the original Company scarcely faced any
measurable competition. Both companies finally merged in 1702, by a tripartite indenture
involving the state and the two companies.
 Under this arrangement, the merged company lent to the Treasury a sum of £ 3,200,000,
in return for exclusive privileges for the next three years – after which the situation was to
be reviewed.
 The amalgamated company became the United Company of Merchants of England
Trading to the East Indies and after this, for the next decades, a constant see-saw battle
between the Company lobby and the parliament followed.
 The Company sought a permanent establishment, while the Parliament would not
willingly relinquish the opportunity to exploit the Company’s profits by allowing it a
greater autonomy.
 In 1712, another act renewed the status of the Company, though the debts were repaid. By
1720, 15% of British imports were from India, almost all passing through the Company,
which reasserted the influence of the Company lobby. The license was prolonged until
1766 by yet another act in 1730.
 At this time, Britain and France became bitter rivals, and there were frequent skirmishes
between them for control of colonial possessions.
 In 1742, fearing the monetary consequences of a war, the government agreed to extend
the deadline for the licensed exclusive trade by the Company in India till 1783, in return
for a further loan of £1 million.
 The skirmishes did escalate to the feared war, and between 1754 and
1763 the Seven Years’ War diverted the state’s attention towards
consolidation and defence of its territorial possessions in Europe and
its colonies in North America.
 The war also took place on Indian Soil, between the Company troops
and the French forces. Around the same time, Britain surged ahead to
its European rivals with the advent of the Industrial Revolution.
 Demand for Indian commodities was boosted by the need to sustain Joseph Francois Dupleix
the troops and the economy during the war, and by the increased
availability of raw materials and efficient methods of production.
 As home to the revolution, Britain experienced higher standards of living, and this
spiralling cycle of prosperity, demand and production had a profound influence on
overseas trade.
 The Company became the single largest player in the British global market, and reserved
for itself an unassailable position in the decision-making process of the Government.
Colonial Monopoly

 The war resulted in the defeat of the French forces and limited French imperial ambitions,
also stunting the influence of the industrial revolution in French territories.
 Robert Clive, the Governor General, led the Company to an astounding victory against
Joseph Francois Dupleix, the commander of the forces in India, and recaptured Fort St
George from the French.
 By the Treaty of Paris (1763), the French were forced to maintain their trade posts in
small enclaves in Pondicherry, Mahe, Karikal, Yanam, and Chandernager without any
military presence.
 Although these small outposts remained French possessions for the next two hundred
years, French ambitions on Indian territories were effectively laid to rest, thus eliminating
a major source of economic competition for the Company.
 Contrastingly, the Company, fresh from a colossal victory, and with the backing of a
disciplined and experienced army, was able to assert its interests in the Carnatic from its
base at Madras and in Bengal from Calcutta, without facing any further obstacles from
other colonial powers.

LOCAL RESISTANCE

 However, the Company continued to experience resistance from

local rulers. Robert Clive led company forces against French-
backed Siraj Ud Daulah to victory at the Battle of Plassey in
1757, thereby snuffing out the last known resistances in Bengal.
 This victory estranged the British and the Mughals, who had been
served by Siraj as an autonomous ruler.
 But the Mughal empire was already on the wane after the demise of
Aurangazeb, and was breaking up into pieces and enclaves.
 After the Battle of Buxar, Shah Alam, the ruling emperor, gave
Nawab Siraj ud Daulah
up the administrative rights over Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.
 Clive thus became the first British Governor of Bengal. Haider Ali
and Tipu Sultan, the legendary rulers of Mysore (in Carnatic), also
gave a tough time to the British forces.
 Having sided with the French during the war, the rulers of Mysore
continued their struggle against the Company with the four Anglo-
Mysore Wars.
 Mysore finally fell to the Company forces in 1799, with the slaying
of Tipu Sultan. With the gradual weakening of the Maratha empire
in the aftermath of the three Anglo-Maratha wars, the British also
secured Bombay and the surrounding areas. Shah Alam
 It was during these campaigns, both the Mysore and of the
Marathas, that Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, first
showed the abilities which would lead to victory in the Peninsular
War and at the Battle of Waterloo. A particularly notable
engagement involving forces under his command was the Battle of
Assaye.

Arthur Wellesley
 Thus, the British had secured the entire region of Southern India (with the exception of
small enclaves of French and local rulers), Western India and Eastern India.
 The last vestiges of local administration were restricted to the northern regions of Delhi,
Oudh, Rajputana, and Punjab, where the Company’s presence was ever increasing amidst
the infighting and dubious offers of protection against each other.
 Coercive action, threats and diplomacy aided the Company in preventing the local rulers
from putting up a united struggle against it.
 Beginning with the Sanyasi Rebellion and Chuar Uprising in Bengal and Bihar in the
1760s, there was hardly a year without an armed opposition. From 1763 to 1856 there
were more than 40 major rebellions apart from hundreds of minor ones. These rebellions
were, however, local in character and effects. They were isolated from each other because
each rebellion had a different motive.
 Important Peasant Movements in the 19th Century:
(i) The Faqir and Sanyasi Rebellions (1770–1820s)
(ii) The Indigo Rebellion (1859-1862)
(iii) Farazi Movement (1838-1848)
(iv) Wahabi Movement (1830’s-1860’s)
 Important Peasant Movements in the 19th Century:
(i) The Santhal Rebellion (1855-57)
(ii) Munda Rebellion (1899-1900)
(iii) Jaintia and Garo Rebellion Rebellion (1860-1870s)
(iv) The Uprising of the Bhils (1818-1831)
(v) The Kol Uprising (1831-1832)
(vi) The Mappila Uprisings (1836-1854)
 The hundred years from the Battle of Plassey in 1757 to the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 were
a period of consolidation for the Company, which began to function more a nation and
less as a trading concern.

REGULATION OF THE COMPANY’S AFFAIRS

Financial troubles
 Though the Company was becoming increasingly bold and ambitious in putting down
resisting states, it was getting clearer day by day that the Company was incapable of
governing the vast expanse of the captured territories.
 The Bengal famine, in which one-sixth of the local population died, set the alarm bells
ringing back home, and prompted Adam Smith’s quotation at the beginning of this article.
Military and administrative costs mounted beyond control in British administered regions
in Bengal due to the ensuing drop in labour productivity.
 At the same time, there was commercial stagnation and trade depression throughout
Europe following the lull in the post-Industrial Revolution period. Britain became
entangled in the rebellion in America (one of the major importers of Indian tea), and
France was on the brink of a revolution.
 The desperate directors of the company attempted to avert bankruptcy by appealing to
Parliament for financial help. This led to the passing of the Tea Act in 1773.
 This Act gave the Company greater autonomy in running its trade in America. Its
monopolistic activities triggered the Boston Tea Party in the Province of Massachusetts
Bay, one of the major events leading up to the American War for Independence.
Regulating Acts
East India Company Act, 1773
 By this Act, the Parliament of the United Kingdom imposed a series of administrative and
economic reforms and by doing so clearly established its sovereignty and ultimate control
over the Company.
 The Act recognized the Company’s political functions and clearly established that the
“acquisition of sovereignty by the subjects of the Crown is on behalf of the Crown and
not in their own right.”
 Despite stiff resistance from the East India lobby in parliament, and from the Company’s
share-holders, the Act was passed.
 It introduced substantial governmental control, and allowed the land to be formally under
the control of the Crown, but leased to the Company at £40,000 for two years.
 Under this provision, the governor of Bengal Warren Hastings was promoted to the rank
of Governor General, having administrative powers over all of British India.
 It provided that his nomination, though made by a court of directors, should in future be
subject to the approval of a Council of Four appointed by the Crown.
 He was entrusted with the power of peace and war. British judicial personnel would also
be sent to India to administer the British legal system.
 The Governor General and the council would have complete legislative
powers. Thus, Warren Hastings became the first Governor-General
of India.
 The company was allowed to maintain its virtual monopoly over trade,
in exchange for the biennial sum and goods yearly to Britain. The costs
of administration were also to be met by the company.
 These provisions, initially welcomed by the Company, backfired. The
Company had an annual burden on its back, and its finances continued Warren Hastings
steadily to decline.

East India Company Act (Pitt’s India Act) 1784

 This Bill had two key aspects
(i) Relationship to the British Government―the Bill clearly differentiated the political
functions of the East India Company from its commercial activities.
―For its political transactions the Act directly subordinated the East India Company to
the British Government.
―To accomplish this, the Act created a Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India
usually referred to as the Board of Control.
―The members of the Board of Control were the Chancellor of the Exchequer, a
Secretary of State, and four Privy Councillors, nominated by the King.
―The Act specified that the Secretary of State, “shall preside at, and be President of the
said Board.”
(ii) Internal Administration of British India―the Bill laid the foundation of the British
centralized bureaucratic administration of India which would reach its peak at the
beginning of the twentieth century with the Governor-Generalship of George Nathaniel
Curzon, 1st Baron Curzon.
―Pitt’s Act was deemed a failure because it was immediately apparent that the
boundaries between governmental control and the Company’s powers were obscure and
highly subject to interpretation.
 ―The government also felt obliged to answer humanitarian voices pleading for better
treatment of natives in British occupied territories.
―Edmund Burke, a former East India Company shareholder and diplomat, felt
compelled to relieve the situation and introduced before parliament a new Regulating
Bill in 1783.
―The Bill was defeated due to intense lobbying by Company loyalists and accusations of
nepotism in the Bill’s recommendations for the appointment of councillors.

Act of 1786
 This Act enacted the demand of Lord Cornwallis, that the powers of the Governor-
General be enlarged to empowered him, in special cases to override the majority of his
Council and act on his own special responsibility.
 The act also enabled the offices of the Governor-General and the Commander-in-Chief to
be jointly held by the same official.
 This Act clearly demarcated borders between the Crown and the Company. After this
point, the Company functioned as a regularized subsidiary of the Crown, with greater
accountability for its actions and reached a stable stage of expansion and consolidation.
 Having temporarily achieved a state of truce with the Crown, the Company continued to
expand its influence to nearby territories through threats and coercive actions.
 By the middle of the 19th century, the Company’s rule extended across most of India,
Burma, Singapore and Hong Kong, and a fifth of the world’s population was under its
authority.

Charter Act, 1813

 The aggressive policies of Lord Wellesley and the Marquis of Hastings led to the
Company gaining control of all India, except for the Punjab, Sind and Nepal. The Indian
Prices had becomes vassals of the Company.
 But the expense of wars leading to the total control of India strained the Company’s
finances to the breaking point. The Company was forced to petition Parliament for
assistance.
 This was the background to the Charter Act of 1813 which, among other things:
(i) asserted the sovereignty held by the Company;
(ii) renewed the Charter of Company for a further twenty years but, deprived the
Company of its Indian trade monopoly except for trade in tea and the trade with
China;
(iii) required the Company to maintain separate and distinct its commercial and
territorial accounts; and, opened India to missionaries.

Charter Act, 1833

 The Industrial Revolution in Britain, and the consequent search for markets, and the
rise of laissaz-faire economic ideology form the background to this act.
 The Act:
(i) divested the Company of its commercial functions; renewed for another twenty
years the Company’s political and administrative authority; invested the Board of
Control with full power and authority over the Company. As stated the Kapur
‘Professor Sri Ram Sharma, thus, summed up the point: “The President of the
Board of Control now became Minister for Indian Affairs.”
 (ii)carried further the ongoing process of administrative centralization through
investing the Governor-General in Council with, full power and authority to
superintend and, control the Presidency Governments in all civil and military
matters.
(iii) initiated a machinery for the codification of laws;
(iv) provided that no Indian subject of the Company would be debarred from holding
any office under the Company by reason of his religion, place of birth, descent or
colour.
 However, this remained a dead letter will into the 20th century. Meanwhile, British
influence continued to expand; in 1845 the Danish colony of Tranquebar was sold to
Great Britain.
 The Company had at various stages extended its influence to China, the Philippines, and
Java.
 It had solved its critical lack of the cash needed to buy tea by exporting Indian-grown
opium to China. China’s efforts to end the trade led to the First Opium War with Britain.

Charter Act, 1853

 This Act provided that British India would remain under the administration of the
Company in trust for the Crown until Parliament should decide otherwise.

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