History

Chapter Notes

The Beginning of Colonial Rule in India

Please refer to the below given link for the initial part of the chapter.
https://sites.google.com/rnpodarschool.com/revisitingindia/home?authuser=0

❖ Expansion Policy to annex Indian kingdoms

After establishing a strong foothold in Bengal, the East India Company now looked for further
expansion in India.

❖ Subsidiary Alliance
● Introduced by Lord Wellesley in 1798 to bring
princely states under the control of the British.
● In this system, an Indian ruler had to maintain
British troops in his state, either by giving some of
his territories or by paying for the maintenance of
the troops.
● They had to maintain a British resident at their
courts.
● This system allowed the British to maintain a large
army at the expense of the local rulers.
● The allies of the Indian state’s ruler were compelled
to accept the permanent garrison of the British
Army within their territories and to pay a subsidy
for its maintenance.
● The Indian ruler could not employ any European in their service without prior approval
of the British.
● They could not negotiate with any other Indian rulers
without consulting the Governor-General.

❖ Policy of Paramountcy
● Under Lord Hastings, a new “paramountcy” policy was
put into place (Governor-General from 1813 to 1823).
● The policy claimed that it could annex or threaten to
annex any Indian state since its power was superior or
paramount.
● This was one of the methods the British employed to establish their dominance and
interfere with the administration of Indian states.
● As a result of this policy, the company assumed supreme legal and political authority, and
in order to safeguard its interests, it authorized the acquisition of any Indian country.
● The British used a variety of strategies to create the idea of paramountcy, including direct
annexation through war and a subsidiary alliance structure
through treaties.

❖ Doctrine of Lapse
● The Governor General Lord Dalhousie from (from 1848 to
1856) introduced a new policy, known as the Doctrine of Lapse.
● According to this policy, if the king did not have any natural
born heir then the kingdom would lapse to the British or would
be administered and occupied by the British.
● One kingdom after another was annexed simply by applying
this doctrine: Satara (1848), Sambalpur (1850), Udaipur (1852),
Nagpur (1853) and Jhansi (1854).

❖ Misgovernment
● The British wanted to annex Awadh.
● The British had an added argument – they said they were
“obliged by duty” to take over Awadh in order to free the people from the
“misgovernment” of the Nawab and refused to introduce reforms.
● Thus in 1856, Lord Dalhousie took over Awadh.

Expansion of British territorial power in India

The administrative abuses were so great that the company ended the dual government in 1772.
The company was essentially a trading corporation, ill-equipped to administer territory. Changes
were necessary in the constitution to enable it to wield political power and for the British
Government to regulate the functioning of the company.

❖ The Regulating Act of 1773

● To curb the Company traders’ unrestrained commercial activities and to bring about
some order in territories under the Company control.
● Company Retains Possessions: This act permitted the company to retain its territorial
possessions in India but sought to regulate the activities and functioning of the
company.
● Control over Indian Affairs: Through this act, for the first time, the British cabinet was
given the right to exercise control over Indian affairs.
● Introduction of Governor-General: It changed the post of Governor of Bengal to
“Governor-General of Bengal”. Warren Hastings was made the first Governor-General
of Bengal.
● The Governor of Bombay and Madras now worked under the Governor-General of
Bengal.
● The administration in Bengal was to be carried out by the governor-general and a
council consisting of 4 members.
● From 1772 a new system of justice was established. Each district was to have two
courts – a criminal court ( faujdari adalat ) and a civil court (diwani adalat). Maulvis
and Hindu pandits interpreted Indian laws for the European district collectors who
presided over civil courts. The criminal courts were still under a qazi and a mufti but
under the supervision of the collectors.
● The principal figure in an Indian district was the Collector whose main job was to
collect revenue and taxes and maintain law and order in his district with the help of
judges, police officers etc.
● In 1781, the Act was amended and the Governor-General, the Council and the servants
of the government were exempted from the jurisdiction if they did anything while
discharging their duties.

❖ The Pitt's India Act of 1784

● Dual Control System: It established the dual system of control by the British
government and the East India Company.
● The Company became a subordinate department of the State and its territories in India
were termed ‘British possessions’.
● However, it retained the control of commerce and day-to-day administration.
● Court of Directors and Board of Control Established: A Board of Control was formed
to exercise control over the Company’s civil, military and revenue affairs. The
important political matters were reserved to a secret committee of three directors
(Court of Directors) in direct touch with the British government.

❖ The Act of 1786

● Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief: The council of governor-general was

reduced to three members including the commander-in-chief.
● In 1786, Lord Cornwallis was granted the power of both the governor-general and the
commander-in-chief.
● He was allowed to override the council’s decision if he owned the responsibility for the
decision.

❖ The Charter Act of 1813

● The Charter act of 1813 ended the monopoly of the East India Company in India, the
company’s monopoly in trade with China and trade in tea with India was kept intact.
● The company’s rule was extended to another 20 years.
● The act granted permission to the persons who wished to go to India for promoting
moral and religious improvements. (Christian Missionaries)
● This act regulated the company’s territorial revenues and commercial profits. It was
asked to keep its territorial and commercial accounts separate.
● It empowered the Local Governments in India to impose taxes on persons and to
punish those who did not pay them.

❖ The Charter Act of 1833

● The charter act of 1833 legalized the British colonization of India. It ended the
activities of the East India Company as a commercial body, it became an
administrative body. It provided that the company’s territories in India were held by
the government ‘in trust for His Majesty, His heirs and successors’.
 ● It made the Governor-General of Bengal as the Governor-General of India and vested
in him all civil and military powers. This made Lord William Bentinck the first
Governor-General of India {centralization of the administration of India}
● The Governors of Bombay and Madras lost their legislative powers. The
Governor-General of India had legislative powers over the entire British India.
● The laws made under the previous acts were called Regulations while laws made under
this act were called Acts.

❖ Law and Judiciary

● The Governor-General in council had the authority to amend, repeal or alter any law in
British Indian territories . The Governor-General’s council was to have four members
again; the fourth member had limited powers only.
● Indian Law Commission was established to codify all Indian laws. The first Law
Commission had Lord Macaulay as its chairman.
● The Charter Act of 1853 served as the foundation of the modern parliamentary form of
government. The legislative wing of the Governor-General’s Council acted as a
parliament on the model of the British Parliament.
● During Cornwallis Governor Generalship important changes were made in all the
branches of administration including the judicial system. These changes involved the
separation of judicial from executive functions and the multiplication of judicial
courts.

The Civil Service, the Army, and the Police were the three pillars of British administration in
India.
❖ Civil Service

● The Civil Service was the first most important pillar in India.
● The Charter Act of 1853 introduced a system of open competition for selection of civil
servants, and stated that the Indians should not be debarred from holding any place,
office and employment under the Company.
● The College of Fort William (1 800) at Calcutta was established to provide training to
the Company's civil servants but was soon abolished. Later on a college was
established at Hertford in 1805 for the same purpose which was shifted to Haileybury
in England in 1809. It provided training in Oriental languages. literature and history.
 ❖ Army

● The army was the British regime's second most important pillar in India. It performed
four critical functions. It was the instrument of conquest for the Indian powers; it
defended the British Empire in India from foreign rivals; it protected British
supremacy from the ever-present threat of internal revolt; and it was the primary tool
for extending and defending the British Empire in Asia and Africa.
● The majority of the Company's army was made up of Indian soldiers, mostly from the
present-day states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
● The highest Indian officer was a subedar. Because British troops were far too
expensive, a large number of Indian troops had to be used.
● The army was run entirely by British officials as a counterweight, and a contingent of
British troops was kept on hand to keep the Indian soldiers under control.

❖ Police

● The third pillar of British rule was the police force, which was founded by Cornwallis
once more. He delegated police functions to the zamindars and established a regular
police force to maintain law and order.
● In this regard, he returned to the old Indian system of thanas and modernized it. This
put India ahead of the United Kingdom, which had yet to develop a police force.
● Cornwallis established a system of circles, or thanas, led by an Indian daroga.
● Later, the position of District Superintendent of Police was created to lead a district's
police force. Indians were once again barred from all higher-ranking positions.

Thus the East India Company was transformed from a trading company to a territorial colonial
power. The arrival of new steam technology in the early nineteenth century also aided this
process. Till then it would take anywhere between six and eight months to travel to India by sea.
Steamships reduced the journey time to three weeks enabling more Britishers and their families
to come to a far-off country like India.