India Under the English East India Company: Warren Hastings (1772-1785)

The English East India Company

• The English East India Company was formed on 31 December 1600 through a Royal Charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I.
• In 1608, Captain Hawkins visited the Mughal Emperor Jahangir’s court to seek permission for a “factory” (trading storehouse) at Surat, which was initially turned down.
• Jahangir issued an imperial firman in 1613 allowing the Company to establish its first trading base at Surat.
• Sir Thomas Roe secured further commercial concessions, leading to establishments at Agra, Ahmedabad, and Broach.
• In 1639, Francis Day obtained Madras and constructed Fort St. George.
• In 1668, King Charles II leased Bombay to the Company for an annual rent of £10.
• In 1690, Job Charnock acquired Sutanuti, Govindpur, and Kalikatta, which expanded into Calcutta and was fortified as Fort William.
• Factories along the coasts were clustered into the three Presidencies of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta.
• Following victories at Plassey (1757) and Buxar (1764), the Company evolved from a commercial body into a ruling political power.
• Robert Clive served as the first Governor of Fort William, succeeded by Verelst and Cartier, before Warren Hastings became Governor in 1772.

Reforms of Warren Hastings

• Hastings assumed administration amid administrative collapse, financial ruin, and the aftermath of the severe 1770 Bengal famine.

Abolition of the Dual System

• Clive’s Dual System was dismantled, and the Company assumed direct revenue collection as Diwan through its own personnel.
• The annual pension to the Nawab of Bengal was slashed from 32 lakhs to 16 lakhs of rupees.
• The annual tribute of 26 lakhs paid to the Mughal Emperor was terminated.

Revenue Reforms

• A Board of Revenue was established at Calcutta to manage and oversee tax collection.
• English Collectors were assigned to each district, while the treasury shifted from Murshidabad to Calcutta under an Accountant General.
• Lands were auctioned on five-year leases to establish valuation, prioritizing existing zamindars.
• Arbitrary levies and penalties were curbed, though financial arrears persisted as many zamindars defaulted.

Reorganisation of the Judicial System

• Each district was provided with a civil court (Mufassal Diwani Adalat) under the Collector and a criminal court (Mufassal Faujdari Adalat) under an Indian judge.
• At Calcutta, two apex appellate courts were instituted: the Sadar Diwani Adalat (civil, overseen by the Governor and two council members) and the Sadar Nizamat Adalat (criminal, headed by an Indian judge appointed by the Governor-in-Council).
• Legal texts were systematized: a Hindu legal digest prepared in Sanskrit was rendered into Persian, and subsequently into English by N.B. Halhed as Code of Hindu Laws.

Trade Regulations and other Reforms

• The dastak (free duty-pass) system was discontinued, and domestic duties were reduced to a uniform 2.5% on indigenous and foreign merchandise.
• Pre-paid uniform postage was instituted, a bank was created at Calcutta, and aggressive steps were implemented to curb dacoity.

The Regulating Act of 1773

• Interventions arose because Company administrators accumulated vast fortunes while the corporate enterprise faced impending insolvency following the 1770 Bengal famine.
• Prime Minister Lord North oversaw the enactment based on findings of a Parliamentary Select Committee.

Provisions of the Act

• Directors had their tenures fixed at four years, with one-fourth retiring annually without eligibility for immediate re-election.
• The Governor of Bengal became the Governor-General of Fort William with a five-year term.
• A four-member council assisted the Governor-General, deciding by majority, with the Governor-General having a casting vote during ties.
• Madras and Bombay Presidencies were subjected to the superintendence of Fort William regarding war and diplomatic treaties.
• A Supreme Court was chartered at Calcutta in 1774, comprising a Chief Justice and three puisne judges, functioning independent of the executive.
• Servants of the administration were barred from private commerce or taking financial gifts and gratuities.

Merits and Demerits of the Act

• Merits: Placed Company governance under British constitutional oversight and set a baseline framework for future legislative statutes.
• Demerits: Constant deadlocks occurred because executive councillors possessed powers to override the Governor-General.

Expansionist Policy of Warren Hastings

The Rohilla War (1774)

• Hafiz Rahmat Khan of Rohilkhand had contracted an alliance with the Nawab of Oudh to counter Maratha pressures.
• When the Nawab sought payment without an actual invasion having occurred, Hastings supplied British regiments to assist Oudh in invading Rohilkhand, drawing severe political criticism.

First Anglo-Maratha War (1775-82)

• Friction arose over succession between Raghunatha Rao and Madhav Rao II.
• The Bombay presidency concluded the Treaty of Surat (1775) with Raghunatha Rao, securing Salsette and Bassein.
• Hastings nullified this pact via Colonel Upton’s Treaty of Purandhar (1776) with Nana Fadnavis, acknowledging Madhav Rao II.
• When hostilities erupted anew, British commander Captain Popham captured Gwalior from Mahadaji Scindia in 1781.
• The Treaty of Salbai (May 1782) concluded the war: Bassein and Salsette remained with the British, Raghunatha Rao was pensioned off, and peace prevailed between both sides for twenty years.

The Second Anglo-Mysore War (1780-84)

• Causes: British failure to aid Haider Ali during the 1771 Maratha incursions; outbreak of Anglo-French conflicts during the American War of Independence; the British capture of Mahe within Haider’s domains; unpermitted military passage across Haider’s territory into Guntur.
• Haider allied with the Nizam of Hyderabad and Marathas in 1779, defeated Colonel Baillie, and seized Arcot in 1780.
• Hastings detached the Nizam and Scindia through diplomacy, isolating Haider Ali.
• Sir Eyre Coote bested Haider Ali at Porto Novo (1781).
• After Haider’s death from illness in 1782, Tipu Sultan carried on the campaign until the Treaty of Mangalore (1783/1784) restored captured regions and prisoners.

Pitt’s India Act, 1784

• Introduced by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger to address structural flaws in Company oversight.
• Main Provisions:
  • Established a six-member Board of Control appointed by the Crown to supervise political affairs.
  • The Court of Directors retained authority over trade operations.
  • The Governor-General’s Council was trimmed from four to three members, including the Commander-in-Chief.

The Impeachment of Warren Hastings

• Disillusioned by Parliamentary censures, Hastings vacated his post in 1785.
• In 1787, Edmund Burke and the Whigs brought forward 22 articles of impeachment regarding the execution of Nanda Kumar for forgery, the Rohilla intervention, the dispossession of Raja Chait Singh of Benares, and extortion against the Begums of Oudh.
• Hastings was completely exonerated in 1795 after an eight-year trial.

Estimate of Warren Hastings

• Hastings secured the foundational pillars of the British Indian territorial presence amid formidable domestic and external opposition.

Lord Cornwallis (1786-1793)

• Appointed in 1786 with enhanced executive powers enabling him to overrule his governing council.

Tipu Sultan and the Third Mysore War (1790-92)

• Causes: Tipu’s modernization measures; his diplomatic overtures to France and the Ottoman Empire; and his attack against the British ally, the Raja of Travancore.
• In 1789, the English formed a Tripartite Alliance with the Nizam and the Marathas.
• Cornwallis assumed personal field leadership, capturing Bangalore (1791) and laying siege to Srirangapattinam.
• Concluded through the Treaty of Srirangapattinam (1792):
  • Tipu surrendered half of his territories.
  • Mysore paid 3 crore rupees as war indemnity, surrendering two princely sons as British hostages.
  • The British acquired Malabar, Dindigul, and the Baramahal district.

Reforms

Administrative Reforms

• Abolished arbitrary percentages and private enterprise by Company staff, substituting them with generous fixed remuneration.
• Separation of executive, fiscal, and judicial branches: Collectors were stripped of magisterial and judicial powers, concentrating exclusively on fiscal administration.
• Laid the organizational basis of the covenanted Civil Service.

Judicial Reforms

• Reorganized the civil and criminal judiciary with courts established across districts.
• Created four Provincial Courts of Appeal at Calcutta, Dacca, Murshidabad, and Patna, presided over by European magistrates.
• Sadar Diwani Adalat and Sadar Nizamat Adalat remained apex appellate forums at Calcutta.
• Formulated the Cornwallis Code (with George Barlow), codifying administrative branches based on the separation of powers.
• Barbarous punitive measures such as mutilation and trial by ordeal were banned.

Police Reforms

• Stripped local zamindars of police control.
• Districts were partitioned into thanas (police jurisdictions of roughly 20 square miles) managed by an Indian officer styled daroga.

Other Reforms

• Cleaned up the Board of Trade with assistance from Charles Grant to eliminate graft and protect weavers.

The Marquess of Wellesley (1798-1805)

Political Condition of India at the time of Wellesley’s Arrival

• Characterized by Zaman Shah’s looming threats from Afghanistan, formidable Maratha armies, French influence in the forces of the Nizam and Tipu Sultan, and the hazards of Napoleon’s eastern ambitions.
• Wellesley initiated an aggressive forward policy to turn “the British Empire in India” into “the British Empire of India”.

The Subsidiary System

Main Features of Subsidiary Alliance

• An allied Indian ruler maintained an English-led military detachment inside his lands.
• The signatory yielded territorial tracts or delivered financial subsidies to fund this force.
• The state evicted all non-English Europeans, terminated unapproved foreign diplomacy, and stationed a British Resident at court.
• The Company promised external defense and internal non-interference.

Benefits to the British and Defects of the System

• Benefits: Expanded Company armed presence at the expense of native states, insulated British districts from war, and made the Company paramount.
• Defects: Large-scale disbandment of native forces caused lawlessness (including Pindari raids), while protected princes neglected administrative responsibilities, leading to decay that invited British annexation.

Enforcement of the Subsidiary System

• Hyderabad: Entered the system in 1798; French forces disbanded; in 1800 the Nizam yielded the “Ceded Districts”.
• Oudh: Pressured into ceding Rohilkhand, the lower Doab, and Gorakhpur in 1801.
• Tanjore, Surat, and the Karnatak:
  • In Tanjore, Serfoji yielded territorial governance in 1799, retaining his royal title and a pension.
  • Surat’s administration was absorbed in 1799.
  • In 1801, Wellesley took over the civil and military rule of the Carnatic via treaty with Azim-ud-daulah.

The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1799)

• Tipu planted a Tree of Liberty at Srirangapattinam, joined the Jacobin Club, and corresponded with Napoleon.
• Tipu ignored British ultimatums demanding the expulsion of the French.
• Generals Stuart and Arthur Wellesley converged on Srirangapattinam; Tipu died defending the ramparts.
• The five-year-old Krishnaraja III of the old Wodeyar dynasty was restored to a partitioned Mysore kingdom, while coastal and frontier territories were annexed directly by the British.

Wellesley and the Marathas & The Second Maratha War (1803-1805)

• Following the passing of Nana Fadnavis in 1800, internal conflicts broke out among the Peshwa, Scindia, and Holkar.
• Jaswant Rao Holkar defeated the combined armies of Scindia and Peshwa Baji Rao II.
• Peshwa Baji Rao II concluded the Treaty of Bassein (1802), accepting the Subsidiary Alliance.
• Arthur Wellesley defeated Scindia and Bhonsle at Assaye and Argaon, imposing the Treaty of Deogaon (Bhonsle ceded Cuttack) and the Treaty of Surji-Arjungaon (Scindia submitted).
• Lord Lake took Delhi and took the blinded Mughal Emperor Shah Alam under British protection.

Lord Hastings (1813-1823)

War against the Gurkhas (1814-16)

• Triggered by border incursions into Gorakhpur and Basti; Gurkha troops attacked an English police outpost in May 1814.
• General Amar Singh Thapa surrendered to British forces.
• Treaty of Sagauli (1816):
  • Nepal ceded Kumaon, Garhwal, and the Tarai frontier.
  • Accepted a British Resident at Kathmandu, withdrew from Sikkim, and barred non-British Europeans.
  • The Company acquired hill sanitariums: Simla, Mussoorie, Nainital, and Ranikhet.

Suppression of the Pindaris

• Pindaris were predatory irregular horsemen of mixed creeds operating across Central India, led by Wasil Muhammad, Chitu, and Karim Khan.
• Hastings assembled 113,000 soldiers and 300 guns, encircling their territories by 1818.
• Karim Khan surrendered and was given an estate; Wasil committed suicide in captivity; Chitu was killed by a tiger.

Downfall of the Maratha Confederacy & Third Maratha War (1817-1819)

• The murder of the Gaekwar envoy Gangadhar Shastri led British Resident Elphinstone to force the Treaty of Poona (1817) on Peshwa Baji Rao II.
• The Peshwa attacked the British Residency and was routed at Kirkee; Appa Sahib of Nagpur was defeated at Sitabaldi; Holkar was routed at Baroda.
• The Maratha confederacy was dissolved; the Peshwaship was abolished, and Baji Rao II was pensioned off.

Reforms of Hastings

• Approved Thomas Munro’s Ryotwari System in Madras Presidency.
• Relaxed press censorship, aiding the launch of the Bengali journal Samachar Darpan (1818).
• Patronized the establishment of Hindu College at Calcutta (1817).

Lord William Bentinck (1828-1835)

Policy Towards Indian States

• Generally maintained non-intervention, but intervened to end misrule:
  • Mysore: Took over internal administration in 1831 following peasant unrest, appointing Sir Mark Cubbon as commissioner.
  • Cachar and Jaintia: Annexed Cachar in 1832 after its ruler died without heirs; annexed Jaintia after human sacrifices of British subjects.
  • Coorg: Deposed the tyrannical ruler Vira Raja in 1834 and annexed the territory.
• Concluded the Indus Navigation Treaty with Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab at Rupar (1831).

Charter Act of 1833

• The East India Company ceased all commercial operations, becoming purely an administrative agent of the Crown.
• The Governor-General of Bengal was designated the Governor-General of India (Bentinck being the first).
• Added a fourth legal member to the executive council (T.B. Macaulay).
• Laid down that no Indian subject would be disabled from office on grounds of religion, descent, or color.

Reforms of Lord William Bentinck

• Financial: Eliminated double batta (military field allowances) and trimmed excessive civil service posts, creating an exchequer surplus.
• Administrative: Scrapped Cornwallis’s slow Provincial Courts of Appeal, introduced vernaculars in local courts, and started the North-West Provinces revenue settlement under R.M. Bird.
• Social Reforms:
  • Abolition of Sati: Enacted Regulation XVII (4 December 1829) declaring Sati illegal and punishable as culpable homicide (extended to Madras and Bombay in 1830).
  • Suppression of Thugs: Appointed Colonel William Sleeman in 1830, apprehending nearly 2,000 hereditary highway stranglers.
  • Female Infanticide: Prohibited infant sacrifice at Saugar Island and outlawed female infanticide.
• Introduction of English Education: Endorsed Macaulay’s Minute of 1835, making English the official educational medium; founded Calcutta Medical College in 1835.

Lord Dalhousie (1848-1856)

Policy of Annexation

Annexation of Punjab

• Annexed Punjab in 1849 following the Second Anglo-Sikh War.
• Governed through a Board of Administration under the Lawrence brothers, integrating revenue, police, and summary judicial systems.

Second Burmese War and the Annexation of Lower Burma

• Commercial conflicts at Rangoon led to war in 1852; Dalhousie annexed Lower Burma (Pegu), transforming Rangoon into an Asian maritime hub.

Doctrine of Lapse

• Denied dependent protected rulers without natural male heirs the political right of adoption without paramount British consent; in case of refusal, the territory “lapsed” to the Company.
• Annexed Satara (1848), Jhansi (1854), and Nagpur (1854).

Annexation of Oudh

• Despite long-standing dynastic loyalty, Oudh was annexed in 1856 on grounds of misrule following reports by Resident Sleeman and Outram; Nawab Wajid Ali was pensioned off.
• This step alienated the Bengal army’s sepoys, who were predominantly recruited from Oudh.

Domestic Reforms of Dalhousie

• Non-Regulation System: Centralized commissioner rule implemented for newly conquered provinces.
• Railways: Issued the 1853 Railway Minute (“guarantee system”); launched India’s first line between Bombay and Thane (1853), followed by Calcutta to Raniganj (1854) and Madras to Arakkonam (1856).
• Telegraph: Connected Calcutta, Peshawar, Bombay, and Madras with over 4,000 miles of wire under O’Shaughnessy.
• Postal Reform: Passed the Post Office Act of 1854, introducing uniform half-anna postage stamps nationwide.
• Education: Implemented Sir Charles Wood’s Despatch (1854) (“Intellectual Charter of India”), leading to provincial education directorates and the 1857 universities of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras.
• Public Works Department: Set up a separate civil engineering department; completed the Upper Ganges Canal (1854) and improved major trunk transit routes.

Revenue Administration and Economic Policy of the British

British Agrarian Policy

• The British transformed rural self-sufficiency by commodifying agricultural land and imposing rigid cash revenues without regard to natural disasters or poor harvests.

The Permanent Settlement

• Implemented by Lord Cornwallis in Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Banaras, and Northern Karnatak (covering 19% of British India).
• Recognized zamindars as absolute landowners provided they remitted a fixed revenue (89% to the Company, 11% retained).
• Ryots became rent-paying tenants without guaranteed tenure rights, giving rise to absentee landlordism and harsh exactions.

Ryotwari Settlement

• Initiated by Sir Thomas Munro in Madras, later extended to Bombay, Berar, and Assam (covering 51% of British India).
• Revenue was contracted directly with the cultivating peasant (ryot) without intermediaries for intervals of 20 to 40 years, enforced through severe recovery measures.

Mahalwari Settlement

• Instituted in 1833 across the North-Western Provinces, Central Provinces, and Punjab (covering 30% of British India).
• The village community (Mahal) was held collectively responsible for remitting surveyed land revenue assessments.

British Policy towards Indian Handicrafts

• Imposed free trade (laissez-faire) tariffs that penalized Indian goods: in 1835 British cloth imports paid only 2.5% duty, whereas Indian textiles faced 15% tariffs in Britain.
• Flooding of mass-produced English machine textiles ruined traditional handloom hubs (Dacca muslins, Bengal silks, Kashmir shawls) and stripped weavers, ironsmiths, and artisans of their livelihoods.