History Part 28.2 28.2] Rule Of The English East India ... · “Cornwallis code” was compiled in...

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History Part – 28.2

28.2] Rule Of The English East India Company

Notes

LORD CORNWALLIS (A.D. 1786 - A.D. 1793)

Lord Cornwallis became the Governor General of India in 1786. He tried to

follow the policy of non-intervention.

In 1793, Cornwallis introduced the Permanent Settlement of Bengal.

The Zamindars were required to pay a fixed amount in cash on a fixed date

as land revenue to the treasury, irrespective of what they could collect.

Slowly the Zamindars brought more areas under cultivation and made more

money while they paid the same fixed amount to the company.

Many Zamindars benefited more than either the company or the peasants.

Merits

1) This system was beneficial to the Zamindars.

2) They were the owners of the lands and they became very loyal to the

company.

3) This system secured a fixed and stable income for the company.

4) This settlement avoided the evils of periodical settlements.

Demerits



1) Zamindars became the masters of the land and were benefited.

2) The worst affected people were the cultivators who were left at the mercy of

the zamindars.

3) To meet the increasing expenses the government had to increase the tax in

other provinces.

4) The government had no direct contact with the people.

Administrative Reforms

Cornwallis introduced a new administrative civil service system.

The civil servants were appointed to administer the British territories

effectively in India.

He introduced strict regulations, raised their salaries and gave promotions on

the basis of merit. The employees were not permitted to carry on private

trade.

All high posts were reserved only for the English. Indians could only be

selected for subordinate posts.

Police Reforms

Lord Cornwallis created a permanent police force in India.

In 1791 a Commissioner of Police was appointed in Calcutta. The districts

were divided into Thanas.



Each Thana was headed by a Daroga. As in the civil services in the police

department too, the Indians were excluded from the higher posts.

Judicial Reforms

Lord Cornwallis improved the judiciary. The collector was relieved of his

judical duties. He was responsible for revenue collection.

Civil and Criminal Courts were set up at the district level. Provincial courts

of appeal were set up at Dacca, Calcutta, Murshidabad and Patna.

Cornwallis increased the salary of the judges to check bribery and

corruption.

He abolished the court fees. A new code of regulations known as

“Cornwallis code” was compiled in 1793 by Sir George Barlow.

Revenue Reforms

He reorganized the Revenue Department. In 1787 the province of Bengal

was divided into many areas and each area was placed under a collector.

He established the Board of Revenue to supervise the work of the collectors.

Commercial Reforms

Cornwallis revived the old practice of making direct contact with the Indian

merchants and improved trade and commerce.



Tipu sultan ( 1750 – 1799 )

Tipu sultan (20 november 1750 - 4 may 1799)also known as tiger of mysore

and tipu sahib,was a ruler of the kingdom of mysore.

He was the eldest son of sultan hyder ali of mysore.tipu introduced number

of administration innovations during his rule,including his coinage,a new

mauludi lunisolar calender and a new land revenue system which initiated

the growth of mysore silk industry.

Tipu expanded the iron-cased mysorean rockets and wrote the military

manual fathul mujahidin,considered a pioneer in the use of rocket artillery.

He deployed the rockets against advances of british forces and their allies in

their 1792 and 1799 siege of srirangapatna.

Lord Wellesley (1798-1805)

Lord Wellesley (as Governor General) came to India in 1798 at a time when

the British were locked in a life and death struggle with France all over the

world.

Lord Wellesley decided that the time was ripe for bringing as many Indian

states as possible under British control.

By 1797, the two strongest Indian powers, Mysore and the Marathas, had

declined in power.



The Third Anglo-Mysore war had reduced Mysore to a mere shadow of its

recent greatness and the Marathas were dissipating their strength in mutual

intrigues and wars.

Political conditions in India were propitious for a policy of (British)

expansion: aggression was easy as well as profitable.

Administrative Plans of Wellesley

To achieve his political aims, Wellesley relied on three methods i.e.

The system of Subsidiary Alliances;

Outright wars; and

Assumptions of the territories of previously subordinated rulers.

The doctrine of subsidiary alliance was introduced by Lord Wellesley.

Under the subsidiary alliance system, the ruler of the allying Indian State

was compelled to accept the permanent stationing of a British force within

his territory and to pay a subsidy for its maintenance.

Subsidiary Alliance

In reality, by signing a Subsidiary Alliance, an India state virtually signed

away−

Its independence;

The right of self-defense;



Maintaining the diplomatic relations;

Employing foreign experts; and

Settling its disputes with its neighbors.

As a consequence of Subsidiary Alliance, lakhs of soldiers and officers were

deprived of their hereditary livelihood, spreading misery and degradation in

the country.

Many of the unemployed soldiers joined the roaming bands of Pindarees

which were to ravage the whole of India during the first two decades of the

19th century.

The Subsidiary Alliance system was, on the other hand, extremely

advantageous to the British. They could now maintain a large army at the

cost of the Indian states.

Lord Wellesley signed his first Subsidiary Treaty with the Nizam of

Hyderabad in 1798.

The Nizam was to dismiss his French-trained troops and to maintain a

subsidiary force of six battalions at a cost of £ 241,710 per year. In return,

the British guaranteed his state against Maratha encroachments.

In 1800, the subsidiary force was increased and, in lieu of cash payment, the

Nizam ceded part of his territories to the Company.



The Nawab of Avadh was forced to sign a Subsidiary Treaty in 1801. In

return for a larger subsidiary force, the Nawab was forced to surrender to the

British nearly half of his kingdom consisting of Rohilkhand and the territory

lying between the Rivers Ganga and the Yamuna.

Wellesley dealt with Mysore, Carnatic, Tanjore, and Surat even more

sternly.

Tipu of Mysore would, of course, never agreed to a Subsidiary Treaty. On

the contrary, he had never reconciled himself to the loss of half of his

territory in 1791. He worked incessantly to strengthen his forces for the

inevitable struggle with the British.

Tipu Sultan entered into negotiations for an alliance with Revolutionary

France. He sent missions 'to Afghanistan, Arabia, and Turkey to forge an

anti-British alliance.

Lord Wellesley was no less determined to bring Tipu to heel and to prevent

any possibility of the French re-entering India.

The British army attacked and defeated Tipu in a brief but fierce war in

1799, before French help could reach him.

Tipu still refused to beg for peace on humiliating terms. He proudly declared

that it was "better to die like a soldier, than to live a miserable dependent on

the infidels, in the list of their pensioned, rajas and Nawabs."



Tipu met a hero's end on 4 May 1799 while defending his capital

Seringapatam. His army remained loyal to him to the very end.

Nearly half of Tipu's dominions were divided between the British and their

ally, the Nizam. The reduced kingdom of Mysore was restored to the

descendants of the original rajas from whom Haidar Ali had seized power.

A special treaty of Subsidiary Alliance was imposed on the new Raja by

which the Governor-General was authorized to take over the administration

of the state in case of necessity.

An important result of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War was the complete

elimination of the French threat to British supremacy in India.

In 1801, Lord Wellesley forced a new treaty upon the puppet Nawab of

Carnatic compelling him to cede his kingdom to the Company in return for a

handsome pension.

The Madras Presidency as it existed till 1947 was created, by attaching the

Carnatic to territories seized from Mysore and Malabar.

The territories of the rulers of Tanjore and Surat were taken over and their

rulers pensioned off.

The Marathas were the only major Indian power left outside the sphere of

British control. Wellesley now turned his attention towards them and began

aggressive interference in their internal affairs.



Chiefs of Maratha Empire

The Maratha Empire (during the Wellesley time) consisted of a confederacy

of five big chiefs, namely −

The Peshwa at Poona;

The Gaekwad at Baroda;

The Sindhia at Gwalior;

The Holkar at Indore; and

The Bhonsle at Nagpur.

The Peshwa was the nominal head of the confederacy.

Unfortunately, the Marathas lost nearly all of their wise and experienced

leaders towards the close of the 18th century.

Mahadji Sindhia, Tukoji Holker, Ahilya Bai Holker, Peshwa Madhav Rao II,

and Nana Phadnavis, the people who had kept the Maratha confederacy

together for the last 30 years, all were dead by the year 1800.

Wellesley had repeatedly offered a subsidiary alliance to the Peshwa and

Sindhia. But the far-sighted Nana Phadnavis had refused to fall into the trap.

On 25 October 1802, the day of the great festival of Diwali, Holkar defeated

the combined armies of' the Peshwa and Sindhia, the cowardly Peshwa Baji

Rao II rushed into the arms of the English and on the fateful last day of 1802

signed the Subsidiary Treaty at Bassein.



Lord Hastings (1813-1823)

Lord Hastings became Governor-General in 1813. He adopted a vigorous

forward policy and waged wars extensively.

His aggressive and imperialist polices paved the way for the general of

expansion of the British Empire. He further expanded the British power in

India.

The conditions in India when he assumed power posed a serious threat to the

British administration.

There was anarchy in central India. The Pindaris plundered the whole region

and the Marathas could not control them.

Also, there was infighting among the Maratha chiefs. Yet, they were aiming

at the expulsion of the British from India. The Peshwa was secretly plotting

against the British.

Hastings was also troubled by the expansion of the Gurkha power.

Therefore, Hastings determined to restore order by suppressing the Pindaris

and to eliminate threats to the British power by waging wars with the

Marathas and the Gurkhas.

War against the Gurkhas (1814-16)



Nepal emerged as a powerful Gurkha state in 1768. This country is situated

to the north of India with its boundary touching China in the north and

Bengal and Oudh in the east and south, respectively.

They captured sheoroj and Butwal.

In 1801, the British acquired the districts of Gorakhpur and Basti from the

Nawab of Oudh. This move brought the boundary of Nepal to touch the

British frontier.

The aggressions of the Gurkhas into the British territories culminated in a

war. In May 1814, the Gurkhas attacked the British police post and killed 18

policemen and their officer.

Hastings declared war on Nepal. In 1814 several battles were fought

between the British and the Gurkhas. Amar Singh Thapa, the able General

of Nepal Army was forced to surrender.

The british defeated the gurkhas leader Amar singh.

In March 1816, the Treaty of Sagauli was concluded. The Gurkhas gave up

their claim over the Tarai region and ceded the areas of Kumaon and

Garhwal to the British.

The British now secured the area around Simla and their north-western

borders touched the Himalayas.



The Gurkhas had to withdraw from Sikkim and they also agreed to keep a

British Resident at Katmandu. It was also agreed that the kingdom of Nepal

would not employ any other foreigner in its services other than the English.

The British had also obtained the sites of hill stations like Simla, Mussoori,

Nainital, Ranikhet and developed them as tourist and health resorts.

After this victory in the Gurkha War Hastings was honoured with English

peerage and he became Marquis of Hastings.

Suppression of the Pindaris

The origin of Pindaris is lost in obscurity.

The first reference about them is during the Mughal invasion of

Maharashtra. They did not belong to any particular caste or creed.

They used to serve the army without any payment but instead were allowed

to plunder. During the time of Baji Rao I, they were irregular horsemen

attached to the Maratha army. It is worth mentioning here that they never

helped the British.

They were mostly active in the areas of Rajputana and the Central Provinces

and subsisted on plunder.

Their leaders belonged to both the Hindu as well as the Muslim

communities. Chief amongst them were Amir khan ,Wasil Muhammad,

Chitu and Karim Khan. They had thousands of followers.



In 1812, the Pindaris plundered the districts of Mirzapur and Shahabad and

in 1815 they raided the Nizam's dominions. In 1816, they plundered the

Northern Circars.

Lord Hastings determined to suppress the Pindaris. For this he gathered a

large army of 1,13,000 men and 300 guns and attacked the Pindaris from

four sides.

He himself took command of the force from the north while Sir Thomas

Hislop commanded the force from the south. By 1818, the Pindaris were

completely suppressed and all their bands disintegrated.

Karim Khan was given a small estate in the Gorakhpur district of the United

Provinces. Wasil Muhammad took refuge in the Scindia's camp but the

latter handed him over to the British.

Wasil committed suicide in captivity and Chitu escaped to the forest, where

a tiger killed him. Thus, by 1824, the menace of the Pindaris came to an

end.

Charter Act of 1813

The Charter Act of 1813 passed by the British Parliament renewed the East India

Company’s charter for another 20 years. This is also called the East India

Company Act, 1813. This act is important in that it defined for the first time the

constitutional position of British Indian territories.



Background

Due to Napoleon Bonaparte’s Continental System in Europe (which

prohibited the import of British goods into French allies in Europe), British

traders and merchants suffered.

So they demanded they be given a share in the British trade in Asia and

dissolve the monopoly of the East India Company.

The company objected to this.

Finally, British merchants were allowed to trade in India under a strict

license system under the Charter Act of 1813.

But in trade with China and the tea trade, the company still retained its

monopoly.

Provisions of the Charter Act of 1813

This Act asserted the Crown’s sovereignty over British possessions in India.

Company’s rule and trade monopoly in India was extended to another 20

years. Monopoly was ended except for the trade in tea and with China.

It empowered the local governments to tax people subject to the jurisdiction

of the Supreme Court.

The company’s dividend was fixed at 10.5%.



The Act gave more powers for the courts in India over European British

subjects.

Another important feature of this act was to grant permission to the

missionaries to come to India and engage in religious proselytization. The

missionaries were successful in getting the appointment of a Bishop for

British India with his headquarters as Calcutta in the provisions of the Act.

The act provided for a financial grant towards the revival of Indian literature

and the promotion of science.

The company was also to take up a greater role in the education of the

Indians under them. It was to set aside Rs.1 Lakh for this purpose.

Reforms of Hastings

The Governor-Generalship of Lord Hastings witnessed not only territorial

expansion but also the progress of administration.

He approved the Ryotwari system of land revenue introduced in the Madras

Presidency by Sir Thomas Munroe. In the sphere of judiciary, the

Cornwallis Code was improved. The Police system of Bengal was extended

to other regions.

Hastings passed the Bengal tenancy act in 1822 to protect the interest of

tenants.In 1817 a college was opened in Calcutta so the development of the

English language.



He removed the restrictions on the press.The first vernacular newspaper

samachar patrika was published.

Hastings had also encouraged the foundation of vernacular schools by

missionaries and others. In 1817, the Hindu College was established at

Calcutta by the public for the teaching of English and western science.

Hastings was the Patron of this college. He encouraged the freedom of the

Press and abolished the censorship introduced in 1799. The Bengali

Weekly, Samachar Darpan was started in 1818 by Marshman, a Serampore

missionary.

Estimate

Lord Hastings was an able soldier and a brilliant administrator. His liberal views

on education and Press are commendable. He suppressed the Pindaris, defeated the

Marathas and curbed the power of the Gurkhas. His territorial gains strengthened

the British power in India. He was considered the maker of the Bombay

Presidency. In short, he completed and consolidated the work of Wellesley.

Key Provisions

End of Monopoly of East India Company

Charter act of 1813 ended the monopoly of the East India Company in India,

however the company’s monopoly in trade with china and trade in tea with India



was kept intact. Thus, trade with India for all commodities except Tea was thrown

open to all British subjects. This lasted till 1833 when the next charter abolished

the trade of the company.

Permission to Christian Missionaries

The act also granted permission to the persons who wished to go to India for

promoting moral and religious improvements. (Christian Missionaries)

Other Provisions

This act regulated the company’s territorial revenues and commercial

profits. It was asked to keep its territorial and commercial accounts separate.

The company debt was to be reduced and dividend was fixed @10.5% per

annum.

There was also a provision that Company should invest Rs. 1 Lakh every

year on the education of Indians.

This act also empowered the local governments to impose taxes on the

persons subject to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

The Charter Act 1813 for the first time explicitly defined the constitutional

position of the British territories in India.

The Act also empowered the Local Governments in India to impose taxes on

persons and to punish those who did not pay them.

History Part 28.2 28.2] Rule Of The English East India ... · “Cornwallis code” was compiled in...

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