Title: What were the characteristics of British rule in India?
1What were the characteristics of British rule
in India?
2The Company at the beginning of the eighteenth
century
- Company Structure
- Approx. 3,000 shareholders subscribed to a stock
of 3,200,000 - 20-30 ships sent to Asia each year
- Annual sales in London worth up to 2 million
- Run by 24 directors (elected annually by
shareholders) - Key exports
- Spice
- Textiles
- Saltpetre (for gunpowder)
- Trading with Asia high-risk and high-cost.
- Trading Companies could raise large sums of money
on a permanent basis, allowing them to spread
risk among a corporate body of investors and to
pursue long-term commercial strategies. The
companies projected their huge outlays by
maintaining close links with their parent
states. (P. J. Marshall. The Oxford History of
the British Empire p.488)
3The structure of the English Company at the
beginning of the eighteenth century
- By the 1750s the Company held 3 main trading
stations in India - Calcutta
- Madras
- Bombay
- Independently managed through presidents and
councils, reporting separately to the British
directors. - Each responsible for its own internal management
and defence. - Average sailing time from England 6 months. So
initiative left to men in India.
4The structure of the French Company at the
beginning of the eighteenth century
- French La Compagnie française des Indes
orientales held 2 main trading stations - Pondicherry
- Chandernagore
- French Company (founded 1664) closely connected
with home government. - Deep in debt to the crown and so at its mercy.
- French hoped to entrench Company within the
Indian political system.
5The Companys relationship to Indian politics and
economy
- Throughout the c.17th and c.18th the Company
operated within an Indian commercial and
political system. - Only at sea or in dealing with small-scale Asian
regimes could Europeans hope to impose their own
terms. (Marshall, p.489) - Company didnt have the power or inclination to
challenge large Indian powers few commercial
rewards. - European merchants accommodated themselves with
Indian rulers and were offered protection in
return for bringing trade to the region. - The Company's trade was built on a sophisticated
Indian economy. During the seventeenth century
the effective rule maintained by the Mughal
emperors provided a secure framework for trade. - The British only started to intervene in Indian
politics in the 1750s
6British intervention in regional Indian politics
- Mughal empire disintegrating and replaced by
regional states. - Earlier interpretations this produced a
situation of anarchy and chaos - More recent views no overall economic decline
and some of the regional states maintained stable
rule - Conflicts within new states contestants for
power willing to seek European support. - Rivalry between British and French in India.
Allied with opposing regional political factions. - Private ambitions great personal rewards for
European King-makers. e.g. Robert Clive.
7The shift from the Company as traders to rulers
- Amal Chatterjee identifies 3 parts in the period
1740-1840 - 1740-1760 the Company became involved in local
politics, establishing Company power in Bengal. - 1760-1800 a period of concerted military
activity. Company run by soldiers who then became
administrators. - 1800-1840 power was transferred to civil
administrators. - The Company controlled a large amount of land in
India so had to submit to increasingly close
supervision by the British state. Periodical
inquiries by parliament. - Regions where the Company had helped rulers gain
their control, many of its servants became
administrators in the new British regimes. - Huge armies created, largely composed of Indian
sepoys. Used to defend Company territories,
coerce neighbouring Indian states and crush
potential internal resistance. - Why change in British rule?
- French aggression forced the peaceful British
into action? - British as more assertive? New ambitions of the
Company and its leading figures. Hostilities
between French and British exploiting weaknesses
in the Indian political system.
8Maps showing British territory in the late
eighteenth century
9Calcutta
- 1756 relations between the Company and the
Nawab of Bengal turned violent when the Company
rejected an ultimatum from the new Nawab, who
then took Calcutta. - British expedition from Madras (led by Robert
Clive) recovered Calcutta and defeated the Nawab,
Siraj-ud-Daula at Plassey in 1757. - Bengal then effectively became a client state
with a new Nawab ruling under British protection.
- Within a few years Bengal had become a province
under actual British rule. - Settlement arising from the Battle of Buxar
(1764) gave the Company the responsibility for
the civil administration of Bengal and its
connected provinces. - Gave the British rule over 20m people in Bengal
and access to a revenue of about 3m, and taking
British influence nearly up to Delhi.
10The relationship between the Company and the
British Government
- The Company depended on the state for its
charter. - Parliament could insist on internal changes to
the Companys structure when its charter came to
be renewed, the charter could be withheld if the
Company refused to comply. - Dispute between Clive and Sulivan meant that the
British government got involved in the activities
of the Company. In the clash over Clives jagir
(Mughal reward of territory and its income),
Sulivan enlisted the help of the government and
from then on the two were inseperable. - Inquiry into the management of the Company in
1760s.
11Company Governments based on Indian systems
- New Company governments based on those of the
Indian states effective work of administration
initially done by Indians. - Collection of taxes main function of
government. - British judges supervised the courts but they
applied Hindu or Islamic rather than British law.
- Little belief in the need for outright
innovation. - Warren Hastings believed that Indian institutions
were well adapted to Indian needs and that the
new British governments should try to restore an
'ancient constitution', which had been subverted
during the upheavals of the 18th century.
12Shift to British systems at the end of the
eighteenth century
- Changing opinions about British rule in India.
- Belief that India suffered from deeply ingrained
backwardness which needed to be 'improved' by
foreign rule - Property relations should be reformed to give
greater security to the ownership of land. - Laws should be codified on scientific principles.
- All obstacles to free trade between Britain and
India should be removed. - Education should be remodelled.
- Ignorance and superstition thought to be
inculcated by Asian religions should be
challenged by Christian missionaries.
13The Regulating Act of 1773
- 1773 dire financial situation of the Company,
especially due to loss of tea sales to America
since 1768. The Company owed money to Bank of
England and the government. - Lord North wanted to overhaul the management of
the East India Company with the Regulating Act. - Company men not trained to govern so North's
government began moves towards government
control. - Provisions of The Act
- Governor-General and Council of 4 required for
the government of the presidency of Fort William
in Bengal. - Supreme court of judicature set up at Fort
William, over all British subjects in Bengal and
their native servants. - British officials in India were prohibited from
receiving any gifts, presents, pecuniary
advantages from the Indian princes or other powers
14The India Act of 1784
- This Act said that
- Trading in India had to be separated from the
ruling of the country. - A Board of Control was to be appointed.
- Ministerial board to review all Company papers
and issue orders to the directors. - The Company could still appoint offices in India,
but was subject to the king's over-riding power
to veto or remove. - The Governor-General in Calcutta and his council
had absolute power with regard to foreign policy
over the other presidencies in Bombay and Madras.
- British subjects were made responsible to English
courts for wrongs done in India. - All returning "nabobs" were to declare their
fortunes. - System of dual control between Company and Crown
worked for the next 75 years, until the Indian
Mutiny. After that, parliament took over complete
responsibility for India.