Hooghly Jail or the Hooghly District Correctional Home , is a prison and itself a heritage building situated at Hugli-Chuchura in the Indian state of West Bengal .
130-580: This is one of the oldest prison center of West Bengal since East India Company rule . The jail was founded in 1817 beside the Hooghly river . Primarily the jail building was a private doweling house of a native Indian and the ration system of the jail was introduced in 1836. During the British rule, political prisoners were kept here in solitary confinement. Kazi Nazrul Islam , the Bengali revolutionary poet
260-787: A factory in Masulipatnam on the Eastern coast of India in 1611 and the grant of the rights to establish a factory in Surat in 1612 by the Mughal Emperor Jahangir . In 1640, after receiving similar permission from the Vijayanagara ruler farther south, a second factory was established in Madras on the southeastern coast. Bombay island, not far from Surat, a former Portuguese outpost gifted to England as dowry in
390-592: A firman , an imperial directive that would allow the English company regular trading privileges across the Mughal provinces. In 1685, after some breaking of negotiations by Sir Josiah Child, Bt , the Governor of Bengal reacted by increasing the tributaries of the trade with the north-east from 2% to 3.5%. The company refused the newly introduced taxes and began to try to get the province of Bengal to accept new terms in
520-594: A buyer of manufactured goods . More specifically, in the 1750s, mostly fine cotton and silk was exported from India to markets in Europe, Asia, and Africa; by the second quarter of the 19th century, raw materials, which chiefly consisted of raw cotton, opium, and indigo, accounted for most of India's exports. Also, from the late 18th century British cotton mill industry began to lobby the government to both tax Indian imports and allow them access to markets in India. Starting in
650-605: A century later, the subject of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee 's novel Anandamath . In 1772, under Warren Hastings, the East India Company took over revenue collection directly in the Bengal Presidency (then Bengal and Bihar), establishing a Board of Revenue with offices in Calcutta and Patna , and moving the pre-existing Mughal revenue records from Murshidabad to Calcutta. In 1773, after Oudh ceded
780-477: A large proportion of the work of Indian Civil Service officers working for the government. After the Company lost its trading rights, it became the single most important source of government revenue, roughly half of overall revenue in the middle of the 19th century; even so, between the years 1814 and 1859, the government of India ran debts in 33 years. With expanded dominion, even during non-deficit years, there
910-400: A major event occurred during their tenure. Government of India Act (1833) Until Clive's victory at Plassey , the East India Company territories in India, which consisted largely of the presidency towns of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, were governed by the mostly autonomous—and sporadically unmanageable— town councils , all composed of merchants. The councils barely had enough powers for
1040-571: A new treaty was negotiated, this force was assigned to Berar and stopped being a part of the Nizam's army. In the Indian rebellion of 1857 almost the entire Bengal army, both regular and irregular, revolted. It has been suggested that after the annexation of Oudh by the East India Company in 1856, many sepoys were disquieted both from losing their perquisites, as landed gentry, in the Oudh courts and from
1170-764: A report by a committee, which condemned the Mayor's Courts, the Crown issued a charter for a new judicial system in the Bengal Presidency . The British Parliament consequently enacted the Regulating Act of 1773 under which the King-in-Council created a Supreme Court in the Presidency town , i.e. Fort William . The tribunal consisted of one Chief Justice and three puisne judges ; all four judges were to be chosen from barristers . The Supreme Court supplanted
1300-404: A treaty with the ruler of Arakan . But the fleet was dispersed during the voyage, and several of the vessels entered the Hooghly instead of steering to Chittagong, joining English troops from Madras, and anchoring off the Company's factory. The arrival of the formidable expedition alarmed Shaista Khan, and he offered to compromise his differences with the English; but an unforeseen event brought
1430-408: A year of resistance, a famine broke out due to the blockade, the Company surrendered, and in 1690 the company sent envoys to Aurangzeb's court to plea for a pardon and to renew the trade firman. The company's envoys had to prostrate themselves before the emperor, pay a large imperial fine of 1,500,000 rupees, and promise better behavior in the future. Emperor Aurangzeb then ordered Sidi Yaqub to lift
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#17327810818151560-534: The hajj ) were among those captured. Upon hearing of the blockade, Emperor Aurangzeb resumed negotiations with the English. However, the Company sent out reinforcements commanded by Captain Heath who on his arrival disallowed the treaty then pending and proceeded to Balasore which he bombarded unsuccessfully. He then sailed to Chittagong; but finding the fortifications stronger than he had anticipated, landed at Madras. After that, Emperor Aurangzeb issued orders for
1690-573: The Anglo-Sikh Wars in 1849-1856 (Period of tenure of Marquess of Dalhousie Governor General); however, Kashmir was immediately sold under the Treaty of Amritsar (1850) to the Dogra dynasty of Jammu , and thereby became a princely state. In 1854 Berar was annexed, and the state of Oudh two years later. The second form of asserting power involved treaties in which Indian rulers acknowledged
1820-538: The Bay of Bengal . Upon request, King James II sent warships to the company based in India , but the expedition failed. Following the dispatch of twelve warships loaded with troops, a number of battles took place, leading to the Siege of Bombay Harbour and bombardment of the city of Balasore . New peace treaties were negotiated, and the East India Company sent petitions to the emperor, Aurangzeb , about trades involving
1950-661: The British Crown and Parliament increased as well. By the 1820s British nationals could transact business or engage in missionary work under the protection of the Crown in the three presidencies. Finally, under the terms of The Saint Helena Act 1833 , the British Parliament revoked the company's monopoly in the China trade and made it an agent for the administration of British India. The Governor-General of Bengal
2080-539: The Ceded and Conquered Provinces in 1805, the jurisdiction would extend as far west as Delhi. In the other two presidencies, Madras and Bombay , a similar course of legal changes unfolded; there, however, the Mayor's Courts were first strengthened to Recorder's Courts by adding a legal president to the bench. The Supreme Courts in Madras and Bombay were finally established in 1801 and 1823, respectively. Madras Presidency
2210-631: The Child's war , was the first Anglo-Indian war on the Indian subcontinent . The English East India Company had been given a monopoly and numerous fortified bases on the western and south-eastern coasts of the Mughal Empire by the Crown , which was permitted by the local governors. In 1682, William Hedges was sent on the behalf of the Company to negotiate with the governor of the proto-industrialised Bengal Subah , Shaista Khan , and to obtain
2340-612: The City of London and the Parliament of Great Britain . The result was a compromise in which the Regulating Act—although implying the ultimate sovereignty of the British Crown over these new territories—asserted that the company could act as a sovereign power on behalf of the Crown. It could do this while concurrently being subject to oversight and regulation by the British government and parliament. The Court of Directors of
2470-705: The Diwāni of Bengal, the right not only to collect revenue, but also to administer civil justice in Bengal. The administration of criminal justice, the Nizāmat or Faujdāri , however, remained with the Nawāb , and for criminal cases the prevailing Islamic law remained in place. However, the company's new duties associated with the Diwāni were leased out to the Indian officials who had formerly performed them. This makeshift arrangement continued—with much accompanying disarray—until 1771, when
2600-691: The Education Dispatch of 1854 sent by Sir Charles Wood , the President of the Board of Control of the East India Company, the chief official on Indian affairs in the British government, to Lord Dalhousie , the then Governor-General of India. The dispatch outlined a broad plan of state-sponsored education for India, which included: Anglo-Mughal War (1686%E2%80%931690) Total ~3,300 Total Siege of Bombay Bombay Madras Total The Anglo-Mughal war , also known as
2730-649: The English East India Company sent William Hedges to Shaista Khan , the Mughal governor of Bengal Subah , in order to obtain a firman : an imperial directive that would grant the Company regular trading privileges throughout the Mughal Empire. The intervention of the company's governor in London , Sir Josiah Child , with Hedges's mission caused Emperor Aurangzeb to break off the negotiations. After that Child decided to go to war against
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#17327810818152860-529: The Fox–North coalition tried to reform colonial policy again with a bill introduced by Edmund Burke which would have transferred political power over India from the East India Company to a parliamentary commission. The bill passed the House of Commons with the enthusiastic support of Foreign Secretary Charles James Fox , but was vetoed by the House of Lords under pressure from King George III , who then dismissed
2990-619: The Home Office , was in charge of the overall India policy. From 1784 onwards, the British government had the final word on all major appointments in India; a candidate's suitability for a senior position was often decided by the strength of his political connections rather than that of his administrative ability. Although this practice resulted in many Governor-General nominees being chosen from Britain's conservative landed gentry , there were some liberals as well, such as Lord William Bentinck and Lord Dalhousie . British political opinion
3120-769: The Indian Rebellion of 1857 broke out. After the rebellion was suppressed, the Government of India Act 1858 resulted in the EIC's territories in India being administered by the Crown instead. The India Office managed the EIC's former territories, which became known as the British Raj . The range of dates is taken to have commenced either in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey , when the Nawab of Bengal Siraj ud-Daulah
3250-566: The Indian subcontinent under the control of the British East India Company (EIC). The EIC, founded in 1600, established their first trading post in India in 1612, and gradually expanded their presence in the region over the following decades. During the Seven Years' War , the East India Company began a process of rapid expansion in India which resulted in most of the subcontinent falling under their rule by 1857, when
3380-614: The Naib Nāzim , attended to the slightly less important cases. The ordinary lawsuits belonged to the jurisdiction of a hierarchy of court officials consisting of faujdārs , muhtasils , and kotwāls . In the rural areas, or the Mofussil , the zamindars —the rural overlords with the hereditary right to collect rent from peasant farmers—also had the power to administer justice. This they did with little routine oversight, being required to report only their judgments in capital punishment cases to
3510-406: The Nawāb . By the mid-18th century, the British too had completed a century and a half in India, and had a burgeoning presence in the three presidency towns of Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta. During this time the successive Royal Charters had gradually given the East India Company more power to administer justice in these towns. In the charter granted by Charles II in 1683, the company was given
3640-478: The Permanent Settlement if the zamindars failed to pay the revenue on time, the zamindari right would be taken from them. According to one estimate, this was 20% higher than the revenue demand before 1757. Over the next century, partly as a result of land surveys, court rulings, and property sales, the change was given practical dimension. An influence on the development of this revenue policy were
3770-512: The Portuguese at Hooghly and religious intolerance of the Tamil community in Madras , but praised Aurangzeb's imperial majesty and compared him with ancient Persia 's emperors Cyrus and Darius . However, the company eventually failed to reach an agreement. The English naval forces established a blockade of the Mughal ports on the western Indian coast and engaged in several battles with
3900-753: The Third Anglo-Mysore War in 1791, and also in Java and Ceylon . In contrast to the soldiers in the armies of Indian rulers, the Bengal sepoys not only received high pay, but also received it reliably, thanks in great measure to the company's access to the vast land-revenue reserves of Bengal. Soon, bolstered both by the new musket technology and naval support, the Bengal army came to be widely well-regarded. The well-disciplined sepoys attired in red-coats and their British officers began to arouse "a kind of awe in their adversaries. In Maharashtra and in Java,
4030-519: The Treaty of Nanjing , gained access to five Chinese ports, Guangzhou , Xiamen , Fuzhou , Shanghai, and Ningbo ; in addition, Hong Kong was ceded to the British Crown. Towards the end of the second quarter of the 19th century, opium export constituted 40% of India's exports. Another major, though erratic, export item was indigo dye , which was extracted from natural indigo , and which came to be grown in Bengal and northern Bihar. In 1788,
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4160-609: The United Provinces of Agra and Oudh . In addition, in 1854, a lieutenant-governor was appointed for the region of Bengal, Bihar and Odisha, leaving the Governor-General to concentrate on the governance of India as a whole. In the remnant of the Mughal Empire revenue system existing in pre-1765 Bengal, zamindars , or "land holders", collected revenue on behalf of the Mughal emperor, whose representative, or diwan , supervised their activities. In this system,
4290-555: The princely states , of the Hindu maharajas and the Muslim nawabs . Prominent among the princely states were: Cochin (1791), Jaipur (1794), Travancore (1795), Hyderabad (1798), Mysore (1799), Cis-Sutlej Hill States (1815), Central India Agency (1819), Cutch and Gujarat Gaikwad territories (1807–1820), Rajputana (1818), and Bahawalpur (1833). The Governors-General ( locum tenens ) are not included in this table unless
4420-558: The "Nabobs", returned to Britain with large fortunes, which—according to rumours then current—were acquired unscrupulously. By 1772, the Company needed British government loans to stay afloat, and there was fear in London that the company's corrupt practices could soon seep into British business and public life. The rights and duties of the British government with regards the company's new territories also came to be examined. The British parliament then held several inquiries and in 1773, during
4550-430: The "major breeding ground" of India's infantry in eastern Awadh and the lands around Banaras including Bihar . The high caste rural Hindu Rajputs and Brahmins of this region, known as Purbiyas (Hindi, lit. "easterners"), had been recruited by Mughal Empire armies for two hundred years; the East India Company continued this practice for the next 75 years, with these soldiers comprising up to eighty per cent of
4680-416: The 1830s, British textiles began to appear in—and soon to inundate—the Indian markets, with the value of the textile imports growing from £5.2 million 1850 to £18.4 million in 1896. The American Civil War too would have a major impact on India's cotton economy: with the outbreak of the war, American cotton was no longer available to British manufacturers ; consequently, demand for Indian cotton soared, and
4810-567: The 1850s, a scandal erupted when it was discovered that some Indian revenue agents of the company were using torture to meet the company's revenue demands. Land revenue settlements constituted a major administrative activity of the various governments in India under Company rule. In all areas other than the Bengal Presidency, land settlement work involved a continually repetitive process of surveying and measuring plots, assessing their quality, and recording landed rights, and constituted
4940-527: The 18th century and the first decade of the nineteenth, Company officials pursued a policy of conciliation towards the native culture of its new dominion, especially in relation to education policy. During the 19th century, the Indian literacy rates were rumoured to be less than half of post independence levels which were 18.33% in 1951. The policy was pursued in the aid of three goals: "to sponsor Indians in their own culture, to advance knowledge of India, and to employ that knowledge in government". The first goal
5070-563: The 20th century; a centre of indigo production there, Champaran district, became an early testing ground, in 1917, for Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 's strategy of non-violent resistance against the British Raj . Until the British gained control of Bengal in the mid-18th century, the system of justice there was presided over by the Nawab of Bengal himself, who, as the chief law officer, Nawāb Nāzim , attended to cases qualifying for capital punishment in his headquarters, Murshidabad . His deputy,
5200-649: The Bengal Presidency (and for overseeing the company's operations in India). "The subordinate Presidencies were forbidden to wage war or make treaties without the previous consent of the Governor-General of Bengal in Council, except in case of imminent necessity. The Governors of these Presidencies were directed in general terms to obey the orders of the Governor-General-in-Council, and to transmit to him intelligence of all important matters." However,
5330-540: The Bengal Presidency helped finance the company's wars in other parts of India. Consequently, in the period 1760–1800, Bengal's money supply was greatly diminished; furthermore, the closing of some local mints and close supervision of the rest, the fixing of exchange rates , and the standardisation of coinage , paradoxically, added to the economic downturn. During the period, 1780–1860, India changed from being an exporter of processed goods for which it received payment in bullion , to being an exporter of raw materials and
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5460-516: The Bengal army. British in Malabar also converted Thiyyar army, called as Thiyya pattalam into a special regiment centered at Thalassery called as The Thiyyar Regiment in 1904. However, in order to avoid any friction within the ranks, the company also took pains to adapt its military practices to their religious requirements. Consequently, these soldiers dined in separate facilities; in addition, overseas service, considered polluting to their caste,
5590-582: The British cabinet, as well as the Chancellor of the Exchequer . Around this time, there was also extensive debate in the British Parliament on the issue of landed rights in Bengal, with a consensus developing in support of the view advocated by Philip Francis , a member of the Bengal council and political adversary of Warren Hastings, that all lands in Bengal should be considered the "estate and inheritance of native land-holders and families". Mindful of
5720-469: The British rulers in their efforts to spread English education and established many reputed colleges like Scottish Church College (1830), Wilson College (1832), Madras Christian College (1837), and Elphinstone College (1856). However, the Anglicists also included utilitarians , led by James Mill , who had begun to play an important role in fashioning Company policy. The utilitarians believed in
5850-536: The Chairman of the East India Company. Grant supported state-sponsored education in India 20 years before a similar system was set up in Britain. Among Grant's close evangelical friends were William Wilberforce , a prominent abolitionist and member of the British Parliament, and Sir John Shore , the Governor-General of India from 1793 to 1797. During this period, many Scottish Presbyterian missionaries also supported
5980-506: The Charter Act of 1793—the subordinate presidencies continued to exercise some autonomy until both the extension of British possessions into becoming contiguous and the advent of faster communications in the next century. Still, the new Governor-General appointed in 1786, Lord Cornwallis , not only had more power than Hastings, but also had the support of a powerful British cabinet minister, Henry Dundas , who, as Secretary of State for
6110-578: The Court of Directors of the Company decided to obtain for the company the jurisdiction of both criminal and civil cases. Soon afterwards Warren Hastings arrived in Calcutta as the first Governor-General of the company's Indian dominions and resolved to overhaul the company's organisation and in particular its judicial affairs. In the interior, or Mofussil , diwāni adālats , or a civil courts of first instance , were constituted in each district; these courts were presided over by European Zilā judges employed by
6240-506: The East India Company in 1600, intended to facilitate its competition against Dutch and French in a distant region, was no longer needed. In response, in the Charter Act of 1813 , the British Parliament renewed the company's charter but terminated its monopoly except with regard to tea and trade with China, opening India both to private investment and missionaries. With increased British power in India, supervision of Indian affairs by
6370-505: The East India Company offered advances to ten British planters to grow indigo; however, since the new (landed) property rights defined in the Permanent Settlement, did not allow them, as Europeans, to buy agricultural land, they had to in turn offer cash advances to local peasants, and sometimes coerce them, to grow the crop. In early 19th century Europe, blue clothing was favoured as a fashion, and blue uniforms were common in
6500-411: The English language in order to impart to Indians what they considered modern Western knowledge. Prominent among them were evangelicals who, after 1813—when the company's territories were opened to Christian missionaries —were interested in spreading Christian belief; they also believed in using theology to promote liberal social reform, such as the abolition of slavery . Among them was Charles Grant ,
6630-646: The Governor-General's order, "to proceed according to equity, justice, and good conscience, unless Hindu or Muhammadan law was in point, or some Regulation expressly applied". There was a good likelihood, therefore, that the Supreme Court and the Sadr Adālats would act in opposition to each other and, predictably, many disputes resulted. Hastings' premature attempt to appoint the Chief Justice, Sir Elijah Impey , an old schoolmate from Winchester , to
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#17327810818156760-545: The Indian subcontinent after the Anglo-Mysore Wars , Anglo-Maratha Wars , and Anglo-Sikh Wars . Lord William Bentinck became the first Governor General of India in 1834 under the Government of India Act 1833 . The English East India Company ("the Company") was founded in 1600, as The Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies . It gained a foothold in India with the establishment of
6890-514: The King to establish Mayor's Courts . The petition was approved and Mayor's courts, each consisting of a Mayor and nine aldermen, and each having the jurisdiction in lawsuits between Europeans, were created in Fort William (Calcutta), Madras, and Bombay. Judgments handed down by a Mayor's Court could be disputed with an appeal to the respective Presidency government and, when the amount disputed
7020-414: The Mayor's Court; however, it left the Court of Requests in place. Under the charter, the Supreme Court, moreover, had the authority to exercise all types of jurisdiction in the region of Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha, with the only caveat that in situations where the disputed amount was in excess of Rs. 4,000, their judgment could be appealed to the Privy Council . Both the Act and the charter said nothing about
7150-414: The Mughal Army, and ships with Muslim pilgrims to Arabia 's Mecca were also captured. The East India Company navy blockaded several Mughal ports on the western coast of India and engaged the Mughal Army in battle. The blockade started to effect major cities like Chittagong , Madras and Mumbai (Bombay) , which resulted in the intervention of Emperor Aurangzeb , who seized all the factories of
7280-443: The Mughal system, the land itself belonged to the state and not to the zamindar , who could transfer only his right to collect rent. On being awarded the diwani or overlordship of Bengal following the Battle of Buxar in 1764, the East India Company found itself short of trained administrators, especially those familiar with local custom and law; tax collection was consequently farmed out. This uncertain foray into land taxation by
7410-418: The Mughals. In 1685, Admiral Nicholson was sent out with twelve ships of war, carrying 200 pieces of cannon and a body of 600 men, to be reinforced by 400 from Madras . His instructions were to capture and fortify Chittagong , with 200 additional guns were placed on board, to demand the cession of the encompassing territory, to conciliate the Zamindars and Taluqdars , to establish a mint, and to enter into
7540-412: The Sind Camel Corps) in 1853, and one mountain battery in 1856". Similarly, a local force was raised after the annexation of Nagpur in 1854, and the "Oudh Irregular Force" was added after Oudh was annexed in 1856. Earlier, as a result of the treaty of 1800, the Nizam of Hyderabad had begun to maintain a contingent force of 9,000 horse and 6,000-foot which was commanded by Company officers; in 1853, after
7670-403: The Supreme Court any jurisdiction in matters of revenue ( Diwāni ) or Regulations of the Government enacted by the British Parliament. This state of affairs continued until 1797, when a new Act extended the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to the province of Benares (which had since been added to the company's dominions) and "all places for the time being included in Bengal". With the creation of
7800-445: The anticipation of any increased land-revenue payments that the annexation might augur. With British victories in wars or with annexation, as the extent of British jurisdiction expanded, the soldiers were now not only expected to serve in less familiar regions (such as in Burma in the Anglo-Burmese Wars in 1856), but also make do without the "foreign service", remuneration that had previously been their due, and this caused resentment in
7930-427: The army. In 1846, after the Second Anglo-Sikh War , a frontier brigade was raised in the Cis-Sutlej Hill States mainly for police work; in addition, in 1849, the " Punjab Irregular Force " was added on the frontier. Two years later, this force consisted of "3 light field batteries, 5 regiments of cavalry, and 5 of infantry". The following year, "a garrison company was added, ... a sixth infantry regiment (formed from
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#17327810818158060-410: The assortment of rights associated with land were not possessed by a "land owner", but rather shared by the several parties with stake in the land, including the peasant cultivator, the zamindar , and the state. The zamindar served as an intermediary who procured rent from the cultivator, and after withholding a percentage for his own expenses, made available the rest, as revenue to the state. Under
8190-417: The authority of the Sadr Diwāni Adālat , or the Chief Civil Court of Appeals , consisting of the Governor of the Presidency and his Council, assisted by Indian officers. Similarly for criminal cases, Mofussil nizāmat adālats , or Provincial courts of criminal judicature , were created in the interior; these again consisted of Indian court officers ( pandits and qazis ), who were supervised by officials of
8320-406: The balance of rights and obligations that were traditionally claimed by the farmers who cultivated the land and the various intermediaries who collected tax on the state's behalf and who reserved a cut for themselves; and second, identifying those sectors of the rural economy that would maximise both revenue and security. Although their first revenue settlement turned out to be essentially the same as
8450-447: The bench of the Sadr Diwāni Adālat , only complicated the situation further. The appointment had to be annulled in 1781 by a parliamentary intervention with the enactment of the Declaration Act. The Act exempted the Executive Branch from the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. It recognised the independent existence of the Sadr Adālats and all subsidiary courts of the company. Furthermore, it headed off future legal turf wars by prohibiting
8580-418: The closing years of the 18th century saw, with Wellesley's campaigns, a new increase in the army strength. Thus in 1806, at the time of the Vellore Mutiny , the combined strength of the three presidencies' armies stood at 154,500, making them one of the largest standing armies in the world. As the East India Company expanded its territories, it added irregular "local corps", which were not as well trained as
8710-450: The company and arrested members of the East India Company Army , while the Company forces commanded by Sir Josiah Child, Bt captured further Mughal trading ships . Ultimately the Company was forced to concede by the armed forces of the Mughal Empire and the company was fined 150,000 rupees (roughly equivalent to today's $ 4.4 million). The company's apology was accepted and the trading privileges were reimposed by Aurangzeb. In 1682
8840-437: The company were required under the Act to submit all communications regarding civil, military, and revenue matters in India for scrutiny by the British government. For the governance of the Indian territories, the act asserted the supremacy of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal) over those of Fort St. George (Madras) and Bombay . It also nominated a Governor-General (Warren Hastings) and four councillors for administering
8970-437: The company's hegemony in return for limited internal autonomy . Since the Company operated under financial constraints, it had to set up political underpinnings for its rule. The most important such support came from the subsidiary alliances with Indian princes during the first 75 years of Company rule. In the early 19th century, the territories of these princes accounted for two-third of India. When an Indian ruler, who
9100-435: The company's government in India should be responsive to Indian expectations. The Orientalist ethos would prevail in education policy well into the 1820s, and was reflected in the founding of the Poona Sanskrit College in Pune in 1821 and the Calcutta Sanskrit College in 1824. The Orientalists were, however, soon opposed by advocates of an approach that has been termed Anglicist . The Anglicists supported instruction in
9230-481: The company's power chiefly took two forms. The first of these was the outright annexation of Indian states and subsequent direct governance of the underlying regions, which collectively came to comprise British India . The annexed regions included the North-Western Provinces (comprising Rohilkhand , Gorakhpur , and the Doab ) (1801), Delhi (1803), Assam ( Ahom Kingdom 1828), and Sindh (1843). Punjab , North-West Frontier Province , and Kashmir , were annexed after
9360-407: The company, may have gravely worsened the impact of a famine that struck Bengal in 1769–70 , in which between seven and ten million people—or between a quarter and third of the presidency's population—may have died. However, the company provided little relief either through reduced taxation or by relief efforts, and the economic and cultural impact of the famine was felt decades later, even becoming,
9490-402: The company, who were assisted in the interpretation of customary Indian law by Hindu pandits and Muslim qazis . For small claims, however, Registrars and Indian commissioners, known as Sadr Amīns and Munsifs , were appointed. These in their turn were supervised by provincial civil courts of appeal constituted for such purpose, each consisting of four British judges. All these were under
9620-409: The company. Also constituted were Courts of circuit with appellate jurisdiction in criminal cases, which were usually presided over by the judges of the civil appellate courts. All these too were under a Sadr Nizāmat Adālat or a Chief Court of Criminal Appeal. Around this time the business affairs of the East India Company began to draw increased scrutiny in the House of Commons . After receiving
9750-603: The de facto ruler of large areas of the lower Gangetic plain by 1773. It also proceeded by degrees to expand its dominions around Bombay and Madras. The Anglo-Mysore Wars (1766–1799) and the Anglo-Maratha Wars (1772–1818) left it in control of large areas of India south of the Sutlej River . With the defeat of the Marathas , no native power represented a threat for the Company any longer. The expansion of
9880-420: The economic theories then current, which regarded agriculture as the engine of economic development, and consequently stressed the fixing of revenue demands in order to encourage growth. The expectation behind the permanent settlement was that knowledge of a fixed government demand would encourage the zamindars to increase both their average outcrop and the land under cultivation, since they would be able to retain
10010-455: The effective management of their local affairs, and the ensuing lack of oversight of the overall Company operations in India led to some grave abuses by Company officers or their allies. Clive's victory, and the award of the diwani of the rich region of Bengal, brought India into the public spotlight in Britain. The company's money management practices came to be questioned, especially as it began to post net losses even as some Company servants,
10140-662: The emergence of a "parasitic landlord class". Mill advocated ryotwari settlements which consisted of government measurement and assessment of each plot (valid for 20 or 30 years) and subsequent taxation which was dependent on the fertility of the soil. The taxed amount was nine-tenths of the "rent" in the early 19th century and gradually fell afterwards. However, in spite of the appeal of the ryotwari system's abstract principles, class hierarchies in southern Indian villages had not entirely disappeared—for example village headmen continued to hold sway—and peasant cultivators sometimes came to experience revenue demands they could not meet. In
10270-583: The favour its trading power and expressed to capture Chittagong , establish a fortified enclave throughout the region, and attain independence of the surrounding subah from the Mughal territory by bringing the local governors and the Hooghly River to their control, which would later allow to form relationships with the Kingdom of Mrauk U based in Arakan (today's Myanmar ) and hold substantial power in
10400-476: The governed population, one that was expressed by the conservative Bengali reformer Radhakanta Deb as the "duty of the Rulers of Countries to preserve and Customs and the religions of their subjects". The second goal was motivated by the concerns among some Company officials about being seen as foreign rulers. They argued that the company should try to win over its subjects by outdoing the region's previous rulers in
10530-553: The government and formed a new ministry under Fox's rival William Pitt the Younger . Pitt's India Act left the East India Company in political control of India but established a Board of Control in England both to supervise the East India Company's affairs and to prevent the company's shareholders from interfering in the governance of India. The Board of Control consisted of six members, which included one Secretary of State from
10660-503: The government was the ultimate lord of the soil and should not renounce its right to 'rent', i.e. the profit left over on richer soil when wages and other working expenses had been settled." Another keystone of the new system of temporary settlements was the classification of agricultural fields according to soil type and produce, with average rent rates fixed for the period of the settlement. According to Mill, taxation of land rent would promote efficient agriculture and simultaneously prevent
10790-611: The imprecise wording of the Act left it open to be variously interpreted; consequently, the administration in India continued to be hobbled by disunity between the provincial governors, between members of the council, and between the Governor-General himself and his Council. The Regulating Act also attempted to address the prevalent corruption in India: Company servants were henceforth forbidden to engage in private trade in India or to receive "presents" from Indian nationals. In 1783,
10920-461: The increased demands that the company had placed on them; consequently, many defaulted, and by one estimate, up to one-third of their lands were auctioned during the first two decades following the permanent settlement. The new owners were often Brahmin and Kayastha employees of the Company who had a good grasp of the new system, and, in many cases, some had prospered under it. Since the zamindars were never able to undertake costly improvements to
11050-460: The island of Ingelee, at the mouth of the Hooghly River . It was a low and deadly swamp, covered with long grass, without any fresh water. In three months, half of the English troops had died from disease. In 1688, an English fleet was dispatched to blockade the Mughal harbours in the Arabian Sea on the western coast of India. Merchantmen containing Muslim pilgrims to Mecca (as part of
11180-472: The land envisaged under the Permanent Settlement, some of which required the removal of the existing farmers, they soon became rentiers who lived off the rent from their tenant farmers. In many areas, especially northern Bengal, they had to increasingly share the revenue with intermediate tenure holders, called jotedars , who supervised farming in the villages. Consequently, unlike the contemporaneous Enclosure movement in Britain, agriculture in Bengal remained
11310-563: The marriage of Catherine of Braganza to Charles II , was leased by the Company in 1668. Following the Anglo-Mughal War , the Company was allowed by Emperor Aurangzeb to establish a presence on the eastern coast as well; far up that coast, in the Ganges Delta , a factory was set up in Calcutta. Since, during this time other companies —established by the Portuguese , Dutch , French , and Danish —were similarly expanding in
11440-456: The military; consequently, the demand for the dye was high. The European demand for the dye, however, proved to be unstable, and both creditors and cultivators bore the risk of the market crashes in 1827 and 1847. The peasant discontent in Bengal eventually led to the Indigo rebellion in 1859–60 and to the end of indigo production there. In Bihar, however, indigo production continued well into
11570-617: The money supply in India was restricted and the company was indisposed to shipping bullion from Britain, it decided upon opium , which had a large underground market in Qing China and which was grown in many parts of India, as the most profitable form of payment. However, since the Chinese authorities had banned the importation and consumption of opium, the Company engaged them in the First Opium War , and at its conclusion, under
11700-580: The moral worth of an education that aided the good of society and promoted instruction in useful knowledge . Such useful instruction to Indians had the added consequence of making them more suitable for the company's burgeoning bureaucracy. By the early 1830s, the Anglicists had the upper hand in devising education policy in India. Many utilitarian ideas were employed in Thomas Babbington Macaulay 's Minute on Indian Education of 1835. The Minute , which later aroused great controversy,
11830-428: The more informal pre-existing Mughal one, the company had created a foundation for the growth of both information and bureaucracy. In 1793, the new Governor-General, Lord Cornwallis , promulgated the permanent settlement of land revenues in the presidency, the first socio-economic regulation in colonial India. By the terms of the settlement rajas and taluqdars were recognised as zamindars and they were asked to collect
11960-590: The negotiation to an abrupt close. Three English soldiers, strolling through the marketplace of Hooghly, quarrelled with Mughal officials, and were severely beaten. After that, Nicholson dispatched a force to capture the town. In 1686, new negotiations started in Chuttanutty which the Mughals intentionally prolonged till their troops could be assembled to attack the English encampment, and English commander Job Charnock retired with his soldiers and establishments to
12090-532: The occupation of the East India Company's possessions across the subcontinent, and the confiscation of their property. As a result, possessions of East India Company were reduced to the fortified towns of Madras and Bombay . In 1689, the strong Mughal fleet from Janjira commanded by Sidi Yaqub and composed of Mappila from the Ethiopian Empire blockaded the East India Company fort in Bombay. After
12220-486: The peasants bore the brunt of the increased demand, there being little protection for their traditional rights in the new legislation. Forced labour of the peasants by the zamindars became more prevalent as cash crops were cultivated to meet the Company revenue demands. Although commercialised cultivation was not new to the region, it had now penetrated deeper into village society and made it more vulnerable to market forces. The zamindars themselves were often unable to meet
12350-413: The power to establish "courts of judicature" in locations of its choice, each court consisting of a lawyer and two merchants. This right was renewed in the subsequent charters granted by James II and William III in 1686 and 1698 respectively. In 1726, however, the Court of Directors of the Company felt that more customary justice was necessary for European residents in the presidency towns, and petitioned
12480-698: The premiership of Lord North , enacted the Regulating Act , which established regulations, its long title stated, "for the better Management of the Affairs of the East India Company , as well in India as in Europe ". Although Lord North himself wanted the company's territories to be taken over by the British state, he faced determined political opposition from many quarters, including some in
12610-412: The prices soon quadrupled. This led many farmers in India to switch to cultivating cotton as a quick cash crop; however, with the end of the war in 1865, the demand plummeted again, creating another downturn in the agricultural economy. At this time, the East India Company's trade with China began to grow as well. In the early 19th century, demand for Chinese tea had greatly increased in Britain; since
12740-446: The profits from the increased output; in addition, it was envisaged that land itself would become a marketable form of property that could be purchased, sold, or mortgaged. A feature of this economic rationale was the additional expectation that the zamindars, recognising their own best interest, would not make unreasonable demands on the peasantry. However, these expectations were not realised in practice, and in many regions of Bengal,
12870-464: The province of the subsistence farming of innumerable small paddy fields . The zamindari system was one of two principal revenue settlements undertaken by the Company in India. In southern India , Thomas Munro , who would later become Governor of Madras, promoted the ryotwari system or the Munro system, in which the government settled land-revenue directly with the peasant farmers, or ryots . It
13000-527: The ranks. The Bombay and Madras armies, and the Hyderabad contingent, however, remained loyal. The Punjab Irregular Force not only did not revolt, it played an active role in suppressing the mutiny. The rebellion led to a complete re-organisation of the Indian army in 1858 in the new British Raj . The reforms initiated after 1784 were designed to create an elite civil service where very talented young Britons would spend their entire careers. Advanced training
13130-592: The region, the English Company's unremarkable beginnings on coastal India offered no clues to what would become a lengthy presence on the Indian subcontinent . The company's victory under Robert Clive in the 1757 Battle of Plassey and another victory in the 1764 Battle of Buxar (in Bihar) consolidated the company's power and forced emperor Shah Alam II to appoint it the diwan , or revenue collector, of Bengal , Bihar, and Orissa . The Company thus became
13260-510: The relation between the judiciary (Supreme Court) and the executive branch (Governor-General); equally, they were silent on the Adālats (both Diwāni and Nizāmat ) created by Warren Hastings just the year before. In the new Supreme Court, the civil and criminal cases alike were interpreted and prosecuted accorded to English law ; in the Sadr Adālats , however, the judges and law-officers had no knowledge of English law, and were required only, by
13390-476: The rent from the peasants and pay revenue to the company. It was named permanent because it fixed the land tax in perpetuity in return for landed property rights for zamindars ; it simultaneously defined the nature of land ownership in the presidency, and gave individuals and families separate property rights in occupied land. Since the revenue was fixed in perpetuity, it was fixed at a high level, which in Bengal amounted to £3 million at 1789–90 prices. According to
13520-474: The reports of abuse and corruption in Bengal by Company servants, the India Act itself noted numerous complaints that " 'divers Rajahs, Zamindars, Talukdars, and landholders' had been unjustly deprived of 'their lands, jurisdictions, rights, and privileges ' ". At the same time the company's directors were now leaning towards Francis's view that the land-tax in Bengal should be made fixed and permanent, setting
13650-405: The sepoys were regarded as the embodiment of demonic forces, sometimes of antique warrior heroes. Indian rulers adopted red serge jackets for their own forces and retainers as if to capture their magical qualities." In 1796, under pressure from the company's board of directors in London, the Indian troops were re-organised and reduced during the tenure of John Shore as Governor-General. However,
13780-611: The stage for the Permanent Settlement (see section Revenue collection below). The India Act also created in each of the three presidencies a number of administrative and military posts, which included: a Governor and three Councilors, one of which was the Commander in Chief of the Presidency army. Although the supervisory powers of the Governor-General-in-Council in Bengal (over Madras and Bombay) were extended—as they were again in
13910-619: The status of women. Schools would be established in which they would teach the English language . The 1830s and 1840s, however, were not times of prosperity: After its heavy spending on the military, the company had little money to engage in large-scale public works projects or modernisation programs. After gaining the right to collect revenue in Bengal in 1765, the Company largely ceased importing gold and silver , which it had hitherto used to pay for goods shipped back to Britain. In addition, as under Mughal Empire rule, land revenue collected in
14040-627: The support of indigenous learning. Guided by this belief, the Benares Sanskrit College was founded in Varanasi in 1791 during the administration of Lord Cornwallis. The promotion of knowledge of Asia had attracted scholars as well to the company's service. Earlier, in 1784, the Asiatick Society had been founded in Calcutta by William Jones , a puisne judge in the newly established Supreme Court of Bengal. Soon, Jones
14170-549: The then Governor-General. The college was later to play an important role both in the development of modern Indian languages and in the Bengal Renaissance . Advocates of these related goals were termed, " Orientalists ". The Orientalist group was led by Horace Hayman Wilson . Many leading Company officials, such as Thomas Munro and Montstuart Elphinstone , were influenced by the Orientalist ethos and felt that
14300-477: The trial drew applause and focused attention on India, Hastings was eventually acquitted, due in part to the revival of nationalism in Britain in the wake of the French Revolution . Nonetheless, Burke's effort had the effect of creating a sense of responsibility in British public life for the company's dominion in India. Soon rumblings appeared amongst merchants in London that the monopoly granted to
14430-581: The tributary state of Benaras , the revenue collection system was extended to the territory with a Company Resident in charge. The following year—with a view to preventing corruption—Company district collectors , who were then responsible for revenue collection for an entire district, were replaced with provincial councils at Patna, Murshidabad, and Calcutta, and with Indian collectors working within each district. The title, "collector", reflected "the centrality of land revenue collection to government in India: it
14560-434: Was able to secure his territory, wanted to enter such an alliance, the Company welcomed it as an economical method of indirect rule, which did not involve the economic costs of direct administration or the political costs of gaining the support of alien subjects. In return, the Company undertook the "defence of these subordinate allies and treated them with traditional respect and marks of honor." Subsidiary alliances created
14690-620: Was also shaped by the attempted Impeachment of Warren Hastings ; the trial, whose proceedings began in 1788, ended with Hastings' acquittal, in 1795. Although the effort was chiefly coordinated by Edmund Burke, it also drew support from within the British government. Burke accused Hastings not only of corruption, but—appealing to universal standards of justice—also of acting solely upon his own discretion, without concern for law, and of wilfully causing distress to others in India. Hastings' defenders countered that his actions were consistent with Indian customs and traditions. Although Burke's speeches at
14820-406: Was also unusual in being the first to rely on village headmen and panchāyats for cases involving small claims. This judicial system in the three presidencies was to survive the company's rule, the next major change coming only in 1861. Education of Indians had become a topic of interest among East India Company officials from the outset of the company's rule in Bengal. In the last two decades of
14950-494: Was appointed Governor of the Bombay Presidency , played an influential role in the planning of the first medical college in Bombay, which after his unexpected death was named Grant Medical College when it was established in 1845. During 1852–1853 some citizens of Bombay sent petitions to the British Parliament in support of both establishing and adequately funding university education in India. The petitions resulted in
15080-415: Was closer to traditional practice in the region and ideologically more progressive, allowing the benefits of Company rule to reach the lowest levels of rural society. At the heart of the ryotwari system was a particular theory of economic rent —and based on David Ricardo 's Law of Rent —promoted by utilitarian James Mill who formulated the Indian revenue policy between 1819 and 1830. "He believed that
15210-618: Was defeated and replaced with Mir Jafar , who had the support of the East India Company; or in 1765, when the Company was granted the diwani , or the right to collect revenue, in Bengal and Bihar ; or in 1773, when the Company abolished local rule (Nizamat) in Bengal and established a capital in Calcutta , appointed its first Governor-General of Fort William , Warren Hastings , and became directly involved in governance. The East India Company significantly expanded its influence throughout
15340-476: Was first tried in small scale by Captain Alexander Read in the areas that were taken over from the wars with Tipu Sultan. Subsequently, developed by Thomas Munro, this system was gradually extended all over South India. This was, in part, a consequence of the turmoil of the Anglo-Mysore Wars , which had prevented the emergence of a class of large landowners; in addition, Munro and others felt that ryotwari
15470-479: Was greater than Rs. 4,000, with a further appeal to the King-in-Council . In 1753, the Mayor's courts were renewed under a revised letters patent ; in addition, Courts of Requests for lawsuits involving amounts less than Rs. 20 were introduced. Both types of courts were regulated by the Court of Directors of the East India Company. After its victory in the Battle of Buxar , the Company obtained in 1765
15600-486: Was incarcerated in a solitary cell of this jail 14 April 1923 to 17 June 1923. He wrote a few patriotic poems while he was imprisoned at Hooghly Jail. [REDACTED] Media related to Hooghly District Correctional Home at Wikimedia Commons East India Company rule Company rule in India (also known as the Company Raj , from Hindi rāj , lit. ' rule ' ) refers to regions of
15730-519: Was just enough money to pay the salaries of a threadbare administration, a skeleton police force, and the army. In 1772, when Hastings became the first Governor-General one of his first undertakings was the rapid expansion of the Presidency's army. Since the available soldiers, or Sepoys , from Bengal—many of whom had fought against the British in the Battle of Plassey – were now suspect in British eyes, Hastings recruited farther west from
15860-409: Was not required of them, and the army soon came to recognise Hindu festivals officially. "This encouragement of high caste ritual status, however, left the government vulnerable to protest, even mutiny, whenever the sepoys detected infringement of their prerogatives." The Bengal Army was used in military campaigns in other parts of India and abroad: to provide crucial support to a weak Madras army in
15990-524: Was one of " Orientalism ", that is of adjusting to the way of life and customs of the Indian people and not trying to reform them. That changed after 1813, as the forces of reform in the home country, especially evangelical religion, Whiggish political outlook, and Utilitarian philosophy worked together to make the company an agent of Anglicization and modernisation. Christian missionaries became active, but made few converts. The Raj set out to outlaw sati (widow-burning) and thuggee (ritual banditry) and upgrade
16120-687: Was promoted especially at the East India Company College (until 1853). Haileybury emphasised the Anglican religion and morality and trained students in the classical Indian languages. Many students held to Whiggish , evangelical , and Utilitarian convictions of their duty to represent their nation and to modernise India. At most there were about 600 of these men who managed the Raj's customs service, taxes, justice system, and its general administration. The company's original policy
16250-467: Was redesignated as the Governor-General of India . The Governor-General and his executive council were given exclusive legislative powers for the whole of British India. Since the British territories in north India had now extended up to Delhi, the Act also sanctioned the creation of a Presidency of Agra . With the annexation of Oudh in 1856, this territory was extended and eventually became
16380-453: Was supported by some administrators, such as Warren Hastings, who envisaged the company as the successor of a great Empire, and saw the support of vernacular learning as only befitting that role. In 1781, Hastings founded the Madrasa 'Aliya , an institution in Calcutta for the study of Arabic and Persian languages, and Islamic law . A few decades later a related perspective appeared among
16510-403: Was the government's primary function and it moulded the institutions and patterns of administration". The Company inherited a revenue collection system from the Mughals in which the heaviest proportion of the tax burden fell on the cultivators, with one-third of the production reserved for imperial entitlement; this pre-colonial system became the Company revenue policy's baseline. However, there
16640-454: Was to advance his famous thesis on the common origin of Indo-European languages . The third related goal grew out of the philosophy then current among some Company officials that they would themselves become better administrators if they were better versed in the languages and cultures of India. It led in 1800 to the founding of the College of Fort William , in Calcutta by Lord Wellesley ,
16770-545: Was to influence education policy in India well into the next century. Since English was increasingly being employed as the language of instruction, Persian was abolished as the official language of the company's administration and courts by 1837. However, bilingual educations was proving to be popular as well, and some institutions such as the Poona Sanskrit College commenced teaching both Sanskrit and English. Charles Grant's son, Sir Robert Grant , who in 1834
16900-426: Was vast variation across India in the methods by which the revenues were collected; with this complication in mind, a Committee of Circuit toured the districts of expanded Bengal Presidency in order to make a five-year settlement, consisting of five-yearly inspections and temporary tax farming . In their overall approach to revenue policy, Company officials were guided by two goals: first, preserving as much as possible
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