Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

LURE - THRU THE AGES

EAST INDIA COMPANY 1600-1858 A.D.

Overview *

GURKHAS • Delhi

The East India Company received a Charter on December 31, 1600 from Queen ElizebetH, which granted the Company monopoly of Eastern trade for 15 years . Gradually from trade the British mo- nopolised the political power in the In- dian sub-continent. Lack of unity among the Indian rulers facilitated East India Company's growth. 3 Carnatic wars destroyed the influ- ence of French in India. The battle of Plassey (1757) at which Robert Clive defeated Siraj-ud-daula, Na- wab of Bengal, gave the British a firm footing in Bengal. Mir Jafar, Siraj-ud- daula's general who had conspired with Clive, was made the N a wab. The battle of Buxar (1764) at which Major Hector Munro defeated Mir Kasim, who had been installed as Nawab following the depo- sition of Mir Jafar, confirmed the British as the masters of Bengal. The rule of the East India Company ended in 1858 with the assumption of the ad- ministration of India directly by the Brit- ish Crown. Warren Hastings consolidated British power in India; Lord Cornwallis' settle- ment of land revenue made the zam- indars permanent owners of the land subject to the payment (if a fixed annual revenue to the government; Wellesley crushed Tippu Sultan of Mysore; Bentinck abolished Sati and made English the medium of education; Dalhousie intro- duced the Doctrine of lapse, under which native states were annexed if their rulers died leaving no natural heirs. An Association of Merchants was granted a Charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1600 A. D. to carry on trade between Britain and the East Indies. The early voyages of the English were to Suma- tra, Java and the Moluccas to obtain a share of the spice trade which was a Dutch monopoly. But the English failed to get a foothold in the East Indies, because of Dutch opposition and turned to India. The Company came to have increasing political involvements in India along with increasing control from the

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Robert Clive * Robert Clive started his career as a clerk in the British East India Company. * Actively took part in the Carnatic War and responsible for the Fall of French in India. * Clive had been a servant of the Gover- nor of Madras and the Council of Ma- dras, when he won the battle of Plassey. His position was regularised when the Calcutta council in 1758 elected him to the Governorship of Bengal. * He left for England in 1760 the Com- pany sent him back to Calcutta in 1765. He left India finally in 1767. British Goverment and a decreasing in- volvement in trade, until in 1858 the company charter was revoked and all of its territories in India were placed directly under the Crown. Charter Queen Elizabeth I granted to "The Governor and Company of Merchants of London, trading with the East-Indies, the following charter in 1600: ".... We do order, make, ordain, constitute, establish and declare, by these presents and that by the same name of governor and company of Merchants of London, trading into the East Indies, be and shall be at all times hereafter, persons able and capable in law to have, purchase, receive, possess, enjoy and retain, lands, rents, privileges, liberties, jurisdictions, franchises and hereditements of whatsoever kind, nature and quality so ever they be, to them and their successors". Before the advent of the English, there were many other nations trading in India, eg. Dutch, Portuguese, French, Denmark etc. Trading First Headquarters at Surat (1612); later Bombay (1674). Factory at Madras and

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British India in 1765, after the victories of Robert Clive

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Hooghly (1651). Replaced by Fort William factory (1690). Main trading articles were: cotton, cotton yam and indigo (Gujarat) pepper and other spices (Malabar) precious goods, yam and sugar (Madras and South East Coast) silk and salt (Bengal).

Chronology * Robert Clive

60 & 1765-67) (1772-1785) (1786-1793) (1793-1798) (1798-1805) (1807-1813) (1813-1823) (1828-1835) (1844-1848) (1848-1856)

(1758-

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Warren Hastings Lord Cornwallis

* Sir John Shore * Lord Wellesley * Lord Minto * Lord Hastings * Lord William Bentinck * Lord Hardinge

Advent *

Wars (till 1856) * First Carnatic War (1746-48) (between French and British East India Companies, triggered off by the War of Austrian

Succession (1740-48) in Europe).- * Second Carnatic War (1748-54) * Third Carnatic War (1756-63)

* Battle of Plassey (1757) * Battle of Buxar (1764)