Company and British rule: governors-general and viceroys

Lesson 2/55 min

Hastings, Cornwallis and Wellesley

Name	Term	Known for
Warren Hastings	1773–1785	Ended dual rule; Regulating Act; first administrative reforms
Lord Cornwallis	1786–1793; second term 30 July–5 October 1805	Permanent Settlement 1793
Lord Wellesley	1798–1805	Subsidiary Alliance; fourth Mysore war
Lord William Bentinck	1828–1835	Ban on sati; Charter Act of 1833
Lord Auckland	1836–1842	First Anglo-Afghan War
Lord Ellenborough	1842–1844	(see the next lesson)
Lord Hardinge (the elder)	1844–1848	1846: Kashmir to Gulab Singh
Lord Dalhousie	1848–1856	Doctrine of Lapse; railways
Lord Canning	1856–1862 (Viceroy from 1858)	The sepoy revolt; first Viceroy

He began British imperial expansion in India and made the first administrative reforms to firm up British rule
1772: dual rule ended; the treasury and capital moved from Murshidabad to Calcutta
Five-year land settlement (revenue collected for five years): 1772; the subcontinent's first Board of Revenue
1773: the Regulating Act, the British Parliament's first law on governing India
Sir Elijah Impey was the first Chief Justice of the Calcutta Supreme Court
1781 (some say 1780): the Calcutta Alia Madrasa
1784: Pitt's India Act; Sir William Jones founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta (15 January 1784); Jones had come to India in 1783 as a judge of the Calcutta Supreme Court
Second Anglo-Mysore war 1780–1784: Haidar Ali and his son Tipu Sultan against the English

Watch out: Many books (both Khandokar's and Zubair's) give 1773 for the five-year settlement; according to Banglapedia Hastings made it in 1772.

System	Year	By whom
Five-year	1772	Warren Hastings
Decennial (10 years)	1790	Lord Cornwallis
Permanent Settlement	22 March 1793	Lord Cornwallis
Mahalwari (30 years), North-Western Provinces	Bentinck's time	William Bentinck

A decennial settlement came first, then the Permanent Settlement (also called the Sunset Law)
Under it the zamindars became owners of the land and lost their estates if they failed to pay on the fixed day
1790: the nominal nawabi rule ended completely
The Cornwallis Code of 1793; judicial power taken from the district collector and given to the district judge
Highest courts: the Sadar Nizamat Adalat (criminal) and Sadar Diwani Adalat (civil)
The third Anglo-Mysore war (1790–92) ended with the Treaty of Seringapatam (March 1792); Cornwallis led the English force
He framed rules for government officials, later known as the Indian Civil Service

His policy of expansion was the Subsidiary Alliance; Britain's first imperialist governor-general (‘borolat’)
Fourth Anglo-Mysore war, 1799: Tipu Sultan was killed at Seringapatam and Mysore lost its independence
Tipu was buried at Lalbagh in Mysore beside his father Haidar Ali; his family's tombs are near Tollygunge and Kalighat in Calcutta
From Cairo during his Egypt campaign Napoleon wrote to Tipu that he was eager to free him from the English iron chain
1800: the Fort William College founded
1802: the Treaty of Bassein between the Peshwa Baji Rao II and the English
His brother Arthur Wellesley defeated Napoleon at Waterloo (1815)

War	Years	Outcome
Second	1780–1784	Haidar Ali and Tipu against the English (Hastings's time)
Third	1790–92	Treaty of Seringapatam, March 1792 (Cornwallis)
Fourth	1799	Tipu killed; Mysore loses independence (Wellesley)

Check yourself

Who introduced the Permanent Settlement, when, and what is its other name?

1
Hastings: dual rule ended 1772; Regulating Act 1773; Pitt's India Act 1784.
2
Five-year settlement 1772 (Hastings); decennial 1790 and Permanent 22 March 1793 (Cornwallis).
3
Cornwallis 1786–1793 (second term 1805, only three months); the zamindar became the owner.
4
Wellesley 1798–1805: Subsidiary Alliance; Tipu killed 1799; Fort William College 1800.
5
Elijah Impey was the first Chief Justice of the Calcutta Supreme Court; Asiatic Society 1784 (William Jones).