UPSC CSE PYQs

Judicial Reforms

• • Discuss the basic features of the judicial administration under the East India Company. Did the British introduce the modern concept of the rule of law in India? [1986, 60m]

Zamindari Settlement

• • Trace the circumstances that led to the introduction of the Permanent Settlement in Bengal. Discuss its impact on landlords, peasants and the Government. [1981, 60m]
• • “The Permanent Settlement of land revenue in Bengal was a bold, brave and wise measure.” Comment. [1983, 20m]
• • Show how British rule led to the spread of landlordism in certain parts of India, and how the peasant was progressively impoverished under this rule. [1985, 60m]
• • “The permanent system of Bengal though initiated with best of best of intentions, was a sadly blundering affair.” Comment. [1993, 20m]
• • “The Permanent settlement was a bold, brave and wise measures.” Comment. [1997, 20m]
• • “Absentee landlordism was a consequential feature of Bengal’s Permanent land settlement.” Comment. [2003, 20m]
• • “Permanent Settlement disappointed many expectations and introduced there results that were not anticipated.” Comment. [2004, 20m]
• • “Though the Permanent Settlement had serious defects, it gave tranquility to the countryside and stability to the government.” Comment. [2009, 20m]
• • “The passing of the land from the hands of the peasant proprietors into the hands of non-cultivating landlords brought about increasing polarization of classes in agrarian areas.” [2018, 10 Marks]
• • Explain how the Permanent Settlement initiated a rule of property in Bengal and what were its consequences? [2022, 20m]

Lord Cornwallis

“If Clive founded the British Indian state Warren Hastings gave it coherence and made it politically viable, it was Cornwallis who gave it definite form and stamped on it characteristics of its own.”: Percival Spear

The arrival of Lord Cornwallis as the Governor-General marked the beginning of a new era in the history of British India.

• • The appointment of Cornwallis as Governor-General was the direct result of the controversies aroused by the acts of Clive and the rule of Hastings.
• • British had already lost America → So, they tried to strengthen its rule in India through various reforms of Cornwallis.
• • Certain broad principles of the relationship of India with Britain were worked out.
  • ◦ The impeachment of Warren Hastings showed that henceforth, no one could act tyrannically in India and hope to get away with it. It was clear that there was to be no private mercantile British dominion in India.
• • Cornwallis was guided by a sense of racial superiority of the British.
  • ◦ “A landed gentleman, English to the backbone, and proud of his heritage, he (Cornwallis) was convinced that English ways were right and best.” – C. H. Phillips
  • ◦ His reforms gave social and political stability to Bengal but neglected Indian from administration and ignored the rights of lesser landholders.

Cornwallis Code (1793)

Cornwallis sought to address issues of corruption and inefficiency in the East India Company’s administration and focused on restructuring the administrative and judicial systems in India, to provide a new framework conducive to trade and investment.

The early stage of Company’s law making came to a climax with the Cornwallis Code (1793). It contained a series of Regulations regarding governing, policing, judiciary and civil administration that remained in force till 1833.

(A) Legal Reforms

Cornwallis was the real architect of the modern Indian judicial system. He tried to bring Rule of Law to ensure a uniform system of justice based on the principle of equality before law. He tried to create a more standardized, predictable, transparent system.

• • Humanization law:
  • ◦ Cornwallis took some prevailing Muslim criminal laws as barbarous and so he tried to make them a bit humane.
• • He insisted on British-like procedure in the courts.
  • ◦ It was clearly laid down that all district courts were to administer fixed forms of law.
  • ◦ Open trials were to be conducted.
  • ◦ Everybody had the right to approach the court either personally or through a Vakeel.
  • ◦ Now, a witness could belong to any caste.
  • ◦ Intention, rather than type of weapon, was more emphasized.
• • Separation of powers:
  • ◦ Cornwallis separated judicial and revenue functions which had been clubbed earlier.
  • ◦ District collector → revenue collection
  • ◦ Civil justice → district judge
• • Control of judiciary over executive.
  • ◦ All executive officers, including the collector, were made amenable to the jurisdiction of the court personally. Thus, for the first time, the privilege was given to the people against Company’s officials who might commit any wrong against them. (earlier, only remedy was to move a petition in the GG-in-C at Calcutta)
• • Government liability
  • ◦ For the first time, the liability of the Government for its wrongs and wrongs committed by its officers during their duties was recognized.
• • British subjects were made amenable to the Diwani Adalat.

Thus, he created a system of European style courts independent of the executive, replacing the corrupt and inefficient Mughal system. This was supposed to improve access to justice and helped to curb corruption. It was expected that the new system would stabilise landed relations, provide security for property, and make people right explicit.

(B) Father of Civil Service

• • Personnel is divided into three branches: revenue, judicial, and commercial.
  • ◦ Now, commercial services of the company were clearly demarcated from the administrative services. The servants of the Company were directed to make their choice between the two.
• • To curb potential corruption,
  • ◦ Cornwallis suspended the whole Board of Revenue for irregularities and enforced the new rules against private trade.
  • ◦ While a merchant one could still trade on one’s own, an official had to be content with a handsome salary. He insisted on the company providing generous salaries in its place.
    • ■ Collector’s fixed salary Rs. 1500/- pm + 1% share of revenue. (highly paid)
• • Cornwallis implemented a district-based administrative structure.
  • ◦ He divided the provinces into districts. Each district was headed by a collector who was responsible for revenue collection and administration.
• • Foundation of Thana/Police station system.
  • ◦ The modern Indian police dates back to the days of Lord Cornwallis.
  • ◦ Earlier, zamindars were supposed to do the policing work but Cornwallis divested them of this right.
  • ◦ The police power was henceforth, to be vested in the Magistrate who was directed to divide his district into police jurisdictions or thanas.
  • ◦ Each such thana was to be headed by a darogah.
    • ■ For nearly every 400 sq miles = an officer, Daroga appointed as in-charge.
    • ■ The duty of the darogah was restricted to apprehension and production of criminals before the Magistrate.
  • ◦ The police reforms of Cornwallis, despite later modifications remained the basis of the police organisation in colonial India for nearly two centuries.
• • Europeanization and Exclusion of Indians:
  • ◦ All high Indian officials were dismissed and all posts worth more than £500 a year were reserved for Europeans.

All these reforms marked the beginning of the civil service. The tradition myth of “law-abiding, incorruptible” British rule in India starts from the era of Cornwallis. Steel-frame of the civil service started to emerge in this era, and it was Europeanized.

(C) Permanent / Zamindari Settlement

• • Economic background: The attempt to maximise revenue collection found manifestation in the various revenue experiments of Warren Hastings.
  • ◦ However, his schemes were unsuccessful. Under the farming system, landowners had no incentive to augment production as the revenue farmers were only interested in short term appropriation. Such a situation was not conducive to the development of the agrarian economy.
  • ◦ The condition of the peasants became deplorable. After his arrival in India Cornwallis found, “agriculture and trade decaying, Zamindars and ryots sinking into poverty and the money lenders the only flourishing class in the community.”
  • ◦ This failure created instability in the Company’s revenues at a time when the British were hard pressed for money. Thus, the Company’s government in India was looking for a stable income, which was required to maintain the trade surplus.
  • ◦ It was at this critical juncture that Lord Cornwallis was appointed as the Governor-General. He was expected to end the uncertainty surrounding revenue collection. Cornwallis himself belonged to feudal class of landed magnates in Britain and therefore, had some knowledge of land and agriculture.
• • Ideological background: French physiocrats
  • ◦ Mercantilism gave primacy to the accumulation of gold through commercial activity (balance of trade). Physiocrats emphasized agricultural production as the source of national wealth.
  • ◦ Mercantilism tried to create a monopoly over trade while physiocrats were strongly opposed of all kinds of monopolies as well as to feudal privileges.
  • ◦ Physiocrats believed in the institution of private property. A programme for strengthening of property rights in land figured prominently in physiocratic prescriptions.
  • ◦ Cornwallis also supported permanent zamindari because of his own background.
• • Prevailing Indian system:
  • ◦ During Mughal period, individual private ownership was not fully established. Different contenders claimed different parts of production.
  • ◦ This system confused Cornwallis who was in search of a viable system.

Features of the Zamindari System

• • Region: Bengal, Bihar, Orissa (and also in Banaras division of UP and North Karnataka) constituting total of around 19% of British India.
• • With whom: Zamindars (earlier neglected by Hastings)
  • ◦ The zamindars were construed as the original hereditary owners of the land and they were required to collect land revenue from the ryots as agents of the Company.
  • ◦ Thus, free peasants were converted into tenants-at-will. Therefore, the traditional rights of the ryots on land were abolished. Community land was also placed under zamindari control. (Barren land, irrigation, pasture, forest land etc.)
• • Land was now made a private property and a transferable commodity.
• • Sunset Law (1793) mandated that if a zamindar failed to pay the stipulated amount by sunset of the due date, his land was seized, and zamindari rights were auctioned.
• • Rate of Revenue: Tax fixed based on taxes collected in 1790-92 as the base year. (which was equal to Rs. 2.68 crore)
  • ◦ 10/11 part to the Company, while the Zamindars were permitted to enjoy the 1/11 share.
  • ◦ The government share was fixed initially for 10 years (in 1790) and then permanently (in 1793). All future increase in total income (either through extension or through revenue increase) would go to the zamindar.

The expectations

• • Economic Motive
  • ◦ Fix stable and secure income for the state.
  • ◦ Magic touch of private property + permanent settlement: Progressive zamindar → investment in agriculture → improvement in productivity → boost to trade (NOT increase in revenue)
    • ■ model of zamindar as landlord-entrepreneur
• • Administrative Motive
  • ◦ Permanent settlement directly with zamindar without involving government officers. Company’s officers would remain free from revenue collection responsibilities. They could be appointed for other duties.
  • ◦ Easy to collect revenue from a few hundred zamindars instead of lakhs of peasants.
  • ◦ Check over corruption.
• • Political motive:
  • ◦ zamindar as a friendly class, pillars of support
  • ◦ Company would not be target of popular reaction because Zamindars were collecting revenue.
• • Zamindars:
  • ◦ Zamindars would also be immensely benefited because the amount of Land revenue paid by them was fixed till perpetuity.
  • ◦ Zamindars were expected only to collect the bid amount from peasants.
  • ◦ Zamindars were expected to take care of welfare of peasants as fulfilment of their interest was dependent on peasants.

The outcome: For the government

• • The state secured a stable and fixed income from the people.
  • ◦ In case the Zamindars did not pay the revenue, the land of the Zamindars was sold.
  • ◦ The Government became free from the problem of fixation of revenue every year/periodically.
    • ■ It avoided the evils of periodical settlement which produced harassment of cultivators, evasion of taxes, concealment of wealth, a tendency on the part of the peasants to leave the land uncultivated etc.
• • Absolute land property created a land market in Bengal.
• • Instead of Progressive Zamindars, there were absentee zamindars. (failure)
  • ◦ Against expectation, Zamindars did not take interest in investing in agriculture. There was no flow of capital from urban to rural areas.
  • ◦ Rather the reverse situation emerged whereby many zamindars turned absentee landlords.
• • In the long term, by making the Zamindars the owners of the land, the settlement created a class of loyal landlords who formed a stable element in the state.
  • ◦ It secured the political support of the Zamindars of Bengal who stood loyal during the great mutiny of 1857.

The outcome: For Zamindars

• • The assessment was arbitrary.
  • ◦ Thus, the immediate effect of the settlement was harmful upon the landlords who failed to collect the revenue from the peasants and so were unable to pay the fixed revenue at fixed time. As a result, they lost their ownership right over the land.
• • Absolute land property created a land market in Bengal. The new class of landlords, which emerged because of the Permanent Settlement, had commercial interests. Most of the landlords did not take any interest in the improvement of the land. The landlords became indolent and led luxurious lives staying in the cities. Thus, this settlement created a class of absentee landlords.
  • ◦ Many of them were residents of Calcutta who decided to invest their capital in the purchase of land in the countryside.
• • There developed a complex rent collecting structure with various grades of intermediary tenure-holders.

The outcome: For Peasants

• • The cultivators were deprived of their traditional rights of land.
• • As the landlords were contract-bound to remit the revenue within a short time, they raised rent to an unprecedented degree.
  • ◦ The farmers had to give 50-60% yield in the form of land revenue.
  • ◦ Ruthless appropriation of the rural surplus, the peasants were adversely affected.
• • The cultivators were put at the mercy of the Zamindars. Their grievances remained unheard as they had no attachment to the government.
• • As taxes had then to be paid in cash, the peasants were compelled to have recourse to moneylenders or mahajans.
• • The condition of the peasant became even more miserable as the new rule of property was backed up by the new judiciary and the police introduced by Lord Cornwallis. The police and the judiciary responded to the interest of the wealthier classes alone. The peasants were invariably denied justice.
• • In the process, a class of landless sharecroppers and agricultural labourers emerged in Bengal. Thus, the introduction of the Permanent Settlement led to the evolution of a new set of agrarian relations that was extremely regressive.

The misery inflicted by the British on the Indians was of a different kind, which was never experienced before. It reduced the peasants to extreme poverty and ushered in a period of chronic famine, starvation and hunger.

By the 1820s, it was clear that the permanent settlement had failed to meet its original expectations.

Economic Policies

Drain of Wealth (DoW)

• • Meaning
  • ◦ In 17th and 18th c Europe, Drain of Wealth meant negative Balance of Trade and outflow of precious metal (bullionism).
  • ◦ In colonized India, it meant excess export and unilateral transfer of surplus from India to Britain.
• • Pipeline during the Mercantile Era: “investment”
  • ◦ Before 1750s, the EIC struggled to finance one-sided Indian trade. It was compelled to bring precious metal from Britain.
  • ◦ However, after getting the Diwani of Bengal, it invested the plunder, profit from inter-regional trade, and land revenue into trading activities. Indian goods were now purchased through Indian money while company curtailed the import of silver from Britain – unilateral transfer of surplus.

Decline of Handicraft

• • Earlier:
  • ◦ Various European companies competed with each other to purchase Indian handicraft products.
  • ◦ Bengal textile purchases used to happen through Dadni system (putting-out system) through Banians (brokers)
• • After Plassey and Buxar:
  • ◦ British eliminated European rivals from this race. Once that was achieved, British put severe pressure on the artisans of Bengal.
  • ◦ Now, Dadani system → Agency System (complete control over artisans and production)
  • ◦ Dual pressure by Gumastas (agents):
    • ■ The company developed a monopoly over the raw material supplies and started to provide it to the artisans at higher cost.
    • ■ Simultaneously, the Company compelled the artisans to sell the product cheap (with legal backing)
• • Worst exploitation of artisans in Bengal
  • ◦ Murshidabad & Dhaka became desolate. Dhaka (Lancashire of India), a great supplier of cotton and Muslin (Malmal) now lost its position.
  • ◦ Unemployed artisans moved to already crowded agriculture: impoverishment.

Weavers also, upon their inability to perform such agreements as have been forced from them by the Company’s agents ... have had their goods seized, and sold on the spot, to make good the deficiency: and the winders of raw silk, called Nagaads, have been treated also with such injustice, that instances have been known of their cutting off their thumbs, to prevent their being forced to wind silk. – William Bolts (1772)

The bones of the cotton weavers are bleaching the plains of India – William Bentick (1834)

Indian Opium – Chinese Tea Triangular trade

In 1773, the then British Governor-General, Lord Warren Hastings brought the whole of the opium trade under the control of the Government. Very soon, there emerged an Opium-Tea triangular trade between India-China-Europa.

Charter Acts of 1793, 1813, 1833, 1853

UPSC PYQs

• • The Charter Act of 1833 rung down the curtain on the company’s trade and introduced a new concept of government in India. Substantiate. [2011, 20m]
• • “The Regulating Act (1773), the Pitt’s India Act (1784) and eventually the Charter Act of 1833 left the East India Company as a mere shadow of its earlier political and economic power in India.” Critically examine. [2015, 10m]
• • “The need to impose greater parliamentary control over the Company’s affairs increased during the decades (1773 – 1853) after Plassey.” Elucidate. [2016, 20m]

As the Company’s domains expanded and its responsibilities diversified, a series of new questions had to be faced. What type of government should be set up in the new territories? What kind of political institutions would fit most suitably with Indian social structures? And what of the ‘pacified’ Indians? Should they be educated, or even converted to more acceptable forms of religion? Was the EIC really a fit organ of government? Should its monopoly be maintained? Distinct approaches to these questions emerged, each with its partisan advocates.

Industrial Capitalism

In the 18th century, the EIC faced domestic opposition due to the fears of pernicious influence of corrupt nabobs on English society and politic leading to the Acts of 1773, 1784 and attempts at professionalization of its bureaucracy. Still, the EIC remained powerful and entrenched in parliamentary politics and never lost its trade monopoly. In the 19th century, however, the scale of opposition to it changed after industrial capitalists became powerful.

Growing Opposition to the Company in London

Due to the monopoly, nobody in England had right to do business with India and anyone trying would be arrested and imprisoned. By the late 18th century, there was growing opposition to the East India Company’s (EIC) monopoly over commerce with India and China.

• • With ‘free trade’ becoming the dominant economic doctrine in Britain, it was difficult for the government to resist demands for the termination of the Company’s monopoly.
• • Private traders wanted to share in the profits.
• • Industrial capitalists
  • ◦ The success of the Industrial Revolution drastically altered conditions in Britain: rather than buying finished products, Britain now needed to secure markets for its factory goods produced on a massive scale, and captive suppliers of raw materials for the production of these goods.
  • ◦ At pace with the altered conditions, Company rule in India now had to act as an accessory, an instrument to ensure ‘the necessary conditions of law and order’ to make the vast Indian market captive for British goods. (Eric Stokes)

Thus, a loose free trade pressure group had been operating in British politics for some time and had tried, unsuccessfully, to have the Company’s monopoly withdrawn in 1793.

With renewal of the charter due in 1813, this alliance of manufacturers and exporters reinvigorated its efforts. These industrial capitalists successfully bribed/pressurized the government to abolish trade monopoly by Charter Act of 1813 partially and 1833 fully.

The Charter of 1793

The control over the Company was further tightened when its Charter was renewed in 1793.

• • The Charter Act of 1793 renewed the charter of the Company for 20 years, giving it possession of all territories in India during that period.
  • ◦ The Act established that “acquisition of sovereignty by the subjects of the Crown is on behalf of the Crown and not in its own right,” which clearly stated that the company’s political functions were on behalf of the British government.
• • Control over the Company:
  • ◦ The financial independence of the Company was taken away.
  • ◦ The Home Government members were to be paid out of Indian revenues which continued up to 1919.
  • ◦ The royal approval was mandated for the appointment of the governor-general, the governors, and the commander-in-chief.
• • There was a modest concession to the free traders. The Company was empowered to give licences to individuals as well as the Company’s employees to trade in India.
• • Steps towards centralisation within India
  • ◦ Not many significant changes in the government of India except the increase in the power of the governor.
  • ◦ The governor general’s power over the council was extended.
  • ◦ He was given power to levy taxes and authorized to issue licenses for liquor.
  • ◦ Governors of Bombay and Madras were brought more decisively under his control.
• • Reduced administrative discretion:
  • ◦ A specific direction was given to the Company administration that it would have to draw a written code of law for India. Thus, it introduced in India the concept of a civil law, enacted by a secular human agency, and applied universally.
  • ◦ All laws were to be printed with translations in Indian languages, so that people could know of their rights, privileges, and immunities.
  • ◦ It bound the courts to regulate their decisions by the rules and directives contained therein. Thus, a new tradition was set as the judicial courts could interpret these written laws (rules and regulations). Pure discretionary powers of the administration was thus to be curtailed.

The Act of 1793 was a consolidating measure. It laid out the high-sounding principle of non-aggression. This was merely a re-iteration of the principle already defined in the Pitt’s India Act of 1784. However, this policy remained a high-sounding principle and was not followed by the Governors-General (Cornwallis, Wellesley, Hastings). Even though the Directors of the Company were not enthusiastic about the wars, the Governors took advantage of the distance from London, and a more protracted process of decision making on part of the BoC and CoD. Thus, the Company continued to expand its territorial limits. Before the Act of 1813, it had brought under its sway a significant part of Indian territory.

The Charter Act of 1813

The Company fiercely contested the proposal to abolish its Indian monopoly when its charter came up for renewal in 1813.

Parliament was, on the other hand, unconvinced of the Company’s arguments and the Charter Act of 1813 put an end to its monopoly over India.

Provisions:

• • It included a clause asserting the Crown’s undoubted sovereignty over all of the Company’s territories. Its preamble explicitly declared that the sovereignty of the British Crown over the Company’s territories in India was paramount.
• • In 1813 the Company Charter was renewed with a proviso that the Company monopolistic hold over the Indian trade would end and a new era of free trade would be initiated. Thus
  • ◦ Renewal of charter for 20 years, thus the Company was granted right over Indian possessions and revenues for next 20 years.
  • ◦ The chairman of the Board of Control was necessarily to be from among the Ministers of the government.
  • ◦ Partial abolition of trade monopoly: Except for trade in tea and trade with China.
• • Partial opening of India to British emigrants:
  • ◦ It imposed licensing restrictions on long-term residence by private British individuals (private merchants, free traders) in India.
  • ◦ The act also allowed Christian missionaries to enter India and propagate their religion.
• • Rs. 1 lakh per annum for promotion of Indian languages, literature and scientific education in India. It was for encouraging learned natives and the revival of literature, and for promoting knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the country.

The Charter Act of 1813 was thus an important benchmark in the push towards westernisation of India. At pace with the altered conditions, Company rule in India now had to act as an accessory, an instrument to ensure ‘the necessary conditions of law and order’ to make the vast Indian market captive for British goods.

The Charter Act of 1833

When the time came to renew the Charter in 1833, there was increased pressure in Britain for the government to take over the Indian administration directly and abolish the Company. The Reform Act of 1832 had recently been passed, which fuelled a general desire for reform in Britain. A parliamentary inquiry was conducted, and the resulting Act of 1833 became a significant moment in the constitutional history of India.

This Act became a landmark in the constitutional history of India and had a larger significance. Most of its provisions pertained to arrangements for governing the Indian empire. The framework evolved in 1833 was to continue almost unchanged down to 1858, and some elements were retained in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Provisions:

• • The charter gave to the Company the authority to govern the Indian empire for another 20 years.
• • All its business activities were wound up, including the abolition of the monopoly of tea trade with China. Now, the Company ceased to be a commercial concern. Henceforth, it was to be only a political-administrative body.
  • ◦ This did not amount to a loss for its shareholders who were guaranteed an annual dividend of 10.5% by the British government.
• • Opening India further:
  • ◦ All restrictions on British immigration, through licensing requirements were removed. Also, British settlers could henceforth settle and acquire land in India.
  • ◦ It laid down the regulation for Christian establishments in India and the number of Bishops was made three.
• • It further tightened the control of the government over the Company. The Board of Control was empowered to superintend all administrative affairs in India.
• • Centralisation of Government:
  • ◦ Centralization of financial, legislative and administrative matters.
  • ◦ The governor general was henceforth to be known as the ‘Governor General of India’. (Lord Bentinck becomes the first one).
  • ◦ He would, in consultation with his council, control all civil, military and revenue matters in the whole of India.
  • ◦ Governors of Madras and Bombay were made fully subordinate to him.
  • ◦ Thus, the Act created, for the first time, a Government of India, with authority over entire territorial possessions of the British India.
• • The Charter Act of 1833 also introduced some administrative changes.
  • ◦ Formation of a fourth presidency (Agra Presidency) by splitting the Bengal Presidency into two. This experiment was a short-lived one.
• • Separation of Power: Some crucial changes were made to the governor general’s council. It made a distinction between the executive and legislative duties of the Governor-General. Thus, this was the conceptual beginning of the legislative council.
  • ◦ The governor general in council was, therefore, empowered to legislate for the whole of British territories in India and these laws were to be applicable to all persons, British or Indian.
  • ◦ The Act centralized the process of framing laws (One Legislative Council for all British territories in India) and gave to the laws and regulations framed by the governor general’s council the force of statutes.
    • ■ The council thus became the main legislative body in India. Presidency governments could submit drafts of legislation to the council for consideration.
  • ◦ Since the making of laws required legal expertise, a provision was made for adding a ‘law member’ to the council. (4th member)
    • ■ The law member’s presence was supposed to be essential when the council was deliberating upon any legislation.
    • ■ Thomas Macaulay was the first law member to be appointed.
  • ◦ It provided for a law commission to facilitate the codification of law.
    • ■ This four-member commission was headed by Macaulay.
    • ■ Subsequently, both civil and criminal codes were prepared based on the recommendation of the law commission.
• • Reform Provisions:
  • ◦ Indians to be recruited in jobs and no discrimination based on race. (Section 87)
  • ◦ It enjoined the Company’s government to abolish slavery in India. (Slavery was finally abolished in 1843.)

The Charter Act of 1853

In 1853, during the renewal of the Company’s charter, the parliament asserted its right to decide how India was to be governed more strongly than before. The free traders’ demand to end the Company’s mechanism of governing India, which had already won a significant victory with the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, could not be ignored much longer. Yet the Company could still muster sufficient political support to be able to continue with its hold over the Indian empire, even though this hold was considerably weakened by the 1853 Act.

Provisions:

• • The Charter was renewed in 1853, but this time not for another 20 years. It did not specify the duration for which it would be valid.
  • ◦ The Company was allowed to retain the Indian possessions “in trust for Her Majesty, her heirs and successors until Parliament shall otherwise provide”, thus keeping the door ajar for a future takeover. Thus, it was made clear that the Company would be in control till the Parliament would make alternative arrangement.
• • It subjected the EIC’s empire in India to much tighter control by the British government.
  • ◦ A decisive measure was the provision for reconstituting the court of directors.
    • ■ One-third of its members were now to be nominees of the British government. They were to be the members of the British Council of Ministers.
  • ◦ The selection of covenanted civil servants was now to be based on an open competition.
    • ■ Members of the court of directors were deprived of the privilege of nominating candidates for appointment to superior posts in the civil service.
    • ■ A committee was constituted by the board of control to work out the modalities of the competition. Public examinations commenced in 1855.
• • The idea of a distinct ‘legislative council’, which was already conceptually present in the Charter Act of 1833, was now developed further. This was now a body of 12 members comprising the
  • ◦ Governor general
  • ◦ Four ‘ordinary members’ (including the law member)
    • ■ The law member (added in 1833) was now made a full member of the council.
  • ◦ The commander-in-chief
  • ◦ Six ‘additional members’ (added in 1853)
    • ■ Chief justice and a judge of the Supreme Court of Calcutta
    • ■ One member each from the three presidencies of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, and from the North-Western Provinces.
    • ■ (Did not sit when the council met to discuss executive matters)

After 1773, 1783 and 1833, British company in India simply remained a shadow of its own authority. Examine.

It is true that the EIC gradually transformed from a trading concern into a political-administrative body. As the time went by, increasing checks were instituted by the British parliament to regulate the Company’s finances, reduce corruption as well as manage the foreign policy. It was done in order to ensure that the Company doesn’t emerge as an autocratic power, and India remains open for all the British in London. It started with the Regulating Act of 1773 in the wake of the financial debacle post-1770s famine.

It went a step further in the Pitt’s India 1783, when a Board of Control was formed and dual control over company affairs with parliamentary supervision was created. Later, by the Charter of 1833, the trade monopoly was abolished, diminished its commercial role and the Company was converted into administrative authority which had to work to the tune of London.

However, despite the attempts to increase the oversight, in practice, the Company was never a mere shadow. It reserved unlimited administrative authority in India. Due to the lack of quick communication between London and Calcutta, Indian administrators always had some leeway in decision-making. London couldn’t make a proper supervision and thus, the Governor-General was a man-on-the-spot with arbitrary power. Post 1833, Governors-General from Auckland to Ellenborough and above all Lord Dalhousie carried unrestricted annexationism in their will.

Thus, even though the Company was gradually hollowed out from 1773 till 1858 when it was finally abolished, it remained to be a powerful body. Its primary function however evolved over time, first as commercial and later as administrative.

Industrial Era: Administrative Reforms

The robber-ruler synthesis eventually gave way to what would become classical colonialism, with the recognition of the need for law and order and a modicum of reasonable governance. – Amartya Sen

Major overhauling of administrative structure

Factors	Features
Material Compulsion: Need of Industrial Capitalism of London	Better law and order
Ideological Factor: Liberalism and Utilitarianism advocating administrative reforms to pull out of backwardness and stagnation.	Judicial and legal reforms
	New land revenue settlements
	Reforms in civil service, police, and army

Law and Order

Improvement in the law-and-order condition was essential if India had to develop as a market for the British manufactured goods. That’s why during this phase, several Governor Generals took steps for improvement in the law-and-order situation.

Suppression of Pindaris and Pathans by Lord Hastings

• • Pindaris plunderers created law and order problems in parts of India after the decline of Marathas.
  • ◦ GG Hastings dispatched a big army under the command of General Thomas Hislop to suppress Pindaris.
  • ◦ Most important Pindari leaders like Heeru, Buran and Wasir Md. Chitu were killed. Karim Khan surrendered before the army.
• • Pathans were also a threat to law and order. Hasting started a military offence against the Pathans. Pathan leader Aamir Khan surrendered and promised to lead a peaceful life. He was afforded Jagir of Gauspur.

Suppression of Thugee by Lord Bentinck

• • Thugs were the criminals, who were mainly linked with road robbery, ritualized murder and mutilation on highways. Poverty and unemployment created by British rule that gave a new fodder to this profession.
• • Bentinck decided to suppress Thugee.
  • ◦ He created a Thuggee and Dacoity Department 1830.
  • ◦ Colonel William Sleeman headed it from 1835-39 to eliminate the problem.
  • ◦ Many thugs were hanged or imprisoned, and the thuggee menace was largely eradicated by the mid-19th century.

Judicial Reforms

During this period, the judicial reforms were being implemented under the influence of utilitarian ideas. Utilitarian ideas were deeply associated with the rise of industrial capitalism in Britain.

Jeremy Bentham was a critic of the Indian Judicial system, and he underlined following weaknesses in it.

• • The absence of Habeas Corpus
• • Lack of codification and uniformity in legal system
• • Some Indian laws were cruel and inhuman.

He aggressively advocated the codification of all the common law into a coherent set of statutes. Therefore, under Benthamite influence, following steps were undertaken to establish a centralized and modernized legal system:

Codification of Laws

• ◦ The Charter Act of 1833 provided for a law member in the Governor General’s council. Lord Macaulay was appointed as the first law member to start codification and a Law Commission was established.
  • ■ He drafted rational, unified legal codes for British India, finishing the job in two years of intensive work.
  • ■ Later, it became the basis for IPC 1860, CrPC 1872, CPC 1908 etc. which were applicable throughout British India.

Equality/Uniformity of Law

• ◦ Macaulay’s draft Penal Code reformed and standardized criminal law, making it applicable to all under British Indian jurisdiction regardless of religion or caste (territorial laws).
• ◦ In 1836, Macaulay revoked the privilege accorded to Europeans to have cases heard in the Supreme Court in Calcutta, rather than in the Company’s Sadr Adalat.
• ◦ This measure reduced the white privilege but was dubbed the Black Act, was resisted vigorously, but unsuccessfully, by the European population of Calcutta.

Monolingual ascendency of English Language

• ◦ Since 1765, when the Company obtained Diwani from the Mughal emperor, it had maintained an extensive, cumbersome and inefficient bilingual bureacracy for its administrative functions. (English for internal communication while Persian with Indians with the help of Dobashis)
• ◦ In the era of William Bentinck, English replaced Persian as the language of higher courts (1835-37).
  • ■ It rejected the bilingual equation with Persian in favour of monolingual ascendancy of English. It asserted the power of colonial state over its subjects and, in effect, removed British India from subordinate Mughal order and re-situated it within the global British empire on the basis of language.

Unified Judicial Administration

• ◦ Earlier, a duality existed in the Indian Judicial System.
  • ■ On the one hand, the courts like Sadar Diwani Adalat and Sadar Nizamat Adalat existed in Calcutta, in which Indian laws were prevailing.
  • ■ On the other hand, there was a Supreme Court in Calcutta, where English laws were invoked.
• ◦ This duality was abolished and a unified system of judicial administration was created.
  • ■ The Sadar Diwani Adalat, Sadar Nizamat Adalat and the Supreme Court were abolished.
  • ■ The High Courts were established at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay on the basis of High Court Act of 1861.

Appointment of Indians

• ◦ Bentinck abolished the Cornwallis-era practice of not employing Indians as subordinate judges. He employed many Indians as subordinate judges (Charter Act of 1833 – recruitment of Indians without discrimination)

Judicial Reforms – Critical Analysis

Positives	Negatives
Comprehensive codification of the Indian legal system	Lord Macaulay had no knowledge of Indian condition, yet he was given such a huge responsibility.
Standardization: Same legal system in all regions	The Indian legal system was Europeanized.
Integration: uniform judicial system from top to bottom	The gap between the judicial system and common people increased and justice became expensive. Justice delayed is justice denied.
An attempt to implement the rule of law
Some laws were made more humane

Commercialisation of Agriculture

It means cultivation of cash crops in place of food crops. The food crops like wheat, barley and rice were replaced with cash crops like tea, indigo, sugarcane, tobacco, opium and coffee etc.

Agriculture in India so far had been a way of life rather than an out-and-out business enterprise. However, from now onwards, agriculture began to be influenced by commercial consideration and fluctuating prices as certain specialized crops were grown not for consumption in the village but for sale in the regional, national and even international markets.

This change in the character of Indian agriculture was the outcome of circumstances created by British colonial rule.

Objective/Causes:

• • To make the collection of the increased land revenue easier.
  • ◦ In order to pay taxes in cash it became obligatory for peasants to cultivate cash crop and get money to pay the higher taxes.
• • British Industrial policy:
  • ◦ To secure raw-material for the British industries. (e.g. Jute, raw cotton, indigo)
  • ◦ To facilitate export of food grains from India to Britain.
  • ◦ The British policy of one-way free trade
• • To maintain balance of trade globally (Tea-Opium Triangle)
• • Infrastructural developments like railways, shipbuilding and roads led to the favourable environment for businesses.
• • The world events like opening of Suez Canal and the American civil war also speeded the commercialisation of the agricultural.

Regional variation

• • Cotton: Encouraged in western India
• • Indigo: For dying of clothes in north and east India
• • Opium: Warren Hastings made opium production a company monopoly first in 1773. It was exported to China.
• • Tea: encouraged in northeast, mainly based on British capital. It gave rise to the problem of indentured labour.
• • Coffee: encouraged in south India
• • Jute: encouraged in eastern India
• • Sugarcane: it was encouraged after 1830s in various parts, especially in north India.

Pattern and Effects:

• • There was production for market but:
  • ◦ It was focused on European market: Only those crops which were required by British industries or were having market in Europe were cultivated such as indigo, cotton and sugarcane.
  • ◦ It helped in the emergence of a subservient economy in India because Indian economic system was used to fulfill the needs of British economy. (Classical colonial economy)
  • ◦ It facilitated for drain of wealth from India because commercial crops could be sold easily in European market. It benefitted only European. It failed to benefit Indian peasants in any significant manner.
  • ◦ Monetisation of agriculture
  • ◦ The earlier self-sufficient village economy was shattered. The peasants were encouraged to cultivate those crops which were having greater demand in the global market. The life of the Indian peasant was tied to the highly fluctuating international market. He was no longer a deciding factor in agricultural practices.
• • It didn’t lead to modernisation of agriculture: There was hardly any commercialisation of ‘input’ and it was merely commercialisation of ‘output.’
  • ◦ It was carried out by using the traditional old tools and no modern technology was introduced.
  • ◦ The use of small farms for cultivation of cash crops was another typical feature.
• • It was a forced process for the majority of peasants. It was not adopted by them under free will.
  • ◦ Different strategies were adopted to induce production of the exportable goods by Indian peasantry, which ranged from binding the producers by advancing a paltry sum to open use of force and fraud. Different kinds of tenancy practices were used by Europeans to cultivate cash crops in India.
  • ◦ Teenkathiya (3/20) used in Champaran district of Bengal for Indigo cultivation.
    • ■ The worst effect of commercialisation was the oppression of Indian peasants at hands of European. This found full expression in the famous Indigo revolt in 1859.
  • ◦ The Charter Act 1833 allowed European to purchase immovable property in India. As a result of this tea, coffee, and jute plantations emerged contract farming was practiced by European in plantations.
    • ■ The Company did not hesitate to treat the workers in tea-gardens of Assam as virtual slaves.
• • It was exploitative in nature. The peasants suffered immensely due to cultivation of cash crops.
  • ◦ There was no capital formation.
    • ■ Indian peasants were not free to market their goods at competitive prices. They had to supply these goods to the Company under the threat of force. Hence by producing these goods, they did not get enriched, instead they were impoverished.
  • ◦ Rather, it led to rural indebtedness.
    • ■ The growing commercialisation helped the money lenders to exploit the cultivator.
    • ■ Peasants had to take loans from money leaders to buy new seeds and implements. They could not repay these loans.
    • ■ If the poor farmers fail to repay the loans the land was confiscated.
  • ◦ Cultivation of cash crops reduced production and increased the prices of food grains. It led to hunger and famine became a regular phenomenon in Indian economy.
  • ◦ It resulted in rural instability because the prices of commercial crops fluctuated in accordance with the availability of those crops in the international market. This instability triggered crises many times. The Deccan riots of 1870s was an example of the same.
• • Environmental Impact:
  • ◦ Cultivation of cash crops like indigo adversely affected the fertility of soil. In the long run these crops ruined agriculture.

It is true that in subsequent years a number of steps were taken by the British to improve the state of affairs in the field of Indian agriculture. This included new irrigational facilities by new canal systems particularly in Punjab, western UP and some parts of Madras. Besides, the new tenancy laws of 1859 and 1885 did give some relief and protection to the impoverished tenants. But all these measures proved too inadequate to tackle the problem actually faced by the Indian cultivators. Even where some positive results came out of these measures; they were confined to some areas like Punjab, western UP and parts of Madras. And there too, it was only a small group of privileged few who actually benefited from it.

Decline of Handicraft (de-industrialisation)

India held the title of the world’s largest manufacturing nation until the mid-18th century. European countries, in particular, had a high demand for Indian products. The British during colonial rule systematically dismantled India’s handicraft industry, and by the mid-19th century, it was almost decimated.

Destruction of Cotton Textile Industry

Causes:

Dr. D.R. Gadgil mentions three principal causes which operated in the first half of the 19th century in bringing the rapid deindustrialisation in India with the special reference of the decline of craft industry- The disappearance of native ruling power, the establishment of an alien rule and the competition of a more developed machinery.

Mercantile Phase:

• • Initial oppression by the Company: As soon as the Company established its political supremacy in Bengal, it began to exploit the artisans of cotton and silk cloth. As a result, the cloth trade did not remain a source of profit for the artisans and the cloth industry of Bengal disintegrated.
  • ◦ Appointment of intermediaries for exploitation of artisans. The weavers were forced to accept dadan or advance from the English merchants. There was a blatant use of force and fraud to force the Indian producers to sell their goods at the minimum price. At times, the forcibly fixed price was less than 35% of the market price.
  • ◦ To make the system more ruthless, the Company replaced the middlemen by a system of gomastas who followed a no-holds barred policy to force the producers to sell their goods to the Company at unremunerative prices.
  • ◦ Compelling Indian artisans to reveal their trade secrets.
  • ◦ The Company regulations in 1770s-1800 had made the weavers sink into the position of indentured workers.
    • ■ Indian craftsmen were made to work for company at a very low wage and at times without any wage at all.
    • ■ These craftsmen were forced to sell their goods to the company at cheap rate and by company’s raw material from company’s merchants at high prices.
    • ■ Many craftsmen cut their thumbs to escape this exploitation.
• • Destruction of Guilds
  • ◦ With the entry of British traders, Indian guilds lost their power. As soon as supervising bodies were removed, many evils began to appear. These were, for example, the adulteration of materials, shady and poor workmanship etc. This at once led to a decline in the artistic and commercial value of the goods produced.

Industrial Phase:

• • Industrial development:
  • ◦ The foreign machine-made products were superior in quality and cheaper in price. The primitive technology of Indian handicrafts could not compete with the modern technology of an industrial economy.
  • ◦ Lancashire and Manchester exports flooded Indian markets.
• • Commercial Policy: The British commercial policy ruined the artisans and craftsmen.
  • ◦ Commercialisation of Agriculture: The British pressurized farmers in India to take cash crops needed to their industries. So, it turned India into a supplier of raw materials for British Industries. The Export of raw materials made them dear for Indian artisans and made their products uncompetitive.
• • Market Capture
  • ◦ Manipulation of export and import duty with a view to making Indian goods more expensive in the British markets and the British industrial goods less expensive in the Indian markets. This was an unnatural competition.
    • ■ Indian cotton products were banned in Britain (protectionism). Heavy duties were imposed on the Indian handicraft products in Britain. Import duty of 67.5% on Indian cotton cloth and 37.5% on Indian muslin in 1824.
    • ■ A condition was imposed upon EIC whereby it was mandatory to carry British goods of around 3000 tons free of cost to India in 1793.
  • ◦ British also ousted Indian products from other markets (West Asia, Africa etc)
  • ◦ Diminishing local markets
    • ■ With the gradual decline of the Indian states and their courts, who were the chief patrons of Indian weavers and spinners, there was no chance for the Indian cotton industry to survive.
    • ■ Flooding Indian market: The monopoly of the EIC for trade with India was abolished by the Charter Act of 1813/1833 which opened India completely for the British goods. The fate of the Indian cotton industry was sealed with the arrival of railroad. Opening of the Suez Canal reduced the distance between England and India.
    • ■ Spread the network of the British administrative machinery even to the remotest area and new legal and judicial system, so as to ensure the safety of trade routes as well as to make secure the British financial-commercial interests. The entire structure of the legal system, including Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), was raised during this phase.
    • ■ Policy of westernisation changed demand by Indian middle class too. (English education produced a new class)

The cumulative impact of the new strategy was the total destruction of the entire structure of Indian handicrafts, making it possible for the British goods to reach each and every corner of the country. From 1814 to 1835 the export of the British cotton clothes to India increased by 51 times, whereas that of India to England decreased by 13 times. Cotton Mills of Lancashire were built up on the ruins of Dacca, Murshidabad and Surat.

Thus, India soon became a supplier of raw materials for the British industries. India went through a process of what historians have called ‘de-industrialisation’, which was primarily responsible for mass pauperisation and impoverishment of our people.

Destruction of other Industries

• • Jute Industry (handicraft in Bengal): Collapsed due to the competition with the products of modern factory system at Dundee (Scotland).
• • Silk Industry: Indian silk industry flourished in various regions. In Kashmir, it employed nearly 45,000 workers. Competition from industrial silk products of Paisley (Scotland) decimated it.
• • Iron Industry (world famous wootz): Indian industries could not produce low quality steel, thereby eliminating a huge chunk of market from them.
• • Ship building industries at Surat, Malabar and Bengal were crushed. In 1814, another law was passed under which Indian built ships were refused to be considered ‘British-registered vessels’ which could trade with America and the European continent.

Impact of De-industrialisation

“The misery hardly finds a parallel in the history of commerce. The bones of the cotton weavers are bleaching the plains of India.” - Lord Bentinck

The substantial influx of resources and capital from India to England naturally elevated the standard of living for the English population. This outflow of wealth also facilitated increased investments in English agriculture (thus playing a significant role in agricultural revolution of 18th c in England) and industry post-1750 (thus contributing to the onset of the industrial revolution).

In India, however, the impact was the opposite. Karl Marx has cited the impact of the deindustrialisation process. According to him, it was the British rulers who broke up the Indian handloom and textile handicrafts.

• • It ruined India’s prosperity and resulted in excessive unemployment.
  • ◦ It has been estimated that about 10,00,000 people were thrown out of employment by 1828. The industry was totally shattered. The affected persons were weavers, cotton growers, spinners, dressers, embroiderers, and others.
  • ◦ The disaster was heightened by the fact that the decline of the traditional industries was not accompanied by the rise of modern industries in India as was the case in the West.
• • Urbanisation:
  • ◦ De-urbanisation: The destruction of the Indian cotton industry was mirrored in the decline of the towns and cities which were famous for their manufacture. Cities like Dacca, Murshidabad, Mirzapur, Tanjore and Surat became depopulated.
  • ◦ Growth of commercial towns: There was a migration of the people from the old industrial towns to the new trading centers. Among the important cities that developed were Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Bangalore, Nagpur Karpura and Karachi, Lahore, Chittagong, Rangoon etc. These cities grew in importance as great commercial towns.
• • The connection between agriculture and industry was snapped. Rather with the dislocation of traditional crafts, there was an increase in the burden on agriculture (ruralisation, peasantisation)
  • ◦ The weavers thus overthrown, had no other option but to turn to agriculture for survival. Thousands of them became sharecroppers or agricultural labourers.
  • ◦ They added to the general pressure on land and further contributed to the general impoverishment of agriculture.
  • ◦ Fragmentation of land-holding converted many of them to landless labourers for survival.
• • Reduction in per capita income, rural poverty (immiseration, pauperisation)
  • ◦ There ushered in a period of chronic famine, hunger and starvation.

Even the western world went through such phase of decline. However, unlike India, the decline of handicraft industries in the west was compensated by the foundation of modern industries. In India, the wilful destruction of traditional structure was not replaced by any new structure.