EAST INDIA COMPANY rule (1772-1857)


Lord Clive took Arcot in 1751, and thwarted the French siege of *Trichinopoly* in 1752; his later victories at *Plassey* (1757), and then Buxar (1764), led to Company rule in Bengal (*IG*: 2:472; see also *Macaulay*)
Various visions of Warren Hastings Esq., Governor General of Bengal, 1773-85 (*IG*: 2:481; see also *Macaulay*)
After Hastings, the Company-controlled parts of India were ruled at first by "Governors General of Fort William"; and after 1833, by a "Governor-General of India" (*wiki*)
*Tipu Sultan's* nemesis, Lord Cornwallis, governed from 1786 to 1793 (*IG*: 12:486)
Some British portraits: a merchant and his son; a doctor; a "Qui hi"; a Company officer; and the death of Bishop Heber
Some early Company coins showed balance scales and promised justice ('adl); coins were minted in *Calcutta*, *Madras*, and *Bombay*
But the Company's lucrative *opium* trade with China had its organizational hub in the ancient town of PATNA (once Pataliputra) on the Ganges
The Company recruited, trained, equipped, and led its sepoys (sipahis, "soldiers") so successfully that no fighting force in India could match them
The Company made special judicial arrangements for the sepoys, in its Avadh encampments and elsewhere; the sepoys celebrated their own religious festivals
The Company's officers were especially proud of establishing law and order, and stamping out highway robbery and "thuggee"
By 1820, the British had conquered *the Marathas*; through the battle of Meeanee in 1843, they conquered Sind; in 1846, they took *the Sikh kingdom* in the Punjab
Life for a Company "civilian" (member of the Indian Civil Service) in Bengal, c.1840, and for some Indians too; an affectionately satiric look by William Taylor
And always, everywhere, there were the servants



 
 == INDIAN ROUTES index == sitemap == Glossary == FWP's main page ==