Administrative, Legal and Educational Policy under Company Rule

Civil Service under British Rule

The Basics

In the early years, East India Company servants were traders paid low wages but allowed private trade. Once the Company became a territorial power, these same men took up administrative duties while still trading privately. This led to widespread corruption: officials extorted bribes from rajas and nawabs, oppressed weavers and merchants, and returned to England with huge private fortunes. Clive and Warren Hastings tried to curb this but only partly succeeded.

Police System in British India

The Basics

Cornwallis set up the modern police system, replacing zamindars' police duties.

Indian Army - Organisation and Recruitment under Company Rule

The Basics

By the mid-nineteenth century the Company's power in India rested on three pillars: the civil service, the police, and the army. The Duke of Wellington, who had served under his brother Lord Wellesley, said India's real foundation of authority was the sword, not public support. The British were foreigners and could not win Indian affections through consent alone.

Judicial System and Rule of Law in British India

Note coming soon.

Humanitarian and Social Reform Legislation by the Company

The Basics

The Company now controlled a working judicial system, but Indian society still carried customs that British and Indian reformers saw as cruel, especially the burning of widows and the killing of female infants.

Christian Missionaries and Religious Conversion Efforts

The Basics

By the early 1800s the East India Company ruled much of India. It had already banned sati, infanticide and slavery.

Macaulay's Minute and the Orientalist-Anglicist Controversy

The Basics

For its first sixty years in India, the East India Company showed little interest in educating its subjects. A few individuals acted alone. Warren Hastings set up the Calcutta Madrasah in 1781 for Muslim law. Jonathan Duncan, the Resident at Varanasi, started a Sanskrit College in 1791 for Hindu law and philosophy. Both aimed only at supplying qualified Indians for the Company's law courts.

Wood's Despatch 1854 and Expansion of Education

The Basics

By the early 1850s, the English-only policy set by Macaulay's Minute of 1835 had clear limits. It created a small English-educated class but left the masses untouched. Traditional schools were declining and mass literacy had not improved. Critics in India and England said the Company was neglecting the education of ordinary people.

Hunter Education Commission 1882

The Basics

The Hunter Commission was set up in 1882 under W.W. Hunter.

Indian Universities Act 1904

The Basics

Lord Curzon passed the Indian Universities Act in 1904.

Development of the Press in India - Early Phase

The Basics

Printing presses had reached India as early as the late seventeenth century, but for a long time nobody used them to publish news. In 1768, one William Bolts put up a notice in Calcutta announcing he would start a press, but he left for England soon after and nothing came of it.