Modern India · Topic 9 of 20
Administrative reorganisation and early constitutional concessions after 1857
The Basics
After the Revolt of 1857, the East India Company still ruled India in name, but its army and administration had been badly exposed. The British Parliament decided the Company could no longer be trusted with this task. Direct Crown control became the only option left.
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After 1857, the army was reorganised mainly to prevent another revolt.
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Since Governor-General Cornwallis in the 1790s, Indians were excluded from higher Civil Service posts. This policy continued unchanged under Crown rule after 1858.
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Before 1857, the East India Company had used every excuse, including the doctrine of lapse, to annex princely states. Lord Dalhousie alone annexed eight states, including Satara and Nagpur. The Revolt of 1857 changed this thinking completely.
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By the early 1900s, the princely states were loyal but their exact legal relationship with the Crown was still vague. Lord Curzon, as viceroy, stretched old treaties to argue that princes were servants of the people who had to work alongside the governor-general. He called this relationship neither feudal nor federal, but one built from different historical treaties that had gradually merged into a single pattern of British control. His style combined patronage with what is called 'intrusive surveillance', meaning close British oversight of each state's internal working.
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After 1858, the British dropped the pretence of preparing Indians for self-government. They now argued openly that Indians were unfit to rule themselves. This attitude showed clearly in a policy of divide and rule.
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The Indian Councils Act of 1861 enlarged the Governor-General's Council into the Imperial Legislative Council.
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Indian Councils Act 1892 was passed after Indian National Congress demanded council reform.
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By the 1870s, Indian language newspapers had grown confident and critical. They attacked the government's handling of the terrible famine of 1876-77. Viceroy Lord Lytton found himself under fire for his administration's harsh response to famine victims.
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