Governor General of Bengal’s Colonial Leaders: Evolution of Governance (1773-1833)

Governor General of Bengal: Evolution under the East India Company (1773-1833) #

A position known as “Governor of Bengal” was created by the East India Company when it landed in India; Robert Clive was the first Governor of Bengal. There was a Governor for each of the other presidencies, such as Bombay and Madras. The position of Governor of Bengal was renamed “Governor General of Bengal” however after the Regulating Act of 1773 was passed (Warren Hastings served as the first Governor General of Bengal). According to the Act, the Governor General of Bengal received reports from the Governors of Bombay and Madras.

Lord Warren Hastings: Governor General of Bengal’s Legacy (1773-1785) #

In the years 1772–1785, Warren Hastings, a British colonial administrator, held the positions of first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), president of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and first de facto Governor General of Bengal. Hastings died on August 22, 1818.

• He is recognised for helping Robert Clive create the foundation for the British Empire in India. He was an active reformer and organizer. He commanded the East India Company’s armies throughout the French and Native state alliance campaign of 1779–1784 against them.
• In the end, the well-prepared British side prevailed, while France’s power declined in India.
• After a protracted trial, he was found not guilty in 1795 after being accused of corruption and being impeached in 1787. He was chosen to serve on the Privy Council in 1814.

Lord Cornwallis: Governor General of Bengal’s Legacy (1786-1793) #

On September 12, 1786, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, took over as Governor-General of Fort William (Bengal) and Commander-in-Chief of British India.

• Lord Cornwallis was a British army officer who had previously served in the American Revolutionary War. He was also an administrator and diplomat. At Yorktown, he and his soldiers had given up to the Americans.
• He agreed to become Bengal’s governor general in 1786 on the condition that he also receive the top military command. He landed in Calcutta on September 12 and took command.
• Under his command, the Cornwallis Code was created, which contained rules for controlling civil, policing, and judicial administration in British India.
• The foundation for British authority in India is attributed to Lord Cornwallis, and until the end of the British era in India, significant improvements in the court, revenue, and services remained.

Sir John Shore: Governor General of Bengal’s Legacy (1793-1798) #

From 1793 to 1798, Sir John Shore (1751–1834) served as the Governor General of Bengal and was an expert in the Bengal revenue system.

• In 1768, when the English East India Company’s Colonial State was only taking shape and the large trade organisation was taking over the collection of land revenues, which was the key to political control of India, he came to Calcutta as an English East India Company writer (apprentice clerk).
• Due to his expertise in Bengal’s judicial and revenue systems, Shore persuaded his superiors that British dominance of India could only be attained by fair and steady land revenue settlement over the following 20 years.
• The revenue administration improvements of 1786 and 1790 were largely the result of Shore’s proposals.
• The Initial mention of Shore’s ideas was in a May 1785 Council minute titled “Remarks on the Mode of Administering Justice to the Natives in Bengal and on Revenue Collection.”

Lord Arthur Wellesley: Governor General of Bengal’s Legacy (1798-1805) #

A statesman and colonial administrator of Anglo-Irish descent, Richard Colley Wellesley. Prior to succeeding his father as the 2nd Earl of Mornington in 1781, he was Viscount Wellesley.

• He held the position of Governor-General of India from 1798 to 1805 before going on to hold the positions of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Foreign Secretary in the British Cabinet.
• The fourth and last Anglo-Mysore war was fought during his rule, and Tipu was slain. Additionally, Bhonsle, Scindia, and Holkar were defeated in the Second Anglo-Maratha War.
• The kings of Mysore, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Bundi, Macheri, Bharatpur, and Oudh, as well as Tanjore, Berar, Peshwa, and the Nizam of Hyderabad, approved of Wellesley’s “subsidiary alliance” approach.
• The Censorship of the Press Act of 1799 was passed during his administration.
• Fort William College was established in 1800 to educate government officials.

Lord George Barlow: Governor General of Bengal’s Legacy (1805-1807) #

Sir George Barlow (1762–1847) was a citizen of Bengal who held the positions of Governor of Madras from 1808 to 1813 and the provisional Governor General of Fort William in Bengal from October 1805 to July 1807.

• George Barlow began working for the Company in 1778. During Cornwallis’ rule, he served as the board of revenue’s secretary. He played a key role in creating the laws and regulations for the permanent settlement.
• Barlow joined the Council in October 1801 after being elected chief secretary of the Supreme Government of Calcutta in 1796.
• Up until July 1807, when Lord Minto, the official Governor General, took office, Barlow served as acting governor-general.
• Due to Barlow’s outstanding performance under the administrations of Cornwallis, John Shore, and Wellesley, he was appointed a baronet in 1803.
• George Barlow was named Madras’ governor in December 1807.

Lord Minto-I: Governor General of Bengal’s Legacy (1807-1813) #

Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 1st Earl of Minto, was a British diplomat and politician who served in the House of Commons from 1776 to 1795. He was born on April 23, 1751, and died on June 21, 1814.

• From 1793 to 1796, he served as Viceroy of the transient Anglo-Corsican Kingdom, and from July 1807 to 1813, he served as Governor-General of India.
• When he was chosen as Governor General in 1806, Lord Minto was an experienced politician with a good education who had spent many years overseeing government matters.
• He was one of the House of Commons managers assigned to handle the impeachment of Warren Hastings, and he placed a specific emphasis on the prosecution of Sir Elijah Impey.
• He was chosen Governor General of Bengal by the Court of Directors with the condition that he follow Lord Cornwallis and reject Lord Wellesley’s policies, which was still a source of dread in Leadenhall Street.
• It was a major victory for him when he joined Punjab ruler Ranjit Singh to sign the Treaty of Amritsar in 1809. Ranjit was now looking east after establishing his dominance to the west of the Sutlej.

Francis Rawdon Hastings: Governor General of Bengal’s Legacy (1813-1823) #

Francis Edward Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings, was a British statesman who lived from December 9, 1754, to November 28, 1826.

• The Honourable Francis Rawdon, an Anglo-Irish statesman and military officer who served as Governor-General of India from 1813 to 1823, was also known as Lord Rawdon between 1762 and 1783 and The Earl of Moira from 1793 and 1816.
• During the American Revolutionary War and the War of the First Coalition in 1794, he also spent years serving with British forces.
• In line with Francis Hastings, 10th Earl of Huntingdon, his maternal uncle’s bequest, he adopted the surname “Hastings” in 1790.

Lord Amherst: Governor General of Bengal’s Legacy (1823-1828) #

William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, was a British colonial administrator and diplomat who lived from 14 January 1773 to 13 March 1857. He held the position of Governor-General of India between 1823 to 1828.

• Arakan and Tenasserim were ceded to the British Empire as a result of the conquest of Assam, which precipitated the first Burmese War in 1824.
• Following the resignation of Governor-General Lord Hastings in 1823, Amherst was appointed.
• Hastings and London got into a battle over the Bengal Army’s officers’ field pay, which he was able to dodge by waging two wars in quick succession against Nepal and the Maratha Confederacy.
• But in the early 1820s, his refusal to reduce field pay for peacetime service led to the appointment of Amherst, who was supposed to carry out London’s demands.
• However, Amherst was a novice governor who, at least at the beginning of his administration in Calcutta, was greatly influenced by top military figures in Bengal like Sir Edward Paget.

Conclusion #

Until 1833, the title was “governor-general of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal.” “Governor-general of India” became the official title on April 22, 1834, thanks to the Government of India Act of 1833.