Governor Generals Of India (1832-1858): The Evolution of Indian Leadership

Transformation to Governor-General of India: 1833 Charter Act Shift #

In 1833, a Charter Act renamed the position of Governor-General of Bengal to “Governor-General of India” (William Bentinck served as the first Governor-General of India). This office reported to the Court of Directors of the East India Company and was essentially administrative in nature.

Lord William Bentinck: Transformative Governance in Colonial India (1828-1835) #

Former British soldier and statesman Lord William Bentinck. He served as the Governor-General of India from 1828 to 1835.

• He is credited with major social and educational changes in India, such as the elimination of sati, the ban on women seeing cremations on Varanasi’s ghats, the eradication of female infanticide, and the outlawing of human sacrifice.
• Bentinck successfully approved the Bengal Sati Regulation in 1829 after conferring with the army and government representatives.
• The single competitor, the Dharma Sabha, appealed to the Privy Council, but Sati’s prohibition was confirmed.
• He ended lawlessness by eradicating thuggee, which existed for more than 450 years, with the aid of his main captain, William Henry Sleeman.
• He played a key role in establishing English as a language of teaching in India along with Macaulay.

Sir Charles Metcalfe: Brief Legacy Amid English Politics (1835-1836) #

Lord Metcalfe succeeded Lord William Bentinck as the senior member of the council and served as the Governor General of India from 1835 to 1836.

• His brief term in government is significant for a policy he implemented that was started by his predecessor. He is well renowned for giving the press total freedom.
• There were others who disagreed with this strategy both at home and in India, but it was the general consensus in India.
• Known as the “Liberator of India Press” for his liberal press policies, Lord Metcalfe was soon a victim of English party politics.

Lord Auckland: Tripartite Treaty, Simla Manifesto, and Afghan Venture #

George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland, was an English politician and colonial administrator who lived from 25 August 1784 to 1 January 1849.

• From 1836 to 1842, he served as Governor-General of India and First Lord of the Admiralty three times each.
• Lord Auckland, Shah Shuja of Afghanistan, and Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Sikh Empire all signed the Tripartite Treaty in June 1838.
• John Russell Colvin, who became his personal secretary and eventually the lieutenant governor of the North-West Provinces, had a son named Auckland Colvin after him. 
• On October 1, 1838, Lord Auckland issued the Simla Manifesto, declared war, and overthrew Dost Mahommed Khan.
• The Afghan campaign, however, ultimately utterly failed. The next year, he appointed Lord Ellenborough as his successor as governor before departing for England.

Lord Ellenborough: Policies, Polarization, and Public Discontent #

From February 1842 until June 1844, Lord Ellenborough (1790-1871) served as governor-general of India.

• Between 1828 and 1841, Edward Law Ellenborough, a Tory politician, served as president of the board of control four times, a post similar to that of a cabinet member.
• He was educated at Eton and St. John’s, Cambridge, and was the son of Edward Baron Ellenborough, the Lord Chief Justice of England.
• In October 1941, the cabinet proposed Lord Ellenborough as the candidate for Governor General of India.
• However, Ellenborough’s administration was quite polarising. British India’s ties with its neighbours became more antagonistic than ever as a result of his aggressive policies. He had an incorrect understanding of Indian issues, which made him unlikable to the general populace.

Lord Hardinge-I: Wars to Governance in Colonial India (1844-1848) #

Henry Hardinge served as a British Army officer and politician from 30 March 1785 to 24 September 1856. From 1844 until 1848, he presided as the Governor General of India.

• He served in the Waterloo Campaign and the Peninsular War before being named Secretary of War in Wellington’s government.
• He rejoined Sir Robert Peel’s government in 1830 as Secretary at War after serving as Chief Secretary for Ireland.
• Later, he held the positions of Commander-in-Chief of the Forces during the Crimean War and Governor-General of India during the First Anglo-Sikh War.
• After Lord Ellenborough was called back, the Ministry suggested Sir Henry Hardinge as his replacement, and the Court of Directors heartily endorsed the suggestion.

Lord Dalhousie: Governance, Imperialism, and Economic Shifts in India (1848-1856) #

Lord Dalhousie was a Scottish statesman and British Indian colonial governor. He went under the names Lord Ramsay up to 1838 and The Earl of Dalhousie from 1838 and 1849. He served as the Governor-General of India from 1848 to 1856.

• In the words of Dalhousie, “The extinction of all native Indian states is just a matter of time.”
• His notion that British governance was vastly superior to that of the harsh and corrupt native monarchs served as the pretext for this approach.
• The main objective of Dalhousie’s strategy was to boost British exports to India.
• Like previous aggressive imperialists, Dalhousie thought that the mismanagement of the Indian rulers of India’s native states was the cause of the decline in British exports to those states.

Lord Canning: Transition from Governor-General to Viceroy amid 1857 Uprising #

The first Viceroy of India was Charles John Canning, 1st Earl Canning, an English statesman who had previously served as Governor-General of India until the East India Company’s authority was passed to the British Crown following the defeat of the 1857 uprising.

• He passed the Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act of 1856 (passed on July 16, 1856) and the General Service Enlistment Act of 1856 as one of his first acts after taking on administrative duties in India. But before these laws could go into effect, a crucial event in Indian history took place.
• The Revolt of 1857 was that occasion; it was the result of long-simmering discontent regarding the British presence and policies in India.
• His detractors mockingly referred to him as “Clemency Canning” since at the time, widespread British opinion supported mass, indiscriminate reprisal against the local populace.

Conclusion #

In August 1858, a law was passed by the British parliament that effectively put an end to the company’s authority. The position of Viceroy, or the representative of the king, was created by the Government of India Act of 1858. The incumbent of the Governor-General of India post was to hold this one as well. The title of viceroy, which denotes the representative of the king or queen, was now bestowed upon the British Governor-General of India.