The British Rule

The British Rule

Modern History has its own importance in SSC CGL.A lot of question is asked every year from British Governor Generals and Viceroys of India.So, daily we will be posting two or three viceroys and few important points about them.

1.Sir Robert Clive

Governor of Bengal → Sir Robert Clive.

• He was the first & last Governor of Bengal. He remained the Governor of Bengal twice.
• He started the concept of the Dual Government or “Diarchy" in Bengal.
• He was known as the Kingmaker of the Bengal.
• He committed suicide after returning back to England in 1772.

2.Sir Warren Hastings

Governor General of Bengal → Sir Warren Hastings(1772 – 1785)

• Regulating Act was the first law passed by Britisher in India.(1773)
• Under this:-(i) The concept of dual govt. & Diarchy ended in Bengal.(ii) The supreme court was set up at Calcutta (1774) with total 4 judges. 
• He started the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1784), with the help of William Jones. 
• During his period, Geeta was translated into English by “Charles Wilkins”.
• The first newspaper of India “Bengal Gazette” was started in 1780 by “Mr. James Hickey”.
• 2nd Anglo-Mysore war was fought.
• He had a friendship with “Maharaja Chaith Singh” of Benaras & he was caught taking the bribe. This leads to the “Impeachment of Warren Hastings” in England. However, after 13 yrs. Of Impeachment proceedings, he was removed from all the charges.

3.Lord Cornwallis → (1786 – 1793) 

• He started civil service Examination in India in 1786. That is why he is known as the father of the civil services. Mr. Satyendra Nath Tagore became the first person to qualify the civil services examination.
• He started permanent settlement system in Bengal under which the King collected the taxes of his area and then he distributed these taxes into 11 equal parts out of which 10 parts were kept by Britishers & 1 part by the king.
• 3rd Anglo-Mysore war was started (1789-1792)

Lord Wellesley (1798-1809)

• He started the concept of Subsidiary alliance system in the year 1798 under which the British forces expanded in whole India and the whole expense of the forces was beared by the King himself.
• The Nizams of Hyderabad were the first ruler who excepted the subsidiary alliance system. 
• 4th Anglo-Mysore war was fought in 1799 and Tipu Sultan was killed.

Sir George Burlow (1805 – 1807)

• First Sipahi Vidroh - The “Mutiny of Sepoys” took place in the year 1806 at vellore (T.N) on the issue of the dress code. However the mutiny was very small and was suppressed by the Britishers in only few days.

Lord Minto I (1807-1813)

• He signed the famous Treaty of Amritsar in the year 1809 with Maharaja Ranjeet Singh after which it was decided that the Sikh empire will be concentrated upto the Satluj River.

• He passed the charter Act of 1813. Under this: (a) The Britishers decided to give 1 lakh Rs. every year for education in India.(b) The trading Monopoly of the Britishers ended in India except trading of Tea & opium and trading with China.

Lord William Bentinck (1828 – 1835)

• Starting of the Brahmo Samaj in the year 1828 by Raja Ram Mohan Roy. “Mughal king Akbar-II gave him title Raja”.
•  Abolition of the “Sati Practice” in 1829 on the efforts of Raja Ram Mohan Roy.
• Suppression of Thugs, 1830.
• He declared “English” as the official language of India in the year 1835, on the advice of Lord Macaulay(Father of India Judicial System).
•  He passed the Charter Act of 1833. Under this:-(a)The trading Monopoly of the Britishers Completely ended in India.(b)The post of Governor General of Bengal ended and the Governor General of India started. Thus he became the first “Governor General of India”.

Sir Charles Metcalfe (1835-1836)

• He removed all the restrictions on the vernacular press Act and made the press Independent. Owe to this he is known as “Liberator of Press in India”.However, he was removed from his post.

Lord Dalhousie (1848-1856)

• He started the first Indian Railways 16 April 1853 from “Bombay to Thane”.
• He started the first Telegraph Service of India, 1853 from “Calcutta to Agra”.
• He issued the first Postal Stamp of India (1854).
• He started the Public Works Department (PWD) in India.
• He started the first Engineering College at Roorkee. (Presently IIT Roorkee)
• He made Shimla as summer capital.
• He passed the “Widow Remarriage Act”1856 on the efforts of “Eshwar Chandra Vidyasagar”.
• He appointed the Education Commission known as “Wood’s Dispatch” in 1854 in order to improve the university level education in India.
• He passed “Doctrine of Lapse”, under this the adopted son of the king, after the death of his father cannot become the king and the whole empire will be under the Britishers. Under this policy he captured

1. Satara → 1848
2. Sambalpur & Jaitapur → 1849
3. Udaipur → 1852
4. Jhansi → 1853(Lakshmi Bai was killed by Sir Hugh Rose)
5. Nagpur → 1854
6. Awadh (Wajid Ali Shah) →1856 

Lord Canning (1856 – 1862)

• 3 universities were set up in India in the year 1857 at Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras.
• Mutiny of sepoys (Revolt of 1857) by a soldier named Mangal Panday at “Barrackpur in Bengal”
• Indigo Revolt or Nil Darpan took place in Bengal in 1859 by “Digambar Biswas & Bishnu Charan Biswas”
• Starting of the ASI → Archaeological Survey of India in 1861.
• He passed the Indian Council Act. Under this, the British Viceroy has the power to declare the emergency in India and during the emergency, he has the power to pass any new law without anybody’s permission.

Important People in the revolt of 1857.

Delhi  →  Bahadur Shah Jaffar II & Bakht khan

Kanpur  →  Nana Saheb (Dondhu Panth) & Tatya Tope

Lucknow  →  Begum Hazrath Mahal

Jhansi  →  Maharani Laxmibai

Bihar  →  Kunwar Singh & Amar Singh

Barrackpore → Mangal Pandey

Meerat  → Kadam Singh

Mathura → Devi Singh

Impact :-

The govt. of India Act 1858 was passed and the power to control over India was shifted from the East India company to Queen Victoria in England and the post of Governor general of India Ended & “Viceroy” of India started. Thus, “Lord Canning” became the first viceroy of India.

Lord Elgin I (1862-1864)

Three High Courts were set up in India in 1862. At Calcutta, Bombay and Madras.

Sir John Lawrence (1864-1869)

• He started the Indian Forest department, 1865.
• He extended the telegraphic communication upto the European countries.

Lord Mayo (1869-1872)

• “Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi” was born 2nd October, 1869 at Porbandar in the royal family of “Karamchand Gandhi” & “Putli Bai”.
• Lord Mayo conducted the first census of India. (1871)
• He started the department of Agriculture and Commerce in India.
• He started the statistical survey of India (SSI) which later on became (ISI) (India statistical Institute) 
• He started the famous “Mayo College” at Ajmer and Rajkot College at Gujarat for Indian Prince and Princess.
• He was the only viceroy to be killed during his term of office by a Pathan known as “Sher Afridi” at Andaman, 1872.

Lord Lytton (1876-1880) 

• He is known as the viceroy of the reverse character.
• “The Grand Delhi Darbar” of “1877” was setup for the welcome of queen Victoria where she was given the title of “Kaiser-i-Hind”(Queen of India)
• Mr. Gopal Hari Deshmukh who wear the Khadi clothes during the grand Delhi Darbar of 1877.
• Lord Lytton reimposed all the Restrictions on the Press through “Vernacular Press, Act” in 1878.
• He reduced the Maximum age for the Indians to quality the civil services exam from (21 to 18 yrs)
• He passed the Arm’s Act 1878. Under this it was mandatory to acquire the licence for keeping the arms.
• He appointed the “famine commission” in 1876 under “Sir Richard Strachey” and he also gave relief to the farmers by waving off their taxes.

Lord Ripon (1880 – 1884)

• He passed the first factory Act, 1881, under this the child Labour was prohibited in India. 
• He passed the Ilbert Bill, 1883, under this the Indian judges got the power to sentence the Europe Criminals but later on this Bill was withdrawn by the Britishers.
• He appointed the education commission, known as “Hunter commission” in 1882 in order to improve the secondary level education in India. 
• He passed the local self-government Act in 1882 under this the Panchayati Raj system started in India. That is why he is known as the “father of the Panchayati Raj” or father of Local self Government.

Lord Dufferin (1884-1888)

• Formation of Indian National Congress (INC) in the year 1885 at Gokul Das Tejpal Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya, Bombay by Mr. A. O. Hume with total 72 members. 

Important Sessions of INC

S.No.	Year	Place	President	Remarks (If any)
1.	1885	Bombay	Mr. Womesh Chandra Bannerjee (W.C. Bannerjee)	First President of INC
2.	1886	Calcutta	Dadabhai Naoroji	Also known as “Grand Old Man of India” the gave the famous theory of “Drain of wealth”
3.	1887	Madras	Badruddin Taiyabji	First Muslim President of INC
4.	1888	Allahabad	Sir George Yule	First British President
5.	1905	Benaras	Gopal Krishna Gokhle	Swadeshi Movement
6.	1906	Kolkata	Dadabhai	Swaraj (Self-governance)
7.	1907	Surat	Raas Bihari Bose	Split of Congress
8.	1916	Lucknow	A. C. Majumdar	Reunion of Congress
9.	1917	Calcutta	Annie Besant	First Women President of INC
10.	1923	Delhi	Maulana Abul kalam Azad	Youngest President of INC
11.	1924	Belgaum	Gandhi Ji
12.	1925	Kanpur	Sarojini Naidu	First Indian Women President
13.	1928	Calcutta	Motilal Nehru	Formation of All India Youth Congress
14.	1929	Lahore	Jawahar Lal Nehru	Declaration of Purna Swaraj
15.	1937	Faizpur (Maharashtra)	Jawahar Lal Nehru	First Session in village
16.	1938	Haripura (Gujarat)	Subhash Chandra Bose
17.	1946	Meerut	Acharya J. B. Kriplani
18.	1948	Jaipur	P. Sitara Mayya

Lord Lansdowne(1888-1894)

• He passed the second factory Act 1891, under this:-(i) There was a weekly holiday for the workers (Sunday Holiday). (ii) Fixed time period of working. (iii) He appointed the high-level Durand commission in 1893 to draw the political boundary between India & Afghanistan.(Now between Pakistan & Afghanistan). 

• In the year 1892, he divided the civil services examination into 3 parts:-(a) Imperial services → IAS (b)Provincial services → State PCS (c)Subordinate Services → Tehsildar 
• In 1893 → Swami Vivekanand deliver speech at Chicago on Zero. 
• Gandhiji was thrown out of the train, in South Africa at the famous St. Pietermaritzburg Railway station.

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