2. British India Records
History of British Rule in India
Royal Charter
The history of British Rule in India is inextricably linked with the inception of the British East India Company or "John Company", known as Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies,prior to the Charter. Queen Elizabeth I granted the company a Royal Charter in 1600, permitting them a monopoly on trade to the East Indies for 21 years. In 1615, a treaty with the ruling Mughals, specifically Emperor Jahangir, allowed the British East India Company to establish trading posts in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta.
The treaty came about in part due to the defeat of the Portuguese by the British at the Battle of Swally in 1612. This victory pleased the Mughals, particularly due to the Portuguese’s anti-Muslim stance, including the harassment of pilgrim ships on route to Mecca.
The treaty saw the Company offer to supply Jahangir with European rarities and fine goods for his palace. An initial aim of the Company had been to dissolve the Dutch monopoly on trade in the East Indies; this objective was jettisoned following the Amboina Massacre and instead the focus shifted solely to activities in the Indian sub-continent.
The Growth of The British East India Company
Following the restoration of the monarchy to Britain after the death of Oliver Cromwell, the Company’s standing increased significantly. King Charles II in 1670 granted it the right to acquire land, mint money, command its own army, make war, and rule any land that it gained.
In essence the Company had become a nation in itself. Its dominance was briefly threatened by a 1694 Act deregulating trade in India. The Act was prompted largely by the pressure of tradesmen keen to emulate the new-found wealth of Company employees. A merge between the two bodies occurred soon after, in 1702, securing exclusivity for the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, as the merged company was titled.
The only issue was the lack of permanent establishment – parliament was unwilling to concede this as it would have limited its ability to bargain with, and therefore benefit financially from, the now highly profitable Company.
Clive of India and the French East India Company
The British East India Company faced competition from its French counterpart, governed by Joseph François Dupleix from 1741. The Mughal Empire was disintegrating and the French were as keen as the British to exploit this weakening grip on power to gain land for themselves.
This resulted in a number of conflicts between troops of the two companies as they struggled for supremacy in the region. Ultimately Robert Clive, otherwise known as Clive of India, led the British East India Company to a series of important victories culminating in the Battle of Plassey in which his forces defeated the Nawab of Bengal.
With this victory, crucial territory was gained; Bengal and its wealth came under the rule of the Company. The heavy tax burden placed on the farmers of Bengal led to an horrendous Famine in 1769-1773, in which up to a third of the population died.
The Regulating Act, 1773
Corruption was rife in the Company’s administration of Bengal, following the Battle of Plassey, and this led to the British Government’s intervention, in the form of The Regulating Act of 1773. The Company’s employees had been practicing wide-ranging corruption; using the wealth of Bengal to make a fortune for themselves rather than their shareholders.
So widespread was this malpractice that the Company was running at a loss by the time its Charter was due for renewal in 1773. This shortfall saw the Company apply to the Government for a loan; it was provided in conjunction with The Regulating Act. The Act saw the introduction of a Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William; this appointment was in tandem with the appointment of a Council of four councillors.
The first Governor-General was Warren Hastings, governor of Bengal at the time. As well as indicating for the first time a movement towards Crown control over British interest in India, the Act attempted to curb corruption, banning the Governor-General and his employees from accepting gifts or monies from the Indian leaders and zamindars. This was largely unsuccessful and Hastings himself was impeached in 1787, before being exonerated in 1795.
Indian Rebellion
The Crown’s control of British interests increased, as did the territory over which they were able to claim dominion. Under the Governor-Generals, French influence was removed from India, whilst both Punjab and Burma were annexed.
As well as expansion through military means, the Company gained further land through the highly controversial doctrine of lapse, introduced by Lord Dalhousie. This measure meant that any princely state, under the influence of the British East India Company, would be annexed by the Company if its ruler died without an heir or was ‘manifestly incompetent’. The ability for a ruler without issue to choose their replacement was a long established custom and its removal was a bitter blow to the increasingly dissatisfied native population.
Such cultural clashes between the native soldiers, or sepoys, and the British officers, as well as a feeling from the Indian aristocracy that their influence was being eroded as their land was taken from them, led in part to the Rebellion of 1857. The Company’s expansion, whilst contentious, was by this time necessary; huge quantities of Indian wealth were being shipped home and helping to fund the Industrial Revolution.
A strict Zamindari system, reminiscent of feudalism, was in place to gather the monies and goods as ‘taxes’, driving a further wedge between the administration and the locals. Another contributing factor to the uprising was the tale, thought to be untrue, that the sepoys had been issued with cartridges for the new Enfield Rifle that were oiled with both cow and pig fat, making them deeply offensive to Hindu and Muslim soldiers alike.
The Indian Mutiny, 1857
The changes being put in place by the British administration – interference with traditions and customs, an alleged drive towards Westernisation and evangelism, the annexing of princely lands and the lack of integration of Indian men into the civil service – had bred mass antipathy.
There were reports of arson in April 1857, but the mutiny proper began as a direct result of the Enfield Rifle cartridges. The violence began at Meerut on 10 May 1857; Indian soldiers of the Bengal army refused to use the controversial ammunition and were imprisoned. Their comrades turned on British officers to liberate them, then on the European cantonment, killing many women and children.
The rebels hoped to reinstate the Mughal Empire, even coercing the elderly Bahadur Shah Jafar into proclaiming himself as Emperor. The lack of a popular rising doomed the rebellion to failure; the British’s military strength and organisation proved too much for the insurrectionists.
The British retaliation, involving the razing of villages on the grounds of sympathising with the uprising, was dubbed ‘The Devil’s Wind’ by Indians. The mutiny was characterised by brutality on both sides, with a number of massacres were perpetrated, notably at Cawnpore and Lucknow.
Consequences of the Rebellion: The British Raj
The most obvious consequence of the mutiny, seen by some as the first War of Independence in India, was the dissolution of the British East India Company’s rule. India now came under direct control from the British Crown, the India Office was established and the Governor-General became Viceroy of India.
To reflect this new direct rule, in 1877 Queen Victoria was declared ‘Empress of India’. Bahadur Shah Jafar was exiled and most of his family killed, signifying the end of the Mughal Empire. Most institutions and structures remained in place after the changeover to direct rule but in light of the mutiny British attitudes towards governing undertook something of a sea change.
From an organisational point of view, Indians became ostensibly more involved in the governing of their country; from the 1880’s the Civil Service began to employ a number of natives. Paradoxically the divide between British and Indians grew; the mutiny of 1857 had alarmed the ruling classes; particularly concerning was the unity displayed by the sepoys. The British retreated into a more insular existence, typified by private clubs in which an air of decadence and disdain towards the local populace pervaded.
One example of the growing chasm between the races might be seen in the so called ‘white mutiny’ of 1883. The proposal that Indians might be allowed to try European legal cases was met with anger and uproar by the British, both at home and in India. Such was the reaction the bill was heavily amended.
In order to shore up the footings of the Empire the British operated a divide and rule policy, exaggerating and extenuating the internal differences of the native population, particularly along religious grounds. The governmental and political organisation of the British Raj was largely based around advice from the most conservative elements of the Indian hierarchy, leading to a very heavily defined caste-based society, and ultimately a growing divide between the emerging middle classes and the desperately poor.
Bengal Civil Service gradation list 1869
The Bengal Civil Service gradation list available to search here comes from an original document belonging to Valmay S Young. On her site, there is a page which sorts the civil servants in the gradation list alphabetically by surname and then, within that, by rank (not alphabetically by initials). At the time of this gradation list India was divided into three provinces; Bengal, Bombay and Madras.
The original list gives the Bengal presidency Civil Servants (also known as “Civilians”) graded in order by class (based upon length of service) and then by date of seniority within that rank (i.e. the date the rank was attained).
NB: Civil servants serving within the other two presidencies (Bombay and Madras) are not included. See map above for what this means, viz that only civil servants in northern India are included:
Promotion is by length of service. Civil Service grades are as follows:
- First Class – from 34th year of service in India
- Second Class – from 21st to 34th year in India
- Third Class – from 13th to 20th year in India
- Fourth Class – from 9th to 12th year in India
- Fifth Class – from 5th to 8th year in India
- Sixth Class – first 4 years in India
Given the length of service necessary to become Class I, it is clear that there will be very few civil servants of that grade. The top of each page of the gradation list gives the class of everyone on that page
The gradation list gives the following fields:
- a marginal abbreviation:
- B = appointment under Government of Bombay
- I = appointments under Government of India
- P = appointment under Government of Punjab
- W = appointment under Government of North West Provinces
- Number
- Name (below their Class)
- Dates of arrival (specific dates, within year bands)
- (length of) actual service as at 1st Jan 1869 (Y & M = in Years & Months)
- Appointments: abbreviations used include:
- Asst - Assistant
- Collr - Collector
- Commr - Commissioner
- Depy - Deputy
- Divn - Division
- Jt - Joint
- Magt - Magistrate
- Medl - Medical
- Offg - Officiating
- Supdt - Superintendent
- &c - etcetera
This is from the first page of the gradation list:
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