British Administration, Acts and Legislation

In time order:

• Dual Government of Bengal (1765 to 1772): Clive. The Company held the Diwani (revenue), the Nawab kept the Nizamat (administration). Warren Hastings ended it in 1772.
• Regulating Act, 1773: the first step by Parliament to control the Company. The Governor of Bengal became Governor-General of Bengal (Warren Hastings) with a council of four; Bombay and Madras came under him; a Supreme Court was set up at Calcutta. It changed both the Company's constitution at home and its government in India.
• Pitt's India Act, 1784: a Board of Control of six members in London took charge of the Company's civil, military and revenue affairs, while the Court of Directors kept trade (the double government). The Governor-General in Council could not declare war or make treaties without approval, and was made supreme over the Bombay and Madras Presidencies.
• Charter Act, 1813: ended the Company's trade monopoly in India (except tea and the China trade) and set aside one lakh rupees a year for education.
• Charter Act, 1833: the Governor-General of Bengal became Governor-General of India (William Bentinck); it provided for a Law Commission (Macaulay's, 1834) to codify Indian laws.
• Government of India Act, 1858: Company rule ended; power passed to the Crown. The Board of Control and Court of Directors were abolished; a Secretary of State for India took charge, advised by a 15-member Council of India.

In time order:

• Indian High Courts Act, 1861: High Courts at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras replaced the old Supreme Courts and Sadar Adalats.
• Factory Act, 1881 (Ripon): limited the working hours of children. The 1891 Act limited women's hours too.
• Age of Consent Act, 1891: raised the age of consent for girls from 10 to 12.
• Indian Councils Act, 1909 (Morley-Minto Reforms): enlarged the legislative councils and gave separate electorates to Muslims.
• Government of India Act, 1919 (Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms): dyarchy in the provinces; a bicameral central legislature of the Council of State and the Central Legislative Assembly.
• Government of India Act, 1935: ended provincial dyarchy and gave provincial autonomy; proposed an All-India Federation and dyarchy at the Centre. It gave neither independence nor dominion status.

One line each, in time order:

• Cornwallis (1786 to 1793): Permanent Settlement; the Cornwallis Code (1793), which separated revenue from judicial work and brought the rule of written law; districts split into thanas under a daroga (1792).
• Mountstuart Elphinstone: Governor of Bombay, 1819 to 1827.
• William Bentinck: banned sati in 1829 (Regulation XVII).
• Mayo: the first census, 1872; financial decentralisation (1870).
• Lytton: the Vernacular Press Act, 1878.
• Ripon: repealed the Press Act (1882); the resolution on local self-government (1882); the Ilbert Bill (1883), drafted by law member C. P. Ilbert, to let Indian judges try Europeans.
• Curzon (1899 to 1905): partition of Bengal (1905); the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act (1904); the Police Commission and the CID; the Universities Act (1904).

Satyendranath Tagore was the first Indian to enter the covenanted civil service (the ICS), in 1863.

In time order:

• Calcutta Madrasa (1781): Warren Hastings, for Arabic, Persian and Islamic law.
• Asiatic Society of Bengal (1784): Sir William Jones.
• Sanskrit College, Benaras (1791): Jonathan Duncan.
• Fort William College (1800): Lord Wellesley, to train Company officials.
• Charter Act (1813): one lakh rupees a year for education.
• Macaulay's Minute (1835): favoured English education over Sanskrit and Arabic learning.
• Wood's Despatch (1854): Sir Charles Wood; a graded system from primary schools to universities, called the Magna Carta of English education in India. It led to the universities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras (1857).
• Hunter Commission (1882): on primary and secondary education.