The British East India Company’s Arrival and Rise in India

 The East India Company was founded in London in 1600 as a joint-stock trading company. It received a royal charter on December 31, 1600, giving it a monopoly on English trade with Asia. In 1608 the Company’s first ships landed at Surat on India’s west coast. Over the 17th century it built trading “factories” or forts at key ports: Surat, Madras (1639), Bombay (1668), and Calcutta (from 1690s). Early Company agents like Sir Thomas Roe secured permission from Mughal Emperor Jahangir (c.1615) to establish a factory at Surat. By the early 1700s the Company was trading textiles, indigo, saltpeter, tea and spices and had even won an imperial decree (a 1717 “firman”) from Emperor Farrukh­siyar exempting it from customs duties in Bengal. In this period the British gradually eclipsed older European rivals (the Portuguese and Dutch) and built prosperous communities in the three Presidency towns (Calcutta, Bombay, Madras). By the mid-18th century, however, the Company was no longer just a trading venture but was drawn into Indian politics as the Mughal Empire weakened.

From Trade to Territory: Plassey, Buxar and Diwani

The Company’s major political break came in 1757 at the Battle of Plassey. There the East India Company’s military commander Robert Clive defeated the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah, through a combination of strategy and local alliances. A small British-led force (about 800 Europeans and 2,200 Indian sepoys) routed Siraj’s much larger army (estimated 50,000) on June 23, 1757. Crucially, Siraj’s commander Mir Jafar betrayed him and switched sides, enabling Clive’s victory. Plassey gave the Company effective control of Bengal, since the defeated Nawab was replaced by the compliant Mir Jafar. It also set the stage for the Company to demand revenue rights. As Clive later boasted to British leaders, once Bengal was under British influence there would be “little or no difficulty in obtaining the absolute possession of these rich kingdoms”. Historian Mark Cartwright notes that Plassey “wrest[ed] concessions from the Mughals, most importantly the right of land revenue” in Bengal – in short, the beginnings of British rule.

Seven years later the Battle of Buxar (1764) further confirmed Company power. In October 1764 an East India Company army under Major Hector Munro defeated a coalition of Indian rulers: the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II, the Nawab of Oudh (Awadh) Shuja-ud-Daula, and the ex-Nawab of Bengal, Mir Qasim. After Buxar the Mughal Emperor formally granted the Company the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in 1765 – that is, the right to collect land taxes. This gave the Company a vast new income and marked a clear transformation from traders into territorial rulers. One historian explains that Buxar’s outcome was that the Company gained “the crucial rights to raise taxes in various regions, a huge boost to the company’s coffers”. In practice, the Company now had the power of a sovereign in Bengal and neighboring provinces. In the next decades it used these tax revenues and its private army to expand throughout India.

Methods of Expansion: War, Treaties and Alliances

After establishing a strong base in Bengal, the Company expanded by a mix of military force and diplomacy. Key methods included:

• Military Conquest: The Company fought many wars to defeat rival rulers. Between 1764 and 1858 there were four Anglo-Mysore Wars against Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan (ending with Tipu’s defeat in 1799) and three Anglo-Maratha Wars (1798–1818) against the powerful Maratha Confederacy. In each case Britain’s disciplined armies and superior artillery prevailed. After Tipu’s death in 1799 the Mysore kingdom was reduced to a subsidiary state; after 1818 the Marathas were also broken. Similarly, two mid-19th-century Anglo-Sikh Wars (1845–46 and 1848–49) resulted in the annexation of the Sikh Empire and Punjab in 1849. By the mid-1800s British arms had subdued most major Indian powers. (As one account notes, under Governor-General Cornwallis and Lord Wellesley the British achieved “major victories … against Tipu Sultan of Mysore and the Marathas”.)

• Treaties and Economic Control: The Company also negotiated treaties that handed it rights within Indian states. After Plassey and Buxar it placed British Residents or agents at Mughal and other courts. Under the 1765 Treaty of Allahabad, Emperor Shah Alam II formally granted the Company’s English officials authority to collect Bengal’s revenue. In this way the Company became the de facto administrator of Bengal’s rich lands. More generally, the Company often turned local rulers into allies by offering military support and modern weaponry in return for trade privileges. For example, the Subsidiary Alliance system (introduced by Lord Wellesley around 1798) required Indian princes to host British troops and cede control of foreign affairs to Britain. Hyderabad (1798) and other states entered such alliances. In effect, these agreements turned rulers into British dependents, further extending Company influence without outright war.

• Doctrine of Lapse: In the mid-19th century Governor-General Lord Dalhousie applied a policy called the Doctrine of Lapse. Under this rule, any princely state whose ruler died without a natural heir would be annexed by the Company. Dalhousie believed Western rule was superior and should replace “Eastern” dynasties. Using this doctrine, the British annexed several states (Satara 1848, Jhansi 1853, Nagpur 1854, and finally Awadh 1856). These acts were often justified as preventing “evil” or incompetent rule. Dalhousie himself described projects like railways, telegraph and postal reform as the “three great engines of social improvement” – reflecting a belief that British rule brought progress.

In all these ways, the Company exploited rivalries and instability in India. British officials often used the principle of “divide and rule,” siding with one faction against another. They appointed British Residents at many princely courts, wielding influence behind the scenes. Over time, through battles, treaties, the subsidiary alliance and annexations, the East India Company laid firm foundations for what would become the British Empire in India.

Relations with Indian Powers

The Company’s rise forced it into relations with all the major states of India:

• The Mughal Empire: In the 17th century the Mughal Emperor was the paramount authority in northern India. By siding with rebels (like the Jats) and later through Plassey and Buxar, the British eroded Mughal power. The Company kept the Mughal Emperors as figureheads. After the 1765 revenue grants, Emperor Shah Alam II had no real control over Bengal. By the early 19th century the Mughal court in Delhi was a British puppet. During the 1857 revolt rebels even proclaimed the old Emperor Bahadur Shah II as their leader. After the revolt, the British deposed Bahadur Shah and formally ended the Mughal line (exiling him to Burma).

• The Marathas: The Marathas were a confederation of warrior states in central India, and Britain’s main rival in the late 1700s. After initial skirmishes, the Company defeated the Peshwa’s forces in 1803–04 and again in 1817–18. The Anglo-Maratha Wars ended Maratha power: in 1818 the Company captured the capital Pune and made the Peshwa a pensioner. This completed British control over most of peninsular India.

• Mysore: Haider Ali and his son Tipu Sultan ruled Mysore in the south and resisted British encroachment. Four Anglo-Mysore Wars (1767–99) were fought. Tipu was killed in 1799 when Srirangapatnam fell. Afterward, the Wodeyar dynasty was restored under British supervision. Mysore then became a subsidiary princely state (with a British Resident), serving as a buffer against other southern powers.

• The Sikhs: In Punjab, Ranjit Singh’s Sikh Empire was independent until his death in 1839. The British fought two wars with the Sikh army (1845–46 and 1848–49). By 1849 the last Sikh ruler was defeated and annexed. Punjab was added to British India, leaving no major military rivals in the north.

• Princely States: Hundreds of smaller kings and chiefs (Rajput and other princes) retained limited sovereignty but under British overlordship. Many accepted British Residents at their courts. They paid subsidies or troops to Britain, while Britain promised protection. The Company rarely tried to abolish these states outright (until applying lapse rules); instead it created a mosaic of indirectly ruled territories. By 1857, roughly one-third of the subcontinent’s rulers still held nominal power as British protégés (the rest under direct Company administration).

In short, through war, treaties and alliances, the Company gradually subdued rival powers across India. By the mid-19th century it was the dominant force in every region, with only the remote kingdom of Nepal and the tiny French and Portuguese enclaves outside its control.

The Revolt of 1857 and End of Company Rule

By the 1850s many Indians – soldiers and civilians alike – were deeply unhappy with Company rule. Heavy taxation, land annexations (especially Awadh in 1856), and insensitive policies had caused resentment. In May 1857 Indian sepoys (soldiers in the Company’s army) mutinied at Meerut and soon the rebellion spread to Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow and beyond. Although it started as a military revolt, it took on a wider character with peasants and princes joining. Many mutineers proclaimed the elderly Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar (a figurehead in Delhi) as the symbolic leader of India.

The “Great Rebellion of 1857” (often called India’s First War of Independence) saw fierce fighting. After a year of brutal conflict, the British suppressed the rebellion through force of arms. The rebellion’s failure ended any real power for the Company’s Indian allies. In its aftermath the British government decided the Company had proven a failed ruler. Parliament passed the Government of India Act of 1858, officially ending Company rule. On August 2, 1858, power in India was transferred to the British Crown.

The last Governor-General, Lord Canning, issued a Proclamation of 1858 (in Queen Victoria’s name) assuring Indians that the Crown would be more just than the Company had been. It promised to uphold the rights of “native princes” and respect local customs and religions. In practice, the British took over all administrative functions: the Governor-General now became the Viceroy (the Queen’s representative), and a new Secretary of State for India was appointed in London. The East India Company’s private armies were absorbed or disbanded, and its vast territories became the new British Raj.

The British Raj (1858–1947) and Its Impact

Under the British Raj (1858–1947) India was ruled directly by the British Crown. A uniform administration was established. The Government of India Act (1858) created a London-based Secretary of State for India with an advisory Council, while in India a Viceroy headed a new Indian Civil Service and army. British policies emphasized infrastructure (railways, telegraph, irrigation canals), Western-style education and law, and resource extraction. For example, Lord Dalhousie (Viceroy 1848–56) had laid “railways, the electric telegraph and uniform postage,” what he called the *“three great engines of social improvement”*. The Raj also consolidated rule over all British-controlled India, reorganizing provinces and codifying laws.

However, colonial rule also brought hardship. Traditional industries declined under free trade. High taxes and exploitative land systems caused rural distress. Famines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (made worse by colonial policies) killed millions. Indian society was also transformed – socially and culturally – by Western education and Christian missionary activity, which created new reform movements. The British also left a legacy of English language, new legal and governmental institutions, and a centralized bureaucracy which continued after independence.

Overall, the period from 1858 saw India governed as a crown colony (the Raj) by a foreign elite. This lasted until India and Pakistan gained independence in 1947.

Voices of the Era

• Robert Clive (1759): “I flatter myself I have made it pretty clear…that there will be little or no difficulty in obtaining the absolute possession of these rich kingdoms”. (Clive, writing to British leaders after Plassey, revealed the Company’s ambition to take control of Indian territory.)
• Warren Hastings (late 1700s): Hastings, the first Governor-General, famously declared on leaving India: “I love India a little more than my own country”. (This reflects how some Company officials immersed themselves in Indian life, even as they governed it.)
• Tipu Sultan (c.1790s): “To live like a lion for a day is far better than to live like a jackal for a hundred years”. (Tipu’s words, on the eve of his wars against the British, express his fierce resistance to British domination.)
• Bahadur Shah Zafar (1857): “As long as there remains the scent of faith in the hearts of our Ghazis, so long shall the sword of Hindustan flash before the throne of London”. (The last Mughal emperor wrote this verse during the 1857 revolt, defiantly claiming that Indian warriors would not submit to the British.)
• Lord Dalhousie (mid-1800s): The Governor-General praised the new railways, telegraphs and postal system as “the three great engines of social improvement”. (This sums up Dalhousie’s belief that British reforms brought progress to India – even as his annexations bred resentment.)

Each of these contemporary voices helps illustrate attitudes of the time – from British officials eager to expand control, to Indian rulers determined to resist it.