India Act

India Act
(1858)
   An act of the British parliament abolishing the East India Company, which had conquered a large Indian empire, and replaced its rule with that of a viceroy directly responsible to the British government. The East India Company, originally formed in 1600, had acquired, often through force of circumstance rather than policy, a large territorial empire, an empire that had the not unintended effect of enriching many of its owners and employees. Indian government became controversial in the eighteenth century more because of the feared influence of its wealth upon Parliament than because of concerns about the government of India itself. William Pitt ’s India Bills of 1784 and 1793 established a board of control, whose name made it clear that the object was to control the company rather than to govern India. Throughout the early nineteenth century, successive India bills renewed the company’s charter on a 20-year basis, the final one being in 1853. Each bill reduced the company’s powers and patronage under the vague idea that it ought eventually to be abolished entirely and under the influence of those like Thomas Babington Macaulay who held to the then relatively novel doctrine that English government in India could be justified only if it served the good of India. The systematizing and progressive Victorian mind felt it increasingly anomalous that a commercial organization should simultaneously exercise sovereign powers.
   The Indian sepoy mutiny of 1857–1858, perceived to have been the result of company misgovernment, crystallized support for this view. An India bill introduced by Lord Palmerston commanded such bipartisan support that when his government fell on an unrelated matter, it was reintroduced in much the same form by Benjamin Disraeli, acting for the new administration of Lord Derby. The Government of India Act established the post of secretary of state for India, who sat in the cabinet, advised by an Indian council, and communicated with a viceroy at Calcutta. It brought the company’s armies under crown control and paid off its owners and creditors. Lord Stanley, later the fifteenth Earl of Derby, became the first Indian secretary of state, and Lord Canning the first viceroy.
   See also <>.
   FURTHER READING:
    Dodwell, H. H., ed. The Cambridge History of the British Empire, Vol. 5, India, 1858–1918. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1932;
    Metcalf, T. R. The Aftermath of Revolt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964.
   MARK F. PROUDMAN

Encyclopedia of the Age of Imperialism, 1800–1914. 2014.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Government of India Act 1935 — The Government of India Act 1935 ( 26 Geo. 5 1 Edw. 8 c. 2 ) was the last pre independence constitution of the British Raj. The significant aspects of the act were: * It granted Indian provinces autonomy and ended the dyarchy introduced by the… …   Wikipedia

  • Government of India Act 1858 — The Government of India Act 1858, actually entitled An Act for the Better Government of India, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (21 22 Vict. c. 106) passed on August 2, 1858. Its provisions called for the liquidation of the… …   Wikipedia

  • Defence of India Act 1915 — The Defence of India Act 1915, also referred to as the Defence of India Regulations Act, was an Emergency Criminal Law enacted by the British Raj in India in 1915 with the intention of curtailing the nationalist and revolutionary activities… …   Wikipedia

  • Pitt's India Act — of 1784 was the enactment of the British Parliament to bring the administration of the British East India Company under the control of the British Government. It was made necessary to address the shortcoming of the East India Company Act (also… …   Wikipedia

  • Government of India Act — The term Government of India Act refers to any one of a series of Acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to regulate the government of British India, in particular:*Government of India Act 1833 (also known as the Charter Act ), which …   Wikipedia

  • Government of India Act 1919 — The Government of India Act 1919 (9 10 Geo. V c. 101) was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to expand participation of the natives in the government of India. The Act embodied the reforms recommended in the report of the Secretary of …   Wikipedia

  • Government of India Act 1909 — Indian Councils Act of 1909, commonly known as the Morley Minto Reforms, began when John Morley, the Liberal Secretary of State for India, and the Conservative Governor General of India, The Earl of Minto, believed that cracking down on terrorism …   Wikipedia

  • Government of India Act 1858 — Der Government of India Act 1858,[1] oder auch An Act for the Better Government of India, ist die Bezeichnung eines Gesetzes, das am 2. August 1858 vom britischen Parlament verabschiedet wurde. Es beendete die Oberherrschaft der Britischen… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Pitt's India Act — Der Ausdruck Pitt s India Act bezeichnet ein 1784 erlassenes Gesetz des Britischen Parlaments, das die Verwaltung der Britischen Ostindien Kompanie der britischen Regierung unterstellte. Es war notwendig geworden, um den aus dem East India… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Pitt’s India Act — Der Ausdruck Pitt s India Act bezeichnet ein 1784 erlassenes Gesetz des Britischen Parlaments, das die Verwaltung der Britischen Ostindien Kompanie der britischen Regierung unterstellte. Es war notwendig geworden, um den aus dem East India… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”