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b y Robert Franklin Stuart Tate Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of London September 1972 ProQuest Number: 11010434 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 11010434 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ABSTRACT This thesis is a study of the impact of British politics on Indian policy during the twenty year period which followed the re newal of the East India Company's Charter in 1833. The view taken is that the policy of the Home Government of India is inseparable from that of the Ministry generally. Within the 'dual1 system of the Home Government the Cabinet Minister for India, the President of the Board of Control, is seen to exercise a dominant role while the Court of Directors of the East India Company, a body of Indian experience, act, with a varying degree of success, the part of a check upon his authority. The changes centering around the Reform of Parliament in 1832 redefined the basis of British politics and gave rise to a "precocious development of party politics" with an accompanying alternation of party governments which continued throughout the twenty years under review. Owing to this development two sets of Indian policy emerge during this period, one proper to the years of Whig administration and one associated with those of Sir Robert Peel's Conservative Ministries. The pervasive influence of Ministry and party extends even to the highest offices in the In dian administration at this time for, starting with Auckland, the Governors General are selected from their respective Cabinets and go out to India in the full knowledge of the views of the British Govern ment. The determining role of British history on Indian development is therefore observed as it acts through the work of the Cabinet Minister for India in association with the Ministry's appointee, the Governor General. The twenty years over which this study extends provide a sufficiently long time to trace the development of significant aspects of Indian policy in four principal areas, those of finance, foreign affairs, the native states and law reform. 4 PKEIVICE As this thesis is concerned with the work of successive Cabinet Ministers for India the private papers of British states men have provided the most important sources of material. The greater part of these papers are to be found in the India Office Library, the Public Record Office, and the British Museum and I should like to thank the staff, in general, of these institutions for the kind help they have always given me. To meet the expenses incurred in viewing papers outside London the Central Research Fund of the University has provided the necessary funds. The Charles Henry Foyle Trust and the Mercerfs Company of the City of London have also provided timely financial help while the Institute of Historical Research has supplied a tranquil place in which to write. thanks also go to Mr. S.W.Shelton of Glyn's Bank in Lombard Street and to Miss K.E.Bryon of Martin's for the time they took in showing me the papers in their keeping bearing on East Indian affairs. My work was commenced under Mr. John Harrison of the School of Oriental and African Studies and completed under Professor K. Ballhatchet. Under the tolerant guidance of Mr. Harrison I was able to develop.my own approach to this study while under Professor Ballhatchet's direction I was able finally to come to an end of my Odyssey. Professor C.H.Philips kindly read and commented on part of my v/ork. So too did Peter Marshall of King's College, London, and Professor John Gallagher of Trinity College, Cambridge. ABBREVIATIONS Add. Mss. Additional Manuscripts of the British Museum. C.H.I. Cambridge History of India. E.P. Ellenborough Papers. Eur.Mss. European Manuscripts. Home Misc. Home Miscellaneous Series. N.P. Negotiation Papers. Papers Respecting the Negotiations with His Majesty's Ministers on the subject of the East India Company's Charter. O.H.I. Oxford History of India. W.P. Wood Papers. CONTENTS Abstract ........................................... page 2 Preface ................................ .. .. page 4 Abbreviations page5 Introduction: The Period and its significance. .. P a S'e 8 Chapter One: The Home Government: Its organization and the role of the Minister for India, the Court of Directors, and British politics during the years 1 8 3 4 - 5 3 page14 Chapter Two: The Charter Act of 1833 as a party political a c t PaS'e 84 Chapter Three: The sequel to the Charter Act, Whigs and Conservatives 1833-35 page134 Chapter Four: Indian policy during the Melbourne Ministry l835-4l. The abandonment of radical re form and the adoption of sin increasingly active foreign policy ........... page191 Chapter Five: Peace and Consolidation, the Conservative Alternative during the Ministry of Sir Robert Peel, 1841-46 page 241 Chapter Six: A succession of Ministries. Indian policy during the Governments of Russell, Derby and Aberdeen, 1846-33 PaSe 290 7 Conclusion: A summary of observations on the Period as they relate to the Argument Bibliography ...................................... page 354 Introduction THE PERIOD AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE 9 INTRODUCTION This study is set amidst years of great transformation:.!]! Britain, years which saw "fundamental political and constitutional reforms, deep sectional and sectarian controversies ... an extra** ordinary and precocious development of party politics, some epoch- making administrative innovations and the elaboration of fiscal and financial policies which set the pattern for the rest of the century11. The three and a half decades following Waterloo were in fact 11 the formative period of Victorian Britain11.^ This study commences in the middle of that period, at a time when the Great Reform of Parliament, Toy giving political recognition to the economic and social consequences of the Industrial Revolution, had profoundly altered the conditions of British politics. As with Britain, the years from Waterloo down to the end of our period were of fundamental importance in the development of modem India. With the final collapse of Maratha power in l8l8 British para- mouncy was an undisputed fact. As in the British case, it was the l830s which saw a fundamental political redefinition in India by Parliamentary enactment. By the Charter Act of 1833» one of a series of measures associated with the Great Reform of 1 8 3 2 , the Governor General df Bengal became the Governor General of India. In the hands ^See N. Gash, The Age of Peel, p.l. 10 of the Supreme Government at Calcutta was centralized all legis lative and executive power while a Law Commission, charged with the task of elaborating a system of laws, judiciary and police, common to all British India was created and attached to it. The act of 1833 also terminated the trading activities of the East India Company leaving it a purely administrative body completely under the authority of the Crown’s Board of Control. Much in the act had a bearing on the social condition of the natives of India, and the years that followed saw the emergence of a national system of education, a public works program, the beginningcf the Government's association with the construction of the Indian railway system, the institution of the penny post and the telegraph system. They saw too, the creation of the Indian Finance Department and the reform of the Indian tariff system, controversies on the Government's re lationship to the religious practices of Indians, about slavery in India, and the exportation of Indian labour overseas, the conquest of the Sind, of the Punjab, and Pegu and the annexation of a number of princely states. The remarkably comprehensive character of the Charter Act of 1833 was to a large extent an expression of the nature of the Reform Ministry which brought it forward and the reformed Parliament which enacted it. That this Act forms a watershed in the development of modern India is reflected by the fact that it forms the terminal point for a number of studies and the starting point for a number of others. C.H.Philips has brought the study cf the influence of the Home Government upon British policy in India down to the year 1834. Among the works that have followed since the publication of his 'East India Company 1782f-l83/t , B.B.Misra has provided a study of 'The Central Administration of the Eat India Company 1773-1832*- » and A. Tripathi one of Trade and Finance in the Bengal Presidency, 1793-1833 . Among those taking the Charter Act of 1833 as a start ing point have been P. J.Thomas in his Growth of Federal Finance in India from 1833 to 1939 , S.V.Desika Char with Centralized Legis lation, A history of the legislative system of British India from 183 ^ to l86l and A.C.Banerjee*s f,,fhe working of the Supreme Govern ment of India and its constitutional relations with the Home Author- itiesm 1833-53". Important though the Charter Act of 1833 was for the subse quent conduct of Indian government}this thesis is not chiefly con cerned with the immediate or prospective provisions of that great act of Indian policy.