The Making of India Policy 1853-1865 (An Old and Rare Book)

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About the Book The object of the book is to study in depth the formation of British policy towards India by the Home and Supreme Governments during a crucial and eventful period. The Home Indian Government in London consisted of the East India Company's Court of Directors and the India Board before 1858, and the Secretary of State and India Council after the transfer of power from the Company to the Crown. The Supreme Government in Calcutta was centralised in the Governor-General and Supreme Council, subject to delegation of limited powers to the local governments. But the formation of policy, whether in London or in Calcutta, was liable to be influenced considerably by powerful pressure-groups operating at both ends.

Dr Chatterji has made a thorough and meticulous study of this intricate process of policy-making at the highest levels, on the basis of all available original papers -private and official. In so doing, he has refuted some of the established views. The Court of Directors and India Council are found to be much more effective as policy-makers than is generally supposed or was warranted by law. Wood and Ellenborough appear to have moulded policy more significantly than Vernon Smith and Stanley. The respective roles of the Home and Supreme Governments in policy-making are also revealed in a new light. Dalhousie as Governor-General does not appear to be that independent of Lon-don as is sometimes assumed; Canning as Viceroy is found to be relatively independent; and the achievements of Elgin and Lawrence are seen from a fresh angle. The book, says Dr Percival Spear, 'provides a valuable insight into the working of the Government of India'.

About the Author Prashanto K. Chatterji Was educated at Presidency College, Calcutta the University of Calcutta and Clare College.. Cambridge. A winner a scholarships, prizes and medal, he attained the coveted distinction of a 'double first' in History. After working for some time in the West Bengal Educational Service, including a spell of about two years at Presidency College, Calcutta, he joined the University of Burdwan in 1961. In 1963, he was awarded the British Commonwealth Scholarship and went to Cambridge to work on modern Indian history under Dr Percival Spear. In 1967, he obtained his Ph.D. degree and' returned to India. At present he is Reader in History at the University of Burdwan. Dr Chatterji has already published several stimulating research papers in leading Indian and foreign journals, and his doctoral dissertation has been microfilmed by the University of Cambridge.

Foreword This Volume has grown out of Dr Chattarji's Cambridge Ph.D. thesis. It deals with the relations of the Court of Directors and the Board of Control with the Governor-general of India, and later of the Secretary of State for India with the Governor-general, in determining British Indian policy. At first sight these arrangements might seem worthy of the 18th century Polish Diet with its liberum veto; could any decisions be taken with such opportunities for delay and obstruction? It might seem to fit the old, saw that too many cooks spoil the broth-twenty-four directors, a governor-general and his council, a secretary of state with the cabinet jogging his elbow-one would suppose that some of these could hardly reach the Indian political pot, much less essay to stir it.

But in fact the inferences of logic were falsified by the practical working of the system. This working success demonstrated both the strength and weakness of British attitudes. Their strength was shown in working the unworkable by a strict attention to practical exigencies, by a willingness to give and take, by the restraint of not pressing a theoretical advantage too far or of pushing a point to its logical conclusion. Their weakness lay in the haziness which allowed such a situation to develop, and the mental laziness which preferred makeshifts to planning and make-belief to the mental discipline of logical rearrangement. The uneasy compromises, the evasions, half-truths and double talk used to cast a cloak of respectability over this opportunist behaviour, were some of the traits which earned for the British the reputation of hypocrisy.

Chaotic as the system seemed, there were certain hidden aids to its successful working. The first was the differing strengths of the various participating bodies. The support they could count on differed widely from their legal powers on paper. In political practice the twenty-four directors were reduced to the three members .of the Secret Committee, while the whole body was diluted by a number of government nominations. Deprived of trade, the Court of Directors was really reduced to the status of a managing agency.

Preface The Middle of the 19th century saw important developments in the modern history of India. Apart from the significant measures influencing internal administration and British relations with the Indian States and the Frontier, there were two far-reaching Parliamentary enactments which reformed the machinery governing India. The Charter Act of 1853 effected the first significant change in the London end of Indian administration since the days of William Pitt. The East India Company's Court of Directors, which in law ruled India till 1858, was numerically reduced and given an infusion of nominated elements. The India Act of 1858 was far more radical in that it abolished the Company altogether as the governing power of India, and made the British Minister for Indian affairs the legal overlord of the Indian Viceroy and Governor-General. Several of the Company's ex-directors were included in the India Council which was set up to advise the Minister, but law made him supreme. Neither of these Statutes legally affected the relations of the Home Government with the Indian Government. Vis-a-vis Calcutta Government, the Court of Directors and the India Board had been as supreme as the India Office.

The object of the present book, as the title indicates, is to examine how far, if at all, the two Acts affected the Minister's role in policy-making vis-a-vis the Court of Directors and the India Council ; and, secondly, how far they influenced the respective roles of the Home and Indian Governments. The dates of the study are 1853 to 1865. These have the incidental convenience of embracing the tenures of Sir Charles Wood at the India Board and India Office, which cover several years of both the Company's and Crown's periods of Indian Government, and thus allow an assessment of how the two systems were worked by the same individual in evolving Indian policies. These years also permit a survey of the brief period of working of the Home Government before the 1853 Charter came into effect in April 1854.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages