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EAST
INDIA COMPANY rule (1772-1857) |
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Lord Clive took Arcot in
1751, and
thwarted
the French siege of *Trichinopoly*
in 1752; his later victories at *Plassey*
(1757), and then Buxar (1764),
led to Company rule in Bengal (*IG*:
2:472; see also *Macaulay*) |
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Various visions of Warren
Hastings
Esq.,
Governor General of Bengal, 1773-85 (*IG*:
2:481; see also *Macaulay*) |
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After Hastings, the
Company-controlled parts
of India were ruled at first by "Governors General of
Fort William";
and
after 1833, by a "Governor-General of India" (*wiki*) |
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*Tipu
Sultan's* nemesis, Lord Cornwallis, governed from
1786 to 1793 (*IG*:
12:486) |
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Some British portraits: a
merchant
and his
son; a doctor; a "Qui hi"; a Company officer; and the
death of Bishop
Heber |
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Some early Company coins
showed
balance
scales and promised justice ('adl); coins were minted in
*Calcutta*,
*Madras*,
and *Bombay* |
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But the Company's lucrative *opium*
trade with China had its organizational hub in the
ancient town of
PATNA
(once Pataliputra) on the Ganges |
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The Company recruited,
trained,
equipped,
and led its sepoys (sipahis, "soldiers") so successfully
that no
fighting
force in India could match them |
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The Company made special
judicial
arrangements
for the sepoys, in its Avadh encampments and elsewhere;
the sepoys celebrated their own
religious festivals |
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The Company's officers were
especially proud
of establishing law and order, and stamping out highway
robbery and
"thuggee" |
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By 1820, the British had
conquered
*the
Marathas*; through the battle of Meeanee in 1843,
they conquered
Sind;
in 1846, they took *the
Sikh
kingdom* in the Punjab |
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Life for a Company "civilian"
(member of
the Indian Civil Service) in Bengal, c.1840, and for
some Indians too;
an affectionately satiric look by William Taylor |
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And always, everywhere, there
were
the servants |
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