From Trade to Territory The Company Establishes Power Test - 9

Battle of Buxar ended with the signing of Treaty of Allahabad in 1765 by Shah Alam II and Robert Clive of East India Company. It gave diwani rights or the right to collect taxes of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to the East India Company. Tax exempt status was also restored to the company.

The Treaty of Benaras in 1773 was an agreement regulating relations between the British government of Bengal and the ruler of the Muslim state of Oudh. Warren Hastings, the British governor, ceded Allahabad and Kora to Shujaʿ and promised to support him against the menacing Afghan Rohillas in return for cash payments.

Indian Civil Services was the elite higher civil service of the British Empire in British India. The civil services were reformed and modernised by Lord Cornwallis. There were many functions to be performed by them - revenue collection, law and order, justice delivery, etc. However, these functions were of strategic interests of the Company and Indians were not allowed at the higher administrative posts and remained subordinate to their British counterparts.

The system of Dual Government was introduced in Bengal by Robert Clive of British East India Company. It lasted from 1765 to 1772. Under this system, the administration of Bengal was divided into Nizamat and Diwani. The Diwani was carried out by the company and the Nizamat by the Nizam. The system was abolished by Warren Hastings in 1772 and Bengal was brought under direct control of the British and the Nawabs remained as the mere pensioners of the East India Company.

The main principles of a subsidiary alliance were:

1. An Indian ruler entering into a subsidiary alliance with the British had to accept British forces within his territory and also agreed to pay for their maintenance.
2. The ruler would accept a British Resident in his state.
3. An Indian ruler who entered into a subsidiary alliance would not enter into any further alliance with any other power, nor would he declare war against any power without the permission of the British.
4. The ruler would not employ any Europeans other than the British, and if he were already doing so, he would dismiss them.
5. In case of a conflict with any other state, he would agree the resolution decided upon by the British.
6. The ruler would acknowledge the East India Company as the paramount power in India.
7. In return for the ruler accepting its conditions, the Company undertook to protect the state from external dangers and internal disorders.
8. If the Indian rulers failed to make the payments required by the alliance, then part of their territory was to be taken away as a penalty.

 

According to the terms of a subsidiary alliance, princely rulers were not allowed to have an independent armed force. They were to be protected by the East India Company, but had to pay for the 'subsidiary forces' that the company was supposed to maintain for the purpose of this protection. If the Indian rulers failed to make the payment, then part of their territory was taken away as a penalty. For example, the ruler of Awadh was forced to give over half of his territory to the company in 1801, as he failed to pay for the "subsidiary forces".

Cornwallis increased the salary of the judges to check bribery and corruption. He abolished the court fees. A new code of regulations known as “Cornwallis code” was compiled in 1793 by Sir George Barlow.

To ensure good administration, an efficient police force was needed. Lord Cornwallis created a permanent police force in India. Each district was placed under many 'thanas', each headed by a 'daroga'.

After the Third Anglo-Maratha War, the Maratha ruler Baji Rao II also accepted a subsidiary alliance. several states like: Hyderabad (1798 and 1800), Tanjore (1799), Awadh (1801), Bhonsle (1803), and Indore(1817) adopted this system.