Constitutional Developments

Pitt’s India Act (1784)
Importance of Pitt’s India Act
The Act of 1786
Charter Act of 1793
Charter Act of 1813
Charter Act of 1853
Basic Tenets of India’s Foreign Policy (1947-1961)
Some Important Acts and year of Formation

When the officials of the East India Company acquired control over Bengal in 1765 they had little intention of making any innovations in its administration. They only desired to carry on profitable trade and to collect taxes for remission to England .From 1762 to 1772 Indian officials were allowed to function as before but under the overall control of the British governor and British officials. In 1772 the company ended the dual government and undertook to administer Bengal directly through its own set of officials. The East India Company was at this time a commercial body designed to trade with the East. But during the period that elapsed between the Pitt’s India Act (1784) and the Charter Act of 1833 the company was gradually relieved of its long held trading privileges in the east.

Simultaneously it grew to be the paramount power in India responsible for the government of a very large population spread over an immense area. The English realized that if the country was to supply regular revenue it had to be properly governed. The Regulating Act of 1773 was a first step in this direction. Warren Hastings the first governor-general under the provisions of the Act tried to maintain as much of the structure of the Mughal administration as possible. The machinery of government went on as before; the British were left free to concentrate on revenue collection and trade. Hastings successor Lord Cornwallis changed all this. He scrapped the old system replacing the new in which the British openly ruled Bengal.