Chapter 07 · 1757 to 1858
Company rule
कंपनी राज
Plassey in 1757, Buxar in 1764 and the grant of the diwani in 1765 made a trading company the ruler of Bengal. Over the next century it fought and annexed its way across the subcontinent: large parts of Tipu's Mysore in 1792 and 1799, the Peshwa's lands in 1818, Sindh in 1843, the Punjab in 1849, Awadh in 1856. Where it did not annex it made treaties, and the princes it left in place became subordinate allies with a British Resident at court.
The Company also built the instruments of the later state: a land revenue fixed in perpetuity on Bengal's zamindars, the Great Trigonometrical Survey, English-language education, railways and the telegraph. The rising of 1857 ended its rule, and in 1858 Parliament transferred its territories to the Crown.
The outline is Company territory around 1805, after the defeat of Tipu Sultan and the Second Anglo-Maratha War of 1803 to 1805: Bengal, Bihar and coastal Orissa, the Ganga-Yamuna doab up to Delhi, and the Madras Presidency. It leaves out the scattered Bombay territories and the allied states. It is approximate, after Schwartzberg's plate on the expansion of British power from 1766 to 1819.
Events in this chapter
1764 – 1765 · Buxar, Bihar
Battle of Buxar
Munro's Company army defeats Mir Qasim, Shuja-ud-Daula and Shah Alam II; a year later the emperor grants the Company the diwani of Bengal.
1773 – 1774 · Fort William, Calcutta
The Regulating Act and Warren Hastings
Parliament puts the Company's Indian government under a Governor-General at Calcutta; Warren Hastings becomes the first in 1774.
1793 · Calcutta, Bengal
The Permanent Settlement
Cornwallis fixes Bengal's land revenue in perpetuity and makes the zamindars owners of the land, whose estates are sold if they fall behind.
1799 · Srirangapatna, Karnataka
Fall of Srirangapatna
Company and Hyderabad troops storm Tipu Sultan's island capital on 4 May; Tipu dies at the walls and Mysore is partitioned.
1802 · St Thomas Mount, Chennai
The Great Trigonometrical Survey begins
On 10 April 1802 William Lambton lays a 12 km baseline near Madras, the start of the survey that mapped India and measured Everest.
1806 · Vellore Fort, Tamil Nadu
The Vellore mutiny
Sepoys in Vellore fort rise against new dress rules on 10 July and kill over a hundred British troops; Gillespie's cavalry retakes the fort by morning.
1817 – 1818 · Shaniwar Wada, Pune
The end of the Peshwa
After Khadki and Koregaon, Baji Rao II surrenders in June 1818; the Peshwa's lands are annexed and the Maratha confederacy ends.
1829 – 1835 · Government House, Calcutta
Sati abolished, English adopted
Bentinck outlaws sati in Bengal in December 1829; in 1835, after Macaulay's Minute, the Company's education funds go to English-medium teaching.
1843 · Miani, north of Hyderabad, Sindh (Pakistan)
Conquest of Sindh
Charles Napier defeats the Talpur amirs at Miani and Dubba near Hyderabad, and the Company annexes Sindh and the lower Indus.
1848 – 1856 · Nagpur, Maharashtra
Lapse and annexation
Dalhousie annexes states whose rulers die without a natural heir, from Satara in 1848 to Jhansi and Nagpur in 1854, and takes Awadh in 1856.
1849 · Lahore Fort, Punjab (Pakistan)
Annexation of the Punjab
After the second Anglo-Sikh war Dalhousie annexes Ranjit Singh's kingdom on 29 March; the boy Maharaja Duleep Singh is made to give up the Koh-i-Noor.
1853 – 1856 · Bori Bunder, Bombay
The first train, and the telegraph
On 16 April 1853 the first passenger train runs 34 km from Bori Bunder to Thane; by 1856 telegraph wires link Calcutta, Agra, Bombay and Madras.
1857 · Barrackpore, West Bengal
Mangal Pandey at Barrackpore
On 29 March sepoy Mangal Pandey of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry attacks his officers on parade; he is hanged on 8 April and his regiment disbanded.
1857 – 1858 · Meerut Cantonment, Uttar Pradesh
Meerut to Delhi
Sepoys rise at Meerut on 10 May and ride to Delhi to proclaim Bahadur Shah Zafar; the British retake the city in September and exile him to Rangoon.
1857 · Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh
Kanpur, 1857
Nana Sahib's forces besiege Wheeler's entrenchment; the survivors are killed at Satichaura Ghat and the Bibighar, and Havelock retakes the city in July.
1857 – 1858 · The Residency, Lucknow
Lucknow and Begum Hazrat Mahal
Awadh rises; the British are besieged in the Residency for nearly five months while Begum Hazrat Mahal rules in her son's name until March 1858.
1857 – 1858 · Jagdishpur, Bhojpur, Bihar
Kunwar Singh of Jagdishpur
The aged zamindar of Jagdishpur leads the Danapur mutineers, besieges Arrah, fights across north India and dies at home in April 1858.
1858 – 1859 · Jhansi Fort, Uttar Pradesh
Rani Lakshmibai and Tatya Tope
Hugh Rose storms Jhansi in April 1858; the Rani and Tatya Tope seize Gwalior, where she dies fighting in June; Tope is hanged in 1859.