SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis presents a study of the working of the home and Indian Governments and their mutual relationship during the period immediately following the Mutiny. In fact the Governments in London and India were parts of one mechanism, the several organs of which were constantly eating and reacting upon one another. It has, therefore, been found necessary to assess the pert played by each in evolving the various policies and in their actual execution. The scope of the subject covers the entire field of the Indian administration as it was reorganised after the Mutiny. The main sources on which the study is based comprise the original proceedings of the home and Indian Governments and the private correspondence of Sir Charles Wood during the period in which he remained the Secretary of state for India. A close study of these sources has produced considerable new material hitherto unknown to scholars. Sir Charles wood's private papers, which are in the possession of the Right Honourable The Earl of Halifax, contain a vast amount of information which could not be gleaned from the official sources. When both the official proceedings and private correspondence are road together a new and more complete picture is obtained. For example the "Minutes of the Council of India", in which the proceedings of that body have been recorded, and which have been made use of for the first time in this thesis, contain only the summary of the despatches and of the reports of its several Committees and the number of votes given for their approval or disapproval. But Wood's private letters tell how he managed his Council and reveal the views held on various questions by its members. It is still more interesting to find how secret instructions, contrary to those officially communicated, were sent privately by the Secretary of State to the Indian authorities. It is clear, then, that no study of the working of the home and Indian Governments can be complete unless based on both official and private sources combined; in this thesis the whole range of governmental policy during the period has been investigated on this principle.