SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis is devoted to a study of Sir Charles Metcalfe's administration and administrative ideas in India between 1806 and 1835 and is concerned with a discussion of such forces and principles as can be studied in his activities and his mind. Metcalfe evolved his administrative principles and methods at Delhi, while he was its Resident from 1811 to 1818 and between the years 1825 and 1827. The system of administration as devised by him was known as the Delhi system, which derived its main principles from indigenous sources but it was open to other influences as well. Later when he became a Member of the Supreme Council in Bengal - the homeland of the Cornwallis principles - during Lord William Bentinck's governor-generalship, he sought to assert his influence in remoulding the system of administration according to his viewpoint. In actual result, however, a synthesis between the two sets of administrative principles took place. In 1835, as the Governor-General of India he passed the press-law which guaranteed freedom of thought and expression. Metcalfe had passed through a period of war and peace in India. On the one hand he had imbibed some ideas and principles of the Wellesley era, on the other his attitude blended with the spirit of the age of Bentinck which symbolised peace and reform. Both these trends are to be seen in his thoughts and actions. In this thesis particular attention has been paid to an analysis of these trends. In preparing this thesis extensive use has been made of the records of the East India Company as well as of the relevant private papers of several administrators of the time.