SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the impact of British politics on Indian policy during the twenty year period which followed the renewal of the East India Company's Charter in 1833. The view taken is that the policy of the Home Government of India is inseparable from that of the Ministry generally. Within the 'dual' system of the Home Government the Cabinet Minister for India, the President of the Board of Control, is seen to exercise a dominant role while the Court of Directors of the East India Company, a body of Indian experience, act, with a varying degree of success, the part of a check upon his authority. The changes centering around the Reform of Parliament in 1832 redefined the basis of British politics and gave rise to a "precocious development of party politics" with an accompanying alternation of party governments which continued throughout the twenty years under review. Owing to this development two sets of Indian policy emerge during this period, one proper to the years of Whig administration and one associated with those of Sir Robert Peel's Conservative Ministries. The pervasive influence of Ministry and party extends even to the highest offices in the Indian administration at this time for, starting with Auckland, the Governors General are selected from their respective Cabinets and go out to India in the full knowledge of the views of the British Government. The determining role of British history on Indian development is therefore observed as it acts through the work of the Cabinet Minister for India in association with the Ministry's appointee, the Governor General, The twenty years over which this study extends provide a sufficiently long time to trace the development of significant aspects of Indian policy in four principal areas, those of finance, foreign affairs, the native states and law reform.