ADVENT OF THE EUROPEANS INTO INDIA

      ADVENT OF THE EUROPEANS  INTO INDIA

Some important points:

* The Portuguese sailor Bartolomeu Diaz could reach the Cape of Good Hope, situated at the southernmost corner of South Africa,in 1498 A.D.

 * In 1580 A.D. , an English sailor named Francis Drake was able to circumnavigate the globe.

*In 1952 Ralph Fitch , travelled to India and Burma and brought glory to his countrymen.

* In 1599 A.D. for the first time an English sailor named John Mildenhall reached India with a petition letter from Elizabeth , the Queen of England and procured certain trade privileges from Mughal Emperor Akbar.  

* In 1615 , the English king James I again sent Sir Thomas Roe , who met the Emperor at Ajmer. Emperor Janangir granted permission to the English merchants to establish at Surat.

* In 1715 John Surmon met the Mughal Emperor Farukhsiyar(1713-1719) and offered a fresh proposal for trade contract. William Hamilton , an English surgeon , had cured the Emperor from a painful disease. As a reward for this medical service, the East India Company received three imperial 'firmans' from the emperor . By this, the company got the right of duty-free trade in Bengal, subject to an annual payment of Rs. 3,000. The company also got the permission to rent additional territory arround Calcutta and the privelege of free trade in Mughal Deccan was continued. Because of the priveleges granted, the 'firmans' are regarded as the 'Magna Carta' of the company. 

* The first and foremost objective of the East India Company was trade. But they were ambitious for political powers.

* In 1611,the Company founded a trade centre at Masulipatam, taking permission from the Sultan of Golkunda.

* In 1636 , the Company built its second trade centre at Armagaon. 

* In 1639, a treaty was made with the King of Chandragiri to shift the Armagaon trade centre to a nearby place of Madras and renamed it as Fort St. George. 

* In 1661, Charles II , the King of England, married Portuguese princess Catherine to acquire Bombay as dowry . King Charles handed over Bombay to the Company in lieu of a loan of fifty thousand pounds in 1668.

* The Calcutta trade centre was renamed as Fort Willim in honour of William III , the King of England. 

* The battle of  Plassey took place in 1757.

* The period of British rule in India is divided into two parts.  The first is from the downfall of the Mughal Empire to the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. During this phase the East India Company dethroned the Indian rulers, unified the scattered divisions and started a central administration over a large British- Indian area. 

                                  The second phase is from 1858 to 1947, transfer of power to the Indians. During this phase, the British Crown in order to provide an organized British administration in India , made important administrative reforms and undertook certain welfare measures. The national movement of India also was shaped during this period. As a consequence of this movement the British had to quit India. 

*COMPANY RULE:

During the second administration of Robert Clive ( 1765-67) , the British East India Company got the legal sanction as the ruling power. Mughal Emperor Shah Alam (1759-1806) signed a treaty of Allahabad  (1765) with Robert Clive to give political authority over Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The Emperor introduced Duel Government in Bengal ( 1765) by conferring  upon the Company the right of Diwani or collection of revenue and the responsibility of civil, criminal and police administration when the Nawab of Bengal. By this, the power of the Company increased twice and the Nawab reduced to the position only of a titular military administrator ( Nizamat).

                        The East India Company became most powerful in India during the governorship of Warren Hastings (1774-85). He encouraged the Nawabs to declare independence. He claimed himself to be of equal status with the Mughal Emperor. During the first period of company rule , Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras became the main administrative centres for the East India Company. The chief administrators of these centres were conferred the status of president. The administrative unit under the President came to be known as 'Presidency'.

         The Regulating Act of 1773 named the governor of Bengal as Governor General and made the governors of Bombay and Madras his subordinate.It also started a centralized administration.

            The Pitt's India Act, 1784, introduced two tier administrations in India.By this act, the company ruled over through a secret committee of three directors and it was run by the Home Government of Britain through the Board of Control.

                           British Government also enacted the Acts of 1833 and 1853 to run the government.

Sepoy Mutiny:

The sepoy mutiny was started in 1857. The rebellion spread over whole India after Ishwar Pandey was convicted along with Mangal Pandey and both of them were awarded capital punishment.

Causes of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857: The famous sepoy mutiny was take place due to several administrative, political, economic, religious,social and any other reasons. Some of them are as follows:

1) The atmosphere for the rebellion was created by the unrest of the royal class and people.The name of the Mughal Emperor was scraped away from the coins of the Company in 1835.

2) Due to establishment of English in the administration replacing royal Persian, the discontent and dissatisfaction was increased among the Indians.

3) The reactionary administration of Lord Dalhousie is another major cause of increasing dissatisfaction among the Indians.

   All these causes led to the beginning of the sepoy mutiny.

* Mangal Pandey, a sepoy of the 34th National Infantry, poured a series of bullets uopn the English officer on 29th March, 1857, at the Barrackpore Sepoy Cantonment which triggered the Sepoy Mutiny.