Kiama, NSW, 1 May 2024 Peninsular India, the South, has always been distinct—culturally, linguistically, and socio-economically—from North India, pursuing its own individual path and nurturing separate characteristics; a phenomenon that is perhaps true even today in the 21st century. The region has always maintained its own power structure, being partially subordinate to the hegemons of […]
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Tag Archives: English East India Company
Company Bahadur Part 6 Warren Hastings Section IV: End of an Innings
April 18, 2024 
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Canberra, 18 April 2024 While hastings was in Benares, the new Councillor, John Macpherson arrived in Calcutta from England. He had earlier served in Madras and had established himself as Hastings’ friend. However, Macpherson was an adventurer who was prone to making shady financial deals and was known to accumulate personal wealth. Even so, Macpherson […]
Continue readingCompany Bahadur Part 6 Warren Hastings Section III: A Star Ascendent
April 11, 2024 0 Comments
Canberra, 11 April 2024 The trial and execution of Raja Nand Kumar turned Hastings’ official fortunes. Although the Council continued to oppose and criticise his actions, their obstructiveness was ineffective. They had lost their ability to control or even repudiate the GG’s actions. Francis tried to re-introduce Clive’s dual-government system, purely because Hastings had abolished […]
Continue readingCompany Bahadur Part 6 Warren Hastings Section II: A Power struggle and An Execution
April 1, 2024 0 Comments
Manly, NSW, 2095, 1 April 2024 The administrative changes that were envisaged in the Regulating Act of 1773 were well-intentioned and a genuine attempt to establish mechanisms for fair governance in British controlled territories in India. However, the Act suffered from being worded vaguely, with the script lacking clear and precise definitions and directions, leading […]
Continue readingCompany Bahadur Part 6 Warren Hastings Section I: The Beginning of a Career
March 15, 2024 0 Comments
Canberra, 15th March 2024 There is no doubt that an understanding of the past can be a catalyst for a greater understanding of the present and at times even provide a pointer to the future. History, in its broadest sweep goes beyond the actions of individuals. However, a view through the prism of human activities […]
Continue readingCompany Bahadur Part 5 English Administration Up To 1774
March 8, 2024 0 Comments
Canberra, 08 March 2024 The evolution of the territorial administrative mechanisms of the English East India Company can be divided into several parts, with the first part being from their inception to 1774, when Lord North’s Regulating Act of 1773 came into force in the sub-continent. Till that time the Company traded and acquired territory […]
Continue readingCompany Bahadur Part 4 Early Company Leadership Section II: … And Some of the Good Ones
March 4, 2024 0 Comments
Canberra, 04 March 2024 As the Company evolved as a territorial ruling entity, several young Englishmen were either sent by their parents or guardians or volunteered and were selected through the application of influence to become ‘officials’ of the Company in India. Most were from the upper middle-class strata of English society, which subsequently went […]
Continue readingCompany Bahadur Part 4 Early Company Leadership Section I: Some of the Worst
February 24, 2024 0 Comments
Canberra, 24 February 2024 Clive’s departure left a void in the Company leadership in Bengal. Despite all his personal faults, however vain and ambitious he may have been, Clive was a realist. Acknowledging the pitfalls of headlong interference with local politico-economic developments he had managed to keep the Company servants within some bounds of decent […]
Continue readingCompany Bahadur Part 3 Warding Off the Afghan Threat
February 22, 2024 0 Comments
Canberra, 22 February 2024 The second half of the 18th century was the beginning of a new epoch in the history of the Indian sub-continent. It was marked by a series of events which elevated the English Company as the dominant power in the region. By the 1750s, the sub-continent was parcelled out into several […]
Continue readingCompany Bahadur Part 2 Clive’s Last Hurrah
February 16, 2024 0 Comments
Canberra, 16th February 2024 The Directors of the English East India Company in London had been assured that Mir Jafar would compensate the Company with a gift amounting to roughly one million pounds sterling. However, this payment was not forthcoming while the bills for the military campaigns were increasing, a situation that led the Directors […]
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Sanu Kainikara 
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