Colonization of South Asia

Early Colonial Encounters

In 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama reached Kozhikode (Calicut) on the Malabar Coast; his stay, though brief, inaugurated a new era in global affairs. Through agreements with local rulers, the Portuguese set up forts and settlements on the SW coast, with major presences at Goa and Bombay (Mumbai). The Portuguese fleet sought to control trade in the Indian Ocean, but Portuguese power was not strong enough to truly affect affairs on land. The Dutch monopoly began to be challenged in the seventeenth century. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) was founded in 1602. The Dutch forts and settlements mainly were in Indonesia, but there were numerous clashes with the Portuguese. But by far the most long lasting effects came from England. The English East India Company was founded in 1599 and had their first voyage in 1601; the struggled against the slightly younger VOC before entering a partnership of sorts against the Portuguese.

In support of the Company, King James I of England dispatched an ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe, to the Mughal Emperor in 1612 to seek the right to open 'factories' (trading settlements), and from 1615-18 Roe served as ambassador at the court of Mughal Emperor Jahangir; he later turned his journal and letters into a popular book. The English set up factories, Fort William in Bengal, Fort St. George in Madras, and in Bombay (received from Portugal in 1661). King James's grandson, Charles II, granted the EIC extensive privileges in 1670, including the power to acquire and rule territory, to mint their own money, raise an army and navy, and to make war and peace - in short, royal privileges. But the East India Company did not come into its own until the 18th century. (The French entered the arena relatively late, but set up trading posts and forts across southern India in the early 18th century.)

From Trading Posts to Colonies

European involvement in South Asia had been limited in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Mughal Empire was strong, and while the Europeans could dominate the ocean, they had neither more men nor more sophisticated weaponry to force their way on land. Instead (and this clear from many English sources of the 17th century) they operated at the sufferance of local leaders and the emperor. There was little demand for European goods but silver was always acceptable and European traders had plenty thanks to the conquests in the New World. This changed in the 18th century. The United Kingdom emerged as a world power with a strong navy, and the power of the Mughal Emperors began to wane. The Maratha Empire (1674-1818) emerged late in the seventeenth century in the Deccan Plateau as a pro-Hindu, anti-Mughal movement. They would gradually conquer more territory from the Mughals until they had become the major power in South Asia. That broader shift in power had ripple effects as local leaders sought to consolidate or extend their authority as the two empires fought.

This was how the East India Company shifted from trade to politics, and it started in Bengal, in theory subah of the Mughal Empire though for the past several decades it was de facto independent. The new Nawab (ruler) Siraj ud Daulah, attacked the English and seized their fort at Calcutta. Financial losses were extensive, but what caught the English imagination was the Black Hole of Calcutta - the prison into which English men and women were placed, in small confines, in the heat, and supposedly most died. Lt. Colonel Robert Clive (lived 1725-1774),newly arrived from England, retook Calcutta in 1757 and the Nawab came to terms. However, Britain and France were now at war (the Seven Years war, 1756-63, known in America as the French and Indian War) and when the Nawab sided with the French, Clive attacked. He conspired with one of the Nawab's generals, Mir Jafar. On June 23 1757, Clive and his smaller British force attacked the Nawab at Plassey (Palashi), and defeated the Nawab's larger force when Mir Jafar betrayed the Nawab. Mir Jafar became the new Nawab in exchange for a large amount of land and 22 million rupees. After Mir Jafar sided with the French and Dutch against the British, he was deposed in 1759. Further campaigns by other British commanders seized most of the remaining French territories in India. Clive returned to Britain in 1760 a popular hero and an incredibly wealthy man, and was made a Baron.

Clive returned to India in 1765. As a result of further Company victories, he and the Mughal Emperor agreed to the Treaty of Allahabad. The treaty (or firman) made the East India Company the Diwani, or tax collector, for Bengal in exchange for an annual tribute to the (very weak) emperor. The Company became an agent of the Emperor - part of the Mughal administration. This treaty became a major turning point in South Asian, British, and world history. The Company had a number of puppet governments in place, now had official rights in Bengal., and indirectly ruled a number of principalities. A series of wars against the Maratha Empire and the Kingdom of Mysore would see the Company enlarge its holdings.

 

 The Permanent Settlement (1793)

 In 1786, Charles, Lord Cornwallis (the British general defeated by Washington at Yorktown) was appointed as governor-general for the Company in India and served until 1793. He created the Permanent Settlement in which the Company recognized Bengali zamindars (tax collectors; later, aristocrats) as landholders who collected taxes from their tenants. The tax rate was supposed to be permanent and stable; the zamindars could not have any military forces but were allowed direct governance of their villages. In essence, the settlement created a Hindu landed elite that worked closely with the Company as local administrators and intermediaries.

The Napoleonic Wars spread into South Asia as well, and the British came into conflict with Mysore and the Marathas once again. Led by Richard Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, the British and the Company acquired more territory and solidified their control in central, southern and eastern India. With increased territory came increased supervision from England. IN 1784, Parliament had established a Board of Trade to more closely oversee the Company. Rumors of corruption led to Cornwallis's appointment as governor-general, and he reorganized Company administration to reduce corruption in what was called the Cornwallis Code. The Company's Charter was extended in 1813 but it lost most of its monopolies on trade; in 1833 Parliament stripped the Company of all its trading rights, turning it into an arm of the British government, in the  Government of India Act. It would only be a matter of time until India came under direct rule.