Class 8

Social Science
Book: Our Pasts III

Chapter 2- From Trade to Territory : The Company Establishes Power

The Company Establishes • Many small kingdoms emerged all over India
after the death of Aurangazeb.
Power

• In the second half of the 18th century, the British became

India in the 18th Century increasingly powerful in many parts of India.

Q: What attracted European trading companies to India?

Ans. 1) The fine qualities of cotton and silk produced in India had a big market in Europe.

2) Spices like pepper, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon attracted these European trading
companies.

Q: How did the East India Company comes East Routes to India in the 18th century?
Ans:

In 1600, the East India Company acquired a charter from the ruler of England. Queen

Elizabeth I, granting it the sole right to trade with the East.

This meant that no other trading group in England could compete with the East India

Company.

The royal charter, however, could not prevent other European powers from entering the

Eastern markets.
 East India Company Comes East

In 1600, the East India Company

acquired a charter from the ruler
of England, Queen Elizabeth I. With more business came more
conflicts with Indian rulers, and it
became difficult for the European
traders to keep their business
separate from Indian politics.

East India Company Begins Trade in Bengal

 The first English factory was set up on the banks of the river Hugli in 1651.
 Company traders known as ‘factors’ operated from there.
 Factory had a warehouse where goods for export were stored and also had offices where
Company officials sat.
 Company asked merchants and traders to settle near the factories. By 1696- Fort was built
around the settlement.
 Aurangzeb issued a ‘farman’ granting the Company the right to trade duty free.

East India Company Begins

Trade in Bengal

The first English factory was set up It also convinced the Mughal emperor
Aurangzeb to issue a farman, an official order,
on the banks of the river Hugli in granting the Company the right to trade duty -
Bengal 1651. free.

The employees of the Company also carried But they refused, which angered the Nawab of
on their private trades, and so were expected Bengal, Murshid Quli Khan, and led to fierce
to pay duty. battles.
 Q: Why was Sirajuddaulah anguished by the East India Company? What steps did he
take to control the East India Company?
Ans:

 Through the early eighteenth century the conflict between the Company and the nawabs of
Bengal intensified.
 The Company refused to pay duty on trade and this led to huge loss in revenue.
 Sirajuddaulah believed that the Company is undermining his authority.
 Sirajuddaulah refused to grant the Company concessions, demanded large tributes for the
Company’s right to trade, denied right to mint coins and denied it from extending its
fortifications.

Q: What was the major reason for the Battle of Plassey?

 After Alivardi Khan died in 1756, Sirajuddaulah became the Nawab of Bengal.
 Sirajuddaulah asked the Company not to interfere in political dominion and pay revenue and
the Company did not agree to it.
 He marched with 30,000 soldiers to the English factory at Kassimbazar, captured the Company
officials, locked the warehouse, disarmed all Englishmen and blockaded English ships.

Q: Explain the major events of the Battle of Plassey.

Ans: The events of the Battle of Plassey were as follows:

 In 1757, Robert Clive led the Company’s army against Sirajuddaulah at Plassey.
Sirajuddaulah lost as the troops under Mir Jafar never fought, as he was promised by Clive
to become the nawab.
 Battle was the first major victory of the Company in India.
 After the defeat at Plassey, Sirajuddaulah was assassinated and Mir Jafar was made the
nawab.
 Q: Why was the Battle of Buxar fought?

Ans. 1) After the defeat at Plassey, Sirajuddaulah was assassinated and Mir Jafar was made
the nawab of Bengal.

2) Soon the Company discovered that the puppet nawabs were not always as helpful
as the Company wanted them to be.

3) After all the nawabs had to maintain their dignity and sovereignty, if they wanted
respect from their subjects.

4) When Mir Jafar protested, the Company deposed him and installed Mir Qasim in
his place.

5) When Mir Qasim complained, he was defeated in a battle fought at Buxar in 1764,
driven out of Bengal and Mir Jafar was re-installed.

Q: How did the Company's expansion policy work?

Ans: The Company was very clear about its policy. It rarely launched a direct military attack on an
unknown territory. It used a variety of political, economic and diplomatic methods to extend its
influence before annexing an Indian kingdom.

After the Battle of Buxar, the Company appointed Residents in Indian states.
The Residents, the Company officials began interfering in the internal affairs of the Indian
states.
So they started with a policy of subsidiary alliance.
According to the terms of this alliance, Indian rulers were not allowed to have their independent
armed forces.
They were to be protected by the Company, but had to pay for the ‘subsidiary forces’. If the
Indian rulers failed to make the payment, then part of their territory was taken away as
penalty.

In 1757, Robert Clive led the Company’s army against

Sirajuddaulah at Plassey.

The main reason for the defeat of the Nawab

was that the forces led by Mir Jafar, one of his
commanders, never fought the battle.

The Battle of Plassey became famous because it

was the first major victory the Company won in
India
Q: Write a note on Tipu Sultan—The ‘Tiger of Mysore’.
Answer. Tipu Sultan was the famous ruler of Mysore. He ruled Mysore from 1782 to 1799. Under his
leadership Mysore became very powerful. It controlled the profitable trade of the Malabar coast where
the Company purchased pepper and cardamom. In 1785 Tipu Sultan stopped the export of these items
through the ports of his kingdom, and disallowed local merchants from trading with the Company. He
also developed relationship with the French in India to modernise his army with their help. The British
got furious. They waged four battles against Tipu Sultan. The last battle proved unfortunate for him. He
was killed depending his capital Seringapattam.

Mysore had become powerful under rulers like Haider Ali and his
son Tipu Sultan’

Tipu Sultan, in 1785, stopped the export of sandalwood, pepper,

and cardamom through the ports of his kingdom, and disallowed
local merchants from trading with the Company

This angered the company very much.

In the Battle of Seringapatam, the company won and Tipu Sultan

was killed

Q: What led to Anglo-Mysore wars?

Ans 1) Mysore grew in strength under its ruler Haider Ali and his son Tipu Sultan.
2) Mysore controlled profitable trade of the Malabar coast where the Company
3) Tipu Sultan stopped the export of sandalwood, pepper and cardamom through the ports of his
kingdom and disallowed local merchants from trading with the Company.
4) He grew closer to the French in India and modernised his army with their help.
5) The British saw Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan as ambitious, arrogant and dangerous who had
to be controlled and crushed.

Q: What do you understand by ‘paramountcy’?

Ans. 1) An aggressive policy of territorial expansion followed by Lord Hastings.

2) The Company claimed that its authority was paramount or supreme and its power
greater than that of Indian states.

3) Justified annexing and threatening to annex any Indian kingdom to protect its
interests.
 The Claim to Paramountcy

Under Lord Hastings, Governor General from 1813 to 1823, a new policy of “paramountcy” was
initiated, which simply meant that the authority and position of the Company was supreme and it had the
right to take away anything it wanted to from any Indian ruler.

Sind was taken over in 1843, and Punjab was next. The presence of Mah araja Ranjit Singh there held
back the Company, but after his death in 1839, two prolonged wars were fought and Punjab was annexed
in 1849

Q: Write a note on ‘The Doctrine of Lapse’.

 Lord Dalhousie devised a policy that came to be known as the Doctrine of Lapse.
 The doctrine declared that if an Indian ruler died without a male heir his kingdom would ‘lapse’.
 It would become the part of Company territory.
 By applying this doctrine they annexed Satara, Sambalpur, Udaipur, Nagpur and Jhasi.
 In 1856, the Company took over Awadh.The Nawab was deposed, the people of Awadh joined the
great revolt that broke out in1857.

Q: In what way the administration of the Company was different than that of Indian
states?

Ans. 1) General Administration

• After the Company acquired power in Bengal, Bombay and Madras the British territories were
broadly divided into administrative units called Presidencies.
• Each was ruled by Governor, the supreme head of the administration was the Governor-
General.
• Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General introduced several administrative reforms in the
sphere of justice.

2) Judicial Administration

• Each district was to have two courts – Criminal court (faujdari adalat) and Civil court (diwani
adalat).
• Maulvis and Hindu pandits interpreted Indian laws for the European district collector who
presided over Civil courts.
• The criminal court was still under a qazi and a mufti but under the supervision of collector.
 • By 1778 a code of Muslim laws was also compiled for the benefit of European judges.
Under the Regulating Act of 1773, a new Supreme Court was established and a court of appeal-the
Sadar Nizamat Adalat was set up at Calcutta.

Q: What changes were brought in the company’s army?

 The Mughal army was mainly composed of cavalry. They were given training in archery and
the use of sword.
 The cavalry dominated the army and the Mughal state did not feel the need to have a large
professionally trained infantry.
 The rural areas had a large number of armed peasants and the local zamindars often supplied
with soldiers.
 As warfare technology changed from the 1820s, the cavalry requirements of the Company’s
army declined.
 In Burma, Afghanistan and Egypt the soldiers were armed with muskets and matchlocks.
 In the early nineteenth century the British began to develop uniform military culture.
 Soldiers were subjected to European-style training, drill and discipline that regulated their
life.

The Collector was the

Warren Hastings, principal figure, and his
Governor- Setting Up a New main job was to collect
General of India -introduced revenue and taxes and to
Administration maintain law and order in
several administrative
reforms his district.

Under the Regulating Act of 1773, a British territories were broadly

new Supreme Court was divided into
established, and a court for appeals administrative units called
– the Sadar Presidencies
Nizamat Adalat – was also set up at
Calcutta

YouTube link is for the explanation of the chapter.

1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7IXBEUo8oM
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