Governor-General and Viceroys of India: Significant Events during their Rule

Governor-General of Bengal

1. Warren Hastings (1773–85 AD)

• The first Governor-General of Bengal.
• Regulating Act, 1773.
• Act of 1781, under which the powers of jurisdiction between the governor-general-in-council and the Supreme Court at Calcutta, were clearly divided.
• Pitt’s India Act, 1784.
• The Rohilla War, 1774.
• The First Maratha War in 1775–82 and the Treaty of Salbai, 1782.
• Second Mysore War, 1780–84.
• Strained relationships with Chait Singh, the Maharaja of Benaras, which led to Hastings’ subsequent impeachment in England.
• Foundation of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1784).

2. Lord Cornwallis (1786–1793 AD)

• Third Mysore War (1790–92) and Treaty of Seringa-patam (1792).
• Cornwallis Code (1793) incorporating several judicial reforms, and separation of revenue administration and civil jurisdiction.
• Permanent Settlement of Bengal, 1793.
• Europeanisation of administrative machinery and introduction of civil services.

3. Sir John Shore (1793–1798 AD)

• Charter Act of 1793.
• The Battle of Kharda between the Nizam and the Marathas (1795).

4. Lord Wellesley (1798–1805 AD)

• Introduction of the Subsidiary Alliance System (1798); first alliance with Nizam of Hyderabad.
• Fourth Mysore War (1799).
• Second Maratha War (1803-05).
• Took over the administration of Tanjore (1799), Surat (1800), and Carnatic (1801).
• Treaty of Bassein (1802).

5. Sir George Barlow (1805–1807 AD)

• Vellore Mutiny (1806).

6. Lord Minto-I (1807–1813 AD)

• Treaty of Amritsar with Ranjit Singh (1809).

7. Lord Hastings (1813–1823 AD)

• Anglo-Nepal War (1814–16) and the Treaty of Sagauli, 1816.
• Third Maratha War (1817–19) and dissolution of Maratha Confederacy; creation of Bombay Presidency (1818).
• Strife with Pindaris (1817–18).
• Treaty with Sindhia (1817).
• Establishment of Ryotwari System by Thomas Munro, the governor of Madras (1820).

8. Lord Amherst (1823–1828 AD)

• First Burmese War (1824–26).
• Capture of Bharatpur (1826).

9. Lord William Bentinck (1828–1835 AD)

• Last Governor-General of Bengal & the first Governor-General of India.
• Abolition of sati and other cruel rites (1829).
• Suppression of thugi (1830).
• Charter Act of 1833.
• Resolution of 1835, and educational reforms and introduction of English as the official language.
• Annexation of Mysore (1831), Coorg (1834), and Central Cachar (1834).
• Treaty of ‘perpetual friendship’ with Ranjeet Singh.
• Abolition of the provincial courts of appeal and circuit set up by Cornwallis, appointment of commissioners of revenue and circuit.

10. Lord Metcalfe (1835–1836 AD)

• New press law removing restrictions on the press in India.
• Known as the liberator of Indian press.

11. Lord Auckland (1836–1842 AD)

• First Afghan War (1838–42).
• Death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1839).

12. Lord Ellenborough (1842–1844 AD)

• Annexation of Sindh (1843).
• War with Gwalior (1843).

13. Lord Hardinge-I (1844–1848 AD)

• First Anglo-Sikh War (1845–46) and the Treaty of Lahore (1846).
• Social reforms including abolition of female infanticide and human sacrifice.

14. Lord Dalhousie (1848-1856 AD)

• Second Anglo-Sikh War (1848–49) and annexation of Punjab (1849).
• Annexation of Lower Burma or Pegu (1852).
• Introduction of the Doctrine of Lapse and annexation of Satara (1848), Jaitpur and Sambhalpur (1849), Udaipur (1852), Jhansi (1853), Nagpur (1854), and Awadh (1856).
• “Wood’s Educational Despatch, 1854″ (Charles Wood, President of the Board of Control) and opening of Anglo-vernacular schools and government colleges.
• Railway Minute of 1853; and laying down of first railway line connecting Bombay and Thane in 1853.
• Telegraph (4,000 miles of telegraph lines to connect Calcutta with Bombay, Madras, and Peshawar) and postal (Post Office Act, 1854) reforms.
• Ganges Canal declared open (1854); establishment of separate public works department in every province.
• Widow Remarriage Act (1856).

15. Lord Canning (1856–1857 AD)

• The last Governor-General of India & the first Viceroy of India.
• Establishment of three universities at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay in 1857.
• Revolt of 1857.

The Viceroy of India

1. Lord Canning (1858–1862 AD)

• Transfer of control from East India Company to the Crown, the Government of India Act, 1858.
• ‘White Mutiny’ by European troops in 1859.
• Indian Councils Act, 1861

2. Lord Elgin-I (1862–1863 AD)

• Wahabi Movement.

3. Lord John Lawrence (1864–1869 AD)

• Bhutan War (1865).
• Setting up of the High Courts at Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras (1865).

4. Lord Mayo (1869–1872 AD)

• Opening of the Rajkot College in Kathiawar and the Mayo College at Ajmer for political training of Indian princes.
• Establishment of Statistical Survey of India.
• Establishment of Department of Agriculture and Commerce.
• Introduction of state railways.

5. Lord Northbrook (1872–1876 AD)

• Visit of Prince of Wales in 1875.
• Trial of Gaekwar of Baroda.
• Kuka Movement in Punjab.

6. Lord Lytton (1876–1880 AD)

• Famine of 1876–78 affecting Madras, Bombay, Mysore, Hyderabad, parts of central India and Punjab; appointment of Famine Commission under the presidency of Richard Strachey (1878).
• Royal Titles Act (1876), Queen Victoria assuming the title of ‘Kaiser-i-Hind’ or Queen Empress of India.
• The Vernacular Press Act (1878).
• The Arms Act (1878).
• The Second Afghan War (1878–80).

7. Lord Ripon (1880–1884 AD)

• Repeal of the Vernacular Press Act (1882).
• The first Factory Act (1881) to improve labour conditions.
• Continuation of financial decentralisation.
• Government resolution on local self-government (1882).
• Appointment of Education Commission under chairmanship of Sir William Hunter (1882).
• The Ilbert Bill controversy (1883–84).
• Rendition of Mysore.

8. Lord Dufferin (1884–1888 AD)

• The Third Burmese War (1885–86).
• Establishment of the Indian National Congress (1885).

9. Lord Lansdowne (1888–1894 AD)

• Factory Act (1891).
• Categorisation of civil services into imperial, provisional and subordinate.
• Indian Councils Act (1892).
• Setting up of Durand Commission (1893) to define the Durand Line between India and Afghanistan (now between Pakistan and Afghanistan; a small portion of the line touches India in Pakistan occupied Kashmir).

10. Lord Elgin-II (1894–1899 AD)

• Two British officials assassinated by Chapekar brothers (1897).

11. Lord Curzon (1899–1905 AD)

• Appointment of Police Commission (1902) under Sir Andrew Frazer to review police administration.
• Appointment of Universities Commission (1902) and passing of Indian Universities Act (1904).
• Establishment of Department of Commerce and Industry.
• Calcutta Corporation Act (1899).
• Ancient Monuments Preservation Act (1904).
• Partition of Bengal (1905).
• Curzon-Kitchener controversy.
• Younghusband’s Mission to Tibet (1904).

12. Lord Minto II (1905–1910 AD)

• Popularisation of anti-partition and Swadeshi Movements.
• Split in Congress in the annual session of 1907 in Surat.
• Establishment of Muslim League by Aga Khan (1906).

13. Lord Hardinge II (1910–1916 AD)

• Creation of Bengal Presidency (like Bombay and Madras) in 1911.
• Transfer of capital from Calcutta to Delhi (1911).
• Establishment of the Hindu Mahasabha (1915) by Madan Mohan Malaviya.
• Coronation durbar of King George V held in Delhi (1911).

14. Lord Chelmsford (1916–1921 AD)

• Formation of Home Rule Leagues by Annie Besant and Tilak (1916).
• Lucknow session of the Congress (1916).
• Lucknow pact between the Congress and Muslim League (1916).
• Foundation of Sabarmati Ashram (1916) after Gandhi’s return; launch of Champaran Satyagraha (1916), Kheda Satyagraha (1918), and Satyagraha at Ahmedabad (1918).
• Montagu’s August Declaration (1917).
• Government of India Act (1919).
• The Rowlatt Act (1919).
• Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre (1919).
• Launch of Non-Cooperation and Khilafat Movements.
• Foundation of Women’s University at Poona (1916) and appointment of Saddler’s Commission (1917) for reforms in educational policy.
• Death of Tilak (August 1, 1920).
• Appointment of S.P. Sinha as governor of Bihar (the first Indian to become a governor).

15. Lord Reading (1921–1926 AD)

• Chauri Chaura incident (February 5, 1922) and the subsequent withdrawal of Non-Cooperation Movement.
• Moplah rebellion in Kerala (1921).
• Repeal of the Press Act of 1910 and the Rowlatt Act of 1919.
• Criminal Law Amendment Act and abolition of cotton excise.
• Communal riots in Multan, Amritsar, Delhi, Aligarh, Arvi, and Calcutta.
• Kakori train robbery (1925).
• Murder of Swami Shraddhanand (1926).
• Establishment of Swaraj Party by C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru (1922).
• Decision to hold simultaneous examinations for the ICS both in Delhi and London, with effect from 1923.

16. Lord Irwin (1926–1931 AD)

• Visit of Simon Commission to India (1928) and the boycott of the commission by the Indians.
• An All-Parties Conference held at Lucknow (1928) for suggestions for the (future) Constitution of India, the report of which was called the Nehru Report or the Nehru Constitution.
• Appointment of the Harcourt Butler Indian States Commission (1927).
• Murder of Saunders, the assistant superintendent of police of Lahore; bomb blast in the Assembly Hall of Delhi (1929); the Lahore Conspiracy Case and death of Jatin Das after prolonged hunger strike (1929), and bomb accident in train in Delhi (1929).
• Lahore session of the Congress (1929); Purna Swaraj Resolution.
• Dandi March (March 12, 1930) by Gandhi to launch the Civil Disobedience Movement.
• ‘Deepavali Declaration’ by Lord Irwin (1929).
• Boycott of the First Round Table Conference (1930), Gandhi-Irwin Pact (1931), and suspension of the Civil Disobedience Movement.

17. Lord Willingdon (1931–1936 AD)

• Second Round Table Conference (1931) and failure of the conference, resumption of Civil Disobedience Movement.
• Announcement of Communal Award (1932) under which separate communal electorates were set up.
• ‘Fast unto death’ by Gandhi in Yeravada prison, broken after the Poona Pact (1932).
• Third Round Table Conference (1932).
• Launch of Individual Civil Disobedience (1933).
• The Government of India Act of 1935.
• Establishment of All India Kisan Sabha (1936) and Congress Socialist Party by Acharya Narendra Dev and Jayaprakash Narayan (1934).
• Burma separated from India (1935).

18. Lord Linlithgow (1936–1944 AD)

• First general elections (1936–37); Congress attained absolute majority.
• Resignation of the Congress ministries after the outbreak of the Second World War (1939).
• Subhas Chandra Bose elected as the president of Congress at the fifty-first session of the Congress (1938).
• Resignation of Bose in 1939 and formation of the Forward Bloc (1939).
• Lahore Resolution (March 1940) by the Muslim League, demand for separate state for Muslims.
• ‘August Offer’ (1940) by the viceroy; its criticism by the Congress and endorsement by the Muslim League.
• Winston Churchill elected prime minister of England (1940).
• Escape of Subhas Chandra Bose from India (1941) and organisation of the Indian National Army.
• Cripps Mission’s Cripps Plan to offer dominion status to India and setting up of a Constituent Assembly; its rejection by the Congress.
• Passing of the ‘Quit India Resolution’ by the Congress (1942); outbreak of ‘August Revolution’; or Revolt of 1942 after the arrest of national leaders.
• ‘Divide and Quit’ slogan at the Karachi session (1944) of the Muslim League.

19. Lord Wavell (1944–1947 AD)

• C. Rajagopalachari’s CR Formula (1944), failure of Gandhi-Jinnah talks (1944).
• Wavell Plan and the Shimla Conference (1942).
• End of Second World War (1945).
• Proposals of the Cabinet Mission (1946) and its acceptance by the Congress.
• Observance of ‘Direct Action Day’ (August 16, 1946), also known as the 1946 Calcutta Killings, by the Muslim League.
• Elections to the Constituent Assembly, formation of Interim Government by the Congress (September 1946).
• Announcement of end of British rule in India by Clement Attlee (prime minister of England) on February 20, 1947.

20. Lord Mountbatten (1947–1948 AD)

• The last Viceroy of British India and the first Governor-General of Independent India.
• June Third Plan (June 3, 1947) announced.
• Introduction of Indian Independence Bill in the House of Commons.
• Appointment of two boundary commissions under Sir Cyril Radcliff for the partition of Bengal and Punjab.

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