ABSTRACT
The English East India Company was formed by a group of London merchants who received a royal charter to trade in eastern waters from Queen Elizabeth I on 1 December 1600. 1 The Company ceased to function when the charter was revoked by the British parliament in 1858. Over this long period, the Company’s role in the subcontinent changed in three successive phases. During the seventeenth century, it acted as a great corporate trader, in competition with other European East India companies and the native Indian traders, under the protection of the Mughal Empire. It gained certain commercial and judicial privileges from the Mughals, but essentially its role was confined to that of trade. 2 During the first half of the eighteenth century, when the empire was disintegrating, the Company played both a political and military role in addition to trade. This was the second phase, when it dealt with the Mughal successor states and defeated the French rivals (Chapter 7). After the successes of the battles at Plassey (1757) and Buxar (1764) it went on to conquer over half the subcontinent, exercise great power over its peoples and to inaugurate Westernization touching many aspects of Indian life. This third phase, which is the subject of this chapter, coincided with overwhelming British military might born out of the technological successes of the Industrial Revolution.
