Historical Events That Influenced Our Constitution

Nowadays success in every single examination like Bank, SSC, and others depends much on the candidate’s performance in the General Studies Section. This section has a good weightage of questions coming from History and politics. In this article, we will discuss one of the history topics. 

Historical Events: Company Rule In India (Chronological order)

	Constitutional Development	Significance
	Regulating Act of 1773	This was the first Act passed by the British Parliament towards the centralization of the affairs of the East India Company in India. The Act designated the position of the Governor of Bengal as the Governor-General of Bengal.  Lord Warren Hastings became the first Governor-General of Bengal. The Act made Governors of both Bombay and Madras subordinate to the Governor-General of Bengal. The Governor-General was given the autonomy to make rules. The Governor-General was assisted by an Executive Council having four members. The total number of Court of Directors in the Company was fixed at four. The Governor-General was bounded by the advice of the Court of Directors of the Company. The company‘s revenue is to be reported by The Court of Directors, who was working as the governing body of the company The Supreme Court was established at Calcutta in 1774, under the provisions of Regulating Act 1773. The Supreme Court had a Chief Justice and 3 Assistant Judges.
	Pitts India Act of 1784	This Act is also known as “The Act of Settlement“. Under this Act, the territories of the East India Company were known as the “British Possessions in India” Under the  Act, the Government of British India is run jointly by the Crown and Company. The government had the supreme power and authority. It introduced the system of double government i.e The Court of Directors was looking after Commercial Operations and the  Board of Control having six members was looking after Political affairs, Under the Pitts India Act 1784. Under this Act, Governor General’s Council got reduced from Four members to Three members.  Under this Act, Governors Councils were also established in Bombay and Madras.
	Charter Act of 1813	This Act  brought an end to the East India Company‘s monopoly, over trade with India. Trade with India was opened for all British traders except Tea Trade. The company was given the responsibility for the educational reforms and a grant of one lakh was given for this purpose. This Act has given more authority to the courts in India over European British subjects.
	Charter Act of 1833	Under this Act, the Governor-General of Bengal was designated as the Governor-General of India. Lord William Bentinck became the First Governor-General of India. East India Company became purely an administrative body, Company was no longer working as a commercial body. The Governor-General was given full autonomy over revenue, civil and military. Charter Act of 1833 was the final step toward the Process of Centralization in India, That began with the Regulating Act of 1773. An Attempt was made to introduce an open competition for the selection of civil servants but got neglected.
	Charter Act of 1853	Civil Service Examination was introduced also known as covenanted civil services. It was a competitive examination for recruitment into civil services. It got opened to Indians also. The executive and legislative functions of the Governor-General got separated. This Act introduced local representation for the first time as it provided for the addition of six new members to the Legislative Council, four members were appointed by Provisional Governments of Bengal, Bombay, Madras, and Agra. Under the provisions of the Charter Act of 1853, Governor General’s Legislative Council came to be known as the Central Legislative Council. The Central Legislative Council began out functioning as a Mini-Parliament and It adopted the same procedures as the British Parliament.