‘Governors of Empire’ by Amar Farooqui: Company India kept, paid the price

The East India Company (EIC) was an extremely unusual phenomenon, twice over. It was a trading company that employed not just managers and manufacturers, but also soldiers and bureaucrats. It maintained an army and fought many wars. It conquered territories and actually became a ‘state’ even while continuing to perform its commercial functions. But it was also an unusual state in that its political functions and the exercise of sovereignty were completely subordinated to economic motives. Such state systems were a rarity in pre-modern times. By now, we know how the EIC functioned and governed India. But how was the EIC governed? This is an important question answered by historian Amar Farooqui in his meticulously researched book.

‘Governors of Empire’ is a biographical account of the men who governed the East India Company and ruled India during the 18th-19th centuries. Through the individual accounts of men such as Robert Clive, Warren Hastings, Dalhousie and John Lawrence, the book tells the story of the EIC and its transformation from a mere trading company to the world’s largest empire.

Granted a charter by the British Queen to trade with the East, the EIC landed first in Surat in 1608 and soon set up factories on both the east and west coasts of the Indian peninsula. Parts of the western coast were already occupied by the Portuguese. In order to bypass them, the EIC went beyond and expanded to the southern tip and much of the eastern coast on the Bay of Bengal. It carved out the new cities of Madras, Bombay and Calcutta, out of clusters of villages and small islands. All this required war and violence. The EIC was engaged in wars with other European companies and also with local Indian rulers.

The world economy, till the 18th century, was still a zero-sum game. One could benefit only at the expense of the other. In such a condition, the dividing line between a legitimate economic activity such as trade and simple loot and plunder was obviously quite thin. Private ships of the EIC obtained letters of reprisal from the Queen to legitimately attack and loot other ships of rival companies. Predation was an integral part of a successful economic venture.

However, in spite of wielding enormous wealth and power, the EIC remained a petitioning body to the mighty Mughal empire, at least till the mid-18th century. The British were at best pleaders in the Mughal court depending on the mercy of the emperor. The EIC enjoyed enormous wealth and power, but not sovereignty, which rested firmly with the Mughals. The EIC did try to take on the mighty Mughals in 1690 for control over Bombay and paid dearly for it. It lost the battle, surrendered to the Mughals and very nearly lost its place on the Indian shore. If the Company officials were not pardoned and allowed to carry on their commercial activities by the Mughal emperor, the EIC story in India might well have been over by the end of the 17th century. However, the balance of power began to shift gradually but decisively from the declining Mughals to the ascendent British from the 18th century onwards. In the 19th century, it was quite clear who was the ruler of India.

It was only after the rebellion of 1857 that the pendulum of destiny swung decisively. In 1690, after the EIC lost the battle of Bombay, the Company’s representatives were brought to the Mughal court as prisoners, their hands tied and heads low. After 1857, it was the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar and his family who became prisoners, for having led the rebellion. Zafar and his family were exiled to Burma, where they all died — unwept, and unsung. The control of India also passed from the hands of the EIC to the British Queen. But the Company officials continued to play important roles in governing India. One such official was John Lawrence, who had ordered the exile of Zafar.

Shortly after Lawrence died, his statue was erected in Lahore in 1887. It depicted Lawrence with a pen in his right hand and sword in the left. A caption said: “Will you be governed by the pen or the sword?” This was quite characteristic of the British rule, both under the EIC and the British crown. They ruled with the pen and generated new knowledge about Indian society. The Mughal rule was declared as alien and illegitimate. The British, by contrast, were declared benevolent and beneficial for India. But the sword was just as much at play, as was exemplified by the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919.

This is an extremely important book on the Company’s rule in India. It goes well beyond the big picture and provides minute details of individual activities, shifts in policy decisions, fluctuations in the fortunes of the East India Company and the eventual transfer of power from it to the Crown.

— The reviewer is a visiting faculty at BML Munjal University, Manesar