Administration of India under

Cornwallis

Cornwallis, a blue-blooded aristocrat, was an ardent patriot. He

discharged his duties fearlessly, and his life was an embodiment of duty
and sacrifice. He perceived the danger of Tipus growing power and
curtailed it by boldly discarding the policy of nonintervention. As an
administrator, he consolidated the Companys position in India and
started the tradition of efficient and pure administration. Although there
were defects in his Permanent Settlement of Land Revenue, his
administrative and judicial reforms were solid achievements. He may be
regarded the parent of the Indian Administrative Service and founder of
an efficient and clean system of administration.

INTRODUCTION
Lord Cornwallis, a warrior-statesman, succeeded Warren Hastings as
Governor-General in 1786. He belonged to an influential and aristocratic
family that had wide political connections.
He was also a close friend of Prime Minister Pitt and of Dundas, the most
influential member of the Board of Control.
He distinguished himself as a remarkable soldier in the American War of
Independence. Although he surrendered at York Town in 1781 before the
American troops, his reputation was not spoiled. He still enjoyed the
confidence of the authorities at Home. After his return from America he
was offered the Governor- Generalship in India.
Cornwallis was prompted by a strong sense of public duty and enjoyed
the respect as well as the confidence of his fellow countrymen.
The Parliament was prepared to give him extraordinary legal powers to
carry out radical reforms in the administration of Bengal. It amended
Pitts India Act in 1786 so as enable him to overrule the decision of the
majority of his council, if necessary.
The appointment of Cornwallis was significant in one respect. A new
tradition of choosing a person from an aristocratic family for the post of
Governor-General was initiated.
It was his good fortune that he had an excellent team of subordinates
comprising John Shore, James Grant, and Sir William Jones. Although
Cornwallis commenced his work under beneficial circumstances, he had
to carry out his policy with caution.

Pitts India Act, 1784:

The Act of 1784 introduced changes mainly in the Companys Home
Government in London. While the patronage of the company was left
untouched, all civil, military and revenue affairs were to be controlled by
the Board of Control consisting of 6 members.
In India, the chief government was placed in the hands of GovernorGeneral and council of three.
The Presidencies of Madras and Bombay were subordinated to the
Governor General and Council of Bengal in all matters.
Only covenanted servants were in future to be appointed members of the
Council of the Governor-General.

Cornwallis Code:
The Cornwallis Code is a body of legislation enacted in 1793 by the East
India Company to improve the governance of its territories in India. The
Code was developed under the guidance of Charles, Earl (Lord)
Cornwallis, who served as Governor-General of India from 1786 to 1793.
The code contained significant provisions-Governing, Policing and
judicial and civil administration. Its best-known provision was the
Permanent Settlement (or the zamindari system enacted in 1793), which
established a revenue collection scheme that lasted into the 20th century.
Cornwallis Code, (1793), the enactment by which Lord Cornwallis,
governor-general of India, gave legal form to the complex of measures
that constituted the administrative framework in British India known as
the Cornwallis, or Bengal, system. Beginning with Bengal, the system
spread over all of northern India by means of the issue of a series of
regulations dated 1 May 1793. On these the government of British India
virtually rested until the Charter Act of 1833.
The system, as codified in these regulations, provided that the East India
Companys service personnel be divided into three branches: revenue,
judicial, and commercial. Private trade was forbidden to the members of
the first two branches, and a new and generous scale of pay instead
compensated them. The land revenue assessment (the major source of
revenue) was fixed permanently with zamindars, or hereditary revenue
collectors. These native Indians, provided they paid their land taxes
punctually, were treated as landowners, but they were deprived of
magisterial and police functions, which were discharged by a newly
organized government police. This permanent settlement provided the
British with an Indian landed class interested in supporting British
authority. The local administration was placed in the hands of the revenue
collectors of districts. The judiciary was reorganized; there were district
judges with magisterial powers responsible to provincial courts in civil
cases and to courts of circuit in criminal cases. The law administered was
Hindu and Muslim personal law and a modified Muslim criminal code.
The higher ranks of the services were restricted to Europeans, thus
depriving Indians of any responsible office.
As a whole, the system gave social and political stability to Bengal at the
price of neglecting the rights of the lesser landholders and undertenants
and of excluding Indians from any responsible share in the
administration.

REFORMS:
The internal reforms of Cornwallis can be studied under three main
heads.
(i) Administrative reforms
(ii) Revenue reforms or Permanent Settlement
(iii) Judicial and other reforms
ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS:
The greatest work of Cornwallis was the purification of the civil service
by the employment of capable and honest public servants. He aimed at
economy, simplification and purity. He found that the servants of the
Company were underpaid. But they received very high commissions on
revenues. In addition to that they conducted forbidden and profitable
private trade in the names of relatives and friends. Cornwallis, who aimed
at cleansing the administration, abolished the vicious system of paying
small salaries and allowing enormous perquisites. He persuaded the
Directors of the Company to pay handsome salaries to the Company
servants in order that they might free themselves from commercial and
corrupting activities.
Further, Cornwallis inaugurated the policy of making appointments
mainly on the basis of merit thereby laying the foundation of the Indian
Civil Service. To cut down on extravagances, he abolished a number of
surplus posts. Another major reform that Cornwallis introduced was the
separation of the three branches of service, namely commercial, judicial
and revenue. The collectors, the kingpins of the administrative system
were deprived of their judicial powers and their work became merely the
collection of revenue.
JUDICIAL REFORMS:
In the work of judicial reorganization, Cornwallis secured the services of
Sir William Jones, who was a judge and a great scholar. Civil and
criminal courts were completely reorganized.
1. At the top of the judicial system, the highest civil and criminal courts
of appeal, namely Sadar Diwani Adalat and Sadar Nizamat Adalat were
functioning at Calcutta. Both of them were presided over by the
Governor-General and his Council.
2. There were four provincial courts of appeal at Calcutta, Dacca,
Murshidabad and Patna, each under three European judges assisted by
Indian advisers.

3. District and City courts functioned each under a European judge. Every
district was provided with a court. Cornwallis had taken away from the
collectors of their judicial powers and made them solely responsible for
the collection of revenue. As a result, District Judges were appointed.
4. Indian judges or Munsiffs were appointed to all the courts at the
bottom of the judicial system.
In criminal cases, Muslim law was improved and followed. In civil cases,
Hindu and Muslim laws were followed according to the religion of the
litigants. In suits between Hindus and Muslims, the judge was the
deciding authority. Cornwallis was merciful by temperament. He hated
barbarous punishments and abolished those like mutilation and trial by
ordeal.
Cornwallis was better known as a lawgiver than as an administrator. With
the help of his colleague, George Barlow, Cornwallis prepared a
comprehensive code, covering the whole field of administration, judicial,
police, commercial and fiscal. In order to curb undue exercise of
authority Cornwallis made all officials answerable to the courts.
POLICE REFORMS
The effective implementation of judicial reforms required the
reorganization of police administration. The District Judge controlled the
police. Each district was divided into thanas or police circles each of
which was about 20 square miles. It was placed under an Indian officer
called the daroga who was ably assisted by many constables. However,
the police organization was not effective. In the words of Marshman, the
daroga enjoyed almost unlimited power of extortion and became the
scourge of the country.
OTHER REFORMS
Cornwallis reformed the Board of Trade, which managed the commercial
investments of the Company. With the aid of Charles Grant, he eradicated
numerous abuses and corrupt practices. Fair treatment was given to
weavers and Indian workers. He increased the remuneration for honest
service.