Charter Act 1813

Last updated

East India Company Act 1813 [1]
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (1801-1816).svg
Long title An Act for continuing in the East India Company, for a further Term, the Possession of the British Territories in India, together with certain exclusive Privileges; for establishing further Regulations for the Government of the said Territories, and the better Administration of Justice within the same; and for regulating the Trade to and from the Places within the Limits of the said Company's Charter.
Citation 53 Geo. 3. c. 155
Dates
Royal assent 22 July 1813
Other legislation
Repealed by Government of India Act 1915
Status: Repealed

The East India Company Act 1813 (53 Geo. 3. c. 155), also known as the Charter Act 1813, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that renewed the charter issued to the British East India Company, and continued the Company's rule in India. However, the Company's commercial monopoly was ended, except for the tea and opium trade and the trade with China, this reflecting the growth of British power in India.

Contents

Contents

The Act expressly asserted the Crown's sovereignty over British India, allotted 100,000 rupees annually for the improvement of literary and scientific knowledge, and permitted Christian missionaries to propagate English and preach their religion in Company's territories. The power of the provincial governments and courts in India over European British subjects was also strengthened by the Act, and financial provision was also made to encourage a revival in Indian literature and for the promotion of science. [2]

Prior to the 1813 legislation, the British Parliament and the East India Company had refused to countenance missionary activity in India, and proscribed the Bible and forbade religious education, in support of a policy of religious neutrality and on the basis that, if exposed to Christianity, Indians may have felt threatened and thus would have posed a threat to British commercial ventures. [3] The lifting of the prohibition, when it occurred, was not however a victory for missionaries, and did not precipitate official support for their activity; instead, they were subject to stringent checks. [4]

The Company's charter had previously been renewed by the East India Company Act 1793, and was next renewed by the Government of India Act 1833.

Scholarly views

The literary critic and historian Gauri Viswanathan identifies two major changes to the relation between Britain and India that came about as the result of the Act: first, the assumption by the British of a new responsibility for Indian people's education; and, second, the relaxation of controls on missionary activity. [5] Whereas previously educational provision was at the discretion of the Governor-General of Bengal, the Act overturned this laissez-faire status quo by establishing an obligation to promote Indian people's "interests and happiness" and "religious and moral improvement" – a responsibility the British state did not bear to British people at the time of the Act's passage. [6] Viswanathan attributes the impetus for the new educational responsibilities to the mood in the English Parliament. Parliamentarians were concerned with the extravagant lifestyles of East India Company officials and the company's ruthless exploitation of natural resources, and, feeling that the British ought to lead by example but lacking the ability to curtail the activities of wealthy Nabobs, sought to remedy perceived injustices by seeking Indians' welfare and improvement. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Governor-General of India</span> Representative of the Indian monarch

The Governor-General of India was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom in their capacity as the Emperor/Empress of India and after Indian independence in 1947, the representative of the Monarch of India. The office was created in 1773, with the title of Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William. The officer had direct control only over his presidency but supervised other East India Company officials in India. Complete authority over all of British territory in the Indian subcontinent was granted in 1833, and the official came to be known as the "Governor-General of India".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Law of India</span> Legal system of India

The legal system of India consists of civil law, common law, customary law, religious law and corporate law within the legal framework inherited from the colonial era and various legislation first introduced by the British are still in effect in modified forms today. Since the drafting of the Indian Constitution, Indian laws also adhere to the United Nations guidelines on human rights law and the environmental law. personal law is fairly complex, with each religion adhering to its own specific laws. In most states, registering of marriages and divorces is not compulsory. Separate laws govern Hindus including Sikhs, Jains and Buddhist, Muslims, Christians, and followers of other religions. The exception to this rule is in the state of Goa, where a uniform civil code is in place, in which all religions have a common law regarding marriages, divorces, and adoption. Plus, recently, on February 7, 2024, the Indian state of Uttarakhand has also incorporated a uniform civil code. In the first major reformist judgment for the 2010s, the Supreme Court of India banned the Islamic practice of "Triple Talaq". The landmark Supreme Court of India judgment was welcomed by women's rights activists across India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">H. H. Wilson</span> British Indologist (1786–1860)

Horace Hayman Wilson was an English orientalist who was elected the first Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Law of Singapore</span> National law of the city-state

The legal system of Singapore is based on the English common law system. Major areas of law – particularly administrative law, contract law, equity and trust law, property law and tort law – are largely judge-made, though certain aspects have now been modified to some extent by statutes. However, other areas of law, such as criminal law, company law and family law, are almost completely statutory in nature.

In certain jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and other Westminster-influenced jurisdictions, as well as the United States and the Philippines, primary legislation has both a short title and a long title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">India Office</span> British government department in London (established 1858)

The India Office was a British government department established in London in 1858 to oversee the administration, through a Viceroy and other officials, of the Provinces of India. These territories comprised most of the modern-day nations of Indian Subcontinent as well as Yemen and other territories around the Indian Ocean. The department was headed by the Secretary of State for India, a member of the British cabinet, who was formally advised by the Council of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bengal Renaissance</span> 1800s–1930s socio-cultural and religious reform movement in Bengal, Indian subcontinent

The Bengal Renaissance, also known as the Bengali Renaissance, was a cultural, social, intellectual, and artistic movement that took place in the Bengal region of the British Raj, from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. Historians have traced the beginnings of the movement to the victory of the British East India Company at the 1757 Battle of Plassey, as well as the works of reformer Raja Rammohan Roy, considered the "Father of the Bengal Renaissance," born in 1772. Nitish Sengupta stated that the movement "can be said to have … ended with Rabindranath Tagore," Asia's first Nobel laureate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Grant (British East India Company)</span> British politician

Charles Grant was a British politician influential in Indian and domestic affairs who, motivated by his evangelical Christianity, championed the causes of social reform and Christian mission, particularly in India. He served as Chairman of the British East India Company, and as a member of parliament (MP), and was an energetic member of the Clapham Sect. The "Clapham Sect" were a group of social activists who spoke out about the moral imperative to end slavery. Henry Thornton founder of the Clapham sect regarded Grant as his closest friend, after Wilberforce, and Grant planned and paid for a house called 'Glenelg' on Henry's estate in Battersea. It was a twin to, and lay near to the house built on the same estate for Wilberforce after his marriage, the location of which is marked by a plaque at No.111 Broomwood Road, west of that section of Battersea Rise now called Clapham Common West Side. Grant later moved to live in Russell Square.

James Farish was the acting governor of Bombay during the British Raj from 11 July 1838 to 31 May 1839. He was a member of the Bombay council, and acted as an interim Governor.

In British law and in some related legal systems, an enactment is spent if it is "exhausted in operation by the accomplishment of the purposes for which it was enacted".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Short Titles Act 1896</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Short Titles Act 1896 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It replaces the Short Titles Act 1892.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in Maharashtra</span>

Christianity is a minority religion in Maharashtra, a state of India. Approximately 79.8% of the population of Maharashtra are Hindus, with Christian adherents being 1.0% of the population. The Roman Catholic archdiocese whose seat is in Maharashtra is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay. There are two different Christian ethnic communities in Maharashtra: the Bombay East Indians, who are predominantly Roman Catholic, and the Marathi Christians, who are predominantly Protestant with a small Roman Catholic population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Act 53 Geo. 3. c. 160, sometimes called the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813, the Trinitarian Act 1812, the Unitarian Relief Act, the Trinity Act, the Unitarian Toleration Bill, or Mr William Smith's Bill, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which amended its blasphemy laws and granted toleration for Unitarian worship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interpretation Act 1889</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Interpretation Act 1889 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in Gujarat</span> Minority religion in Gujarat, India

Christianity is practiced by 0.5% of the population of the state of Gujarat in India. The French or Catalan Dominican missionary; Jordan de Catalani was the first European missionary to start conversions to the Latin Church in India. He arrived at Surat in 1320 before proceeding onto the Konkan region for his mission. The Portuguese in Goa and Bombay controlled the areas of Damaon territory for more than four centuries; they brought more Catholic Christianity with them, into the neighbouring Guzerat Subah of the Moghal Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charter Act 1793</span> United Kingdom legislation

The East India Company Act 1793, also known as the Charter Act 1793, was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which renewed the charter issued to the British East India Company (EIC).The veto which was originally given to LORD CORNWALL IS was continued for all the governer generals. Bombay and Madras presidency were kept in supretending of FORT WILLIAM . It was mentioned to check infanticide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government of India Act 1833</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Government of India Act 1833, sometimes called the East India Company Act 1833 or the Charter Act 1833, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, later retitled as the Saint Helena Act 1833. It extended the royal charter granted to the East India Company for an additional twenty years, and restructured the governance of British India.

James Peggs (1793–1850) was an English Baptist missionary and pamphleteer active in British India who played an influential role in the spread of Christianity on the subcontinent. Along with fellow General Baptist William Bampton, Peggs spent the majority of his career in India, preaching in Cuttack, Orissa to evangelize the local population. In his pamphlets, Peggs publicised the practise of Sati- then widespread in Bengal to gather support for further evangelical missionary work among the "pagan" Indian public. Peggs also circulated the Pilgrim tax levied on Idolaters going on pilgrimages.

Gauri Viswanathan is an Indian American academic. She is the Class of 1933 Professor in the Humanities and Director of the South Asia Institute at Columbia University.

References

Cited sources

  1. Short title as conferred by the Short Titles Act 1896, s. 1; the modern convention for the citation of short titles omits the comma after the word "Act".
  2. Keith, Arthur Berriedale (1936). A Constitutional History of India 1600–1935. London: Methuen. pp.  128–129.
  3. Viswanathan, Gauri (1989). Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British Rule in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. p. 36.
  4. Viswanathan 1989, pp. 36–7.
  5. Viswanathan 1989, p. 23.
  6. Viswanathan 1989, pp. 23–24.
  7. Viswanathan 1989, p. 24.

Bibliography