When the East India Company arrived in India, it established a post called "Governor of Bengal" (first Governor of Bengal: Robert Clive). Other presidencies, such as Bombay and Madras, each had their own Governor. However, following the passage of the Regulating Act 1773, the post of Governor of Bengal was renamed "Governor-General of Bengal" (first Governor-General of Bengal was Warren Hastings). As per the Act, the Governor of Bombay and Madras reported to the Governor-General of Bengal. In this article, we will discuss the Governor Generals of Bengal (1773-1833) which will be helpful for UPSC exam preparation.

Lord Warren Hastings (1773 - 1785)

• Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator who served as the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and thus the first de facto Governor-General of Bengal in 1772–1785.
• He and Robert Clive are credited with laying the groundwork for the British Empire in India. He was a dynamic organiser and reformer. In 1779–1784, he led the East India Company's forces against a coalition of native states and the French.
• Finally, the well-organized British side held its own, while France lost influence in India.
• He was accused of corruption and impeached in 1787, but was acquitted in 1795 after a lengthy trial. In 1814, he was appointed as a Privy Councillor.

*For detailed notes of this topic, check this link Lord Warren Hastings (1773-1785)

Lord Cornwallis (1786 - 1793)

• Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis assumed command as Governor-General of Fort William (Bengal) and Commander-in-Chief of British India on September 12, 1786.
• Lord Cornwallis was a British army officer, administrator, and diplomat who had previously served in the American Revolutionary War. He and his troops had surrendered to the Americans at Yorktown.
• In 1786, he accepted the position of Governor-General of Bengal on the condition that he also be given supreme military command. On September 12, he arrived in Calcutta and assumed command.
• The Cornwallis Code, which contained provisions for governing civil, policing, and judiciary administration in British India, was developed under his supervision.
• Lord Cornwallis is credited with laying the groundwork for British rule throughout India, and various reforms in the court, revenue, and services persisted until the end of the British era in India.

*For detailed notes of this topic, check this link Lord Cornwallis (1786-1793)

Sir John Shore (1793 - 1798)

• Sir John Shore (1751-1834) was the Governor-General of Bengal from 1793 to 1798 and a specialist in the Bengal revenue system.
• He arrived in Calcutta in 1768 as an English East India Company writer (apprentice clerk), at a time when the company's Colonial State was just being formed and the great trading company was taking over the collection of land revenues, which was the key to political control of India.
• Shore persuaded his superiors that British control of India could only be achieved through just and stable land revenue settlement over the next twenty years, owing to his mastery of Bengal's revenue and judicial systems.
• Shore's ideas were mostly behind the revenue administration reforms of 1786 and 1790.
• On the subject of permanent settlement, Shore disagreed with Lord Cornwallis.
• He was opposed to reaching a Permanent Settlement until enough knowledge and information about land resources and raiyat capabilities had been gathered.
• Shore's ideas were first expressed in a May 1785 Council minute titled "Remarks on the Mode of Administering Justice to the Natives in Bengal and on Revenue Collection."

*For detailed notes of this topic, check this link Sir John Shore (1793-1798)

Lord Arthur Wellesley (1798-1805)

• Richard Colley Wellesley was a politician and colonial administrator of Anglo-Irish origin. He was Viscount Wellesley until 1781, when he became the 2nd Earl of Mornington, succeeding his father.
• He was the Governor-General of India from 1798 to 1805, and he later served as Foreign Secretary in the British Cabinet and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
• During his reign, the fourth and final Anglo-Mysore war was fought, and Tipu was killed. In addition, the Second Anglo-Maratha War occurred, in which Bhonsle, Scindia, and Holkar were defeated.
• Wellesley followed the "subsidiary alliance" policy, which was accepted by the rulers of Mysore, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Bundi, Macheri, Bharatpur, and Oudh, Tanjore, Berar, Peshwa, and the Nizam of Hyderabad.
• During his tenure, the Censorship of the Press Act of 1799 was also passed, and Fort William College was founded in 1800 to train civil servants.

*For detailed notes of this topic, check this link Lord Arthur Wellesley (1798-1805)

Lord George Barlow (1805 - 1807)

• Sir George Barlow (1762-1847) was a Bengal civilian who served as the provisional Governor General of Fort William in Bengal from October 1805 to July 1807 and as Governor of Madras from 1808 to 1813.
• In 1778, George Barlow joined the Company's civil service. He was the secretary of the board of revenue during Cornwallis' regime. He was instrumental in developing the permanent settlement's rules and regulations.
• Barlow was appointed chief secretary of the Supreme Government of Calcutta in 1796 and a member of the Council beginning in October 1801.
• Barlow was appointed provisional Governor General until July 1807, when Lord Minto, the regular Governor General, took over.
• In 1803 Barlow was made a baronet in recognition of his exemplary service during the regimes of Cornwallis, John Shore, and Wellesley.
• In December 1807, George Barlow was appointed Governor of Madras.

Lord Minto-I (1807 - 1813)

• Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 1st Earl of Minto (23 April 1751 – 21 June 1814), was a British diplomat and politician who served in the House of Commons from 1776 to 1795.
• He was Viceroy of the short-lived Anglo-Corsican Kingdom from 1793 to 1796, and Governor-General of India from July 1807 to 1813.
• Lord Minto was a well-educated politician who had spent many years managing public affairs when he was appointed Governor-General in 1806.
• He was one of the House of Commons managers appointed to oversee Warren Hastings' impeachment, and the prosecution of Sir Elijah Impey was especially important to him.
• The Court of Directors appointed him Governor-General on the condition that he abandon Lord Wellesley's policy, which was still a source of fear in Leadenhall-street, and follow in the footsteps of Lord Cornwallis.
• His signing of the Treaty of Amritsar in 1809 with Punjab ruler Ranjit Singh was a great triumph. Ranjit had established his authority west of the Sutlej and was now looking east.

*For detailed notes of this topic, check this link Lord Minto-I (1807-1813)

Francis Rawdon Hastings (1813 - 1823)

• Francis Edward Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings (December 9, 1754 – November 28, 1826), was a British politician.
• The Honourable Francis Rawdon, known as Lord Rawdon between 1762 and 1783, The Earl of Moira between 1793 and 1816, was an Anglo-Irish politician and military officer who served as Governor-General of India from 1813 to 1823.
• He had also spent years with British forces during the American Revolutionary War and the War of the First Coalition in 1794.
• In 1790, he took the surname "Hastings" in accordance with the will of his maternal uncle, Francis Hastings, 10th Earl of Huntingdon.

*For detailed notes of this topic, check this link Francis Rawdon Hastings (1813-1823)

Lord Amherst (1823 - 1828)

• William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst (14 January 1773 – 13 March 1857) was a British colonial administrator and diplomat. Between 1823 and 1828, he served as Governor-General of India.
• The annexation of Assam, which triggered the first Burmese war in 1824, resulted in the cession of Arakan and Tenasserim to the British Empire.
• The appointment of Amherst followed the removal of Governor-General Lord Hastings in 1823.
• Hastings had a spat with London over the issue of lowering the field pay of officers in the Bengal Army, which he was able to avoid by fighting successive wars against Nepal and the Marathan Confederacy.
• However, his refusal to lower field pay during peacetime in the early 1820s resulted in the appointment of Amherst, who was expected to carry out London's demands.
• However, Amherst was an inexperienced governor who was heavily influenced by senior military officers in Bengal such as Sir Edward Paget, at least in the early days of his tenure in Calcutta.
• Prior to his arrival, he inherited a territorial dispute from John Adam, the acting Governor-General, involving the Anglo-Burmese border on the Naaf River, which erupted into violence on September 24, 1823.
• Amherst, unwilling to lose face in the face of Burmese territorial aggression, ordered the troops in.

*For detailed notes of this topic, check this link Lord Amherst (1823-1828)

Conclusion

Until 1833, the position was known as "governor-general of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal." The Government of India Act of 1833 changed the title to "governor-general of India," which took effect on April 22, 1834.