Company rule in India
India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 1757–1858 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Areas of South Asia under Company rule (a) 1774–1804 and (b) 1805–1858 shown in two shades of pink | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Status | Chartered Territory of East India Company | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Capital | Calcutta | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Official languages | English Persian (until 1837) Urdu (from 1837) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Government | Unitary parliamentary Constitutional monarchy
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| Governor-General | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1774–1785 (first Fort William) | Warren Hastings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1834–1835 (first India) | Lord William Bentinck | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1857–1858 (last) | Charles Canning | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Historical era | Early modern | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 23 June 1757 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 16 August 1765 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1767–1799 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1772–1818 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1845–1846, 1848–1849 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 August 1858 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
• Nationalisation of the Company and assumption of direct administration by the British crown | 1 November 1858 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1858 | 1,940,000 km2 (750,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Currency | Rupee | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Today part of | India Pakistan Bangladesh | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Company rule in India (sometimes also Company Raj, from Hindi rāj, lit. 'rule') was the rule of the British East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. This is variously taken to have commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when the Nawab of Bengal Siraj ud-Daulah was defeated and replaced with Mir Jafar, who had the support of the East India Company; or in 1765, when the Company was granted the diwani, or the right to collect revenue, in Bengal and Bihar; or in 1773, when the Company abolished local rule (Nizamat) in Bengal and established a capital in Calcutta, appointed its first Governor-General of Fort William, Warren Hastings, and became directly involved in governance.
The Company's rule lasted until 1858, when, after the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Government of India Act 1858, the India Office of the British government assumed the task of directly administering India in the new British Raj.