By: Vikrant Pareek

2014H149226P
IMPORTANCE OF EAST INDIA COMPANY

The East India Company was one of the foremost trading companies that came
into being during the Industrial Revolution in England and ushered with itself
the British Raj in India. It started as an organisation of a few individuals but it
gradually became a commercial body with gigantic resources which later on
assumed the form of a supreme power. It holds the distinction of ruling over a
country vast as India.
The East India Company was incorporated by the Royal Charter in 1600 mainly
to trade with the South-East Asia and India. It was one of the first companies to
offer limited liability to its shareholders. Although, it started as a trading
company with interests in trading spices, indigo, cotton etc; but soon it was
granted autonomy in matters of acquired foreign territory and it amassed
large, efficient armies to further its reach in the Indian subcontinent. It
successfully relegated the Spanish and Portuguese to the backmarkers of trade
in India and emerged as Indias foremost trade partner, enjoying the privileges
bestowed upon them by the Mughal Emperor Jehangir. The East India
Company quickly built trading posts and forts, placing them under Generals
and establishing its monopoly in trade.
But soon it started interfering in the local feuds of the petty kingdoms in India,
using the animosity between two kings to its advantage. The East India
Company started getting a stronghold in eastern India with the Battle of
Plassey in 1757. This was followed by the defeat of Marathas in the West and
Mysore Sultanate in South as the East India Company firmly established their
reign over India and was answerable to a board of Parliament. This was a
period of consolidation for the East India Company. In addition to its trading
activities, the East India Company was now also actively involved in
administration of India, appointing a Governor-General for the purpose.
During its reign, the East India Company established many ports. Prominent
among them are Bombay, Surat, Madras and Calcutta. It also developed the hill
stations of Shimla, Dalhousie, Kodaikanal, Darjeeling etc. It also developed the
hilly regions of the state of Assam for cultivation of tea which are present till
today. It also laid a nationwide network of Railways, connecting the major
cities for transportation.
The East India Company brought with itself new ideas in governance. They
introduced the ultra competitive Civil Services Exam to recruit bright young
mind to rule administer over colonised India. In an age when power and
money were both largely inherited, it pioneered appointment by merit. These
high-minded civil servants both prolonged the Company's life and also
provided a model for the Indian and domestic civil service.
The East India Company was also responsible for rooting out some of the evil
social practices in India. Lord William Bentinck had banned the practice of Sati,
polygamy and child marriage with the help of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, a social
activist. The East India Company also encouraged western-style education for
Indians in order to provide more educated Indians for service in the British
bureaucracy.
In 1857, there was a widespread mutiny by the Sepoys employed by the British
Army in India. There was growing concern about letting a trading organisation
rule a country. The East India Company was officially absolved of its
administrative duties just after the end of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 by the
British Crown. Thus came an end to one of the biggest organisations in the
world at that time, described no less as an anomaly without a parallel in the
history of the world.