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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 ofPlassey 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. Prominentamong them are Bombay, Surat, Madras and Calcutta. It also developed the hill

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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 evilsocial 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 organisationrule 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.