INDIAN LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY Describe in detail the development of East India Company?

 

CHARTER GRANTED TO THE EAST INDIA COMPANY 

Queen Elizabeth I of England grants a formal charter of 1600 to the London merchants trading to the East Indies. The company was given executive trading right in Asia including India, Africa and America. All the members of the company constituted themselves as general court it was to elect annually the court of Directors. The Court of Directors consisted of a Governor and 24 Directors. 

The court of directors was to manage the entire business the court of director were to be elected by the general court for 1 year but any of them might be removed from his office even before the expiry of his term of office by the general Court. 

OBJECT OF THE COMPANY – 

Actually the company appears that to promote British trade and commerce in Asia. The company was conferred on only those powers which were necessary to regulate its business and maintain discipline amongst its servants and they were not at all adequate for governance of any territory. 

But the company came to India and they were found the Indian Kings disunited and unaware of the Modern Politics. They realized they can dominate the territory in India the company gradually and gradually inclined to acquire territories in India. The company thereby could market for its goods. At the time of the incorporation the object of company was commercial but gradually and gradually its object became political also. 

In the first few decades of its existence, the East India Company made far less progress in the East Indies than it did in India itself, where it acquired unequaled trade privileges from India‘s Mogul emperors. By the 1630s, the company abandoned its East Indies operations almost entirely to concentrate on its lucrative trade of Indian textiles and Chinese tea. In the early 18th century, the company increasingly became an agent of British imperialism as it intervened more and more in Indian and Chinese political affairs. The company had its own military, which defeated the rival French East India Company in 1752 and the Dutch in 1759. 

In 1773, the British government passed the Regulating Act to reign in the company. The company‘s possessions in India were subsequently managed by a British governor general, and it 

gradually lost political and economic autonomy. The parliamentary acts of 1813 ended the East India Company‘s trade monopoly, and in 1834 it was transformed into a managing agency for the British government of India. 

In 1857, a revolt by Indian soldiers in the Bengal army of the company developed into a widespread uprising against British rule in India. After the so-called Indian Mutiny was crushed in 1858, the British government assumed direct control over India, and in 1873 the East India Company was dissolved. 

POWERS AND FUNCTIONS OF EAST INDIA COMPANY— 

The Company was originally created to carry on and enjoy an exclusive trading right in the Countries lying beyond the Cape of Good Hope eastward viz., Asia, Africa etc. No British citizen could carry trade activities in this area without a licence from the Company. At the same time some more powers were given to the Company which were in the nature of Legislative powers. The Company in its General Court could pass laws, orders and ordinances for its good government, for its servants and for the furtherance and continuance of its trade and traffic. It could also punish the persons disobeying its laws. However, no punishment could be given which was unreasonable or contrary to the laws, statutes or customs of England.