Company Rule in Bengal

Company rule in Bengal is the period in which the English East India Company exercised governmental authority in the province, beginning with its acquisition of the diwani in 1765 and ending with the transfer of India from the Company to the Crown. It includes the Permanent Settlement of 1793 and the famine of 1769–70, both of which reshaped rural Bengal. The causes of that famine, and the size of its toll, are matters on which the sources used here do not speak with one voice.

The acquisition of the diwani

Under the Mughal provincial administration the two main branches of government were the nizamat, civil administration headed by the subahdar or nazim, and the diwani, revenue administration headed by the diwan; both officers were normally appointed by and responsible to the emperor ¹. During the nawabi period the separation of power between nazim and diwan disappeared: the autonomous nawabs ruled without power-sharing, and the diwan was reduced to a nawabi officer appointed by and responsible to the nawab ¹.

Robert Clive, on his second arrival in 1765, met Emperor Shah Alam at Allahabad and persuaded him that appointing the East India Company diwan of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa could revive the centrally controlled diwan post ¹. By farman of 12 August 1765 the emperor appointed the Company Diwan of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, on condition of remitting an annual tribute of twenty-six lakhs of rupees to the emperor ¹. By a further agreement of 30 September 1765 with the minor nawab Nazmuddaula, the Company agreed to pay an annual sum of fifty-three lakhs of rupees to the nawab to defray nizamat administration and the nawab’s household costs, surpluses being the Company’s profit ¹.

The Double Government and its abolition

Clive appointed Syed Muhammad Reza Khan as naib diwan and naib nazim, representing the nawab as naib nazim and the Company as naib diwan; this arrangement was called the Double Government ¹. With Clive’s final departure in 1767 Reza Khan’s influence declined and Company officials, in the entry’s words, began plundering the country in the name of private trade, the consequence being a collapse of the economy and the famine of 1769–70 ¹.

The Court of Directors resolved in 1772 to stand forth as diwan; Warren Hastings abolished the Double Government, dismissed Reza Khan and assumed diwani administration directly, which the entry describes as beginning the second phase of the establishment of the British colonial state in India ¹.

The famine of 1769–70

The famine occurred in 1769 and 1770 and is popularly known as Chhiyattarer Manvantar; it was the worst famine in Bengal in the 18th century, caused by drought the previous year and by excessive rainfall and overflowing rivers in 1770 ³.

Revenue collection in 1768, the year before the famine, was Rs 15.21 million; in 1771, immediately after the famine, the Company did not allow a shortfall and its revenue collections were higher by about Rs 52,200 ³. The entry states that the immediate effect of the famine was the depopulation of severely affected areas, with about one-third of the population — about 10 million people — perishing, and that agricultural production and revenue collection declined substantially ³.

The Permanent Settlement

The Permanent Settlement was a contract signed in 1793 between the government of the East India Company in Bengal and individual landholders, making zamindars and talukdars permanent and absolute proprietors of the land under their control with government revenue fixed permanently ². Cultivating raiyats were denied the same privilege: landholders were free to change rents and could evict tenants, and on default land proportionate to the default was realised by public sale under the Sun-set Law, the Revenue Sale Law of 1793 ².

All taluks that had paid revenue through zamindars were separated and made independent landholders, a provision the entry says made many zamindars paupers ². Regulation VII of 1799 armed zamindars with powers over defaulting raiyats including distraint and sale of crops and cattle, confinement in fetters, community fines and rent enhancement, reducing raiyats to tenants-at-will; Regulation V of 1812 allowed leasing of land; and Regulation VIII of 1819, the pattani law, allowed permanent leases at permanent rents ².

The Rent Act of 1859 categorised raiyats into three legal groups and reintroduced the patta system; it barred enhancement of the rent of the first category, the kayemi, and restricted enhancement for occupancy raiyats ². A rent commission set up in 1879 led to the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885, which for the first time defined the rights of the various interests in land from proprietor to lowest cultivating raiyat ². The entry notes scholarly agreement that zamindars failed to transform agriculture, but records that scholars differ drastically as to why they behaved as they did ².

1857 in Bengal

The Sepoy Revolt of 1857 started at Barrackpur under the leadership of Mangal Pandey on 29 March 1857 and spread to Meerut, Delhi and other parts of India, creating serious tension throughout Bangladesh ⁴. On 18 November 1857 the Native Infantry of Chittagong rose in open rebellion, released all prisoners from the jail, seized arms and ammunition, ransacked the treasury, set fire to the Magazine House and proceeded towards Tippera ⁴. On 22 November the sepoys stationed at Lalbagh resisted the disarming process; in the skirmish several sepoys were killed and arrested, and of the accused eleven were sentenced to death and the rest to imprisonment for life ⁴.

The landed aristocracy of Bengal was, in the entry’s account, decidedly opposed to the sepoys and supported the Company with carts, carriages and elephants and by organising local volunteer corps, and the government rewarded them with titles such as Nawab, Khan Bahadur, Khan Shaheb, Rai Bahadur and Rai Shaheb ⁴. The middle class also sided with the Company’s government, while the common people and peasantry were apathetic and remained untouched by the sepoy revolt ⁴.

Could not verify

The end of Company rule in 1858 is not stated in any retrieved page: none of the Diwani, Permanent Settlement, Famine or Sepoy Revolt entries mentions the Government of India Act 1858 or the formal transfer of India from the Company to the Crown, so that date cannot be sourced from the material used here. No Banglapedia entry titled "Dual Government" was located; the Double Government facts above come from the "Diwani" entry. No entry titled "Famine of 1770" resolves, and the 1770 content comes from the general "Famine" entry.

Related articles

Battle of Plassey · Bengal Presidency · Mughal Bengal · History of Bangladesh

Disputed points

The positions below are reported as their holders state them. This reference does not take a position on the disagreement, and none of the positions is presented as the default.

The cause of the 1770 famine and the Company’s responsibility. The Company administration put the whole blame for the famine on the vagary of nature, whereas the Banglapedia entry holds that people’s suffering was intensified by the Company’s motive of greater revenue collection and its indulgence in allowing profiteering in the foodgrain market ³. The two positions are stated here as positions, and this article does not adopt either as its own conclusion. [disputed]

The mortality of the 1770 famine. Banglapedia gives about one-third of the population, about 10 million people, as perishing, and presents this as a commonly used figure rather than a precise count ³. The same entry, for comparison, gives 3.5 million deaths for the 1943 famine and a range for 1974 of more than one million against a government figure of 26,000 ³. [disputed]

The characterisation of the 1857 disturbances in Bengal. The entry is titled "Sepoy Revolt, 1857" but describes the Bengal events as skirmishes by disarmed or fugitive sepoys with summary trials, the populace apathetic and the elite supporting the Company — a characterisation that minimises local mass participation ⁴. [disputed]

The long-run assessment of the Permanent Settlement. The entry records that scholars agree zamindars failed to transform agriculture but differ drastically as to why ². [disputed]

Sources

4 sources cited. Tiers: T1 official or primary, T2 scholarly or curated, T3 media of record.

1. Diwani — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Diwani
2. Permanent Settlement, The — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Permanent_Settlement,_The
3. Famine — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Famine
4. Sepoy Revolt, 1857 — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Sepoy_Revolt,_1857

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