Why did the British Government decide to create the new position of governor-general to lead the English East India Company? What was the context of this decision?
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Company rule in India (sometimes, Company Raj,[2] "raj", lit. "rule" in Hindi[3]) was the rule or dominion of the British East India Company over parts of the Indian subcontinent. This is variously taken to have commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey which saw the Company conquest of the proto-industrialised Mughal Bengal.[4] Later, the Company was granted the diwani, or the right to collect revenue, in Bengal and Bihar;[5] or in 1773, when the Company established a capital in Calcutta, appointed its first Governor-General, Warren Hastings, and became directly involved in governance.[6] By 1818, with the defeat of Marathas followed by the pensioning of the Peshwa and the annexation of his territories, British supremacy in India was complete.[7]
The East India Company was a private company owned by stockholders and reporting to a board of directors in London. Originally formed as a monopoly on trade, it increasingly took on governmental powers with its own army and judiciary. It seldom turned a profit, as employees diverted funds into their own pockets. The British government had little control, and there was increasing anger at the corruption and irresponsibility of Company officials or "nawabs" who made vast fortunes in a few years.[8] Pitt's India Act of 1784 gave the British government effective control of the private company for the first time. The new policies were designed for an elite civil service career that minimized temptations for corruption.[9] Increasingly Company officials lived in separate compounds according to British standards. The Company's rule lasted until 1858, when it was abolished after the Indian Rebellion of 1857. With the Government of India Act 1858, the British government assumed the task of administering India in the new British Raj.
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