MCQ
Q.
Who among the following Governor Generals created the Covenanted Civil Service of India which later came to be known as the Indian Civil Service?
Correct Answer: C
The correct answer is Cornwallis.
Key Points
- Lord Cornwallis created the Covenanted Civil Service of India which later came to be known as the Indian Civil Service.
- Lord Cornwallis:
- Lord Cornwallis was a British army officer, administrator, and diplomat who had previously served his country during the War of American Independence.
- He had surrendered along with his troops to the Americans at Yorktown.
- In 1786, he accepted the offer to take up the post of Governor-General of Bengal on the condition that he be given the supreme military command as well.
- He arrived at Calcutta on 12 September and took charge.
- Under his guidance, the Cornwallis Code was developed which contained provisions for governing the civil, policing and judiciary administration in British India.
Additional Information
- Warren Hastings
- Warren Hastings (1732 – 1818) became the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal) in 1772 and the first Governor-General of Bengal in 1774 till he resigned in 1785.
- He started his career as a writer (clerk) in the East India Company at Calcutta in 1750.
- In 1758, he became the British resident at Murshidabad, the capital of Bengal, after Mir Jafar was installed as the Nawab after the Battle of Plassey.
- During his term, the First Anglo-Maratha war and the second Anglo-Mysore war were fought.
- The Regulating Act of 1773 was passed during his term.
- He supported Sir William Jones in the formation of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1785.
- Wellesley
- Lord Wellesley remained Governor-General of Fort Williams from 1798 to 1805.
- During his tenure, the Fourth and last Anglo-Mysore war was fought and Tipu was killed in this war.
- The Second Anglo Maratha war also happened in which Bhonsle, Scindia and Holkar were defeated. Wellesley followed the policy of “subsidiary alliance”, which was accepted by the rulers of Mysore, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Bundi, Macheri, Bharatpur, Oudh, Tanjore, Berar, Peshwa, and Nizam of Hyderabad.
- William Bentinck
- William Bentinck was born on 14 September 1774 at Buckinghamshire, England to William Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland and Lady Dorothy.
- His father was a Prime Minister of Great Britain.
- Bentinck joined the British army at the age of 16 and had become a colonel by 1798.
- In 1803, he was named the Governor of Madras.
- He later served as Governor-General of India from 1828-1835.
- He is credited with reforms in educational, social and judicial spheres during his tenure as Governor-General of British India.