Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition, with Some Early Nineteenth Century Documents c5.s1.2

c5.s1.2

Contrary to popular opinion, from 1784 onwards (if not from an earlier date), the East India Company hardly played a major role in decisions made in England about India. The job of decision making and, in many instances, even the first drafting of the more crucial detailed instructions from 1784 onwards became a responsibility of the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India, set up by an Act of the British legislature and composed of members of government, and was painstakingly executed by this Board till 1858. The change which 1858 brought was the elimination of the essentially clerical role of the Company and the entrusting of this task also to an expanded establishment in the office of the Board and styling the whole thenceforward as the department of the Secretary of State for India.