Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c3.38

c3.38

Besides, a separate channel of communication was opened between the President of the Board of Commissioners and the British Governor General in India (as also with the Governors of the Presidencies), which at times even over-rode certain formal instructions conveyed through the company. The instructions in certain departments were prepared by the Board of Commissioners themselves, the signature of the Chairman of the Company obtained, and the matter sent to India from the Board’s office itself. It is this arrangement which prevailed till 1858. The change in 1858 was in fact only a change in nomenclature: the President of the Board was now the Secretary of State for India. (Thus, the E.I.Co. as such became wholly redundant in the ruling of India, or areas in its vicinity i.e., from the China seas to St. Helena, from 1813 onwards, if not from much earlier. According to Dharampal, this clarification needs to sink deep not only into Indian minds, but, into the minds of the world historical community too.)