Pitts India Act 1784

The Pitts India Act of 1784 somewhat amended at various times, established the system of dual
control of India by the government of Great Britain and the British East India Company. These
changes continued till 1858.

The first major regulation in this act was the relationship of the company to the British
government. With the Pitts India Act of 1784, East India Company's political functions were
differentiated from its commercial activities.

Board of Control:

In political matters, the company which was till now working as somewhat sovereign was made
directly subordinate to the British government.

 To enable this, a Board of Commissioners was created, which was called Board of
Control.
 6 people viz. the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary of State, and four Privy
Councilors, nominated by the King were the members of this Board of Control.
 The Secretary of the State was entitled as the President of the Board of Control. This
Board of control was empowered to control all matters of civil or military government or
revenues.
 The board was given full access to the company's records. It had the powers to send
Governors to India and full authority to alter them.

Result of Creation of Board of Control:

 The Pitts India Act 1734 actually provided for a joint government of the company and
British crown in India. So now, the fate of India People would decide the company and
the British Government (indirectly).
 The Company was to be represented by the Court of Directors and the Crown was
represented by the Board of Control.

Impact on Governor General-in Council

The Governor General's council was now reduced to 3 members, one of whom was to be the
commander-in-chief of the King's army in India.

 The Governor General was given the right of casting vote, in case the members present
in a meeting of the council shall any time be equally divided in opinion.
  The Governors of Presidencies of Bombay and Madras were deprived of their
independent powers and Calcutta was given greater powers in matters of war, revenue,
and diplomacy, thus Calcutta becoming in effect, the capital of Company possessions in
India.

The Governor General Council was now under indirect control of the British Government
through the Board of Control. There was also a secret committee of the 3 directors, which had
to transmit the orders of the Board to India. This Secret Committee was to work as a link
between the Board of control and the Court of Directors.

Observations on the Act:

Pitt's Indian Act of 1784 brought about two important changes in the constitution of the
Company. Firstly, it constituted a department of state in England known as the Board of Control
whose special function was to control the policy of the Court of Directors, thus introducing the
Dual System of government by the Company and by a Parliamentary Board which lasted till
1858. The Board of control had no independent executive power.

It had no patronage. Its power was veiled. It had access to all the Company's papers and its
approval was necessary for all dispatches that were not purely commercial, and in case of
emergency the Board could send its own draft to the Secret Committee of the Directors to be
signed and sent out in its name.

The Act thus placed the civil and military government of the Company in due subordination to
the Government in England. Secondly, the Act reduced the number of members of the Executive
Council to three, of whom the Commander-in-Chief was to be one. It also modified the Councils
of Madras and Bombay on the pattern of that of Bengal.

Circumstances leading to the Passing of the Act in 1781 as in 1772, both a Select and a Secret
Committee were appointed to go into the affairs of the Company. The former (the Select
Committee) investigated the relations between the Supreme Court and the Council in Bengal, the
latter (the Secret Committee the causes of the Maratha War.

The voluminous reports they presented were freely used as arsenals for weapons against the
Company by party orators in Parliament.

especially when the Directors Parliamentary interference in the affairs of the Company was
obviously once again called for, of the Company were obliged openly to confess that the war had
beggared them and to apply to the State for another loan of a million pounds.

After a measure drafted by Dundas, Chairman of the Secret Committee had been rejected, Fox
introduced his India Bill in Parliament.

The measure was really inspired by Burke and, behind him, by Philip Francis. This bill sought to
transfer all the political and military powers of the Company to a Board of Seven commissioners
to be nominated in the first instance by Parliament and afterwards by the Crown, and all its
commercial powers to a subordinate body of nine Assistant Directors who were ultimately to be
nominated by the holder of East India stock, though they too in the first instance were to be
appointed by Parliament.

The bill if it had been passed would in effect have swept aside the Company as a political power
and brought all political appointments under the control of a commission which was to be
appointed in the first instance by Parliament and afterwards by the Crown.

The chief advocates of this measure had ten years earlier opposed North's Act as an intolerable
invasion of the right of property. The feature of the Bill upon which the Opposition seized was
the surrender of the immensely valuable patronage of India to the Ministry or the Crown and Pitt
thundered against it as the most desperate and alarming attempt at the exercise of tyranny that
ever disgraced the annals of any country.

The bill, however, was passed in the House of Commons by large majorities only to be rejected
in the House of Lords through the intervention of George III. The Bill was thrown out and the
Ministry-the coalition of Fox and North- resigned. It may be observed in passing that for the
First and the last time a British Ministry was wrecked on Indian issue.

Pitt came into power and in January 1784 he moved for leave to bring in his India Bill and leave
was granted.

Even the second reading was taken, but the Bill was not destined to be put on the statute bock for
the new Ministry had to resign. Pitt's new Parliament met in May 1784. Following the lines laid
down in his Bill of January, the new Bill was finally carried in the House of Commons in July
and in the House of lords in August 1784.

Fox, throughout the session, continued to refer to the superior merits of his own Bill. Pitt had
taken the precaution of neutralizing the opposition of the English Company with the result that
the measure was introduced in parliament fortified and recommended by the consent of the
Company.

In essentials Fox's and Pitt's measures were on the same lines except that the latter did not touch
the patronage of the Company. Pitt himself pointed out that while Fox's India Bill ensured a
permanency of men, a permanency of system.

Disclosing of Property:

All civil and military officers of the East India Company were ordered to provide the Court of
Directors a full inventory of their property in India and in Britain within two months of their
joining their posts. Severe punishment was provisioned for corrupt officials.
Why Pitts India Act 1784 failed?

The act was deemed a failure. This was because; very soon it became apparent that the
boundaries between government control and the company's powers were nebulous and highly
subjective. The British Government felt obliged to respond to humanitarian calls for better