61 Onset of the colonial rule in India

एक दुखी परिवार - 61

The East India Company

The East India Company had the unusual distinction of ruling an entire country. Its origins were much humbler. 

On 31 December 1600, a group of merchants who had incorporated themselves into the East India Company , as a joint stick company of traders, having no concern with tje British Government , obtained monopoly privileges on all trade with the East Indies. 

The Company's ships first arrived in India, at the port of Surat, in 1608. 

It was Sir Thomas Roe whi  reached the court of the Mughal Emperor, Jahangir, as the emissary of King James I in 1615, and gained for the British the right to establish a factory at Surat. 

Gradually the British eclipsed the Portugese, whose presence in India had preceded the British. 

Over the years the British saw a massive expansion of their trading operations in India. Numerous trading posts were established along the east and west coasts of India, and considerable English communities developed around the three presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. 

In 1717, the Company achieved its hitherto most notable success when it received a firman or royal dictat from the Mughal Emperor, exempting the Company from the payment of custom duties in Bengal.

The Company saw the rise of its fortunes, and its transformation from a trading venture to a ruling enterprise, when one of its military officials, Robert Clive, defeated the forces of the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-daulah , at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. 

(Cont.      .)