For some time I have been wondering
if there was a historic event that steered the course of Indo-Pak subcontinent’s
history in the direction that has resulted in the present pitiable situation.
Arrival of the British East India Company stands out as one possible event
having that impact. The following article contains mainly extracts from various
Wikipedia articles put together in a logical order.
The East India Company (EIC),
originally chartered as the Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading
into the East Indies, and often called the Honourable East India Company, was
an English and later (from 1707) British joint-stock company and megacorporation formed for pursuing trade with the East
Indies but which ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent.
The East India Company traded mainly
in cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpetre, tea and opium.
The Company was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth in 1600
making it the oldest among several similarly formed European East India
Companies. Shares of the company were owned by wealthy merchants and
aristocrats. It was an example of an English joint stock company. The
government owned no shares and had only indirect control. The Company
eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own private armies, exercising military power and assuming
administrative functions. Company rule in India
effectively began in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey and lasted until 1858 when, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857,
the Government of India Act 1858
led to the British Crown assuming direct control of
India in the era of the new British Raj.
The Company was dissolved in 1874 as
a result of the East India Stock
Dividend Redemption Act passed one year earlier, as the Government
of India Act had by then rendered it vestigial, powerless and obsolete. Its
functions had been fully absorbed into the official government machinery of
British India and its private Presidency armies had been nationalised by the British Crown.
In 1612, James I instructed Sir Thomas Roe to visit the Mughal Emperor Nuruddin Salim Jahangir (r. 1605 – 1627) to arrange for a commercial treaty
that would give the Company exclusive rights to reside and build factories in Surat
and other areas. In return, the Company offered to provide the Emperor with
goods and rarities from the European market. This mission was highly successful
as Jahangir sent a letter to James through Sir Thomas Roe:
"Upon
which assurance of your royal love I have given my general command to all the
kingdoms and ports of my dominions to receive all the merchants of the English
nation as the subjects of my friend; that in what place soever they choose to
live, they may have free liberty without any restraint; and at what port soever
they shall arrive, that neither Portugal nor any other shall dare to molest
their quiet; and in what city soever they shall have residence, I have
commanded all my governors and captains to give them freedom answerable to
their own desires; to sell, buy, and to transport into their country at their
pleasure.
For
confirmation of our love and friendship, I desire your Majesty to command your
merchants to bring in their ships of all sorts of rarities and rich goods fit
for my palace; and that you be pleased to send me your royal letters by every
opportunity, that I may rejoice in your health and prosperous affairs; that our
friendship may be interchanged and eternal"
—Nuruddin
Salim Jahangir, Letter to James I.
In 1614, Roe was elected Member of Parliament for Tamworth.
From 1615 to 1618, he was ambassador to the court at Agra,
India of the Great Mogul, Jahangir. The principal object of the
mission was to obtain protection for an English factory at Surat.
At the Mughal court, Roe became a favorite of Jahangir and was his drinking
partner. This greatly enhanced Roe's status with the Mughals. His journal was a
valuable source of information for the reign of Jehangir.
The Company, benefiting from the imperial patronage, soon
expanded its commercial trading operations, eclipsing the Portuguese Estado da India, which had established bases in Goa, Chittagong and Bombay (which was later ceded to England
as part of the dowry of Catherine de Braganza).
The East India Company also launched a joint effort attack with the Dutch
United East India Company on Portuguese and Spanish ships off the coast of
China, which helped secure their ports in China. The Company created trading posts in Surat (where a factory was built in 1612), Madras (1639), Bombay (1668), and Calcutta (1690). By 1647, the Company had 23 factories, each
under the command of a factor or master merchant
and governor if so chosen, and had 90 employees in India. The major factories
became the walled forts of Fort William in Bengal, Fort St George in Madras, and the Bombay Castle.
In an act aimed at strengthening the
power of the EIC, King Charles II
provisioned the EIC (in a series of five acts around 1670) with the rights to
autonomous territorial acquisitions, to mint money, to command fortresses and
troops and form alliances, to make war and peace, and to exercise both civil
and criminal jurisdiction over the acquired areas.
William Hedges
was sent in 1682 to Shaista Khan, the Mughal governor of Bengal in order to obtain a firman,
an imperial directive that would grant England regular trading privileges
throughout the Mughal empire. However, the company's governor in London, Sir Josiah Child, interfered with Hedges's mission, causing Mughal
Emperor Aurangzeb to break off the negotiations.
In 1689 a Mughal fleet commanded by Sidi Yakub attacked
Bombay. After a year of resistance the EIC surrendered in 1690, and the company
sent envoys to Aurangzeb's camp to plead for a pardon. The company's envoys had
to prostrate themselves before the emperor, pay a large indemnity, and promise
better behaviour in the future. The emperor withdrew his troops and the company
subsequently reestablished itself in Bombay and set up a new base in Calcutta.
In September 1695, Captain Henry Every, an English pirate on board the Fancy, reached the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, where he teamed up with five other pirate
captains to make an attack on the Indian fleet making the annual voyage to Mecca.
The Mughal convoy included the
treasure-laden Ganj-i-Sawai, reported to be the
greatest in the Mughal fleet and the largest ship operational in the Indian Ocean, and its escort, the Fateh Muhammed. They
were spotted passing the straits en route to Surat.
The pirates gave chase and caught up with the Fateh Muhammed some days
later, and meeting little resistance, took some £50,000 to £60,000 worth of
treasure.
Every continued in pursuit and
managed to overhaul the Ganj-i-Sawai, who put up a fearsome fight but it
too was eventually taken. The ship carried enormous wealth and, according to
contemporary East India Company sources, was carrying a relative of the Grand
Mughal, though there is no evidence to suggest that it was his daughter and her
retinue. The loot from the Ganj-i-Sawai totalled between £325,000 and
£600,000, including 500,000 gold and silver pieces, and has become known as the
richest ship ever taken by pirates.
It is really surprising that Mughal
emperor Jehangir did not send his own ambassador to the court of the king of
England. Instead he depended on the English ambassador to convey messages both
ways. If he had done so, we would have had an account of England as it was then
as seen by an Indian. It is also noteworthy that neither Jehangir nor the
subsequent emperors demanded reciprocal facilities for Indian traders in the
British Empire. From the above it is obvious that the Indians in those days had
a reasonable naval strength.
It is not surprising that our
present day rulers also seem to forget the interest of their people when
dealing with foreigners. Something needs to be done to change this attitude.
I am unable to find who was the
first person from the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent to travel to England in any
ship and in any position. Any information or suggestion to that effect will be
appreciated.
