Warren Hastings
1732 – 1818 British First Governor-General of Bengal
First Governor-General of Bengal, who consolidated Company rule in India and was later impeached and acquitted.
- Religion
- Church of England
- Affiliations
- East India Company
Warren Hastings served as the first Governor-General of Bengal from 1773, building the administrative machinery of Company rule after the plunder of Clive's era. He centralised revenue collection and dealt with the aftermath of the 1770 Bengal famine. On returning to Britain he was impeached before the House of Lords in a long, sensational trial over corruption and cruelty in India, and was finally acquitted in 1795. The trial became a landmark debate over how Britain should govern its Indian conquests.
Connections
- associate of Robert Clive — Fellow Company man who later governed Bengal.
- associate of Robert Clive — The predecessor whose conquest he turned into a government.
In the timeline
- 1765 The Company Gains the Diwani of Bengal the governor who built rule on the grant
- 1769 – 1770 The Bengal famine of 1770 the administrator dealing with its aftermath
- 1773 The East India Company takes over the Bengal opium trade mentioned