Pitt’s India Act of 1784
Pitt’s India Act of 1784
Introduction
The East India Company Act, also known as Pitt’s India Act( Pitt’s India Act of 1784), was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain intended to address the shortcomings of the Regulating Act of 1773 by bringing the East India Company’s rule in India under the control of the British Government.
Features of the Act
- The Act constituted a department of state in England Known as the “Board of Control”. Whose special function was to control the political affairs of the Court of Directors. However, the Act allowed the Court of Directors to manage the commercial affairs. Thus introducing the Dual System of governance by the company and by a parliamentary Board which lasted till 1858.
- The Act empowered the Board of Control to have access to all the company’s papers and its approval was mandatory with regards to all the dispatches that were not purely commercial, also, in case of emergency the Board could send its own draft to the secret committee. Thus, the Act placed the civil and military government of the company in the subordination in England.
- The Act reduced the number of members of the Executive council to three, of whom the commander in chief was to be out. It also modified the councils of madras and Bombay on the pattern of that of Bengal.
The act was significant mainly for two reasons. first the company’s territories in India were for the first time called the British possessions in India, and second the British Government was given the supreme control over the company’s affairs and its administration in India.
