Reforms, Acts and administrative changes mapped to each Governor-General and Viceroy, for CAPF Paper I revision
This reform-anchored table complements governors general and viceroys (tenures) and viceroys and key events (events). Here the focus is the administrative, social and economic reforms each head of government is credited with. Cover the right column. See advent of europeans and british conquest.
| Governor-General | Reforms credited |
|---|---|
| Warren Hastings (1773 to 1785) | Brought the dual system to an end; reformed revenue collection; supported the Asiatic Society of Bengal (founded by William Jones, 1784) |
| Lord Cornwallis (1786 to 1793) | Permanent Settlement of Bengal (1793); separated revenue and judicial functions; reformed and "Europeanised" the civil service; the Cornwallis Code |
| Lord Wellesley (1798 to 1805) | Subsidiary Alliance system; founded Fort William College (1800) for civil servants |
| Lord Hastings (Moira) (1813 to 1823) | Ended the policy of non-intervention; the Ryotwari settlement begun in Madras |
| Lord William Bentinck (1828 to 1835) | Abolished sati (1829); suppressed thuggee and female infanticide; promoted English education (Macaulay's Minute, 1835); made English the medium of higher instruction |
| Lord Auckland (1836 to 1842) | First Anglo-Afghan War; education despatch groundwork |
| Lord Dalhousie (1848 to 1856) | Doctrine of Lapse; first railway line (1853) and the telegraph; Wood's Despatch on education (1854); a separate Public Works Department; Post Office Act (1854) |
| Viceroy | Reforms credited |
|---|---|
| Lord Canning (1858 to 1862) | Indian Councils Act 1861; the Income Tax introduced; the Indian Penal Code came into force (1862) |
| Lord Mayo (1869 to 1872) | Financial decentralisation (1870); first regular Census planning; Department of Agriculture |
| Lord Ripon (1880 to 1884) | Local self-government resolution (1882), earning him "Father of Local Self-Government"; repealed the Vernacular Press Act; first Factory Act (1881); first regular Census (1881) |
| Lord Curzon (1899 to 1905) | Universities Act 1904; reorganised the Archaeological Survey of India; Police Commission; Famine Commission; Indian Coinage and Paper Currency Act |
| Lord Hardinge II (1910 to 1916) | Capital moved to Delhi (1911); Hindu University Act (1915) |
| Lord Chelmsford (1916 to 1921) | Government of India Act 1919: dyarchy in provinces; a bicameral central legislature |
| Lord Irwin (1926 to 1931) | Sharda Act (Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929) passed during his tenure |