Test: Administrative Organisation and social & Cultural Policy - 1 - UPSC MCQ

Lord Cornwallis is credited with laying the foundations of the British administration in India through the establishment of the Civil Service, the Army, and the Police. He came to India as Governor-General in 1786 and was determined to purify the administration by enforcing rules against private trade, accepting presents and bribes, and raising the salaries of the Company's servants.

Lord Wellesley established the College of Fort William at Calcutta in 1800 for the education of young recruits to the Civil Service. The directors of the Company disapproved of his action and in 1806 replaced it with their own East Indian College at Haileybury in England.

The Charter Act of 1853 decreed that all recruits to the Civil Service were to be selected through a competitive examination. This was a significant change in the recruitment process and aimed to ensure that the best candidates were selected for the civil services.

Lord Cornwallis was responsible for creating the police system in India. He relieved the zamindars of their police functions and established a regular police force to maintain law and order. In this respect, he went back to, and modernized, the old Indian system of thanas.

High Courts were established in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay in 1865 to replace the Sadar Courts of Diwani and Nizamat. This was a significant development in the judicial organization of British India.

The British Government appointed the Law Commission of 1833, headed by Lord Macaulay, to codify Indian laws. This was an important step towards creating a uniform legal system in India under British rule.

The exclusion of Indians from higher grades of services was a deliberate policy of racial discrimination by the British. This policy was also applied to other branches of government, such as the army, police, judiciary, and engineering.

As warfare technology changed from the 1820s, the cavalry requirements of the Company's army declined. This is because the British empire was fighting in Burma, Afghanistan, and Egypt where soldiers were armed with muskets, a heavy gun used by infantry soldiers.

Cornwallis divided the Presidency of Bengal into four divisions, in each of which a Court of Circuit presided over by civil servants was established. This was done to deal with criminal cases and improve the judicial system in British India.

Cornwallis separated the post of the Civil Judge and the Collector in British India by establishing a Diwani Adalat, or civil court, presided over by the District Judge who belonged to the Civil Service. This was done to improve the efficiency and fairness of the judiciary system.