Establishment and Expansion of British Colonial Power in India (1757–1857) — Part 6: Glossary

Glossary

1. Diwani: The right to collect land revenue; granted to the East India Company by Mughal Emperor Shah Alam in August 1765 for Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa.
2. Dustak: A trade permit or pass issued by the Company; its misuse by Company servants for private trade was a primary cause of conflict with Bengal Nawabs.
3. Dual Government: The system (1765–72) in which the Company held the Diwani (revenue) while the Nawab nominally held the Nizamat (administration); characterized as power without responsibility.
4. Firman: An imperial order or edict; specifically, the 1717 Mughal grant of duty-free trade to the Company by Emperor Farrukh Siyar.
5. Subsidiary Alliance: Wellesley's treaty system (from 1798) under which Indian rulers accepted a permanent British garrison at their own expense and a British Resident at their court, surrendering independent foreign relations in exchange for British protection.
6. Doctrine of Lapse: Dalhousie's annexation policy (1848–56) under which any princely state whose ruler died without a natural male heir was annexed by the Company, overriding the Hindu custom of adoption.
7. Permanent Settlement: Cornwallis's 1793 policy fixing land revenue permanently on zamindars in Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, creating English-style proprietors of the soil.
8. Regulating Act: The Parliamentary Act of 1773 — the first legislative attempt to regulate the Company's Indian administration; created the office of Governor-General.
9. Board of Control: Established by Pitt's India Act (1784); a six-member body including two Cabinet ministers to supervise the Court of Directors in all civil and military matters.
10. Nizamat: The administrative authority (defence, law and order, justice) that nominally remained with the Nawab during the Dual Government period.
11. Ryotwari: A land revenue system (associated with Thomas Munro in the Madras Presidency) under which the state dealt directly with the peasant (ryot), bypassing zamindars.
12. Drain of Wealth: Dadabhai Naoroji's concept that British rule systematically transferred wealth from India to Britain through revenue remittances, trade policies, and high European salaries.