Hastings, Warren
(1732–1818), governor of Bengal and governor-general of British India. Born in Churchill, Oxfordshire, in England, Warren Hastings was the son of a clergyman who abandoned him at an early age. Hastings was educated by his uncle at the Westminster School in London, but his education was cut short by his uncle's death, and Hastings sailed for India in 1750 to become a "writer" (junior clerical employee) for the East India Company. Directly or indirectly, he played a role in the transition of the East India Company from a commercial to a political power in the third quarter of the eighteenth century.
In 1765 disputes forced Hastings to leave service, but he returned to Bengal as the chief administrator in 1771. The administration of Bengal was then awkwardly shared between the nominally sovereign nawab of Bengal, in charge of governance, and the East India Company, in control of the finances. Hastings moved to take control of governance and reformed the administration of justice and the fiscal system, serving as governor of Bengal from 1771 to 1773. His tenure was weakened by corruption and bitter rivalries. From 1774 until his return to England in 1784, Hastings served as governor general of British India, and was mainly occupied in trying to contain belligerent Indian regimes perceived to be dangerous to British power. His method of financing wars in India, by politely forcing his allies to pay, was the subject of an inquiry and a trial (1788–1795) in which he was honorably discharged. Aside from his controversial but critical political role, Hastings is significant for his curiosity about Indian traditions in literature and scholarship, which led the way to a flourish of European studies of these subjects.
Further Reading
Moon, Penderel. (1947) Warren Hastings and British India. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Trotter, L. J. ([1890]1972) Warren Hastings. Reprint, edited by W. W. Hunter. London: Ayer.
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