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Home / Periods / Mughal India and British Raj / East India Company Rule

Phase

East India Company Rule

1757–1858 CE

East India Company rule began with the Company’s decisive political expansion in Bengal after the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and continued until the transfer of authority to the British Crown in 1858. A commercial corporation became a territorial power through armies, treaties, revenue collection and alliances with Indian rulers.

Company government reshaped taxation, law, landholding, trade and military recruitment across large parts of South Asia. Its expansion provoked repeated resistance and depended heavily on Indian soldiers and administrators. The uprising of 1857 exposed the fragility of Company rule and led Parliament to replace it with the British Raj.

Related people for East India Company Rule

Albert Henry Andrew Hervey1814–1877 Alexander Cunningham1814–1893 Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington1769–1852 Baji Rao II1775–1851 Benjamin Disraeli1804–1881 Chattar Singh Attariwalladied 1855 Daulat Rao Scindia1779–1827 Dewan Mulraj1814–1851 Dhoondia Waghdied 1800 Dost Mohammad Khan1793–1863 Duleep Singh I1838–1893 George Harris, 1st Baron Harris1746–1829 Gulab Singh1792–1857 Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge1785–1856 Henry Montgomery Lawrence1806–1857 Herbert Benjamin Edwardes1819–1868 Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough1779–1869 Hyder Ali1720–1782 James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie1812–1860 James Prinsep1799–1840 Jind Kaur1817–1863 John Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence1811–1879 Lal Singhdied 1866 Mahatma Gandhi1869–1948 Mohammad Akbar Khan1816–1845 Ranjit Singh1780–1839 Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley1760–1842 Robert Clive1725–1774 Shah Shujah Durrani1780–1842 Sher Singh Attariwalladied 1858 Sir David Baird, 1st Baronet1757–1829 Sir Frederick Currie, 1st Baronet1799–1875 Sir Harry Smith, 1st Baronet1787–1860 Tej Singhdied 1862 Tipu Sultan1751–1799 Victoria1819–1901 William Brydon1811–1873 William George Keith Elphinstone1782–1842 William Henry Sleeman1788–1856 William Jones1746–1794 Winston Churchill1874–1965 Yashwantrao Holkar1776–1811

Series

Series about East India Company Rule (2 series)

The Life of William Culpepper in Order

by Anthony Morland 4 books 4.5(4,916)

The Life of William Culpepper follows a fictional British officer from the Revolutionary Wars in Europe into the East India Company’s campaigns in India. The sequence begins with the Flanders campaign and the Battle of Boxtel, then moves through the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, the unstable aftermath of Tipu…

East Indiaman Saga in Order

by Griff Hosker 3 books 4.4(5,504)

The East Indiaman Saga follows Bill “Smudger” Smith from London poverty into the world of the East India Company. The books move through company ships, soldiers, Indian campaigns and the Battle of Assaye, using the early nineteenth-century British presence in India as a setting for escape, military discipline…

Books

21 Best Novels About East India Company Rule

Non-Fiction

16 Best Non-Fiction Books About East India Company Rule

Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.