The most important event of Canning 's time was the uprising of 1857. It was completely suppressed by 1858. One of the effects of the rebellion was that the rule of the East India Company was abolished and the responsibility of the Government of India was taken over by the British monarch or Empress of England . Thus Canning was the last Governor General of the Company and He was the first Viceroy under the Crown.
Reforms before 1857
In 1856, Canning's government passed the "General Service Enlistment Act” according to which all future soldiers of the Bengal Army had to accept that they would serve wherever the government required them. The effect of this act was not on the old soldiers, but military service was often hereditary, so this act became very unpleasant.
Reforms after 1857
1- Reorganization of army
Before the rebellion of 1857, the British army in India was divided into two parts, a company called regiment in which all the soldiers were Indians, but the officers were British. Second, Queen Regiment, in which all the soldiers and officers were British. The soldiers of the Queen regiment received higher salaries and other facilities as compared to the Company regiments. After the end of the rebellion, this division of the army in training was abolished. Queen Regimental soldiers protested this decision, to which Canning explicitly stated that soldiers who did not wish to remain in the organization could go back to England. Canning united the army, after which he kept completely British soldiers in some units and completely Indian soldiers in some. Separate units of Rajputs, Marathas, Sikhs, Gorkhas were made into pieces of Indian soldiers. That is, the units of Indian soldiers were formed on the basis of caste. It was decided to give more salary rights, facilities, and pension etc. to the British soldier's squads than the Indian soldier's squads or units, as a result, a deep rift was prepared between the Indians and the British.
2- Administrative Decentralization
The Indian Council Act was passed in 1861 during Canning's reign. By this act the provinces were given certain powers in relation to making laws, the Viceroy was given the right to divide the work among the members of his council. Before this act, the whole government revolved on the same nail, but now the government was divided into different departments and each member of the council was made responsible for different departments. The members of the Council could take final decisions on matters relating to their departments, only policy matters were presented to the Viceroy and in case of differences, the matter was placed before the Council. Decentralization of governance had started with this act, but the powers of the Viceroy and his executive were greatly increased by this act. A reactionary act was done that by this act the Viceroy was empowered to issue ordinances when needed. As a result of this decentralization of governance, Indians were attached to the British rule but they could not interfere in the work of the executive.
3- Change in land system
After the rebellion, Canning decided to get the support of the Indian elite, kings, zamindars and talukdars for the protection of the British monarch. To get the support of the Indian rulers, he organized courts in Agra and Lahore and gave awards to the kings who helped the British during the rebellion period. The Talukdars of Awadh were given the right to hear cases in their respective taluks so that they would remain supporters of the British. He also empowered the zamindars of Bengal to settle small cases. Similar policy was also implemented in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Central Provinces, Uttar Pradesh, United Provinces, Western Provinces. Canning gained the support of the upper classes of India through this policy, but the exploitation of the peasants had begun. It was a very difficult task to impose restrictions on the rights of landlords in India, in such a situation the 'Bengal Rent Act' was approved in 1859, this act was also implemented in Agra, Oudh, Bihar and Central Provinces. According to this act, the farmers who had rights over any land for 12 years were accepted as the rightful owner of that land and the amount of rent to be paid by the farmers to the zamindar was also fixed. This fixed rent could not be increased without the permission of the court of law. The rent of the farmers who had land since 1793 could not be increased under any circumstances. The main objective of this act was to save the farmers from the increase in rent. But the landlords did not follow its rules, due to which the discontent of the farmers increased. In 1861 AD Baird Smith proposed to implement the temporary land system of Bengal (Permanent Settlement) all over India. At that time this proposal was accepted but opposed in the time of Lord Mayo and at Ripon's time this proposal was abandoned altogether.
4- Financial policy
Canning's government faced economic problems. The reason for this was that a lot of resources were spent in suppressing the rebellion of 1857 and some money was spent in the works of social reform. The biggest need of that time was to reduce expenditure and increase income. Therefore, Canning abolished many army squads. John Wilson a great economist of England came to India in 1859 but died less than 1 year after his arrival in India, his work was continued by Samuel Lang. Before his death, Wilson had recommended the imposition of 3 new taxes-
1- Income tax
2- License tax on trade and various professions
3- Octroi on domestic tobacco
Proposal for income tax was accepted experimentally, it was levied at 5% for 5 years on annual income exceeding ₹500. Wilson established a uniform import tax at 10% and Suggested a tax on salt. Thus the result of the reforms of Wilson and Lange was that when Canning started leaving India, there was no deficit budget .
5- Justice and Police Department Reforms
Canning also made many reforms in the Justice and Police Department. At this time the Code of Laws was formulated. The Indian Penal Code proposed by Macaulay became a law after some necessary changes in 1858. The Code of Civil Procedure was enacted in 1859, the Indian Penal Code in 1860 and the Criminal Procedure Code in 1862 . As Radhika Singh argues, these new codes attempted to establish "universal principles of jurisprudence" based on "a notion of indivisible sovereignty and claims on uniform abstract and sovereign legal subjects" . The Police Commission, set up in 1860, presented the basic structure of a police establishment for the Indian Empire and was embodied in the Police Act of 1861. The same structure continued into the next century of the British Raj with only minor alterations thereafter.
6- Works of Public interest
He also did many works of public interest, during his time many roads, railways and canals were built. Education Department was opened under the control of Director of Education and in 1857 Universities were opened in Kolkata, Mumbai, Madras on the model of University of London. In 1861 a severe famine broke out in the north-west provinces of Agra and Oudh and parts of Punjab and Rajputana, killing about 10% of the population. Canning spent a lot of money to help the victims.
After the revolt of 1857, due to the stories of atrocities of the soldiers, the feeling of punishment and revenge started increasing and when the Wise elements like Canning tried to stop this passion, so his countrymen called him "Clemency" Canning and began sending applications to recall him . Canning returned home in 1862 .
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