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Governors-General and Viceroys (Spectrum Digest, Ch 14)
Original CAPF reference digest of the Governors-General of Bengal and India and the Viceroys, with the key act, reform or event associated with each
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This is a quick-recall reference for the single most common CAPF history question type: matching a Governor-General or Viceroy to "his" act, reform, war or event. The post evolved as follows.
- Governor of Bengal (1772 onwards, under the Regulating Act 1773): Warren Hastings was the first.
- Governor-General of Bengal (from 1773), then Governor-General of India (from the Charter Act 1833, with William Bentinck the first).
- Viceroy of India (from the Government of India Act 1858, the same person now also representing the Crown; Lord Canning was the first Viceroy).
| Person |
Tenure |
Associated with |
| Warren Hastings |
1773 to 1785 |
First Governor-General of Bengal; ended Dual Government; Regulating Act 1773 and Pitt's India Act 1784; Rohilla War; impeachment proceedings later. |
| Lord Cornwallis |
1786 to 1793 |
Permanent Settlement (1793); Cornwallis Code; separation of revenue and judicial functions; Third Anglo-Mysore War. "Father of civil service in India." |
| Sir John Shore |
1793 to 1798 |
Policy of non-intervention. |
| Lord Wellesley |
1798 to 1805 |
Subsidiary Alliance; Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (fall of Tipu, 1799); Fort William College. |
| Lord Minto I |
1807 to 1813 |
Treaty of Amritsar with Ranjit Singh (1809). |
| Lord Hastings |
1813 to 1823 |
Anglo-Nepal War (Treaty of Sugauli 1816); end of Maratha power (Third Anglo-Maratha War). |
| Lord Amherst |
1823 to 1828 |
First Anglo-Burmese War (Treaty of Yandabo 1826). |
| Person |
Tenure |
Associated with |
| Lord William Bentinck |
1828 to 1835 |
First Governor-General of India; abolition of Sati (1829); suppression of Thugi; English Education (Macaulay's Minute, 1835); permitted English as the medium of higher education. |
| Sir Charles Metcalfe |
1835 to 1836 |
"Liberator of the Press" (abolished press restrictions). |
| Lord Auckland |
1836 to 1842 |
First Anglo-Afghan War (a disaster). |
| Lord Ellenborough |
1842 to 1844 |
Annexation of Sind (1843). |
| Lord Hardinge I |
1844 to 1848 |
First Anglo-Sikh War. |
| Lord Dalhousie |
1848 to 1856 |
Doctrine of Lapse; annexation of Punjab (1849) and Awadh (1856); first railway (Bombay to Thane, 1853), telegraph and postage stamp; Wood's Despatch on education (1854); Widow Remarriage groundwork. |
| Lord Canning |
1856 to 1858 (G-G), 1858 to 1862 (Viceroy) |
Revolt of 1857; Government of India Act 1858; became the first Viceroy; Indian Councils Act 1861. |
| Person |
Tenure |
Associated with |
| Lord Canning |
1858 to 1862 |
First Viceroy; Queen's Proclamation (1858); Indian Councils Act 1861. |
| Lord Lawrence |
1864 to 1869 |
Policy of "masterly inactivity" on Afghanistan. |
| Lord Mayo |
1869 to 1872 |
Financial decentralisation; first census initiative; the only Viceroy assassinated (in the Andamans, 1872). |
| Lord Lytton |
1876 to 1880 |
Vernacular Press Act (1878); Arms Act (1878); Royal Titles Act (Victoria proclaimed Empress, 1877); Second Anglo-Afghan War; the Great Famine. |
| Lord Ripon |
1880 to 1884 |
Repealed the Vernacular Press Act; Local Self-Government (1882); First Factory Act (1881); the Ilbert Bill (1883) controversy; Hunter Education Commission. "Father of local self-government." |
| Lord Dufferin |
1884 to 1888 |
Foundation of the Indian National Congress (1885); Third Anglo-Burmese War. |
| Lord Curzon |
1899 to 1905 |
Partition of Bengal (1905); Indian Universities Act (1904); Ancient Monuments Preservation Act (1904); Police Commission. |
| Lord Minto II |
1905 to 1910 |
Morley-Minto Reforms (Indian Councils Act 1909), separate electorates. |
| Lord Hardinge II |
1910 to 1916 |
Annulment of the Partition of Bengal and transfer of capital to Delhi (1911); Delhi conspiracy bomb. |
| Lord Chelmsford |
1916 to 1921 |
Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms (GoI Act 1919); Rowlatt Act; Jallianwala Bagh (1919); Non-Cooperation begins. |
| Lord Reading |
1921 to 1926 |
Chauri Chaura and the end of Non-Cooperation; Kakori (1925); repeal of the press act. |
| Lord Irwin |
1926 to 1931 |
Simon Commission; Dandi March / Civil Disobedience; Gandhi-Irwin Pact (1931); First Round Table Conference. |
| Lord Willingdon |
1931 to 1936 |
Second and Third Round Table Conferences; resumption and suppression of civil disobedience; Communal Award and Poona Pact (1932); GoI Act 1935. |
| Lord Linlithgow |
1936 to 1943 |
Outbreak of the Second World War; resignation of Congress ministries (1939); August Offer (1940); Cripps Mission (1942); Quit India (1942). |
| Lord Wavell |
1943 to 1947 |
Bengal famine (1943); Simla Conference (1945); Cabinet Mission (1946); INA trials; RIN Mutiny; interim government. |
| Lord Mountbatten |
1947 |
Last Viceroy; Mountbatten Plan (3 June 1947); Partition; Indian Independence Act 1947; first Governor-General of independent India. |
| C. Rajagopalachari |
1948 to 1950 |
First and only Indian Governor-General; office abolished when India became a republic (1950-01-26). |
- Permanent Settlement, Cornwallis. Subsidiary Alliance, Wellesley. Doctrine of Lapse and first railway, Dalhousie. Abolition of Sati and English education, Bentinck. Partition of Bengal, Curzon. Morley-Minto separate electorates, Minto II. Annulment of partition and Delhi capital, Hardinge II. Jallianwala Bagh and GoI Act 1919, Chelmsford. Dandi March and Gandhi-Irwin Pact, Irwin. Poona Pact and GoI Act 1935, Willingdon. Quit India, Linlithgow. Partition and independence, Mountbatten.
- Bentinck was the first Governor-General of India (1833 Act); Canning was the first Viceroy (1858 Act).
- The Partition of Bengal (1905) was under Curzon; its annulment (1911) under Hardinge II.
- Jallianwala Bagh (1919) falls under Chelmsford, not Curzon.
- Lord Mayo is the only Viceroy to be assassinated (1872).
- C. Rajagopalachari was the only Indian Governor-General.
- The Subsidiary Alliance is associated with which Governor-General? (a) Cornwallis (b) Wellesley (c) Dalhousie (d) Bentinck. Answer: (b) Wellesley. Authored practice, not a verbatim PYQ.
- Under which Viceroy did the Jallianwala Bagh massacre occur? (Answer: Lord Chelmsford, 1919.) Authored practice, not a verbatim PYQ.