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MUTINY

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 415 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MUTINY  .) The Mutiny sealed the

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fate of the East India
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company, after a
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life of more than two and a
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half centuries . The Act for the Better Government of India (1858), which finally transferred the entire administration from the company to the
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crown, was not passed without an eloquent protest from the
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directors, nor without acrimonious party discussion in parliament . It enacts that India shall be governed by, and in the name of, the
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sovereign of England through a
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principal secretary of state, assisted by a council . The governor-general received the new title of viceroy . The
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European troops of the company, numbering about 24,000
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officers and men, were amalgamated with the royal service, and the
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Indian
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navy was abolished . By the Indian
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Councils Act 1861 the governor-general's council and also the councils at
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Madras and Bombay were augmented by the addition of non-official members, either natives or Europeans, for legislative purposes only; and by another act passed in the same
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year high courts of judicature were constituted out of the existing Transfer to the Crown . It fell to the lot of Lord Canning both to suppress the Mutiny and to introduce the peaceful revolution . that followed . As regards his execution of the former
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part of his duties, it is sufficient to say that he- preserved his equanimity undisturbed in the darkest hours of peril, and that the strict impartiality of his conduct incurred alternate praise and blame from the fanatics on either side . The epithet then scornfully applied to him of "Clemency" Canning is now remembered only to his honour . On November 1, 1858, at a
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grand
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durbar held at
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Allahabad the royal proclamation was published which announced that the queen had assumed the government of India . This document, which has been called the Magna Charta of the Indian
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people, went on to explain the policy of
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political justice and religious toleration which it was her royal pleasure to pursue, and granted an amnesty to all except those who had directly taken part in the
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murder of
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British subjects, Peace was
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pro-claimed throughout India on the 8th of
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July 1859; and in the following cold season Lord Canning made a , viceregal progress through the upper provinces, to receive the homage of loyal princes and chiefs, and to guarantee to them the right of adoption . The suppression of the Mutiny increased the debt of India by about 40 millions sterling, and the military changes that ensued augmented the
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annual
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expenditure by about Io millions .

To grapple with this deficit,

James Wilson was sent out from the
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treasury as
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financial member of council . He reorganized the customs
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system, imposed an income tax and licence duty and created a state paper currency . The penal code, originally
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drawn up by Macaulay in 1837, passed into law in 186m, together with codes of
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civil and criminal procedure . Lord Canning
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left India in March 1862, and died before he had been a month in England . His successor, Lord
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Elgin, only lived till November 1863, when he too fell a victim to the excessive
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work of the governor-generalship, dying at the Himalayan station of
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Dharmsala, where he lies buried . He was succeeded by
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Sir John Lawrence, the saviour of the
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Punjab . The chief incidents of his administration were the
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Bhutan war and the terrible
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Orissa famine of 1866 . Lord Mayo, who succeeded him in 1869, carried on the permanent British policy of moral and material progress with a
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special degree of
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personal energy . The
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Umballa durbar, at which ' Shere
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Ali was recognized as amir of
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Afghanistan, though in one sense the completion of what Lord Lawrence had begun, owed much of its success to the personal influence of Lord Mayo himself . The same quality, combined with sympathy and firmness, stood him in good stead in all. his dealings both with native chiefs and European officials; His example of hard work stimulated all to their best . While engaged in exploring with his Own eyes the furthest corners of the
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empire, he fell by the hand of an assassin in the convict settlement of the Andaman islands in 1872 . His successor :Was Lord Northbrook; whose ability showed' itself chiefly in the department of
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finance .

During the

time of his administration a famine in
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Lower Bengal in 1874 was successfully obviated by government
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relief and public
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works, though at an enormous cost; the gaekwar of
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Baroda was dethroned in 1875 for misgovernment and disloyalty, while his dominions were continued to a nominated child of the
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family; and the prince of Wales (
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Edward VII.) visited the country in the cold season of 1875-I$76 . Lord Lytton followed Lord Northbrook in 1876 . On the 1st Of
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January 1897 Queen Victoria was proclaimed empress of India at a durbar of
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great magnificence, held on the historic "Ridge" overlooking the Mogul capital
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Delhi . But, while the princes and high officials of the country were flocking to this gorgeous scene, the shadow of famine was already darkening over the south of India . Both the monsoons of 1876 had failed to bring their due supply of rain, and the season of 1877 was little 'better .

End of Article: MUTINY
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