William Bentinck
Also called: Lord William Bentinck · Topic: Europeans in India and the Rise of Company Rule · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 4 "The Colonial Era in India"; Class 12, Ch 2 "Rebels and the Raj"
Meaning
Lord William Bentinck was Governor-General of Bengal from 1828. Under the Charter Act of 1833 he became the first Governor-General of India, and he served until 1835. He is remembered for laws that tried to change Indian society along Western lines. He banned sati, the burning of a widow on her husband's funeral pyre, in 1829. He acted against the thugs, gangs who robbed and killed travellers. In 1835 he accepted Macaulay's advice that Company money should go to English education. Many Indians saw such reforms as attacks on their religion and customs. This fear later added to the rumours behind the 1857 Rebellion.
Example
In 1829 Bentinck passed a regulation making sati illegal in the Bengal Presidency. Raja Ram Mohan Roy had campaigned against the practice.
Don't confuse with
- Warren Hastings: he was the first Governor-General of Bengal (1773). Bentinck was the first Governor-General of India (1833).
Related concepts
- Orientalists
- Calcutta Madrasa 1781
- Sanskrit College Benaras 1791
- Charter Act 1813
- Hindu College 1817
- Orientalist-Anglicist controversy
- Macaulay's Minute on Indian Education
- Downward filtration theory
- Wood's Despatch 1854