Shashi Tharoor - Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India

1600

British Royal Charter forms the East India Company, beginning the process that will lead to the subjugation of India under British rule.

161314

British East India Company sets up a factory in Masulipatnam and a trading post at Surat under William Hawkins. Sir Thomas Roe presents his credentials as ambassador of King James I to the Mughal Emperor Jehangir.

161518

Mughals grant Britain the right to trade and establish factories.

1700

India, under Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, accounts for 27 per cent of the world economy.

1702

Thomas Pitt, Governor of Madras, acquires the Pitt Diamond, later sold to the Regent of France, the Duc dOrlans, for 135,000.

1739

Sacking of Delhi by the Persian Nadir Shah and the loot of all its treasures.

1751

Robert Clive (172574), aged twenty-six, seizes Arcot in modern-day Tamil Nadu as French and British fight for control of South India.

1757

British under Clive defeat Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula to become rulers of Bengal, the richest province of India.

1765

Weakened Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II issues a diwani that replaces his own revenue officials in the provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa with the East India Companys.

1767

First Anglo-Mysore War begins, in which Hyder Ali of Mysore defeats the combined armies of the East India Company, the Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad.

1771

Marathas recapture Delhi.

1772

Birth of Rammohan Roy (d. 1833). British establish their capital in Calcutta.

1773

British East India Company obtains monopoly on the production and sale of opium in Bengal. Lord Norths Regulating Act passed in Parliament. Warren Hastings appointed as first Governor-General of India.

1781

Hyder Alis son, Tipu Sultan, defeats British forces.

1784

Pitt the Younger passes the India Act to bring the East India Company under Parliaments control. Judge and linguist Sir William Jones founds Calcuttas Royal Asiatic Society.

178795

British Parliament impeaches Warren Hastings, Governor-General of Bengal (177485), for misconduct.

1793

British under Lord Cornwallis introduce the permanent settlement of the land revenue system.

1799

Tipu Sultan is killed in battle against 5,000 British soldiers who storm and raze his capital, Srirangapatna (Seringapatam).

1803

Second Anglo-Maratha War results in British capture of Delhi and control of large parts of India.

1806

Vellore mutiny ruthlessly suppressed.

1825

First massive migration of Indian workers from Madras to Reunion and Mauritius.

1828

Rammohan Roy founds Adi Brahmo Samaj in Calcutta, first movement to initiate socio-religious reform. Influenced by Islam and Christianity, he denounces polytheism, idol worship and more.

1835

Macaulays Minute furthers Western education in India. English is made official government and court language.

1835

Mauritius receives 19,000 migrant indentured labourers from India. Workers continued to be shipped to Mauritius till 1922.

1837

Kali-worshipping thugs suppressed by the British.

1839

Preacher William Howitt attacks British rule in India.

1843

British conquer Sindh (present-day Pakistan). British promulgate doctrine of lapse, under which a state is taken over by the British whenever a ruler dies without an heir.

1853

First railway built between Bombay and Thane.

1857

First major Indian revolt, called the Sepoy Mutiny or Great Indian Mutiny by the British, ends in a few months with the fall of Delhi and Lucknow.

1858

Queen Victorias Proclamation taking over in the name of the Crown the governance of India from the East India Company. Civil service jobs in India are opened to Indians.

1858

India completes first 200 miles of railway track.

1860

SS Truro and SS Belvedere dock in Durban, South Africa, carrying first indentured servants (from Madras and Calcutta) to work in sugar plantations.

1861

Rabindranath Tagore is born (d. 1941).

1863

Swami Vivekananda is born (d. 1902).

1866

At least a million and a half Indians die in the Orissa Famine.

18691948

Lifetime of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Indian nationalist and political activist who develops the strategy of non-violent disobedience that forces Britain to grant independence to India (1947).