Governors-General of Bengal (1773–1833)

2.1 Warren Hastings (1773–1785)

• First Governor-General of Bengal under the Regulating Act 1773.
• Established the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1784) with orientalist scholar Sir William Jones, which pioneered the systematic study of Indian languages, history, and culture.
• Reorganised the judicial system, setting up civil (Diwani Adalat) and criminal (Faujdari Adalat) courts.
• Fought the First Anglo-Maratha War and Second Anglo-Mysore War.
• Faced controversy over the Rohilla War and the execution of Maharaja Nanda Kumar; later impeached in the British Parliament (1787) on corruption charges (a proceeding driven substantially by Edmund Burke) but was ultimately acquitted in 1795 after a lengthy trial.

2.2 Lord Cornwallis (1786–1793, second term 1805)

• Introduced the Permanent Settlement of Bengal (1793), fixing land revenue in perpetuity and creating a hereditary Zamindar class as revenue intermediaries.
• Reorganised and professionalised the civil services, separating them clearly from commercial/trading functions and introducing a merit-linked, well-paid cadre — earning him the title "Father of Civil Services in India."
• Reformed the judiciary (the "Cornwallis Code," 1793), establishing the principle of the rule of law and separating executive and judicial functions at the district level.
• Defeated Tipu Sultan in the Third Anglo-Mysore War (Treaty of Seringapatam, 1792).

2.3 Sir John Shore (1793–1798)

• Followed a cautious policy of non-intervention in Indian states' affairs.

2.4 Lord Wellesley (1798–1805)

• Introduced the Subsidiary Alliance system, dramatically expanding British paramountcy without full annexation.
• Fought the Second Anglo-Maratha War; annexed Carnatic and parts of Awadh.
• Founded the Fort William College (Calcutta, 1800) for training Company civil servants in Indian languages and administration.

2.5 Lord Minto I (1807–1813)

• Signed the Treaty of Amritsar (1809) with Maharaja Ranjit Singh, fixing the Sutlej river as the boundary between Sikh and British territories.

2.6 Lord Hastings (Marquess of Hastings, 1813–1823)

• Fought and won the Anglo-Nepal War (1814–16), resulting in the Treaty of Sugauli, which fixed the Nepal-British India boundary and ceded Sikkim-adjoining territories.
• Fought the Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–18), ending the Peshwa's authority.
• Suppressed the Pindari raiders (irregular plunderers active in Central India).

2.7 Lord Amherst (1823–1828)

• Fought the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–26); annexed Assam and Arakan via the Treaty of Yandaboo (1826).

2.8 Lord William Bentinck (1828–1835; became first "Governor-General of India" from 1833)

• Abolished Sati (1829) with support from Raja Ram Mohan Roy.
• Suppressed Thuggee (organised gangs of ritual robber-murderers) with the help of officer William Sleeman.
• Introduced English as the medium of higher education following Macaulay's Minute on Education (1835), favouring Western/English learning over traditional Sanskrit/Persian instruction for government-funded higher education.
• Annexed Coorg and Mysore (temporarily, for misgovernance) and Cachar.
• Often summarised with the phrase "he found India in debt and left it solvent" for his fiscal conservatism.