Company Administration and Key Governors-General (Pre-1857)

(A dedicated, fuller list appears in the separate "Governor-Generals & Viceroys" notes file — this section summarises the most exam-critical figures.)

• Warren Hastings (first Governor-General of Bengal, 1772–1785): Introduced the Regulating Act 1773 framework in practice; established the Asiatic Society of Bengal (with William Jones) for the study of Indian culture; later impeached in England (though acquitted) over allegations of corruption/abuse of power.
• Lord Cornwallis (1786–1793): Introduced the Permanent Settlement of Bengal (1793), fixing land revenue permanently and creating a class of Zamindars as revenue collectors/proprietors; also reformed the civil services (the "Father of Civil Services in India") and the judicial system (Cornwallis Code).
• Lord Wellesley (1798–1805): Introduced the Subsidiary Alliance system (Indian rulers had to accept a British Resident, disband their own armies, and pay for stationed British troops, in exchange for "protection" — effectively surrendering sovereignty); greatly expanded Company territory through this device and the Second Anglo-Maratha War.
• Lord William Bentinck (1828–1835, first Governor-General of India after the Charter Act of 1833): Abolished Sati (1829) with the support of Raja Ram Mohan Roy; suppressed Thuggee; introduced English as the medium of higher education (Macaulay's Minute, 1835).
• Lord Dalhousie (1848–1856): Introduced the Doctrine of Lapse; laid the first railway line (1853, Bombay to Thane) and introduced the electric telegraph and a modern postal system; annexed Awadh (1856).