By the mid-19th century, India was an important symbol of Britain’s rise as a great power as well as a source of its economic wealth. However, the commercial monopoly of the East India Company, the huge fortunes amassed by Company ‘nabobs’, and political destabilisation of India saw calls for the British Parliament to take direct control over Company-ruled India.

Political cartoon satirising the excesses of the East India Company ‘nabobs’.

Source: E. D’Archery, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Earlier parliamentary reforms had reigned in some of the excesses of the Company such as those under the Charter Act of 1813. However, it was only until the events of 1857 that the Company was finally stripped of its political authority in India. In 1858, ‘Company Raj’ ended and ‘Crown Raj’ began.