Who was the first British Governor-General in India?

Concept

The Regulating Act of 1773 created the office of Governor-General in British India. It raised the head of the Company's government at Fort William in Bengal to the rank of Governor-General, gave him a Council of four members, and placed the Bombay and Madras Presidencies under his supervision in matters of war, peace and revenue. Whoever first occupied that newly created office is, by definition, the first British Governor-General.

Application

1. The Regulating Act of 1773 created the new office of Governor-General of Fort William in Bengal and placed Bombay and Madras under its supervision.

2. Warren Hastings, who had headed the Bengal government since 1772, was raised to this new office under that Act - appointed in 1773 and taking charge with his Council at Calcutta in 1774 - so he is the first British Governor-General.

3. He held the office until 1785; the Supreme Court at Calcutta was set up in 1774 and the Asiatic Society of Bengal was founded in 1784 during those years.

Cross-check

Set each of the other names against its own period of authority and the match fails:

• Robert Clive was in charge in Bengal in 1757-60 and again in 1765-67, before the office of Governor-General had been created at all.

• Lord Dalhousie took charge only in 1848, more than seventy years after that office was first filled.

• Lord Canning took charge in 1856 and was heading the Company's government when Crown rule began in 1858.

A note on the title

Note the finer distinction that examiners test separately. The office Warren Hastings first held was formally styled Governor-General of Fort William in Bengal, and the designation Governor-General of India was created later, by the Charter Act of 1833, whose first holder was Lord William Bentinck. So the first British Governor-General in India, and the first Governor-General of Bengal, is Warren Hastings in 1774, while the first officer to carry the title Governor-General of India is Lord William Bentinck in 1833.