Arrange the following in chronological order: Warren Hastings Clive Lord…

Concept: To arrange historical administrators in chronological order, identify the specific period each person actually held office or exercised authority in India, then rank them by earliest start date.

Application:

1. Robert Clive first arrived in India in 1744 and became Governor of Bengal in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey, serving again from 1765 to 1767.

2. Warren Hastings became Governor of Bengal in 1772 and then the first Governor-General of Bengal from 1774 to 1785.

3. Lord Cornwallis served as Governor-General from 1786 to 1793, introducing the Permanent Settlement of Bengal in 1793.

4. Lord Wellesley served as Governor-General from 1798 to 1805, introducing the Subsidiary Alliance system.

Cross-check: The post of Governor-General was created only in 1773 under the Regulating Act and was first held by Warren Hastings, so Clive's earlier tenure as Governor of Bengal necessarily comes before Hastings; likewise, Cornwallis's 1793 Permanent Settlement precedes Wellesley's Subsidiary Alliance system, which began in 1798, confirming Cornwallis before Wellesley.

Result: Ordering all four by earliest start date gives Clive, Warren Hastings, Lord Cornwallis, and Lord Wellesley, matching the sequence "2, 1, 3, 4" against the numbering given in the question.