Editing Warren Hastings (section)

==Governor-General==
[[File:Calcutta, Past and Present p91.png|thumb|Portrait of Warren Hastings (''Calcutta, Past and Present''; {{circa|1905}})]]

The [[Regulating Act 1773]] brought the presidencies of Madras and Bombay under Bengal's control. It raised Hastings from Governor to the new post of [[Governor-General of India|Governor-General]], but limited his power by making the governor-general one member of a five-man Supreme Council.<ref name="Wolpert"/> This was so confusingly structured that it was difficult to tell what constitutional position Hastings actually held.<ref>''The Earl of Birkenhead, Famous Trials of History'', Garden City: Garden City Publishing Company, 1926, p. 165.</ref>

According to [[William Dalrymple (historian)|William Dalrymple]]:

{{quote|He got quickly to work, beginning the process of turning the EIC into an administrative service. Hastings' first major change was to move all the functions of government from Murshidabad to Calcutta ... Throughout 1773, Hastings worked with extraordinary energy. He unified currency systems, ordered the codification of Hindu laws and digests of Muslim law books, reformed the tax and customs system, fixed land revenue and stopped the worst oppression being carried out on behalf of private traders by the local agents. He created an efficient postal service, backed a proper cartographical survey of India by [[James Rennell]] and built a series of public granaries, including the great Gola at Patna, to make sure the famine of 1770-71 was never repeated ... Underlying all Hastings' work was a deep respect for the land he had lived in since his teens ... Hastings genuinely liked India, and by the time he became Governor spoke not only good Bengali and Urdu but also fluent court and literary Persian.{{sfn|Dalrymple|2019|pages=238–239}} }}

In 1774, Hastings assumed control of the East India Company's [[opium]] monopoly.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Driscoll |first=Mark W. |title=The Whites are Enemies of Heaven: Climate Caucasianism and Asian Ecological Protection |date=2020 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-1-4780-1121-7 |location=Durham}}</ref>{{Rp|page=6–7}} The same year, he sent Company troops to support the wazir of [[Oudh State|Oudh]], [[Shuja-ud-Daula]], in [[First Rohilla War|a campaign]] against the [[Rohilla]]s, a people of Afghan origin. The Company troops were paid by the wazir for their assistance. This short campaign, while enlarging the Company's main ally in northern India, was the first of several wars which harmed Hastings's reputation.<ref name=":0" />

===War in India===
In 1777, during the [[American Revolutionary War|American War of Independence]] (1775–1783), the Americans had captured a British field army at the [[Battle of Saratoga]] during the [[Saratoga campaign]]. This emboldened the French to sign a military alliance with the new United States of America and declare war on Great Britain. The French concentrated in the Caribbean islands, and in India.

The presidencies of Madras and Bombay became involved in serious quarrels with the greatest of the native states. Madras with the formidable [[Hyder Ali]] of Mysore and with the Nizam of Hyderabad, and Bombay with the [[First Anglo-Maratha War|Marathas]]. France sent a fleet under Admiral [[Pierre André de Suffren]]. The combination meant Hastings faced a formidable challenge, with only Oudh as an ally.<ref>[[Penderel Moon]], ''Warren Hastings and British India''; (1947) pp 201–243.</ref> In six years of intense and confused fighting, from 1779 to 1784, Hastings sent one army marching across India to help Bombay, and another to Madras. His greatest achievement was in breaking up the hostile coalition. By 1782 he made peace with the Marathas. The French fleet had been repeatedly delayed. Suffren finally arrived in 1782 to discover that the Indian coalition had fallen apart, that Hastings had captured all the French ports, and Suffren could achieve nothing. When the wars ended in 1784, British rule in India had not changed, but the French position was now much weaker. The East India Company now had an efficient system in operation. However, Hastings's multiple wartime operations needed large sums of money and London sent nothing. His methods of using the local treasuries later became the main line of attack in the impeachment brought against him.<ref>[[Ramsay Muir]], ''British History'', 1930, pp. 441–442.</ref><ref>Henry Dodwell, "Warren Hastings and the Assignment of the Carnatic." ''English Historical Review'' 40.159, 1925, pp. 375–396 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/551858 online].</ref><ref>Kumar Badri Narain Singh, "The War of American Independence and India" ''Proceedings of the Indian History Congress'' Vol. 38, 1977 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/44139119 online].</ref>

===Bhutan and Tibet===
In 1773, Hastings responded to an appeal for help from the Raja of the princely state of [[Cooch Behar State|Cooch Behar]] to the north of [[Bengal]], whose territory had been invaded by Zhidar, the [[Druk Desi]] of [[Bhutan]] the previous year. Hastings agreed to help on the condition that Cooch Behar recognise British sovereignty.<ref>{{Cite book |first=James B. |last=Minahan |title=Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: Ethnic and National Groups Around the World A-Z |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZfnWCQAAQBAJ |year=2002 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-07696-1 |page=1556}}</ref> The Raja agreed and with the help of British troops they pushed the Bhutanese out of the [[Duars]] and into the foothills in 1773.

The Druk Desi returned to face civil war at home. His opponent Jigme Senge, the regent for the seven-year-old [[Zhabdrung Rinpoche|Shabdrung]] (the Bhutanese equivalent of the Dalai Lama), had supported popular discontent. Zhidar was unpopular for his [[corvee]] tax (he sought unreasonably to rebuild a major [[Dzong architecture|dzong]] in one year), as well as for his overtures to the [[Qing dynasty|Manchu emperors]], who threatened Bhutanese independence. Zhidar was soon overthrown and forced to flee to Tibet, where he was imprisoned and a new Druk Desi, Kunga Rinchen, installed in his place. Meanwhile, the [[Sixth Panchen Lama]], who had imprisoned Zhidar, interceded on behalf of the Bhutanese with a letter to Hastings, imploring him to cease hostilities in return for friendship. Hastings saw the opportunity to establish relations with both the Tibetans and the Bhutanese and wrote a letter to the Panchen Lama proposing "a general treaty of amity and commerce between Tibet and Bengal".{{sfn |Younghusband |1910 |pages=5–7}}

In February 1782, news reached the headquarters of the EIC in Calcutta of the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. Hastings proposed sending a mission to Tibet with a message of congratulation, designed to strengthen amicable relations established by Bogle on his earlier visit. With the assent of the EIC Court of Directors, [[Samuel Turner (diplomat)|Samuel Turner]] was appointed chief of the Tibet mission on 9 January 1783 with fellow EIC employee [[Samuel Davis (orientalist)|Samuel Davis]] as "Draftsman & Surveyor".<ref>{{Cite book |title=Views of Medieval Bhutan: the diary and drawings of Samuel Davis, 1783 |first1=Samuel |last1=Davis |first2=Michael |last2=Aris |year=1982 |publisher=Serindia |url=https://archive.org/stream/ViewsOfMedievalBhutanTheDiaryAndDrawingsOfSamuelDavis1783MichaelAris/Views%20of%20Medieval%20Bhutan%20--%20the%20Diary%20and%20Drawings%20of%20Samuel%20Davis%201783%20Michael%20Aris#page/n29/mode/2up |page=31}}</ref> Turner returned to the Governor-General's camp at Patna in 1784 where he reported he had been unable to visit the Tibetan capital at Lhasa, but received a promise that merchants sent there from India would be encouraged.{{sfn |Younghusband |1910 |page=27}}

Turner was instructed to obtain a pair of [[yak]]s on his travels, which he duly did. They were transported to Hasting's menagerie in Calcutta and on the Governor-General's return to England, the yaks went too, although only the male survived the difficult sea voyage. Noted artist [[George Stubbs]] subsequently painted the animal's portrait as ''The Yak of [[Tartary]]'' and in 1854 it went on to appear, albeit stuffed, at [[The Great Exhibition]] at Crystal Palace in London.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Clare |last=Harris |title=The Museum on the Roof of the World: Art, Politics, and the Representation of Tibet |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N979o0TR4uAC |year=2012 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-31747-2 |pages=30–33}}</ref>

Hasting's return to England ended any further efforts to engage in diplomacy with Tibet.