Editing Warren Hastings

{{Short description|Governor-General of Bengal, 1773–1785}}
{{for|several vessels of this name|Warren Hastings (East Indiaman){{!}}''Warren Hastings'' (East Indiaman)|Warren Hastings (1789 ship){{!}}''Warren Hastings'' (1789 ship)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name                = Warren Hastings
| honorific-suffix    = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS}}
| image               = Warren Hastings by Tilly Kettle.jpg
| caption             = Portrait by [[Tilly Kettle]]
| order               =
| office2             = [[List of Governors of Bengal|Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal)]]
| term_start2         = 28 April 1772
| term_end2           = 20 October 1773
| predecessor2        = [[John Cartier]]
| successor2          = ''Position abolished''
| office1             = [[Governor-General of Bengal|Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William]]
| term_start1         = 20 October 1773
| term_end1           = 8 February 1785<ref>Bengal Public Consultations, 12 February 1785, No. 2. Letter from Warren Hastings, 8 February, formally declaring resignation of the office of Governor General.</ref>
| monarch1            = [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]]
| predecessor1        = ''Position created''
| successor1          = [[Sir John Macpherson, 1st Baronet|Sir John Macpherson, Bt]]<br /><small>As acting Governor-General</small>
| birth_date          = {{birth date|df=y|1732|12|6}}
| birth_place         = [[Churchill, Oxfordshire]], [[England]], [[Kingdom of Great Britain]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|df=y|1818|8|22|1732|12|6}}
| death_place         = [[Daylesford, Gloucestershire]], [[England]], [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]]
| nationality         = [[History of British nationality law|British]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|Mary Buchanan|1756|1759|end=died}}<br />{{marriage|[[Marian Hastings]]|1777}}
| residence           = [[Daylesford House]]
| education           = [[Westminster School]]
| signature           = Signature of Warren Hastings.svg
}}
'''Warren Hastings''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS}} (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a [[British people|British]] colonial administrator, who served as the first [[Governor-General of Bengal|governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal)]], the head of the [[Supreme Council of Bengal]], and so the first governor-general of Bengal in 1772–1785. He and [[Robert Clive]] are credited with laying the foundation of the [[British Empire]] in India.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/empire/episodes/episode_41.shtml |title=Warren Hastings |publisher=BBC |access-date=17 July 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=Warren Hastings, maker of British India |year=1935 |journal=Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=476–480|doi=10.1080/03068373508725383}}</ref> He was an energetic organizer and reformer. In 1779–1784 he led forces of the [[East India Company]] against a coalition of native states and the [[Louis XIV's East India Company|French]]. In the end, the well-organized British side held its own, while France lost influence in India. In 1787, he was accused of corruption and [[Impeachment of Warren Hastings|impeached]], but he was eventually acquitted in 1795 after a long trial. He was made a [[Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council|privy councillor]] in 1814.

==Early life and education==
Warren Hastings was born in [[Churchill, Oxfordshire]], in 1732 to Reverend Penyston Hastings and his wife Hester (née Warren), who died soon after he was born.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bernstein |first=Jeremy |title=Dawning of the Raj: The Life and Trials of Warren Hastings |date=2001 |publisher=Aurum Press |isbn=9781854107534}}</ref><ref name=Glouc.1730>Gloucestershire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538–1813.</ref><ref name=Lyall1889>{{Cite book |author=Sir Alfred Lyall |title=Warren Hastings |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.91491 |year=1889 |publisher=Macmillan and Co.}} pp. 1-2.</ref><ref name=Lawson1897>{{cite book |last1=Lawson |first1=Charles |title=The Private Life of Warren Hastings |date=1897 |publisher=Madras Mail Press |page=9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tFigAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA9 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=John Chambers |title=Biographical Illustrations of Worcestershire: Including Lives of Persons, Natives Or Residents, Eminent Either for Piety Or Talent |url=https://archive.org/details/biographicalillu00cham |year=1820 |publisher=W. Walcott |pages=[https://archive.org/details/biographicalillu00cham/page/486 486]–501}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Davies |first=Alfred Mervyn |title=Strange Destiny: A Biography of Warren Hastings |publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons |year=1935 |isbn=9780598963864}}</ref> Within nine months of Warren's birth, his father remarried and moved to Barbados, leaving behind Warren and his elder sister Anne. Young Warren was raised by his grandfather (also called Penyston)<ref name=":0">{{cite ODNB|id=12587|origyear=2004|year=2008|first=P. J.|last=Marshall|title=Hastings, Warren|date=4 October 2008}}</ref> and attended a charity school in Daylesford, Gloucestershire.{{sfn|Dalrymple|2019|page=145}} Eventually, he was taken in by his uncle, Howard Hastings, and moved with him to London in 1740.<ref name=":0" />

Hastings attended [[Westminster School]], where he coincided with the future prime ministers [[Lord Shelburne]] and the [[William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland|Duke of Portland]] and with the poet [[William Cowper]].<ref>Patrick Turnbull, ''Warren Hastings''. New English Library, 1975, p. 17.</ref> He quickly excelled as a top scholar but was forced to leave at sixteen, when his uncle died.{{sfn|Dalrymple|2019|page=145}} He joined the [[British East India Company]] in 1750 as a writer (clerk) and sailed out to India, reaching [[Calcutta]] in August 1750.<ref>Turnbull pp. 17–18.</ref> There he built up a reputation for diligence and spent his free time learning about India and mastering [[Urdu]] and [[Persian language|Persian]].<ref>Turnbull pp. 19–21.</ref> His work won him promotion in 1752 when he was sent to [[Kasimbazar]], a major trading post in [[Bengal]], where he worked for [[William Watts (East India Company official)|William Watts]]. While there he gained further experience in the politics of East India.

British traders still relied on the whims of local rulers, so that the political turmoil in Bengal was unsettling. The elderly moderate [[Nawab of Bengal|Nawab]] [[Alivardi Khan]] was likely to be succeeded by his grandson [[Siraj ud-Daulah]], but there were several other claimants. This made British trading posts throughout Bengal increasingly insecure, as Siraj ud-Daulah was known to harbour [[Anti-Europeanism|anti-European]] views and to be likely to launch an attack once he took power. When Alivardi Khan died in April 1756, the British traders and a small garrison at Kasimbazar were left vulnerable. On 3 June, after being surrounded by a much larger force, the British were persuaded to surrender to prevent a massacre.<ref>Turnbull p. 23.</ref> Hastings was imprisoned with others in the Bengali capital, [[Murshidabad]], while the Nawab's forces marched on [[Calcutta]] and [[Siege of Calcutta|captured it]]. The garrison and civilians were then locked up under appalling conditions in the [[Black Hole of Calcutta]].

[[File:Mrshestings.jpg|thumb|260x260px|Warren Hastings with his wife Marian in their garden at [[Alipore]], c. 1784–87]]
For a while, Hastings remained in Murshidabad and was even used by the Nawab as an intermediary; but, fearing for his life, he escaped to the island of Fulta, where a number of refugees from Calcutta had taken shelter. While there, he met, fell in love with, and married Mary Buchanan, the widow of Captain John Buchanan (one of the victims of the Black Hole of Calcutta).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/warren-hastings|title=Warren Hastings — Statesman and Diplomat|work=westminster-abbey.org|access-date=15 January 2024|archive-date=12 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230612205302/https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/warren-hastings}}</ref> Shortly afterwards a British expedition from [[Madras]] under [[Robert Clive]] arrived to rescue them. Hastings served as a volunteer in Clive's forces as they [[Siege of Calcutta|retook Calcutta]] in January 1757. After this swift defeat, the Nawab urgently sought peace and the war came to an end. Clive was impressed with Hastings when he met him and arranged for his return to Kasimbazar to resume his pre-war activities. Later in 1757, fighting resumed, leading to the [[Battle of Plassey]], where Clive won a decisive victory over the Nawab. Siraj ud-Daulah was overthrown and replaced by his commander-in-chief [[Mir Jafar]], who initiated policies favorable to the East India Company traders, before falling out with them and being overthrown.

==Rising status==
In 1758, Hastings became the British [[Resident (title)|resident]] in the Bengal capital of [[Murshidabad]] – a major step forward in his career – at the instigation of Clive. His role in the city was ostensibly that of an ambassador but as Bengal came increasingly under the dominance of the East India Company he was often given the task of issuing orders to the new Nawab on behalf of Clive and the Calcutta authorities.<ref>Turnbull pp. 27–28.</ref> Hastings personally sympathised with Mir Jafar and regarded many of the demands placed on him by the company as excessive. Hastings had already developed a philosophy that was grounded in trying to establish a more understanding relationship with India's inhabitants and their rulers, and he often tried to mediate between the two sides.

During Mir Jafar's reign, the East India Company exerted an increasingly large role in the running of the region, and effectively took over the defence of Bengal against external invaders when Bengal's troops proved insufficient for the task. As he grew older, Mir Jafar became gradually less effective in ruling the state, and in 1760, [[Presidency armies|EIC troops]] ousted him from power and replaced him with [[Mir Qasim]].<ref>Turnbull pp. 34–35.</ref> Hastings expressed his doubts to Calcutta over the move, believing they were honour-bound to support Mir Jafar, but his opinions were overruled. Hastings established a good relationship with the new Nawab and again had misgivings about the demands he relayed from his superiors. In 1761, he was recalled and appointed to the [[Calcutta]] council.

===Conquest of Bengal===
{{Further|Battle of Buxar}}
Hastings was personally angered when investigating trading abuses in Bengal. He alleged that some European and British-allied Indian merchants were taking advantage of the situation to enrich themselves personally. Persons travelling under the unauthorised protection of the British flag engaged in widespread fraud and illegal trading, knowing that local [[customs official]]s would be cowed into not interfering with them. Hastings felt this was bringing shame on Britain's reputation and urged the authorities in Calcutta to put an end to it. The Council considered his report but ultimately rejected Hastings' proposals. He was fiercely criticised by other members, many of whom had themselves profited from the trade.<ref>Turnbull pp. 36–40.</ref>

Ultimately, little was done to stem the abuses, and Hastings began to consider quitting his post and returning to Britain. His resignation was only delayed by the outbreak of fresh fighting in Bengal. Once on the throne Qasim proved increasingly independent in his actions, and he rebuilt Bengal's army by hiring European instructors and [[Mercenary|mercenaries]] who greatly improved the standard of his forces.<ref>Turnbull p. 36.</ref> He gradually felt more confident, and in 1764, when a dispute broke out in the settlement of [[Patna]], he captured its British garrison and threatened to execute them if the East India Company responded militarily. When Calcutta dispatched troops anyway, Mir Qasim executed the hostages. British forces then went on the attack and won a series of battles culminating in the decisive [[Battle of Buxar]] in October 1764. After this, Mir Qasim fled into exile in Delhi, where he died in 1777. The Treaty of Allahabad (1765) gave the East India Company the right to [[Dewan|collect taxes]] in Bengal on behalf of the Mughal emperor.

Hastings resigned in December 1764 and sailed for Britain the following month. He left deeply saddened by the failure of the more moderate strategy that he had supported, but which had been rejected by the hawkish members of the Calcutta Council. Once he arrived in London, Hastings began spending far beyond his means. He stayed at fashionable addresses and had his picture painted by [[Joshua Reynolds]] even though, unlike many of his contemporaries, he had not amassed a fortune while in India. Eventually, having run up enormous debts, Hastings realised he needed to return to India to restore his finances, and applied to the East India Company for employment. His application was initially rejected as he had made many political enemies, including the powerful director [[Laurence Sulivan]]. Eventually, an appeal to Sulivan's rival Robert Clive secured Hastings the position of deputy ruler at the city of Madras. He sailed from Dover in March 1769. On the voyage on board, the ''Duke of Grafton'' became ill, and he was cared for<ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=Marian Hastings |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/63512 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |access-date=2023-06-12 |place=Oxford |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/63512 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.}}</ref> by the German [[Marian Hastings|Baroness Marian von Imhoff]] (1749–1837)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG146264 |title=Marian Hastings |website=The British Museum}}</ref> and her husband. He fell in love with the Baroness, and they began an affair, seemingly with her husband's consent. Hastings' first wife, Mary, had died in 1759, and he planned to marry the Baroness once she had obtained a divorce from her husband.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} The process took a long time and it was not until 1777 that news of the divorce came from Germany, and Hastings was finally able to marry her.

===Madras and Calcutta===
Hastings arrived in Madras shortly after the [[First Anglo-Mysore War]] of 1767–1769, when the forces of [[Hyder Ali]] had threatened the capture of the city. The [[Treaty of Madras]] (4 April 1769) ended the war but failed to settle the dispute and three further [[Anglo-Mysore Wars]] followed (1780–1799). During his time at Madras, Hastings initiated reforms of trading practices which cut out the use of middlemen and benefited both the Company and the Indian labourers, but otherwise the period was relatively uneventful for him.<ref name="turnbull 52">Turnbull p. 52.</ref>

By this stage, Hastings shared Clive's view that the three major British presidencies (settlements) – [[Madras]], [[Mumbai|Bombay]] and [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] – should be brought under single rule rather than being governed separately as they currently were.<ref name="turnbull 52"/> In 1772, he was appointed to be the governor of Calcutta, the most important of the presidencies. In Britain, moves were underway to reform the divided system of government and establish single rule across all of British-controlled regions in India with its capital in Kolkata (Calcutta). Hastings became the first governor general in 1773.

While governor, Hastings launched a major crackdown on [[Outlaw|bandits]] operating in Bengal, which proved largely successful. He also faced the severe [[Bengal famine of 1770|Bengal famine]], which resulted in between two and ten million deaths.

==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.

==Impeachment==
{{main|Impeachment of Warren Hastings}}
[[File:The trial of Warren Hastings, 1788.jpg|thumb|upright=1.8|The trial of Warren Hastings in [[Westminster Hall]], 1788]]

In 1785, after 10 years of service, during which he helped extend and regularise the nascent British rule created by [[Robert Clive|Clive of India]], Hastings resigned. He was replaced by the [[Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis|Earl Cornwallis]]; Cornwallis served as Commander-in-Chief of British India and Governor of the Presidency of Fort William, also known as the Bengal Presidency.

On return to England, Hastings was impeached in the [[House of Commons of Great Britain|House of Commons]] for alleged crimes in India, notably embezzlement, extortion and coercion, and an alleged judicial killing of [[Maharaja Nandakumar]]. At first thought unlikely to succeed,<ref>Thomas Babington Macaulay, [http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/hastings/txt_complete.html#22 "Warren Hastings (1841)"].</ref> the prosecution was managed by MPs including [[Edmund Burke]], encouraged by Sir [[Philip Francis (English politician)|Philip Francis]], whom Hastings had wounded during a duel in India,<ref name="Wolpert">{{Cite book |last=Wolpert |first=Stanley |author-link=Stanley Wolpert |year=2004 |orig-year=First published 1977 |title=A New History of India |edition=7th |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=190 |isbn=978-0-19-516677-4}}</ref> [[Charles James Fox]] and [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]]. When the charges of the indictment were read, the 20 counts took Edmund Burke two full days to read.<ref>The Earl of Birkenhead, ''Famous Trials of History'', Garden City: Garden City Publishing Company, 1926, p. 170.</ref> According to historian Mithi Mukherjee, the trial instituted debate between two radically opposed visions of empire – one based on ideas of power and conquest in pursuit of the exclusive national interests of the colonizer, and one represented by Burke, of sovereignty based on a recognition of the rights of the colonized.<ref>Mithi Mukherjee, "Justice, War, and the Imperium: India and Britain in Edmund Burke's Prosecutorial Speeches in the Impeachment Trial of Warren Hastings." ''Law and History Review'' 23.3 (2005): 589–630 [http://125.22.40.134:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1922/1/Justice_War_and_the_Imperium_India_and_B.pdf online]. Also see Mukherjee,  ''I [https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198062509.001.0001/acprof-9780198062509 ndia in the Shadows of Empire: A Legal and Political History (1774-1950)]'' (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010).</ref>

Following the indictment by the House of Commons, Hastings was tried by his peers in the House of Lords; the trial started on 13 February 1788 and continued for 148 days of hearings over a period of seven years.<ref>Sir Alfred Lyall, ''Warren Hastings'', London: Macmillan and Co, 1920, p. 218.</ref> These hearings continued at great personal cost to Hastings, who complained that he was being bankrupted by the cost of defending himself. He is rumoured once to have said that the punishment would have been less extreme had he pleaded guilty.<ref>The Earl of Birkenhead, ''Famous Trials of History'', Garden City: Garden City Publishing Company, 1926, p. 173.</ref> The [[House of Lords]] acquitted him of all charges on 24 April 1795.<ref>Ron Christenson, ''Political Trials in History'', pp. 178–179, {{ISBN|0-88738-406-4}}</ref> The Company subsequently compensated him with £4,000 annually, retroactive to the date he returned to England, but did not reimburse his legal fees, which he claimed to have been £70,000. He collected the stipend for nearly 29 years.<ref name="amdigital.co.uk">[https://www.amdigital.co.uk/about/blog/item/the-impeachment-of-warren-hastings, 'The captain-general of iniquity': The impeachment of Warren Hastings.]</ref><ref name="Christie2000">{{Cite book |author=Christopher Christie |title=The British Country House in the Eighteenth Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G-wOz1kFCdMC&pg=PA10 |year=2000 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-4725-1 |pages=10–}}</ref> Throughout the years of the trial, Hastings lived in considerable style at his leased town house, [[Somerset House, Park Lane]].<ref>"Park Lane", ''Survey of London: volume 40: The Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings) (1980)'', [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42151#s29 pp. 264–289], accessed 15 November 2010.</ref> He subsequently sold the lease at auction for £9,450.

Among many who supported him in print was the pamphleteer [[Ralph Broome (pamphleteer)|Ralph Broome]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Letters from Simkin the Second to his dear brother in Wales, for the year 1790; giving a full and circumstantial account of all the most material points during the trial of Warren Hastings |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SIFA9lbJOIYC |year=1790 |publisher=John Stockdale}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Ralph Broome |title=The letters of Simkin the second: poetic recorder of all the proceedings |url=https://archive.org/details/lettersofsimkins00brooiala |year=1791 |publisher=J. Stockdale}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Ralph Broome |title=An Elucidation of the Articles of Impeachment Preferred by the Last Parliament Against Warren Hastings, Late Governor General of Bengal |url=https://archive.org/details/elucidationofart00broo |year=1790 |publisher=Stockdale}}</ref> Others disturbed by the perceived injustice of the proceedings included [[Frances Burney]].<ref>''The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame d'Arblay) I. 1791–1792'', p. 115 ff.</ref>

Letters and journals of [[Jane Austen]] and her family, who knew Hastings, show that they followed the trial closely.<ref>[https://austenised.blogspot.com/2011/07/jane-austens-colonial-connections.html Jane Austen's colonial connections.]</ref>

==Later life==
Hastings' supporters from the [[Edinburgh]] East India Club and a number of other gentlemen from India gave a reportedly "elegant entertainment" for Hastings when he visited Edinburgh. There was a toast to "prosperity to our settlements in India" and a wish that "the virtue and talents which preserved them be ever remembered with gratitude."<ref>W. M. Gilbert, ed., ''Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century'', Edinburgh, 1901, p. 44.</ref>

In 1788, Hastings bought for £54,000 an estate at [[Daylesford, Gloucestershire]], including the site of the Hastings family's medieval seat.<ref name="Christie2000"/> Thereafter he remodelled the house to designs by [[Samuel Pepys Cockerell]] with classical and Indian decoration and gardens landscaped by John Davenport. In 1801, he was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqSearch=RefNo==%27EC%2F1801%2F14%27&dsqCmd=Show.tcl |title=Fellows details |publisher=Royal Society |access-date=23 January 2017}}</ref>

In 1816, he rebuilt the [[Norman architecture|Norman]] church, where he was buried two years later. In spite of substantial compensation from the East India Company, Hastings was technically insolvent on his death.<ref name="amdigital.co.uk"/>

==Administrative ethos and legacy==
[[File:Warren Hastings by Johan Joseph Zoffany.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Hastings painted by [[Johann Zoffany]], 1783–1784]]
[[File:Warren Hastings.jpg|thumb|200px|Hastings in the late 18th century, as painted by [[Lemuel Francis Abbott]]]]
[[File:Memorial to Warren Hastings St Peters Church Daylesford - geograph.org.uk - 1100655.jpg|thumb|200px|His memorial in [[Daylesford, Gloucestershire|Daylesford]] churchyard]]

In the last quarter of the 18th century, many senior administrators realised that to govern Indian society it was essential to learn its various religious, social, and legal customs and precedents. The importance of such knowledge to the colonial government was in Hastings' mind when he remarked in 1784, in his introduction to the English translation of the [[Bhagavad Gita]] by Wilkins:<ref>{{cite web |title=The Bhagavat-Geeta, Or, Dialogues of Krishna and Arjoon in Eighteen Lectures |url=https://archive.org/details/bhagavatgeetaor00humbgoog/page/n17/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=28 December 2022}}</ref>
{{blockquote|text=Every accumulation of knowledge and especially such as is obtained by social communication with people over whom we exercise dominion founded on the right of conquest, is useful to the state... it attracts and conciliates distant affections; it lessens the weight of the chain by which the natives are held in subjection; and it imprints on the hearts of our countrymen the sense of obligation and benevolence.... Every instance which brings their real character... home to observation will impress us with a more generous sense of feeling for their natural rights, and teach us to estimate them by the measure of our own. But such instances can only be obtained in their writings: and these will survive when the British dominion in India shall have long ceased to exist, and when the sources which once yielded of wealth and power are lost to remembrance.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Bernard S |last=Cohn |year=1997 |title=Colonialism and its forms of knowledge: The British in India |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=45 |isbn=978-0-19-564167-7}}</ref>}}

During Hastings' term as governor-general, much administrative precedent was set, which profoundly shaped later attitudes towards the government of British India. Hastings had great respect for the ancient scripture of [[Hinduism]] and set the British position on governance as one of looking back to the earliest precedents possible. This allowed [[Brahmin]] advisors to mould the law, as no Briton thoroughly understood [[Sanskrit]] until [[William Jones (philologist)|Sir William Jones]], and even then, a literal translation was of little use: it needed to be elucidated by religious commentators well versed in the lore and its application. This approach accentuated the [[Hindu caste system]] and to an extent the frameworks of other religions, which had at least in recent centuries been somewhat more flexibly applied. So British influence on the fluid social structure of India can largely be seen as a solidification of the privileges of the Hindu caste system through the influence of exclusively [[Brahmin|high-caste Hindu scholars]] advising the British on their laws. Where British translators or interpreters read in the [[Arthashastra]] a ''caste system'' in India, the actual wording speaks of ''varna'' and ''jati'': skin-colour and birth, i.e. clan, and it speaks of the four societal classes, not castes: from upper-class Brahmin to lower-class Shudra.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

In 1781, Hastings founded [[Madrasa 'Aliya]] at [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] (transformed in 2007 into Aliah University by the [[Government of West Bengal]]).<ref>[https://www.aliah.ac.in/history-of-aliah-university University History. Retrieved 21 April 2020.]</ref> In 1784, he supported the foundation of the Bengal Asiatic Society, now the [[Asiatic Society of Bengal]], by the oriental scholar Sir William Jones. This became a storehouse for information on the subcontinent and has remained in various institutional guises to the present day.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Keay |first=John |author-link=John Keay |year=2000 |title=India: A History |publisher=[[Grove Press]] |page=426 |isbn=0-8021-3797-0 |quote=Not the least of Warren Hastings' achievements had been the foundation in 1784 of the Bengal Asiatic Society which, under the presidency of [Sir William] Jones, became a veritable clearing-house for intellectual data about India.}}</ref> Hastings' legacy as an administrator has been somewhat dualistic: as governor, he instituted reforms that would change the path India followed in subsequent years, but he retained the distinction of being also the "architect of British India and the one ruler of British India to whom the creation of such an entity was anathema."<ref>{{Cite book |first=John |last=Keay |author-link=John Keay |year=1991 |title=The Honourable Company |place=New York |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers (United States)|Macmillan]] |page=394 }}</ref>

==Legacy==
The city of [[Hastings, New Zealand|Hastings]], New Zealand, and the [[Melbourne]] outer suburb of [[Hastings, Victoria]], Australia, were named after him. There is also a road and the neighbourhood of [[Hastings, Kolkata]], in India named after him.

"Hastings" is the name of one of the four schoolhouses in [[La Martiniere Calcutta]] (Kolkata). It is represented by the colour red. "Hastings" is also the name of one of the four schoolhouses in [[Bishop Westcott Girls' School (Ranchi)|Bishop Westcott Girls' School, Ranchi]], again represented by the colour red. "Hastings" is a senior wing house at [[St Paul's School, Darjeeling]], India, where all the senior wing houses are named after Anglo-Indian colonial figures.

RIMS ''Warren Hastings'' was a Royal Indian Marine troopship built by the Barrow Shipbuilding Co. and launched on 18 April 1893. The ship struck a rock and was wrecked off the coast of [[Réunion]] on the night of 14 January 1897.

==Literature==
Hastings took an interest in seeing the Bhagavad Gita translated into English. His efforts led to a first translation by [[Charles Wilkins]] appearing in 1785. He wrote the introduction to it which appeared on 4 October 1784 in [[Benares]].<ref name="Gita-Garrett">{{Cite book |editor1-last=Garrett |editor1-first=John |editor2-last=Wilhelm |editor2-first=Humboldt |title=The Bhagavat-Geeta, Or, Dialogues of Krishna and Arjoon in Eighteen Lectures |date=1849 |publisher=Wesleyan Mission Press |location=Bangalore |url=https://archive.org/details/bhagavatgeetaor00humbgoog |access-date=18 January 2017}}</ref>

"Warren Hastings and His Bull", a short story by the Indian writer [[Uday Prakash]], was adapted for stage under the same title by the director [[Arvind Gaur]]. It presents Hastings's interaction with traditional India in a work of socio-economic political satire.

A short story by the Hindi author Shivprasad Singh 'Rudra' Kashikeya called ''Bahti Ganga'' features [[Chait Singh]], then Raja of Banaras, in conflict with Hastings, who is imprisoned by the Raja, but escapes, though ordinary people of the city make fun of him.

The Hastings career is much discussed in the historical mystery novel, ''Secrets in the Stones'', by [[Tessa Harris]].<ref>{{Cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=IZCmCQAAQBAJ&q=secrets+in+the+stones++warren+hastings&pg=PA336 |title=Secrets in the Stones |author=Tessa Harris |date=23 February 2016 |publisher=Kensington Books |isbn=978-0-7582-9342-8}} excerpt from Secrets in the Stones, Postscript.</ref>

Hastings is named in Book 5 of [[George Eliot]]'s novel ''[[Middlemarch]]'', where his greed for Daylesford is compared to the character Joshua Rigg's greed for money.

Hastings was rumoured to be the biological father of [[Eliza de Feuillide]], the daughter of [[Philadelphia Austen Hancock]] and a cousin of [[Jane Austen]].<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Shelden |first1=Michael |author-link=Michael Shelden |title=Cousin Eliza, the incurable flirt who inspired Jane Austen |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4728689/Cousin-Eliza-the-incurable-flirt-who-inspired-Jane-Austen.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4728689/Cousin-Eliza-the-incurable-flirt-who-inspired-Jane-Austen.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=6 June 2020 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=7 September 2002}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Some scholars have seen parallels between Hastings and Colonel Brandon in Austen's ''[[Sense and Sensibility]]'': both left for India at age 17; both may have had illegitimate daughters named Eliza; both participated in a duel. Linda Robinson Walker argues that Hastings "haunts ''Sense and Sensibility'' in the character of Colonel Brandon."<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Walker |first1=Linda Robinson |title=Jane Austen, the Second Anglo-Mysore War, and Colonel Brandon's Forcible Circumcision: A Rereading of ''Sense and Sensibility'' |journal=Persuasions On-Line |date=2013 |volume=34 |issue=1 |url=http://jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol34no1/walker.html |access-date=6 June 2020 |publisher=Jane Austen Society of North America}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Company rule in India]]
*[[Mughal Empire]]
*[[Shah Alam II]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book |last=Dalrymple |first=William |author-link=William Dalrymple (historian) |year=2019 |title=The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire |publisher=Blooomsbury Publishing |pages=238–239 |isbn=978-1-63557-395-4}} [https://www.amazon.com/Anarchy-Company-Corporate-Violence-Pillage-ebook/dp/B07W952J1F/ excerpt]
*Alfred Mervyn Davies, ''Strange destiny: a biography of Warren Hastings'' (1935)
*Suresh Chandra Ghosh, ''The Social Condition of the British Community in Bengal: 1757–1800'' (Brill, 1970)
*[[Keith Feiling]], ''Warren Hastings'' (1954)
*Philip Lawson, ''The East India Company: A History'' (Routledge, 2014)
*[[P. J. Marshall]], ''The Impeachment of Warren Hastings'' (1965)
*P. J. Marshall, "Hastings, Warren (1732–1818)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford University Press, 2004); online edn, Oct 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12587, accessed 11 Nov 2014]
*[[Penderel Moon]], ''Warren Hastings and British India'' (Macmillan, 1949) [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.50196 online]
*Patrick Turnbull, ''Warren Hastings''. (New English Library, 1975)
*{{Cite book |first=Francis |last=Younghusband |author-link=Francis Younghusband |title=India and Tibet: a history of the relations which have subsisted between the two countries from the time of Warren Hastings to 1910; with a particular account of the mission to Lhasa of 1904 |url=https://archive.org/details/indiatibethistor00younrich |year=1910 |publisher=John Murray |location=London}}

===Primary sources===
*G. W. Forrest, ed., ''Selections from the State Papers of the Governors-General of India: Warren Hastings'' (2 vols.), [[Blackwell's]], Oxford (1910)
*{{Cite book |author=Sir George Forrest |title=The Administration of Warren Hastings, 1772-1785 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rbBJAAAAMAAJ |year=1892 |publisher=Office of the Superintendent of Government Print |location=Calcutta}}
*{{Cite book |author=Warren Hastings |title=A Narrative of the Insurrection which Happened in the Zemeedary of Banaris in August 1781 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=51ZKAAAAYAAJ |year=1782 |publisher=The Governor General |location=Calcutta}}
*{{Cite book |author=Warren Hastings |title=A Narrative of the Late Transactions at Benares |url=https://archive.org/details/narrativeoflatet00hastiala |year=1782 |publisher=J. Debrett |location=London}}
*{{Cite book |author=Warren Hastings |title=Memoirs Relative to the State of India |url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsrelative00hastgoog |year=1786 |publisher=J. Murray |location=London}}
*{{Cite book |author=G. R. Gleig |title=Memoirs of the Life of Warren Hastings |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ufA5AAAAcAAJ |volume=I |year=1841 |publisher=Rich. Bentley |location=London}}
*{{Cite book |author=G. R. Gleig |title=Memoirs of the Life of Warren Hastings |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4vA5AAAAcAAJ |volume=II |year=1841 |publisher=Rich. Bentley |location=London}}
*{{Cite book |author=G. R. Gleig |title=Memoirs of the Life of Warren Hastings |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BPE5AAAAcAAJ |volume=III|year=1841 |publisher=Rich. Bentley |location=London}}
*{{Cite book |author=Lionel James Trotter |title=Warren Hastings |url=https://archive.org/details/warrenhasting00trotrich |year=1892 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford}}
*{{Cite book |author=Sir Charles Lawson |title=The Private Life of Warren Hastings: First Governor-General of India |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.66014 |year=1895 |publisher=S. Sonnenschein |location=London}}
*{{Cite book |author=Sir Charles Lawson |title=The Private Life of Warren Hastings: press reviews |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tFigAAAAMAAJ |year=1897 |publisher=Madras Mail Press |location=Madras}}
*{{Cite book |author=Warren Hastings |editor=Sydney C. Grier |editor-link=Sydney C. Grier |title=The Letters of Warren Hastings to His Wife |url=https://archive.org/details/letterswarrenha00griegoog |year=1905 |publisher=W. Blackwood |location=London}}

==External links==
*{{wikisource author-inline}}
*[http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt_hastings_1841.html "Warren Hastings" an essay by Thomas Babington Macaulay (October 1841)]
*{{gutenberg|no=28046}} (within [[Critical and Historical Essays (Macaulay)]])
*{{librivox book |title=Warren Hastings |author=Thomas Babington Macaulay}}
*{{PM20|FID=pe/007254}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-gov}}
{{s-new|creation}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Governor-General of India]] |years=1773–1785}}
{{s-aft|after=Sir [[Sir John Macpherson, 1st Baronet|John Macpherson]], ''acting''}}
{{s-end}}

{{Kolkata topics}}
{{Indian Independence Movement}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hastings, Warren}}
[[Category:1732 births]]
[[Category:1818 deaths]]
[[Category:Governors-general of India]]
[[Category:British East India Company people]]
[[Category:Founders of Indian schools and colleges]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Impeached British officials]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:English duellists]]
[[Category:People educated at Westminster School, London]]
[[Category:People from Cotswold District]]
[[Category:People from West Oxfordshire District]]