William Bentinck

Lord William Cavendish Bentinck (1774–1839) served as Governor of Bengal from 1828 and, following the Charter Act of 1833, became the first Governor-General of India (a title that gave him authority over all the Company's Indian territories) until 1835. Earlier dismissed as Governor of Madras after the Vellore Mutiny of 1806, he returned to India committed to fiscal retrenchment and liberal social reform inspired by Utilitarian and Evangelical currents then ascendant in Britain. His tenure is conventionally treated as the inauguration of the era of social legislation under Company rule, and he worked closely with reformers such as Raja Rammohan Roy, who supported the abolition of sati.

Bentinck's most celebrated measure was Regulation XVII of 4 December 1829, which declared the practice of sati (widow-burning) illegal and punishable by the criminal courts as culpable homicide, initially in the Bengal Presidency and soon extended to Madras and Bombay. He also moved decisively against thuggee, the ritual highway murder cult, deploying Captain (later Major-General) William Sleeman from 1830 onward to suppress it through special tribunals. In the domain of education, Bentinck endorsed Thomas Babington Macaulay's Minute on Education of 2 February 1835, and his government's English Education Act / Resolution of 7 March 1835 resolved that government funds would promote European literature and science through the medium of English, settling the Anglicist–Orientalist controversy in favour of the Anglicists. He further opened subordinate administrative posts to Indians and abolished the practice of female infanticide where it was detected.

Bentinck pursued aggressive financial reform to clear the Company's deficits, reducing the batta (field allowance) of European officers — which provoked resentment — and overhauling revenue administration. In foreign and territorial policy he annexed Cachar (1832), Coorg (1834) on grounds of misgovernment, and Mysore's administration was taken over in 1831; he signed a commercial treaty with Ranjit Singh in 1831 and met him at Rupar. The Charter Act of 1833, passed during his governorship, ended the Company's commercial functions, made it a purely administrative body, created the post of Law Member of the Governor-General's Council (first held by Macaulay), and provided for the Indian Law Commission. His liberal vision is captured in the inscription Macaulay wrote for his statue in Calcutta, stating that he sought to make British power a blessing rather than a curse to its subjects.

For UPSC and other civil-service examinations, Bentinck is a high-yield figure in Modern Indian History (GS Paper I) and Prelims. Examiners frequently test the exact year of sati abolition (1829), the regulation number, his association with Macaulay and the 1835 education resolution, the suppression of thuggee under Sleeman, and the reforms of the Charter Act of 1833. A recurring analytical angle asks candidates to assess Bentinck as the "first reforming Governor-General" and to distinguish Anglicist from Orientalist education policy, making precise dates and named instruments essential.