Under which of the following Acts, the Board of Control was established in England to control and supervise the administration of British India?

Correct — D. Pitt's India Act of 1784 created a Board of Control in England with power to superintend and direct the civil, military and revenue affairs of the Company's Indian territories.

That left the Court of Directors with trade and patronage while the Board, answerable to Parliament, held policy — the arrangement known as dual government.

The Act was passed to repair the Regulating Act of 1773, which had asserted parliamentary supervision without building the machinery to exercise it.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Charter Act of 1793 — The Charter Act of 1793 renewed the Company's trading privileges for a further twenty years and continued existing arrangements. The Board of Control was by then nine years old.
• (b)
  Regulating Act of 1773 — The Regulating Act of 1773 was the first parliamentary attempt at control — it created a Governor-General of Bengal with a council and a Supreme Court at Calcutta — but the Board came eleven years later.
• (c)
  Charter Act of 1813 — The Charter Act of 1813 ended the Company's trade monopoly except for tea and the China trade, and opened India to missionaries. Its subject is commerce and religion, not a supervisory board.

Parliament tightened its grip on the East India Company in stages, and SSC asks you to attach each piece of machinery to the right stage.

The Regulating Act of 1773 created the office of Governor-General of Bengal and a Supreme Court at Calcutta, but its supervision was weak.

Pitt's India Act of 1784 answered that with the Board of Control, a body of British ministers and privy councillors sitting in England, set over the Company's political affairs while the Court of Directors kept commerce.

That double structure ran until the Government of India Act 1858 abolished it and created a Secretary of State for India.

Key facts

• Pitt's India Act of 1784 created the Board of Control in England.
• The Board of Control supervised civil, military and revenue affairs while the Court of Directors handled commerce.
• The two-body arrangement is known as the dual system of government.
• The Government of India Act 1858 ended Company rule and created the office of Secretary of State for India.

Common traps

• The Regulating Act of 1773 is the first Act of parliamentary control, and 'first' is not the same as the Act that created the Board.
• The Board of Control and the Court of Directors are easy to swap: the Board is the parliamentary side, the Court the Company's own.

No directly related past PYQ was found.