Introduction

Edmund Burke(1729-1797) is a famous writer and statesman in the history of English literature. In his well-known speech named “Speech on the East India Bill’’ here he has been mentioned the revenue collection policy of the East India Company. Burke was a humanitarian so he has raised his voice against the revenue collection policy of the East India Company. The process of the revenue collection policy was so cruel and oppressive that the Indians suffers a lot and many Zamindars lost their land. The revenue collection policy is discussed below.

Set up princes as a collector

For the collection of revenue, the company has set up some princes to collect the revenue from the Zamindars. The prince was not so efficient to collect revenue. So, they needed the help of the company’s military power. In such a way, the company collected its revenue.

For collecting revenue, the prince turned into the puppet of the Company

The Indian Zamindar was not been so cruel to their subjects in collecting revenue so the Zamindar was not capable of collecting revenue from the Indian people. So, the Zamindars were dependent on the company’s guidance. Later on, the company takes the responsibility of collecting revenue to show its military power. And the Zamindars were turned into the puppet of the company.

Auction land of the indebted landlord

If Zamindar failed to pay the revenue to the company, the company snatched away the lands of the indebted landlord. With this new policy, there are many new Zamindars appeared. Warren Hastings was the governor-general of India who established such an oppressive revenue collection policy.

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Conclusion

In termination, we can say that the speech on the East India Bill is an important document of the sufferings and oppression of the Indian people. The revenue collection policy is via media by which Hastings presented his dominance in the Indian sub-continent.

The Revenue collection policy of East India Company