Warren Hastings [15min]

Warren Hastings laid the foundations of the British Raj. Yet this first governor general of Bengal who saved India for the British was later vilified by his own people. Hastings started as a writer [clerk] with the East India Company in 1750, as Clive had done six years earlier. By the time Hastings was establishing himself in Bengal, the East India Company was abandoning its policy of not interfering in India's politics and wars. After Clive's victory at Plassey in 1757, commerce and warfare went hand in hand, and the Company went further into India's interior. "This Sceptred Isle: Empire" is a narrative history of the British Empire from Ireland in the 12th century to the independence of India in the 20th, told in 90 programmes written by historian Christopher Lee and narrated by actor Juliet Stevenson. (You may listen again online to the five most recent episodes of "Empire".)

This was not always an honourable period in the history of the East India Company. Its officials took bribes and 'commissions' in the manner of the very Indian nabobs they despised. Clive once told a House of Commons committee who accused him of taking money that he was surprised at his own restraint. Hastings had a reputation of being very open about gifts and entering commissions and presents in the Company register, although there were occasional lapses.

Hastings was never fabulously wealthy like Clive. When he wanted to go to England he had to borrow the fare and expenses. Hastings went to England in 1765 and stayed for four years, until the directors decided he was the best man to protect their interests in Madras. His return to India began with an intrigue which contradicted his reputation for being an unimaginative and sober soul. He began a shipboard romance with the very young wife of a Baron Imhoff that continued in India. They were eventually married.