Previous Year Question

The famous remark about the East India Company was made by Thomas Babington Macaulay.

Macaulay expressed this view on 10 July 1833 during his speech in the British House of Commons on legislation concerning the government of India. It was a period when the British Parliament was extensively debating the future of the East India Company's commercial monopoly and its administrative role in India.

Macaulay considered it extraordinary that a joint-stock company, originally created for trade, was governing vast Indian territories, a large population, substantial revenues and a major army. In this context, he described the political power of the Company as an “anomaly.”

However, Macaulay's argument was not merely a criticism of the Company. He argued that the very system of governing the British Indian Empire was highly unusual; therefore, the unusual character of the Company alone was not sufficient reason for its immediate abolition.

It was while making this argument that he stated that “The Company is an anomaly; but it is part of a system where everything is anomaly.” He further argued that there were practical reasons for retaining the Company as an institution involved in the government of India.

The speech formed part of the parliamentary background to the Charter Act of 1833. This Act ended the Company's commercial activities while retaining it primarily as an administrative institution.