Speaking to power: Indian petitions in the East India Company records

This month sees the publication of Module VIII of the East India Company resource: India Office Records, F – The Board of Commissioners: Reform and Religion. This module adds a further 399 volumes from Series F, which contains the records of the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India, established in 1784 to oversee and regulate the activities of the East India Company.

The records include copies of dispatches sent to London by British officials administering regional governments in India and, as such, largely reflect a British colonial perspective. Embedded within these materials, however, are documents that capture Indian voices, most notably in the form of petitions submitted by Indian individuals and communities.

From the eighteenth century onwards, the East India Company regularly received petitions from Indian communities seeking redress for grievances, lodging complaints, or requesting the Company’s support and adjudication in disputes. Where a petition was considered especially relevant to the Company’s business, a copy might be enclosed with official dispatches to London. A number of such petitions survive within Series F, offering valuable insight into how Indian communities sought to engage with colonial authority.

One dispatch from 1840, for example, includes a petition dated November 1839 from around 2,000 leading inhabitants of Bombay addressed to the Governor of Bombay. The petition complained about the spread of Christian missionary schools, arguing that ‘under the cloak of education’ these institutions were being used to promote religious conversion among Indian children. The petitioners stated that their expectations had been crushed and that they ‘cannot but look with fear and distrust upon institutions’ which had previously commanded their respect. The petition concluded with a powerful appeal to the Governor, expressing the petitioners’ distress and urging him to intervene to provide relief. (IOR/F/4/1932/83296)

Religion was also the focus of a petition dated November 1841 from the Hindu community of Nasik (Nashik), addressed to Governor Anderson. The petition accused Mr Reeves, Sub‑Collector and Joint Magistrate of Nasik, along with resident Christian missionaries, of committing ‘a most unprecedented and … a most heinous crime’ by permitting the killing of a cow near the temple of Renuka. Nasik, the petitioners emphasised, was a town ‘regarded by all classes of Hindus as a place of sanctity’ and a major site of pilgrimage. (IOR/F/4/1965/86096)

The conduct of British officials was again the subject of a later petition dated September 1844, sent to the Governor of Bombay by the inhabitants of Pahlunpore (Palanpur). This petition complained against Major Brown and his servants, alleging that they had beaten and wounded around 150 men, and plundered clothing and jewellery valued at more than 1,100 rupees. The petitioners stated that since Major Brown’s arrival they ‘are much in distress due to the oppression practised upon them’ and urged the Governor to intervene without delay.

Although the language of these petitions is highly stylised and deferential in tone, petitions judged intemperate or disrespectful to the government would be refused, they nevertheless offer a valuable insight into the concerns, attitudes, and expectations of Indian communities living under East India Company rule. Read closely, they reveal how petitioners sought to negotiate authority, articulate injustice, and appeal to colonial power through the channels that were available to them.

East India Company: India Office Records, F – The Board of Commissioners: Reform and Religion is available now. The document included in the article IOR/F/4/1932/83296 is available open access for 30 days.