RAS question
Which Charter Act created the post of Governor-General of India (instead of Bengal)?
Correct answer: (B) Charter Act of 1833.
The Charter Act of 1833 redesignated the Governor-General of Bengal as the Governor-General of India.
Explanation
The Charter Act of 1833 is the turning point because it shifted the office from a Bengal-centred title to an all-India one. PIB states that the Governor-General of Bengal was thereafter designated as the Governor-General of India and empowered to administer the whole of British India. The same Act also made the Governor-General's Government known as the Government of India and his Council as the Indian Council. This matches the standard exam explanation: Lord William Bentinck became the first Governor-General of India, and the Act ended the East India Company's remaining commercial activities by terminating its trading rights.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) The Regulating Act of 1773 appointed the Governor of Bengal as Governor-General, so it created the Bengal-based office, not the later Governor-General of India title.
- (C) The Charter Act of 1853 is linked in the source to changes in legislative procedure and public legislative business, not to the redesignation from Bengal to India.
- (D) The Charter Act of 1813 did not change the Governor-General's title from Bengal to India; that change is specifically tied to the Charter Act of 1833.
Concept
This tests the Company-rule phase of modern Indian constitutional development, especially how British administrative centralisation evolved through Charter Acts. RAS repeats this because small title changes often mark larger shifts in the structure of colonial governance.