Act for the Better Government of India: The Times Report

The impact of the Indian Mutiny was fundamental to subsequent Anglo-Indian relations, and especially to the form of British governance in India. In particular, it proved the last straw on the heavy load of criticism and opposition that had been building against the East India Company, which had for over 200 years been the main administrative body in the subcontinent. In 1858, as reported in The Times of September 3 of that year, the passage of the Act for the Better Government of India entrusted political authority to a secretary of state and the Crown assumed control of India from the East India Company. In 1877 Queen Victoria was crowned empress of India.