Book contents
- A Comparative Historical Sociology of Corruption
- Cambridge Studies in Historical Sociology
- A Comparative Historical Sociology of Corruption
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1Introduction
- Part IEmergence
- 2The Emergence of Corruption in the Cambodian Land Market
- 3The Changing Meaning of Corruption and Anti-corruption in Postwar China
- 4Corruption and the Rule of Difference in Late Colonial Hong Kong
- 5Governing Difference
- Part IIInstitutionalization
- Part IIIMobilization
- Index
- References
5 - Governing Difference
Corruption, Empire, and the Founding of East India College
from Part I - Emergence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 December 2025
Book contents
- A Comparative Historical Sociology of Corruption
- Cambridge Studies in Historical Sociology
- A Comparative Historical Sociology of Corruption
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1Introduction
- Part IEmergence
- 2The Emergence of Corruption in the Cambodian Land Market
- 3The Changing Meaning of Corruption and Anti-corruption in Postwar China
- 4Corruption and the Rule of Difference in Late Colonial Hong Kong
- 5Governing Difference
- Part IIInstitutionalization
- Part IIIMobilization
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter studies the controversy that led to the founding of East India Company College as a training institute for future administrators of British India. Governor-General Richard Wellesley’s unilateral decision in 1798 to establish a mandatory training college at Fort William, Calcutta, for all new recruits of the East India Company precipitated a conflict that embroiled the Court of Directors of the Company and the parliamentary Board of Control. I show that the language of corruption in this imperial context was transformed from accusations of personal enrichment to questions regarding procedural propriety, institutional overreach, and cultural difference. The Court of Directors could not refute Wellesley’s claim that Company civil servants were poorly trained. Nor did they wish to lose control over their prerogative of hiring personnel or determining the ideal qualities of an effective imperial administrator. They resolved instead to found East India College at Haileybury, formalizing a new imperial bureaucracy.
Keywords
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Comparative Historical Sociology of Corruption , pp. 91 - 110Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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