Warren Hastings (1732-1818) was one of the most important and controversial British administrators of India. As Governor (later Governor-General) of Bengal between 1772 and 1785, he helped to establish the British colonial presence, yet, like his famous predecessor Robert Clive (1725-1774) – whose victory at Plassey in 1757 was one of the turning points in the transformation of the East India Company from a mercantile organization to a governing power – Hastings returned to England to face bitter controversy over his actions overseas. Clive had escaped any formal legal investigation of his questionable activities, but in 1787, following a campaign spearheaded by Edmund Burke (1729-1797), perhaps the most brilliant political orator of the

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Published 20 January 2005

Citation: Perkins, Pam. "Trial of Warren Hastings". The Literary Encyclopedia. 20 January 2005.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1142, accessed 9 February 2010.]