Exposition of the Practical Operation of the Judicial and Revenue Systems of India: and of the General Character and Condition of its Native Inhabitants, as submitted in Evidence to the Authorities in England: with Notes an Illustrations: also a Brief Preliminary Sketch of the Ancient and Modern Boundaries, and of the History of that Cou

London: Smith, Elder and Co.,, 1832. Ram Mohan Roy and the East India Company Charter Act of 1833 First and only edition, uncommon. This important slim volume of some 130 pages encapsulates Roy's evidence given to the Select Committee of the House of Commons regarding the renewal of the East India Company's charter, resulting in the Charter or Saint Helena Act of 1833, establishing, among other things, a governor-general of India and putting the Company on a purely administrative footing. Before the renewal of the charter in 1833, the "settlement of British nationals in India was taken up by important business and commercial organizations in Britain who brought their influence to bear on the British government" (Battacharya, p. 58). Roy supported this move, commenting on p. 80 of the present work that" if Europeans of character and capital were allowed permission to settle in the country... it would greatly improve the resources of the country, and also the conditions of the native inhabitants, by shewing them superior methods of cultivation, and the proper mode of treating their labourers and dependents". Roy was influential in India in the fields of politics, public administration and education, as well as religion, and is remembered for founding the Brahmo Samaj, an important social-religious reform movement in the Indian subcontinent, for his work in fighting for women's rights, including an end to sati the practice of widow-burning, and also of child marriage. In 1830, Ram Mohan Roy travelled to the United Kingdom as an ambassador of the Mughal Empire. He died in Bristol in 1833. Octavo (215 x 134 mm). Recent half calf to style, marbled boards, red morocco label, small roundels gilt to the compartments. Folding engraved map frontispiece of India. Ex-library copy with the stamp of Bedford College to half-title, faint underlining of the title on title page, no other markings, light toning, pale spotting to the prelims else very good. Subbhas Battacharya, "Indigo Planters, Ram Mohan Roy and the 1833 Charter Act", in Social Scientist, Vo. 4, No. 3 (Oct., 1975), pp. 56-65.