On this day in Britain the redoubtable Whig Parliamentarian Edmund Burke introduced the impeachment process against Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of Bengal, by presenting to the House of Commons the Articles of Charge of High Crimes and Misdemeanors against Hastings.
The 22 articles detailing charges of offences, including of financial corruption, were delivered to the House of Commons between April 4 and May 5, 1786.
Burke, known for his eloquence and fuelled by moral indignation, branded Hastings a “captain-general of iniquity”, a “spider of Hell” and a “ravenous vulture devouring the carcases of the dead”, who did not dine without “creating a famine”.
Hastings was vulnerable; his years in Calcutta were marked by the brutality of an incident such as the hanging of Maharaja Nanda Kumar; turbulence in his personal affairs and allegations of financial irregularities.
Hastings’s trial began in February 1788 and lasted till 1795. This remains a major event in the colonial history of India, and was also described as “first major public discursive event of its kind in England” that questioned the principles of imperialism. But Hastings was acquitted. He lived the life of a retired country gentleman, to age 85.
Hastings was no saint. But more than two centuries later, some scholars wonder if Hastings’s impeachment was an example of an empire’s crimes being pinned on one man.