CHARLES CANNING(1812-1862)

Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning, December 1812 – 17 June 1862), also known as The Viscount Canning and Clemency Canning, was a British statesman and Governor-General of India during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the first Viceroy of India after the transfer of power from the East India Company to the Crown of Queen Victoria in 1858 after the rebellion was crushed.Born at Gloucester Lodge, Brompton, near London, Canning was the youngest child of George Canning and Joan, Viscountess Canning, daughter of Major-General John Scott, his father was Prime Minister for a few months in 1827. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1833, as first class in classics and second class in mathematics. Canning is credited for ensuring that the administration and most departments of the government functioned normally during the rebellion and took major administrative decisions even during the peak of the Rebellion in 1857, including establishing the first three modern Universities in India, the University of Calcutta, University of Madras and University of Bombay based on Wood's despatch. Canning passed the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856 which was drafted by his predecessor Lord Dalhousie before the rebellion. He also passed the General Service Enlistment Act of 1856. After the rebellion he presided over a smooth transfer and reorganisation of government from the East India company to the crown, the Indian Penal Code was drafted in 1860 based on the code drafted by Macaulay and came into force in 1862. Canning met the rebellion '"with firmness, confidence, magnanimity and calm" as per his biographer.[ Canning was very firm during the rebellion but after that he focused on reconciliation and reconstruction rather than retribution and issued a clemency proclamation.