After the departure of Hastings in 1785, his two most important successors as Governor-General were Lord Cornwallis and Lord Wellesley. The first was a conservative reformer who was keen to bring restraint to the administration of India, the second was a military expansionist whose defeat of the French consolidated the region as the Jewel in the Crown of the newly expanded British Empire.
For Cornwallis, the British had to show their superiority to the local population by example and his paternalistic attitude combined rule of law with the exclusion from government posts of all Indians. His recognition that a British dominated system of government should serve the Indian public was still motivated by British interest. Relieved that rains had averted a famine, he wrote that 'there is now I trust no danger of losing the inhabitants, or of much failure in the revenue'. He improved gaols, reformed the coinage, suppressed child slavery, limited patronage amongst the whites and insisted on large salaries for their posts so that plunder could be discouraged. After the war against Tipu Sultan he stunned his own officers by leaving the ruler of Mysore on his throne. Of course this was a political move which blocked Tipu's rivals whilst forcing the ruler to concede large territorial amd financial claims to the British.
For Wellesley, elder brother of the Duke of Wellington, the conflicts in India with both Tipu Sultan and the French allowed the British to dominate the region completely. Wellesley conquered more territory in India than Napoleon did in Europe. Tipu Sultan had promised a holy war of vengeance since his defeat by Cornwallis and this led to his demonisation by the British as a savage monster. Certainly the ruler of Mysore had a reputation for cruelty, but moral attacks from the masters of the slave trade were nothing but hypocrisy. The ruler of Mysore was celebrated by his own subjects as cultured and fair, while he possessed a superb French-trained army and a magnificent palace. This then was the prize for the British forces when they won the battle of Seringapatam. Piers Brendon notes that 'Loot was a Hindi word but the British soon adopted it,' and the Tiger of Mysore's palace was duly ransacked. Wellesley wanted to 'heap kingdoms upon kingdoms, victory upon victory, revenue upon revenue' and with the help of his brother, he extended British dominance after the defeat the Maratha Confederacy. An extravagant Governor-General, Wellesley constructed a new neo-classical Government House which cost £170,000. His rude and dominant attitude towards the local white community which saw him encase himself in ceremonial majesty was, in itself, a reflection of the feelings now held by the whites towards the Indians.
Native culture was now seen as inferior by a white community that had institutionalised discrimination throughout their administration. The success that the British had won in India had also created a greater insecurity that they might lose it all, so they endeavoured to shore up their new power by establishing themselves as the superior caste. Throughout the region there was a clear polarisation in Indian society that could be seen in the stark contrast between the opulent White part of Calcutta and the festering conditions of its 'Black Town.'
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