In 1786 Lord Cornwallis was appointed as the Governor-General of India and commander in chief for Bengal under the Pitt`s India Act. An aristocrat by birth he was delegated with the work of reorganizing the administrative system of India. In the then contemporary India the British administration was facing land revenue problems, judicial corruption and the commercial departments lay disorganised. Lord Cornwallis was entrusted to take car of all these troubles.

To put straight the judicial problems Lord Cornwallis introduced the judicial reforms in India. These included the concentration of power in the able hands of the Collector. The new Governor-General was answerable only to the Board of Control that appointed him. Hence he was able to resist the petty interest of the East India Company when they came in conflict with the state policies. During his office (1786-1793)
suspended the Board of Revenue and enforced new regulations for trading. He was the first person to put everything under the Company`s rule. Hence the entire administration was reorganised.

As far as his judicial reforms were concerned, Cornwallis came forward with the Cornwallis Code of 1793. After taking care of the judicial administration he concentrated upon the revenue reforms. In this context one cannot possibly miss out the Permanent Settlement of Bengal in 1793. He introduced ten year contracts to the zamindars in Bengal. Besides these Lord Cornwallis was also responsible for the making the high posts in the government machinery available only to the British officials. In fact all the Indian officials were dismissed and these posts were reserved only for the Europeans.

There was rampant corruption in the Commercial Department. To fight this evil Cornwallis reduced the strength of the Board of Trade and Commercial Residents were set up to procure supplies. Evils like bribery, corruption and the evils of private trade were suppressed. Apart from taking care of the administration Lord Cornwallis was also on military enterprise. He had to face huge resistance from Tipu Sultan. This resulted in the Third Anglo-Mysore War. The war ended with Tipu`s surrender of half of his kingdom to the British.

Lord Cornwallis succeeded Warren Hastings in India. Although not as brilliant as him Cornwallis was successful in evoking devotion to duty, perseverance and modesty. Cornwallis was lucky to have able assistants like John shore, James Grant, George Barlow and others. As far as his administrative reforms were concerned his achievements were so impressive that these were often termed as perfect. Lord Cornwallis tried to solve the problem is India by anglicisation of Indian services. He was responsible for introducing British principles and planting British institutions in India.

In 1793 Lord Cornwallis returned to England to receive the title of the marques and was granted a seat in the Privy Council. He was later also given a place in the Cabinet.