1. The Fifth Report was voluminous affairs. It ran into 1002 pages. 800 pages were appendices that reproduced petitions of zamindars, ryots, reports of collectors from districts and notes on the revenue and judicial administration of Bengal and Madras.
2. It was submitted to the British Parliament in 1857 about the policies and practices of East India Company from its inception on the activities of the East India company were closely debated and watched in England.
3. Many groups in Britain opposed the monopoly that the company had over trade with India and China. They wanted the revocation of the charter that gave the company this monopoly.
4. Many private traders wanted a share in the India trade and British industrialists wanted India to be transformed into a market for their goods.
5. Political groups argued that Bengal conquest had benefitted only the company and not the nation as a whole. A number of Acts were passed to regulate and control the company rule in India.
6. The Company was forced to produce regular reports on India’s administration and committees were appointed to enquire into Company’s affairs.
7. The fifth report was one such report created and presented with a motive of pointing finger towards the East India Company from the very beginning.
8. For over a century and a half, the fifth report has shaped our conception of what happened in rural Bengal. But the report cannot be accepted uncritically. The Fifth Report exaggerated the collapse of zamindari power.
