The correct answer is 1858. Explanation & Key Takeaways: • Parliament passed the Government of India Act on August 2, 1858, less than a month after Canning declared the victory of British arms, transferring British power over India from the East India Company, whose ineptness was primarily blamed for the mutiny, to the crown. • The secretary of state for India, a member of the British cabinet, was given residual powers over the merchant company. • He would preside over the India Office in London and be assisted and advised, particularly in financial matters, by a Council of India, which consisted initially of 15 Britons, 7 of whom were elected from the old company's board of directors and 8 of whom were appointed by the crown. • Lord Canning announced Queen Victoria's proclamation to "the Princes, Chiefs, and Peoples of India" on November 1, 1858, establishing a new British policy of perpetual support for "local princes" and nonintervention in matters of religious belief or worship within British India. Important Notes: • The East India Company was a joint-stock company created in 1600 by the English and later the British. • It was established to trade in the Indian Ocean region, first with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia), then with East Asia. The business took over significant swaths of the Indian subcontinent, colonised sections of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, and maintained trading ports and colonies in the Persian Gulf Residencies. • The United Kingdom's Parliament is the supreme legislative body of the UK, its Crown dependencies, and British overseas territories. • It is the only political body in the UK and its overseas territories that have legislative supremacy and thus ultimate power over all other political entities.