After the Indian Rebellion of 1857 the East India Company was abolished and the lands it had overned in the Indian sub-continent ware put under the direct control of the government of Britain. The Governor-General headed the central Government of India in Calcutta and was responsible to the imperial government in London. The rest of the sub-continent was administered by a large number of princely rulers under the supreme authority of Britain. The Governor-General was commonly known as the Viceroy of India because of his secondary role as Britain's representative to these nominally independent princely states.