RISE OF EAST INDIA COMPANY
Little remained of the Mughal Empire en the 1700’s. The empire had weakened with the constant fighting of the Hindu’s against the empire. The empire was weak and the East India Company knew that so they expanded its trade and slowly increased its political power. India had passed to be from a sphere of influence to a protectorate. The company had gotten very big and it started collecting taxes in India. If some local regions refused to pay taxes the company would force them. The company had its own army consisting of mostly sepoys, or Indian soldiers, lead by British officers. Afterwards in 1757 Robert Clive and his forces consisting of 1000 British soldiers and 2000 sepoys crushed the much larger army of the Governor of Bengal, which had joined forces with the French. After this the empire was still ruled by some Indian princes, but their rule was weak and The East India Company controlled most of them. Britain ruled over India indirectly through the East India Company for about 100 years so it became a British territory. (Johnson)
THE SEPOY REBELLION
The people in India had started to resent the British ruling over them. The Indian people were starting to go hungry and poor because of all the taxes and land reforms that took away the land from the people. What the Indian people hated the most was the way the British interfered with their customs and religion. The British made the mistake of underestimating the power of the Indian people when dealing with their customs and their devotedness to their religion. Many of the British officers knew nothing about the Indian culture and customs. The British had brought a new kind of gun cartridge to India. The cartridges were greased with the fat from cows and pigs. (Johnson) The soldiers were ordered to open the greased cartridges by biting them. What the British didn’t know was that the Hindu religion prohibits their followers to eat beef and the Muslim prohibits the eating of pork. This showed a great lack of cultural and religious sensitivity on the part of the British officers .The sepoys felt insulted by the British orders so in 1857 they rebelled in an army base in Meerut, and the rebellion spread all through India. The rebels were poorly organized, had few weapons and lacked a good leader so the British consequently defeated them in 1859. This rebellion was known as the Sepoy Rebellion and it showed the British that the Indian population was starting to take some actions. (Lal, 130,131)
BRITISH INDIA
The Sepoy Rebellion made the British government change its policy and come to rule directly in India. In 1858 the India passed to be a colony since it had gone from indirect rule to direct rule from the British. The Parliament took control of all of the East India Company’s possessions and all of it became British India. In other parts of India, which were not ruled directly by the British, they ruled indirectly by the means of a local ruler. The British appointed an official called a viceroy to rule over British India. A British council appointed by the queen also helped the viceroy. The viceroy appointed people to form the legislative council, in which Indians could form a part of. British India was divided into regions and each region had a governor. A resident was sent to council other regions not ruled directly under the British. In 1876, the British Parliament named Queen Victoria Empress of India. The British used sepoys in several wars like the Second Afghan War and the Third Burmese War. (Lal, 131)
RISE OF INDIAN NATIONALISM
The British felt they had the white man’s burden which was that they felt the responsibility of teaching or enforcing their cultures, religions and education to other people from weaker countries, in this case India. India was fragmented and multi-lingual, with 15 major languages and around 720 dialects but the British imposed English to be taught as the only language. This unified the different regions of India because now they could communicate easily using English. Western ideas and political principles now reached India and the people were starting to learn about them and started to practice them. The British had shot themselves in the foot because know the people were discontent with their rule and they wanted to have an independent democracy like the ones in the west. (Kate, 2) Indians were not allowed to have high positions in the army nor the government. In 1885, a number of Indian lawyers and professional, most of them educated with western principles, formed the Indian National Congress. Members of this congress belonged to many different religions and cam from different parts of India. They debated political and economic reforms, the future of India, and right for the Indian people. Some Muslims believed that the Indian National Congress was aiming at Hindu rule so they wanted another organization of their own. Encouraged by the British, several Muslims leaders formed the All-India Muslim League. Most of the Muslims were still loyal to the Indian National Congress. In 1905, the British government tried to divide the state of Bengal into a Hindu and a Muslim section. The Indian people protested against violently this and started to boycott British goods. To stop this the British did the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1905, which stated that the viceroy’s council should have one Indian and that Indians could elect their legislative council for each province. Bengal was united later. Protests in India settled down for some time but not for long, because in 1914 World War I broke and Britain declared India in war against Germany and Indian Troops were sent to fight in the war. The Indian population started to protest violently again even though the British had promised more reforms. Afterwards Britain in order to stop the protests in India passed the Rowlatt Acts of 1919, which attempted to restrict the political liberties and rights of Indians. Instead of placating the protests the people, the acts produced more demonstrations against the British. On April 13, 1919 came the turning point of India’s movement to independence in Amristar. A group of Indians assembled there in a closed area and a group of British soldier came and open fire against the crowd. 1200 people were killed and about 400 were killed, this event was known as the Amristar Massacre and it was when India decided they wanted complete independence from Britain. After that in 1921 the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms came into effect and they gave the provincial legislative councils, that were mostly constituted by Indians, more power; but still the viceroy had the power to veto any law or bill. (Lal, 132,133)
GANDHI
Many Indians were still not satisfied and they thought that India should be independent from Britain. One of those men who contributed a lot to the independence movement was Mohandas Gandhi (Oct 2, 1869 to Jan 30, 1948). Gandhi was born in western India raised in a Hindu family. H was a wise man, he was a lawyer educated in Britain and like many educated Indian’s he wanted his country to be free from Britain’s tyranny. In 1920 he had become a leader in the Indian independence movement as well as in the Indian National Congress. Gandhi’s philosophy was to evade using violence and instead just disobeying the law peacefully. He believed in satyagraha or ‘truth force’, whereby laws were opposed with the force of truth and moral consciousness instead of violence .His method was called nonviolent disobedience and it mostly consisted on boycotting British goods, to refuse to pay taxes, and to stop using British system. Gandhi’s movement was not just for the educated men of the congress, it became popular between the majority of India and it helped the Indian population unite in a single cause. (Kate, 3)
NEW CONSTITUTION
In 1930, Gandhi led hundreds of people to the sea in a protest march. The march was against the Salt Acts and their goal was to use the saltwater to extract the salt from it. This march and other of its kind made the British give the Indians more political power. Gandhi and the viceroy agreed to sign an agreement in 1932 that said that Gandhi would stop the demonstrations if hundreds of political prisoners were liberated. In 1935 the British government agreed to create a new constitution for India that gave more power to the Indian population, but the viceroy still had the power to veto so many laws weren’t passed. A new leader had arisen in the Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Under his leadership Muslims in India gained more political power. Jinnah also proposed to have a piece of land carved out of India for the Muslim population and make it a new country called Pakistan. (Lal, 132)
WORLD WAR II
On September 3, 1939 Britain declared war on Germany again in the start of World War II. As the last time the British said that India also went to war. The Indian populations was angry for not being consulted about going to war so the protests started again. Britain with the war as their most important matter of business said that if India helped with the war they would get their independence. The Indians still did not like the idea but no they were already helping Britain in the war. On 1942, during wartime, Gandhi did his last effort to free India from Britain. This campaign was called the Quit India campaign and it consisted on civil disobedience. In response the British incarcerated all congress members until the war was over. On the other hand the Muslim league cooperated with the British and their dream of having their own country was closer. (Lal, 133)
INDEPENDENCE
After the war was over in 1945 the British carried out their promise and released all congress members and gave independence to India. The British had the condition that the Indian people had to set their own government and settle their disputes. The Muslims afraid of not getting what they wanted declare the Direct Action Day in August 16, 1946, which consisted in a nationwide demonstrations calling for the establishment of Pakistan. There were a lot of deaths on that day because of the conflicts between Hindu’s and Muslims. The conflicts went on for about a year until Indian and British leaders agreed to partition the country into India and Pakistan. India became and independent nation on August 15, 1947 and Pakistan one day before that. Gandhi died in New Delhi on his way to pray, when a Hindu fanatic who hated Gandhi for his tolerance towards Muslims, shot him to death. (Lal, 133)
CONCLUSION
The British Imperialism in India had both its good and bad effects like everything. Indians had better chances for an education. Most Indian people still could not read, but some young Indians did get an education. The English language was taught in the schools. Some Indian students were even sent to British schools for a higher education. Law and order was improved in India. The British organized the police to break up bands of robbers. The British made medical care and health conditions better in many Indian cities and some larger villages. India got new industries and a new railroad system. There were its drawbacks as well for example India's wealth and resources were used to help Great Britain, not India. All the manufactured goods that the British were bringing in were ruining Indian industries. British rule was destroying the culture of India. By making religious and political bad feelings stronger, the British were harming India. Educated Indians did not have much chance to move ahead in India. British people took the highest government jobs. Today Pakistan and India are constantly fighting over some disputed territory called Kashmir, and this causes a great threat to the world since both of them have nuclear weapons. Britain’s biggest mistake in running India was the establishment of English as a unifying language and by acquainting Indians with European political principles, which led to Indian resentment of British nationalism and ultimately to the British loss of control over India.
Bibliography
- British Imperialism in India". Kate, Planet Papers. Apr, 2003. http://www.planetpapers.com/Assets/3190.php .
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
- “India and Imperialism” , Richard Johnson, 1999, http://users.erols.com/thyrum/India.html .
- Pictures & Photos from: “India.” Encyclopedia Microsoft Encarta 2003. 1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation
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ISBN 0-7166-0099-4; Lal, Vinay & Lal, Anil; “India”, The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol.VII, p.130-133, Chicago: World Book inc.; 1999
Table Of Contents
INTRODUCTION---------------------------------------------- 1
- EARLY HISTORY--------------------------------------------- 1
EUROPEANS ARRIVE--------------------------------------- 1
RISE OF EAST INDIA COMPANY----------------------- 2
- THE SEPOY REBELLION---------------------------------- 2
- BRITISH INDIA------------------------------------------------ 3
- RISE OF INDIAN NATIONALISM------------------------ 3
- GANDHI---------------------------------------------------------- 4
- NEW CONSTITUTION--------------------------------------- 4
- WORLD WAR II----------------------------------------------- 4
- INDEPENDENCE---------------------------------------------- 5
CONCLUSION-------------------------------------------------- 5
British Imperialism In India
The British East India Company and India’s movement to independence
Pedro Ferrer
World History
April 22nd 2003