One interest-group in the British society, was the upper class merchants who, saw an opportunity to make a great profit in the strange Indian country. The natural wealth in resources were according to travellers aboundant, on the peninsula. The merchants managed to pressure Queen Elizabeth to grant a royal charter, which secured the company initially known as The Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies, exclusive rights to trade with India for 15 years. This venture became the first company with joint shareholding in history and was later known as The Honourable East India Company (HEIC). The company could consider itself lucky for the royal support, as most would politicians would have bent to the pressure from other companies pleading for access to the Indian market. The main reason for granting the HEIC the sole rights to enter the new colonial market of India, was that several others, such as the French, already had functioning trade connections established, and it appears that Queen Elizabeth wished to eliminate that competition, rather than watch British companies compete with one another.
Colonial domination was not only attractive financially, seeing as new colonies would boost total production of the country in possession, but was also used as a political tool to attain bragging rights, and assert military power, which could be increased using the subjects of that given colony.
Having foreign colonies, often meant gaining access to exotic and luxury goods for the colonial power in possession, and these products made the domestic population happy and created a sense of national pride.
2. English comprehension
'They have a very strange order among them, they worship a cow and esteem much of the cows dung to paint the walls of their houses... They eat no flesh but live by roots and rice and milk`
This was an observation to be made by many English travelers in India, embodying the general lack of comprehension of Indian culture, in the Anglo society. Around the year 1600 many Englishmen traveled to the new Indian society. New to the Europeans in the respect that the seaway there hadn't been discovered till a hundred years earlier by the Portuguese Vasco Da Gama, who established several trading posts, there.
The new colony created many new administrative jobs for the English, whereas Indians were considered to be of less intelligence, and as such unable to manage the responsibilities in most branches of the new British infrastructure. Eliza Fay was the wife of a supreme court lawyer employed in India, and she had this to say about her search for a new butler from the native population:
'You must consider yourself lucky, if you find someone in this country of petty thieves, who wont allow others then yourself to cheat you.'
The native population had been under foreign rule, for hundreds of years by the Mughal empire, and where thus, accustomed to a demeaning treatment. In some of Eliza's letters, she elaborates upon the harsh treatment she imposed on the servants, and her sentiment, should it have been shared by many others, could provide an indication of how very little faith the British had in the locals.
3. Religious practices
There was a cultural drift, between the arriving British and the natives. This was mainly in regards to religion and British failure to understand the caste system. The English were Christian and didn't understand many Hindi and Muslim traditions. The Hindu practice of sati was, for instance, completely abolished by the company, because it involved ritual suicides of widows, which was seen as sinful by the British. When a man dies his body is burnt, and according to sati, his widow is to ignite herself atop her late husbands corpse. This practice was outlawed along with female infanticide, which was used in the lower castes and entailed the killing of female infants, because dowry, which was expensive, had to be provided by the wife's family.
The abolition of these cultural traditions caused vast discontent among the castes. Women were commonly not working so, once their husbands died, they would face starvation without sati, and the general population would be faced with an increase in beggars. Lower castes had smaller incomes, and were unable to afford the dowry to have men take care of their daughters, and this made female infanticide beneficial.
These imposed rules were widely ignored and, the banishing of sati, proved particularly difficult to enforce.
4. Cash-crops
The arrival of the British imediately lead to and alteration of the classical structure of the society in many ways, but one innitiative that must have had a very large impact on the Indian population and lower castes must have been the imposed economic reformation. The English had arrived with a vast need for natural resources, such as fabrics and spices. The Honourable East India company was, initially, under a strict time limit. They had fifteen years to show profits to the English crown before their charter had to be renegotiated, and as such they had to work rather swiftly. India's structure mainly consisted of smaller regions governed by local lords (the Kshatriyaer caste), so the English made their approaches to these established lordships with offerings of wealth. The company's main goal, was to achieve the highest possible level of income, as with all other companies, and was therefore less concerned with the overall acceptance and welfare of the population. The Indian country was experiencing a depletion of resources as these were mainly shipped off to England, and should the local lords be reluctant to abide the British, they would find themselves powerless against the cornicopic proportions of the company army. The elitist approach, of only negotiating with the ruling class, did not benefit the lower castes. They were now forced to produce goods and resources not only for themselves and their lords, but also for the English. This initiative may not appear to greatly impact the castes, but the English were in need of cash-crops, so in order to supply for the demand, the locals had to switch most of their production from foodstuff, which naturally led to widespread famines. The results could mainly be seen in the cities where people were dependent on the rural production of food.
The cities were home to upper castes, such as the Baniyas (bankers and pawners), so when the prices started soaring, they had to increase interest rates, whilst the commoners were forced to borrow money in order to secure their families a certain standard of living. The Baniyas were protected by the English, in terms of the court-system, because they saw the banking system as vestige of civilizing the public. The general increase in prices led to a massive divide between the castes and mainly the lower castes loathed the Baniyas and the English for their riches, which they considered to be at the costs of their own population, much like the case with Jewish peoples of Nazi Germany.
This divide amongst the native population, was also part of the reason for why the inevitable uprising, lacked unification across the Indian classes.
5. The Honourable East India company's expansion
The Honourable East India company generated great economic returns and because of its success, support for the company increased domestically and their charter was renewed. Around 1670 King Charles 2nd granted several new rights to the company; as the company and thereby the government in India, needed more autonomy because their reliance on the British government in all matters proved a great hassle due to the time consuming decision making process. Envoys had to be sent all the way to England for each issue, so simple diplomatic negotiations could take many months. King Charles 2nd therefore chose to grant the company territorial autonomy, judicial responsibility, and a mandate to go into war, as well as seize them, and the right to coin money on the behalf of the British crown. The latter was symbolic in that the right to coin money, is a quality that only independent governments otherwise have and it sparked a period in which company rule of India gained vastness of power.
The swift company expansion can be explained, in part, by the multitude of different cultures in India. India was the home of the Sikh, Muslim and Hindu believers, who frequently experienced clashes. The Muslim Mughal empire had, throughout the sixteenth and the seventeenth century, been rulers of the majority of India. However, according to the Sikh's, their regime had been suppressive in nature, and failed to respect the multitude of the Indian society. Upon their arrival to India, the company found themselves in the midst of several smaller kingdoms, and were thus easily able to gradually infiltrate and take over power in a region. Another factor, that helped facilitate the rapid expansion, was the Doctrine of lapse.
The Honourable East India company had initially taken advantage of the already established Kshatriyaer system of governing, through the bribing, negotiating or threatening of current lords. However, as the company expanded and its power had increased due to king Charles 2nd's policies, the Kshatriyaer became obsolete in the eyes of the British. The problems affiliated, were in many cases that local rulers wished to remain autonomous, and since the colonial power had no legal jurisdiction or precedence for assuming control of the Kshatriyaer governed areas, the Lords were not obligated to make concessions. This posed a problem, and was attempted fixed through the Doctrine of Lapse in the 1840's. The doctrine was construed by the British Leadership, and stated that any ruler of a territory without a male heir, with adopted children not ascertaining any legal status as successor, were thus obliged to hand over their territorial acquisitions and control to the The Honourable East India Company upon the end of their rule. In effect this doctrine gradually asserted British ownership, in many regions, and rather then having to take over the regions using military means, the doctrine managed to justify and legalize the takeovers.
The doctrine proved productive in helping to annex several provinces, but caused outrage amongst the natives, who wished to retain some sort of nationality, and their first allegiance towards their lords. By assuming control of these provinces, the British alienated themselves farther then before. They had previously been the guests and employers, but had now become the dictators of the peoples culture and nationality, in the eyes of the public.
6. Military life
The Honourable East India company had an army of immense proportions rivaling those of many nations and was in composition centered around Native sepoy and Gurkha soldiers governed by British officers and 'Since they never lacked recruits, the officers were free to pick, the strongest, tallest and most presentable men'. It is somewhat of a paradox to claim that such a vast army could remain exclusive, but this was, however, the case for the company's army. Three quarters of the sepoys were Hindus and out of these most where from the highest caste, the Brahmins (philosophers and priests). The way the British were able to hire these people of higher education, was through salaries which in spite of being rather low (only seven rupees a month, which was barely a third of the salary of a European soldier), were higher than what they would have been able to make as civilians. They where also encouraged to use their salaries for baniya practices, such as lending them to civilians for interest. Another reason why the sepoys were better off than civilians was due to Batta. Sepoys were recruited in various regions and received Batta, or pay from their local lords, for being foreign missions for the English.
In spite of being better off, and to a large scale, more educated then the rest of the Indian people, the sepoy's experienced discrimination and a lack of understanding from their employers.
Their main grievance was that they were overlooked when it came to key promotions as officers. Since the sepoys came from the higher castes they thought themselves to be equal to many of their foreign officers and that they deserved promotions. The British thought that the sepoys couldn't be trusted in key matters, and considered them to be incapable of managing the responsibilities of leadership, and this led to a sense of wounded pride amongst the educated Brahmins.
Additional factors, however, also played their parts. The Doctrine of lapse from the 1840s caused for several regions to be annexed. Many of the sepoys were from the Punjab and Awadh areas, and after these regions were annexed by the Company, many of the sepoys lost their Batta, which was one of the main incentives to join the army. The sepoys were largely mercenaries, who shared no interest with the British, and as pay was the main incentive to join the army and some of it was taken away, they lost much motivation. Additionally it has to be noted, that in order to join the army, a contract was signed for several years, so any pay cut would be unchangeable, in that these soldiers would be unable to get different jobs with better pay for several years.
Other factors and benefits where also changed for the sepoys, and the initiatives seemed increasingly petty.
'Those who were deemed unable to participate in active duty would no longer be able to receive a disability-pension, but would face employment around the barracks'
was one of the major issues. The soldiers where unhappy with the prospect of having to work after officially being told that they where disabled. A secondary and likewise petty initiative that managed to cause complaints amongst the sepoys was a new rule forcing the soldiers to buy stamps themselves rather then receiving free postage by having their letters signed by a commanding officer.
7. Christian initiatives
Christian societies and missionaries had actively spread their religion for many centuries, be that in the crusades or through more peaceful means in later times. The English prided themselves in being civilized Christians, and so with the arrival of the British on the Indian peninsula, Christian missionaries took it upon themselves to further civilize the native 'hedons'. In the company army many sepoys found themselves succepted to the efforts of Christian missionaries. These missionaries were to a large extent not strangers who came and preached, but mainly British officers, who thought that their regiments might improve from Christian education. In some cases the officers left bibles translated to Hindi in the barracks. By translating the Bible to Hindi and leaving it in the barracks, the officers made it seem clear that the sepoys were under pressure to convert. It was a notion that many Hindu and Muslim soldiers found offensive, and noted as an attack on their personal freedom. The mere placement of these bibles, shows the lack of comprehension of the Indian sentiments, that was apparent in the army. The officers may have considered it to be a natural necessity to have bibles in the barracks, as was probably the case in many European armies, but the lack of sensitivity towards the established culture in India, made the officers appear arrogant, to the sepoys, and to a lesser extent ignorant.
8. The Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle
In the midst of all this general discontent with the British, supposed lack of regard for the Hindi and Muslim faiths, a new rifle was issued to the company army.
The new Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle was one of the first rifles in Indian hands with lubricated cartridges and was supposed to have a great increase in the velocity and range, compared to other contemporary alternatives. The cartridges consisted of powder and a metal bullet in cardboard wrappings which were meant to be bitten open before use, but no one knew what was used as the lubricant and rumors quickly spread. Amongst the sepoys fears where beginning to surface that the British were scheming to gradually force the Christian faith upon them. This appeared not to be a baseless fear, with the bibles in their barracks taken into account. Rumors circled that the cartridges, which were meant to be bitten open were lubed with pig or beef fat. To the Hindi sepoys which constituted a majority of the Honourable East India Company's army, this meant that they weren't allowed to bite the cartridges open, due to their belief in the holiness of cows, and to the Muslims who also constituted part of the army, this meant that they couldn't bite the cartridges open because their faith dictated that pigs were impure. Whether the cartridges truly were lubed with animal grease is unknown as several sources contradict each other, but it is clear that the colonial government only added to the suspicions by proposing that the sepoys use beeswax instead. Their statement confirmed that a wrong type of grease was used, in the eyes of the sepoys. Many didn't believe the rumors previously but because of the statement it appeared as if the company had made a mistake, and it was therefore the popular conviction that the rumors were true.
The day the British arrived on the Indian peninsula, rapidly became the marked point in time when Indian conditions declined in many aspects of their daily lives. The initial intentions of the Honourable East India company were to strip the land of resources, but was justified by the notion that the spread of British culture was helping to civilize, and eliminate barbaric elements. This notion was followed by, what they considered to be successful attempts to alter the culture, by gradually facing out old customs, such as sati, which were considered obsolete in a Christian society. In the crowns policies towards, their Indian colony, the company, was used as a vestige of Christianity and industrialised production, in spite of local rural concerns that countermanded these values. The English used, and increased the culturel devides between themselves and the Indians but at the same time successfully created a division in the complex interrelated caste-system. The British approach gave immediate results, and caused for swift expansion and economical growth, amongst the predominantly higher castes, whilst the lower where subject to further impoverishment, as a result of British needs for cash-crops, which countermanded the publics' need for food.
From an Indian point of view it may appear that the english were undermining the entire cultural fabric that kept the various peoples of the peninsula united and capable of peaceful coexsistence.
The British actively dictated demands, that banished ancient religious and culturel practices, which where initially symbols that unified the various populations of India. The practices of sati and female infanticide, may have seemed outdated to the British, but in the Indian culture, they had a clear purpose, and was imbedded in the minds of the natives as a natural right, as they had been for hundreds or even thousands of years. These remaining traditions from ancient times, produced a sense of national identity, in an area which had been under foreign rule of centuries, and which lacked anything but religion to tie the scattered lordships together. The abolition of these practices were to the Indians, an insult of their culture and took away the only concept they had of attaining a nationality.
The natives main loyalties were towards their Kshatriyaer, but as their power was undermined by the foreign financial interests, in that the conditions of the population deteriorated due to the demand for cash-crops, they found themselves in disapproval of a system that supported initiatives that lead to their own decline, in quality of life. Additionally the Doctrine of Lapse added to the fears, that they were slowly, to be embedded in the British empire thereby relinquishing any autonomous power. The British had made it clear by their efforts to convert people in their own employment, such as sepoys, that they expected people within their power to streamline within the Christian faith. But the sense of religion was the one concession the Indians where unwilling to make. The Hindu faith in particular was so embedded in basic society, and evident by the caste system, that it deemed impossible to change. The British supposedly attempted to have the sepoys, disregard the faiths, as a secondary priority, with their first priority being their allegiance towards, the state, with the introduction of the Enfield, but miscalculated, and it seems that the main factor that sparked the conflict of 1857 was the demand for religious freedom. This investigation points to no single fact leading to the uprising, but does however pose several new questions, as to why the British continued to follow these policies, and to what extent they were aware of the problems with the Indian peoples, since a large part of their policies seem completely out of touch, in disregarding any Indian rights, or sentiments.
Bibliography
Books:
John Keay, The Honourable Company, Harpercollins 1991
Kirsten Egeberg, Lona Lerberg, Johnny Thiedecke, Ansigt til Ansigt med Inderne, Pantheon
Christopher Hibbert, The Great Mutiny: India 1857, Penguin
Oliver J. Thatcher,The Library of Original Sources Ideas That Have Influenced Civilization, in the Original Documents,translated; Vol. V 9th to 16th Century, University Research Extension
Articles
Proceedings of a special court of inquiry concerning the native infantry, 6 February 1857
http://projectsouthasia.sdstate.edu/docs/history/primarydocs/War%20of%201857/Indian%20Mutiny--Ch1/letter%208.htm
John Keay, The Honourable Company, Harpercollins 1991
Observations derived from a Letter from the English traveler Ralph Fitch back to England in 1580's
Oliver J. Thatcher, The Library of Original Sources , Vol. V: 9th to 16th Centuries, pp. 26-40.
Translated from danish, a letter from Eliza Fay in 'Ansigt til Ansigt med Inderne', (pantheon), p. 95
Native Indians employed in the service of Europeans
Following their expansionist policy the British invaded Nepal in the Gurkha war (1814-1818). Gurkha's hail from northern India and Nepal and upon invasion the British found themselves admiring their courage in battle and hired them as mercenaries in their colonial armies. Gurkha's are known by their characteristic Kukri knife.
Christoffer Hibbert, 'The Great Mutiny: India 1857' p.46-47
According to proceedings of a special court of inquiry concerning the native infantry, 6 February 1857