The British Raj in India | Colonial History & Legacy

British Raj

Introduction

The British Empire, it has been said, was acquired during a “fit of absence of mind. ” This was especially evident in the case of India, which gradually came under British rule due to the actions of the British East Indies Company, established in 1599 by a group of merchants who were only looking for “quiet trade,”

rather than by the actions of the British government. Over the course of the following 250 years, though, events would foil these peaceful aims, and the British would increasingly assume the position of rulers and conquerors rather than traders. The “crown jewel of the British Empire” would have an impact on Western civilization, in addition to the profound impact the British would have on India’s history. This is seen in English terms like pajamas, dungarees, punch, verandah, and bungalow; habits like smoking cigars, playing polo, and taking showers; and deeper effects in the areas of religion and philosophy.

Company expansion (1601-1773)

The British East Indies Company was brought to India and established as a force there by two primary lines of development. First off, Portugal’s grip on the spice business in East Asia was waning by the year 1600. In 1601, the British East Indies Company began sending ships to the Spice Islands in order to participate in this commerce. Since the Mughal dynasty controlled the subcontinent at that time, there was no plan of invading India, let alone conquering it.

The Dutch, however, also wanted a piece of the spice business and rejected any British attempts to join. Consequently, the British East Indies Company was given the authority to establish commercial centers along the Indian coast. Some of these trading hubs would eventually become major cities like Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras.

The Mughal Empire was the other element propelling the British East Indies Company towards conquest. Since the 1500s, this dynasty had governed the majority of India in a peaceful and accepting manner for a century. However, during Aurangzeb’s rule (1658-1707), everything altered as he began to oppress Hindus. This not only sparked centuries of religious conflict that is still ongoing, but it also signaled the beginning of the fall of the Mughal Empire, which from that point forward had a weak and corrupt administration. As a result of the conflict, the British East Indies Company was compelled to protect its trading posts against local monarchs, criminals, and France, a new European invader.

To make up for the scarcity of European personnel so far away from home, the French began the strategy of training and arming native recruits (sepoys) in the manner of European armies. These forces were so potent that local monarchs would exchange vast swaths of territory for French-trained sepoys, thereby granting the French domination over a large portion of Southern India. The British trained their own sepoys in response to this new danger. The involvement of the French in India was almost completely terminated by the conclusion of the Seven Years War (175663) due to the superiority of the British navy and the sepoys commanded by Robert Clive. At the battle of Plassey in 1757, Clive showed in dramatic fashion how well European-trained sepoys performed when his force of 2800 British troops and sepoys defeated a Bengali force of 100,000. The British East Indies Company gained control of the rich province of Bengal for itself and was able to place its own candidate on the Mughal throne thanks to Clive’s triumph over the Bengalis and French, making it a dominant force in India. These triumphs led to British supremacy, which had three primary consequences.

In the beginning, India was vulnerable to exploitation by the firm and its workforce because of British authority and the distance of 7,000 miles and nine months from their “honorable masters” in England. The collection of “gifts” from grateful local princes (nawabs) was referred to as “shake the pagoda tree” by many Brits who took full advantage of the chance. In Britain, a nobleman could live comfortably on £800 a year, while even low-level business workers were earning enormous sums. One businessman was given a lucrative saltworks with 13,000 workers, while the other received his own mint. For his bravery during the battle of Plassey, a certain Mr. Watts was given £117,000. Additionally, Clive himself earned £211,500 for establishing one nawab and an annual sum of £27,000 from a different grant. Such possibilities for earning a fortune quickly inspired a wave of candidates to apply for jobs in India, with some applications including bribes worth up to £2000. Newcomers from England were frequently taken aback when they initially met their coworkers who had already been in India, since they had usually assimilated to the local culture, cuisine, and attire and socialized with the locals. For the British, the risks of service in India were primarily tropical heat and sickness. “Two monsoons is the age of a man,” as one local proverb put it, implying that few Europeans lived in India for more than two years. “The burying ground of the British” was the moniker given to Bombay.

Growing parliamentary control and rising tensions (1778-1857)

Nevertheless, in order to avoid bankruptcy, the corporation had to seek a loan from the Bank of England in 1773 because its lax management was costing it a fortune while its staff who had lived through service in India were making their fortunes. Consequently, Parliament gradually gained more power over the business and created governors general to oversee its operations. This resulted in a line of governors with varied perspectives and strategies. Although certain governors, like Warren Hastings, who governed from 1778 to 1788, were renowned for their tolerance of and desire to learn about the indigenous languages and cultures and for appointing Indians to positions in their administration.

However, some governors, like Lord Cornwallis (178898), reversed a lot of these tolerant laws and fired the majority of indigenous Indians from high positions in the government. As the nineteenth century approached, a rift emerged between two groups: one that promoted tolerance and respect for Indian culture and another that asserted the superiority of European civilization over Indian. This caused a widening gap between the British and Indians, which also fueled rising discontent.

Growing discontent among Indians in the 1800s was brought about by two additional events. The increasing number of Christian missionaries arriving in India to promote Christianity, which conflicted with the more adaptable tenets of the Hindu majority and the firm convictions of Indian Muslims, was one factor. Second, the British were introducing modern technology (especially railroads) and business techniques, which disrupted the traditional, slower-paced society and economy of India.

The Great India Mutiny of 1857 was the turning point. It was ignited by a misconception over the sort of grease used on the bullets for the sepoys’ new Enfield rifles. Muslim soldiers believed that pig grease was being used, which they despise, while Hindu soldiers believed that the British were using grease from cows, which they hold sacred. The subsequent mutiny grew into a significant insurrection, which the British were eventually able to quell. But the British government considered this to be the last straw, taking direct control of India in 1858 and ultimately disbanding the British East Indies Company. Similar to how Elizabeth I, a British queen, had signed the charter establishing the British East Indies Company 260 years prior, Victoria, another queen, signed it into oblivion. Ironically, its career began with a group of traders who were merely looking for “quiet trade. ” British rule would be directly in place in India for the following 90 years.

From the British Raj to independence (1858-1947)

Approximately 60% of India was governed by Britain directly, and the remaining 40% was governed indirectly by indigenous monarchs who abided by British law. The British established tea and cotton production, as well as coal and iron industries, throughout their stay in India. Actually, the Tata Iron Works was the biggest iron plant in the world by the year 1940. In the same way, the British kept enhancing India’s infrastructure by adding more railroads and telegraph lines, making India the country with the longest railroad in Asia by the year 1900. The British-style education system that Britain founded, as well as the British bureaucracy and administration, were both effective.

However, these changes still had the potential to cause issues for British rule. But as before, the new railroads, telegraphs, and industries, no matter how modern they may have appeared to the British, shook up India’s traditional economy and culture. Conversely, regardless of how efficient the bureaucracy was, there were significant divides between the upper-class British and lower-class Indians that extended throughout society. Indians were becoming more and more weary of their second-class status and put more and more effort into gaining independence.

The independence movement was led by the Indian National Congress, which was established in 1885. Initially, its aim was to increase Indian rights and representation in the British government. Nevertheless, throughout the 20th century, as its influence increased, it became more and more vocal about full independence. As a result, there was a concurrent but little distinct independence movement of Muslims in India who were concerned about being a minority in a Hindu-dominated nation. Consequently, they desired an autonomous Muslim nation in the northwest.

Since Britain had to depend largely on Indian recruits to fill its ranks, World War I (191418) and World War II (193945) helped accelerate India’s drive for independence. In exchange, Britain pledged further political concessions, thereby loosening its control over India, fostering greater Indian demands, and so forth.

In 1920, Mohandas Gandhi, a new leader, rose to prominence as the spokesperson for the Indian National Congress. Gandhi, who received his education in British schools as well as in traditional Indian culture, created extremely successful nonviolent methods of resistance while opposing British rule. The British had no choice but to give way to Gandhi time after time because they didn’t want to risk the negative press that a violent response would have produced. For this reason, Britain promised India independence at the conclusion of World War II. The question of whether there would be one large Hindudominated state or a separate Muslim state in the north was resurrected, which led to violent confrontations between Hindus and Muslims. In 1947, the region between Hindu India in the South and Muslim Pakistan in the Northwest—which also governed the independent nation of Bangladesh in the Northeast—was ultimately under British rule. Despite Gandhi’s heroic attempts to maintain peace (which led to his assassination in 1947 by one of his Hindu followers), conflicts between Hindus and Muslims have persisted to this day and continue to pose a threat to the peace and stability of South Asia.