India 1857-1890

Question 1

British view towards India

Answer 1

• India was seen as “the jewel in the crown” of the British empire
• It was seen as the most valuable part of the Empire
• Indians were incorporated into British cultures, but they were still seen as inferior to the British
• The British enjoyed and embraced some parts of Indian culture

Question 2

Early British colonial development in India

Answer 2

• The first British people arrived in India as traders rather than invaders
• They embraced the Indian culture
• East India company joined in traditional Indian acts such as bathing in lakes
• Holiness and civilisation were seen in India
• The British felt that some people in Europe should use Indian customs
• The traders of the East India company embraced the culture and socialised with the Indians
• The East India company members formed good relationships with the Indians
• The Anglo-Indians were the people of British and Indian descent. This was mainly due to East India company men marrying Indian women (known as Bibis)
• It wasn’t long before Victorian values arrived in India
• These values came through the missionaries
• Parts of India began to turn into places in Britain such as Surrey
• There was a great shift in attitudes which was mainly caused by women
• The British became much more distant from Indian cultures and began to be rude to the Indians
• The British women had the job of trying to make the Indians more civilised
• Many British women and children died not long after moving to India due to disease
• Death rates in India were 3 times that of in Britain

Question 3

The east India company

Answer 3

• It was initially created in 1600 to serve as a trading body for English merchants
• It was formed for the exploitation of trade with East and Southeast Asia ans India
• Its main purpose was to allow England to participate in the East Indian spice trade
• It also traded cotton, silk, indigo, saltpetre and tea and transported slaves
• Was founded by John Watts
• The English merchants put £70,000 of their own money to start the company

Question 4

Activities of the East India company

Answer 4

• Its main activity was being involved in the east Indian spice trade
• They became a major political power in India through the battle of Plassey in 1759
• They had responsibilities for law, trade, defence and administration in India

Question 5

Growth of the east India company

Answer 5

• Robert Clive’s victory in the nettle of Plassey in 1759 gave the company broad taxation powers in Bengal (which was one of the richest provinces in India) and effectively turned the company into a fully-fledged empire
• This gave the company great power through their responsibilities for law and administration

Question 6

Structure of the East India company

Answer 6

• the company may best be described as having a strongly hierarchical structure based on traditional military models
• the decision-making mechanisms took the form of a centralized and decentralized structure where each battalion had to operate within the objectives set out by the court directs but unit leaders were responsible for the actions

Question 7

impact of the east India company on India

Answer 7

• as they gained more land, the company increased taxes which forced locals to stop growing crops for themselves but instead grow crops which they could sell in order to be able to pay their taxes
• once the company became under the control of the British government, the policy of westernisation was introduced which had a largely negative impact on the Indian people as the British attempted to develop Indian along British lines (force British culture and traditions upon Indians)

Question 8

How the East India Company gained so much control in India

Answer 8

• Traders from the East India company were granted a Royal Charter in 1600 by Queen Elizabeth I which started Britain’s rise to dominance in India
• The Company then rapidly established a series of trading areas during the 17th century whilst recruiting Indian soldiers to protect their economic interest
• The British rule then expanded btu at the expense of the Muslim Mughal emperor
• The annexation of Bengal, following the nettle of Plassey in 1759, resulted in a real drive to extend British interests in India
• Robert Clive then brought Calcutta and Bengal under company control
• By the late 18th century, the east India company not only had a monopoly over European trade with India, but had also emerged as a major political power in India with responsibilities for law, trade, defence, and administration
• This monopoly of trading came about due to Robert Clive pushing the French out of India and persuading the Mughal emperor to grant the company with these trading rights
• In the late 18th century, this began to change as the British began to take more control of India

Question 9

How the situation changed in the late 18th century

Answer 9

• the state of affairs in India provoked criticism in Britain with parliament demanding greater supervision of the company.
• The British government also began to doubt whether it was right for a trading company to have such enormous responsibility for such a large part of the empire
• During this time, the company also began to struggle with the costs of looking after such a large area (administering and defence costs) causing debts to increase
• In 1773, the company called on the British government for help to rule the areas under its control
• In response to this call for help, the British government took several measures between 1773 and 1833 which put the east India company in a subservient (less important) role
• The India act of 1774 gave the British government “the power of guiding the politics of India with as little means of corrupt influence as possible”
• The company still kept their ownership rights of their captured territories, a trade monopoly and existing responsibilities over civil administration and defence
• A British governor general was given overall political, legal, and diplomatic control over British territory in India
• In 1784, an Indian board of control was set up to supervise Indian affairs and in 1813, the British government ended the company’s monopoly over Indian trade, with the exception of the trading of tea with china which was still present until 1833
• It was argued that Britain broke the trade monopoly over the east India company after 1773 because the company was corrupt and inefficient, however, it is now believed that the company was vibrant capitalist enterprise which generated wealth and the British government only took greater control due to pressure from people with business interests who felt the Indian market was vital for their own expansion
• Form 1773-1858, the British government ruled India through the agency of the east Indian company princely states (states with native rulers which had entered into treaty relations with the British)
• By 1860, Britain had taken control of some parts of India but more than half of India was not under British control
• this meant that there would have been a large religious divide in India, at this time, with many different religions still being present in India

Question 10

expansion of British control

Answer 10

• after 1815, successive governor generals expanded British rule in India
• the Mughal empire was clearly in a state of decay and there was a resulting power vacuum (when someone in power has lost control but no one has taken over from them) with many local princes asserting their independence which created instability in some areas
• as the British attempted to defend their interests, they frequently used armed resistance which often led to punitive (actions intended to be a punishment) expeditions and annexations
• the rapid expansion of British rule was accompanied by economic, social and political changes
• the Governor-General, Lord William Bentinck, introduced the policy of Westernisation which involved developing Indian along British lines meaning British culture was almost forced upon the Indian people
• English was made the official language, several traditional Indian religious customs, such as Suttee (the Hindu practice of throwing widows onto the flaming funeral pyres of their dead husbands) and the human sacrifices and rituals of several secret societies, were outlawed
• The policy of westernisation disregarded cherished Indian religious, social, and regional customs in a way which had never happened before
• This resulted in increased resentment among the Indian people towards British rule which led to the Indian mutiny of 1857

Question 11

The Indian mutiny

Answer 11

• Long standing grievances among the Indian population sparked a rebellion of Indian sepoys serving in the British East India Company in 1857
• The rebellion lasted a year and caused thousands of deaths
• The dispatch of the British troops to support the East India Company Army demonstrated the British desire to retain control of India at all costs.
• After the rebellion had been violently quashed and ruthlessly punished, the British government determined that a change of rule was necessary, in part, to prevent any recurrence
• Thus, in 1858, the British government took control of India from the East India Company, which as entirely dissolved

Sowars = mounted soldiers 
Sepoys = infantry soldiers

It is now described as a rebellion and not a mutiny because it was not just soldiers that were involved and therefore, by definition, is not a mutiny

Question 12

Main reasons for the outbreak of the mutiny

Answer 12

• The sepoys in the Indian army mutinied in 1857 after refusing to bite cartridges before loading them into the newly introduced Enfield rifle as they contained cow and pig grease. This was done on religious grounds because cow is sacred to Hindus and pig is considered to be unclean by Muslims
• After the monopoly of the east India company had been ended in 1813, India was opened up to the competition of British industrialists and merchants. Therefore, Indian markets were swamped by cheap British goods and British property developers brought up land, introduced a land lord system and imposed high rents. As a result of this, Indian producers of export goods (tea, indigo and spices) received very low prices for their products which caused major economic grievances from the Indian people
• Territorial expansion was also greatly resented, especially the latest set of annexations (Punjab and Sind in 1843, Berar in 1853 and Oudh in 1856).
• In addition, the policy of westernisation also caused concern because it clearly has a large impact on everyday life. Hundreds of village schools, a central legal council, national laws, universities and a postal service of English style were all established, and roads and canals were also built (which obviously had the advantage of more efficient trade). Many Indians felt they were being forced to accept an “alien” culture.
• The British not only ignored Indian feelings, they also failed to recognise the weakness of their own situation. British security depended on Indian sepoys recruited from the local Indian community. The reliance on Indians is shown by, in 1857, the British Indian army, of 270,000 men, only had 40,000 men of European origin. Therefore, some 90% of the men in the army were Indian
• We can see that the row over the Enfield rifle “tapped a nerve” in the sepoys which was connected to broader concerns about British rule. British attempts at westernisation from the 1830s contributed to fears of cultural and religious attack, inflamed by caste-breaking (break down of Hindu society) rules in the Indian army
• The mutiny began as the sepoys refused to obey orders in Bengal in February 1857 and turned on their British officers at Meerut in May 1857 and were given long jail sentences however, this resulted in the entire Sepoy army in Meerut mutinying and killing all of the British officers.
• Mangal Pandey was an Indian sepoy who had a key impact on the events that started the mutiny. On the 29th of March 1857, Pandey attacked a British officer in his regiment and his fellow soldiers refused to stop him. He was executed by hanging as a result of this, on the 8th of April 1857. His execution was seen as a factor in spread of rebellion among the sepoys which caused the mutiny
• The mutiny quickly spread to Delhi, Oudh, Cawnpore, and Lucknow
• The mutiny began in Meerut
• Then spreads to Delhi
• Then to Lucknow and Cawnpore

Question 13

The events of the mutiny

Answer 13

• The mutiny was an extremely brutal affair which lasted just over a year
• Sepoys seized control in most northern cities, including Agra, Lucknow and Cawnpore, and there was a short-lived attempt to resurrect the old Mughal empire as a figurehead
• The sepoys were joined by sections of both the urban and rural populations as well as being joined by many discontented landowners who had lost out under British rule. Other rebels were peasants who resented taxation or joined the rebellion to get back at neighbours they had disputes with.
• It took three months for British troops to restore order at Delhi where 40,000 sepoys had revolted
• The attempt to gain power in Lucknow, the capital of Oud, lasted 12 months before the British finally regained control against 60,000 mutineers
• A very bitter struggle took place at Cawnpore
• 70,000 fresh troops were sent to India armed with the latest colt revolvers to defend against the mutiny.
• The British gave swift and brutal revenge as Muslim mutineers were captured and sewn into pig skins (pig is haram for Muslims) before they were hung, forced to lick up blood or blown from the barrel of a cannon
• Not all regiments joined the rebellion. Gurkhas, Sikhs and Pathan regiments remained loyal to Britain
• British rule was not entirely reasserted until June 1858 following the battle of Gwalior

Question 14

The Cawnpore massacre

Answer 14

• A small group of fewer than 1000 British men, women and children were starved into submission (obeying a superior force or authority). 200 British women and children were brutally killed
• Orders were given by General Neil, a British army commander, to slaughter all men, take no prisoners and hang all sepoys who were found without papers from regiments that have mutinied, in order to gain revenge for the torture of the British people.
• 30,000 British troops were sent to Cawnpore on the 10th of June 1857, however the sepoys refused to surrender
• The women who had been captured by the mutineers were made to drink water mixed with blood
• On the 12th of June the hospital block in Cawnpore was set on fire
• On the 25th of June, the British agreed to leave however, as they were leaving, their boats were set on fire
• In total, around 500 people died, 200 of them being defenceless women and children
• Only about 120 of the 1000 people who were captured survived
• The initial survivors retreated to Bibighar where they ended up being massacred
• Around 180 women and children were in prison and were suffering from illness and diseases.
• These prisoners were then attacked by the mutineers and their bodies were thrown down a well – no matter if they were dead or alive
• Britain’s new rifles helped them to pick off the rebels at long range which resulted in a British victory as they crushed the revolt
• The British gave swift and brutal revenge as Muslim mutineers were captured and sewn into pig skins (pig is haram for Muslims) before they were hung, forced to lick up blood or blown from the barrel of a cannon
• The British people were outraged and horrified by what they had found
• The Britain’s who had conquered India were shameful
• This event had such a large impact due to the fact that the main victims were defenceless women and children

Question 15

Why the mutiny was eventually defeated

Answer 15

• The sepoys were not all united against Britain as some sections did not even get involved
• Britain had a bigger more experienced military than the sepoys
• Britain had better resources and weapons
• The rebellion was not supported by the entirety of India

Question 16

East India company rule until 1857

Answer 16

Rule after 1858 is known as the British Raj

Question 17

How the Indian rebellion is remembered by historians

Traditional Indian historians’ views

Answer 17

• The rebellion was a national revolution against British rule
• The mutiny is shown as a nationalist uprising with the aim of breaking free from British rule

Question 18

How the Indian rebellion is remembered by historians

Challenges to traditional Indian historians’ views

Answer 18

• R.C Majumdar views the rebellion as a “sporadic revolt triggered by religious zealots”
• The main desire of the mutineers was not to create a new India but to restore the cherished, religious, social, and economic traditions of the old India
• To S.R Ghosh, the mutiny was a last-ditch attempt to restore the Mughal Empire rather than an attempt to bring about Indian nationalism

Question 19

How the Indian rebellion is remembered by historians

Traditional British historians’ views

Answer 19

• Viewed the rebellion as a localised army revolt which was triggered by the introduction of the Enfield rifle
• The Cambridge history of the British empire portrays the mutiny as “a series of localised outbursts within the army
• These traditional views are supported by the fact that only 34% of the country took part, only 25% of the Sepoys were involved, there was no leader of the mutiny and there was no planning or coordination

Question 20

How the Indian rebellion is remembered by historians

Challenges to traditional British historians’ views

Answer 20

• Recently, more emphasis has been put on the social and economic discontent which was caused by the policy of westernisation
• C. Hibbert views it as something more than just a “mutiny” but less than “the first Indian war of independence” as he saw it as a passionate protest against the penetration of the west
• The mutiny was “inspired by people for whom progress was too fast” meaning they didn’t like how quickly the British were enforcing the policy of westernisation
• The rebellion was thought to be the predictable reaction of a traditional agricultural society who were being forced to accept the “alien” disciplines of capitalism

Question 21

Results of the rebellion

Answer 21

• The involvement of the East India company in the machinery of British rule was ended
• The beginning of total British rule where a secretary state and a council of 15 ministers was appointed to run Indian affairs and a Viceroy replaced the Governor-General as the new ruler of India
• The British Indian army was reformed with a strengthened European element, sepoys not being allowed to use heavy artillery weapons, every two sepoy units was supervised by a British battalion and the sepoys were treated with greater respect by the British officers. No large-scale mutinies took place between 1857 and 1947 which shows the success of this reformation
• The adoption of a policy of appeasement by the British government which aimed to put an end to the grievances of the power brokers of Old India. The Indian rulers of the Princely States, who the British attempted to undermine before the mutiny, had their prestige restored and they became an important collaborating group during the rest of the period of British rule as all social, religious, and cultural matters were left in their hands

Question 22

As a result of the Indian rebellion, many changes took place

The government of India act, 1858

Answer 22

• The east India Company’s territories in India were passed to the Queen and the company ceased to exist
• The position of secretary of state for Indian (a cabinet post) was created. The secretary of state received the powers and duties formerly exercised by the East India company’s directors
• A council of 15 members (known as the Indian council) experienced in Indian affairs, was appointed to assist the secretary of state and act as an advisory body in Indian affairs
• The crown appointed a viceroy to replace the East India company’s governor general
• The Indian civil service was placed under the control of the secretary of state
• Indian people were promised their rights by the queen meaning complete freedom of religion was ensured
• Pardon was given to all the Indians except those who had killed British people
• The doctrine of lapse (policy of annexation initiated by the East India company) was discarded under this act

Question 23

Impact of the Government of India act

Answer 23

• The East India company’s territories in India being passed over to the Queen gave the British increased power as it meant that this land was under complete control of Britain and wasn’t controlled by an independent company
• The position of secretary of state for India being created gives an idea of the government putting greater control on India and potentially shows Britain to be building a government in India
• The Indian civil service being placed under the control of crown meant Britain could control the majority of things going on in India

Question 24

British changes to the army in India in order to prevent a repeat of the mutiny

Answer 24

• From 1858, efforts were made to strengthen the British Indian army
• The east India company’s armies were brought under the control of the Crown
• The proportion of British to Indian troops raised to a ratio of roughly 2:1
• There was, by the late 1880s, an army of 70,000 Britons and 125,000 Indian troops
• Regiments of Indian troops were trained and stationed in their own districts and cut off from each other to prevent any unity
• Greater numbers of Ghurkhas and Sikhs in the army to replace Bengali troops who had not been loyal
• 62 out of 74 Bengali regiments were disbanded
• The high caste Brahim regiments disappeared
• To reduce the risk of rebellion further, the number of British officers increased, and all field artillery was placed in British hands
• Indians were placed under British commanders and denied officer ranking
• The British were ordered to show greater respect to Sepoy beliefs and traditions
• 3000 miles of railway track were added in the decade follow the rebellion which exaggerated British presence and enabled swifter deployment of troops in the event of trouble
• The first Viceroy, Lord Canning, set up an Imperial Police Force as an extra layer of security

Question 25

Administration

Answer 25

• The viceroy ruled India through a chain of white British authority supported bu an Indian civil service which barred Indians from high-level posts until the 1930s
• A legislative council of 5 held responsibility for finance, the army, economy, and home affairs
• In the provinces, the Viceroy was represented by provincial governors (chief commissioners) with their own legislative councils and on a day-to-day basis across the provinces district offices oversaw local councils and reported on practical issues
• The running of the raj was maintained by 1000 British civil servants who were employed as members of the Indian civil service. This professional bureaucracy of British officials was unique within the empire and attracted some able administrators since a position afforded both status and a good salary
• The viceroy relied on Indian rulers, in charge of the 565 nominally independent Princely States whose support was essential for the smoot running of the subcontinent
• The removal of the doctrine of lapse, which had ensured that the Princely states fell under British rule when their rulers’ line of descent ended, helped ensure certain princes’ loyalty and bolstered their prestige through hierarchy of status
• Within the civil service, bilingual Indians were recruited as low-level clerks across India’s 13 provinces. They acted as intermediaries between the British elite and the mass of the population
• This array of officials performed basic administrative functions such as collecting taxes, the maintenance of law and order and the running of courts

Question 26

Legal system

Answer 26

• The legal system was developed as the old East India company courts were merged with the Crown Courts and English Law prevailed

Question 27

Education

Answer 27

• Universities were established in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta in 1857
• Elite schools such as Rajkumar College, Mayo College and Bombay’s cathedral school were set up in order to produce “Westernised oriental gentlemen”
• In the 30 years following 1857, some 60,000 Indians entered the Universities
• Of the 1712 Calcutta university students to graduate by 1882, over a third entered government service and slightly more went into the legal profession
• Graduates of the 3 universities by 1882 accounted for some 1100 appointments to government service
• Social reformer Mary Carpenter visited India 4 times between 1866 and 1875 and helped to establish a corps of British teachers for India, girls’ schools in Bombay and Ahmedabad, and a college to train female Indian teachers

Question 27

Education

Answer 27

• Universities were established in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta in 1857
• Elite schools such as Rajkumar College, Mayo College and Bombay’s cathedral school were set up in order to produce “Westernised oriental gentlemen”
• In the 30 years following 1857, some 60,000 Indians entered the Universities
• Of the 1712 Calcutta university students to graduate by 1882, over a third entered government service and slightly more went into the legal profession
• Graduates of the 3 universities by 1882 accounted for some 1100 appointments to government service
• Social reformer Mary Carpenter visited India 4 times between 1866 and 1875 and helped to establish a corps of British teachers for India, girls’ schools in Bombay and Ahmedabad, and a college to train female Indian teachers

Question 28

Economic

Answer 28

• The greatest change to the Indian economy following the changes of 1858 was a growth investment, particularly in the railways, which were built more for strategic than economic purposes but certainly helped to stimulate trade and the development of previously inaccessible areas
• Some European style factories were built although, since the bulk of manufactured goods came from Britain, there was virtually no heavy industry
• Subsistence farming prevailed, although the number of tea plantations increased from just one in 1851 to 295 by 1871
• There was also an increase in the domestic production of raw cotton for export to Britain in the 1880s and 1890s

Question 29

Overall attitudes

Answer 29

• Many British believed their “benign rule” in India was a genuinely liberating experience for the Indians
• The Whig reformist T.B. Macauley believed that educating Indians to ensure they became “English in taste, in opinions, in morals” was sufficient to justify the British domination of India

Question 30

Positive impacts of British rule after the mutiny

Answer 30

• The British tried to act in a more religiously sensitive way
• More educational opportunities were offered to the wealthier Indians as a result of the equality of opportunity offered by the British
• Some Indian princes and large landlords supported the British Raj
• The British built railways for trade
• The British developed schemes for land improvements but these only took place in 6% of the land
• The British provided Indians with cheap manufactured goods
• The British provided schools and universities
• The British provided new job opportunities for Indians

Question 31

Negative impacts of British rule

Answer 31

• The tense relationship between the ruler and ruled was aggravated by the rebellion and British rule
• Belief that the east could be “westernised” was questioned which increased British arrogance, as social Darwinist theories of superiority
• As time went on after 1858, separation set in between the British and Indian culture
• The British liked to believe that they were administering India fairly, but they imposed legal systems which favoured themselves
• The imposed legal systems were far too complex and expensive to help the poor Indian people
• The equality for opportunity di very little for the mass of Indian peasants
• Even those with education found it hard to obtain promotions in this society
• British rule was regarded with resentment by most of the Indian population
• Although railways were built, most villages lacked even mud roads
• India was unable to develop industries of their own and their economy was skewed (inaccurate, biased)
• Only a small amount of people benefitted from the schools and universities that were introduced
• Many people were still illiterate
• The new systems favoured the white man
• India became more dependent on food imports
• Increased separation
• Poverty continued and death rates from famine were high