India 1857

- The Jewel in the British crown

- Astonishing that Britons could control such a large area

- Source of pride and anxiety back in Britain

- Queen Victoria especially interested in India

- Question of historical focus

- Differentiation between imperialism and colonialism

- Some people benefited from imperialism 

- India, not a single entity - different collection of states ruled in different ways

- ELC (East India Company) - A charted company, monopoly of trade established

- ELC engaged in wars (Anglo-Burmese 18,200 etc) and with local leaders to ensure company interests remain paramount 

- 1857 - Watershed Moment

- Expression of Indian discontent with colonial rule

- Britain's future in India under question

- Important to understand what the "loss" of India would mean

- Dalhousie: 'In India is always sitting on a volcano' (1848) - Yet British seemingly caught off guard
1. Discontent within Bengal Army
2. Religious reasons linked to growing British insensitivity
3. Indian elites disillusioned with British rule
4. "Modernising" state impulses, Widow re-marriage Act (1856), "doctrine of lapse"

- Dalhousie's brainchild - part of his rapid programme of "modernisation" in his position as governor general of the EIC

- Didn't like princely status - saw them as a block to modernisation - doctrine of lapse

- A wadh (oudh) - test case - taluqdars, greater cooperation between sepoy and civilian

- Barrackpore: January 1857 in military barracks - gathered momentum between May and November 1857

- Mutiny at Meerut

- Capture of Delhi

- Simultaneous mutinies 

- Symbolic epicentre of revolt

- Bahadur Shah reluctantly declared emperor by rebels

- Important figurehead

- Exiled to Rangoon - sons executed by the British

- Another focal local point - June 1857

- Rebel army led by Nana Sahib in the area - who led the army after failing to reach agreement with Dalhousie about his position

- Troops fought alongside small landlords and landless peasants

- 200 women and children murdered and thrown down a well - Well Massacre

- Not clear, who gave orders for Well Massacre - Nana Sahib or Tantia Topi (another general)

- Or, mob activity, as revenge for punitive British actions

- Aroused great feelings, as revenge for punitive British actions

- Anxieties gendered as well as race

- Jhansi, and fortress of Gwailor

- Lapse of Jhansi (Dalhousie's doctrine) triggered a popular revolt

- Mutiny occurred at the garrison at Gwalior - particular setback for British

- Rani (duchess or Queen) of Jhansi, fought alongside ordinary Indians, symbolically important

- British able to suppress rebellions because:
a) They were in the North of the country
b) Rebels pursued different objectives

- No single vision beyond want to confront colonial rule

- 56,000 Europeans, 800,000 Indians killed

- India's governmental debt nearly doubled (£660 to £100 million)

- Interpreted as a race war - led to an intensification of racial and religious 

- Occupied a prominent place in both Indian and British consciousness

- Growing estrangement between British and Indians

- Racist attitudes become more widespread

-"Clemency" cunning, vilified in British press

- Blamed - 1888 company rule ends and India comes directly under British control (Government of India Act)

- India more closely in Britain's orbit

-Self-declared Empress of India 1877 - attempt to bolster British popularity in the country

- Osborne House had durbar (court) room, Indian scholar kept on royal staff

- Relationship with Abdul Karim sent shockwaves through 'polite' society

- Interest in Britain as to what was happening in India leading to wider debates about Britain's position as a colonial power

- Captured public imagination

- Bengal Army restricted to stop future uprisings

- Embarrassing to British prestige 

- Immediate:
1. Caste
2. Growing racial distance?

- Long Term
1. Watershed in Britain attitudes towards 'non-Europeans'
2. Less Paternalistic more damning?
3. Biological racism - white "superiority" grounded in "scientific" differences