Nearly losing an empire: the British in India, 1829-58

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  • Created by: rakso181
  • Created on: 25-05-17 14:56

Introduction

- Rather than conquer India, they collaberated with local people in power 

- Three geographical areas: Indo-Gangetic Plain, the Himalayas and the Southern Plateau

- Main religions: Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Buddhists

- Six main languages with over 200 different dialects

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The role of the East India Company

- Brit. parliament pass a series of Acts to ensure the Company's financial solvency after its near bankruptcy

- 1786 - Co. become a regularised subsidary of the Crown, meaning they were overseen by the British Crown and Parliament 

- 1813 - the Charter Act is passed which renews the Company's charter for another 20 years but removes its monopoly on the Indian trade

- Company seek new sources of income via the civil administration and collection of tax in Brit. territories of India

- Aggressive territorial acquisition of the Indo-Gangetic Plain in 1818 and the annexation of north-western provinces by 1857 - administrative power resides in the Bengal presidency in Calcutta 

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The East India Co. timeline

- 1773 - The Regulating Act passed - governing council of five in Calcutta who also approved appointments of governor generals

- 1784 - Act passed - makes Company's political functions subordinate to the Crown, with a Board of Control created to ensure this

- 1786 - Act passed - allows gov. gen. to override the council in special cases

- 1813 - Charter Act - ends Co.'s monopoly over Indian trade and permits missionaries to preach/teach English in their territories

- 1833 - Charter Act - completely end Co. commercial activities

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Role of the governor general

- Governor indirectly appointed by the Crown

- Warren Hastings serves as governor in Fort William 1774-1785

- Governors in other EIC regions cannot make war/peace without approval of Fort William governor

- 1784 - Parliament pass act strengthening governors's exec. power and by 1786 is able to override his council

- 1785 - Lord Cornwallis becomes governor, having control of foreign policy and bringing the EIC under government control

- 1833 - Government of India Act - governor of Fort William becomes the Governor-General of India - Sir William Bentinck is then appointed and given legislative control over Co. territory

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Importance of Bengal and the Company army (1)

- Private armies:

  • Set up to protect commerical interests
  • 1820 - 200,000 soldiers altogether
  • Based in the three presidencies of the Co. - Bengal, Madras and Bombay
  • Seperated into white regiments and sepoy regiments (Indians under Brit command)
  • 1857 - 45,522 Eur. soldiers out of the overall 277,746 Co. soldiers
  • Ensured local rulers signed treaties, supported Co.'s tax collection, and increase Co. territory in order to eradicate Fre. influence 
  • Trained in the Addiscombe Military Seminary in Surrey with a promise of regular military engagement, unlike the regular army
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Importance of Bengal and the Company army (2)

- Conflicts:

  • First Afghan War (1838-42) - Gov. Aukland persuaded to meddle in Afgan internal politics, costing Brit. over 20,000 lives and £15 million - only motivates Co. further to secure the Sind and Punjab
  • Sind - formally annexed after decisive campaign 1843
  • Punjab - takes most of 1840s until 1849 it was under Brit. control - Brits have admiration for warlike Sikhs who assisted them during the Indian rebellion due to their hatred of local sepoys

- Bengal:

  • The president of Bengal is also the governor-general of all EIC territory
  • Administrative structure developed under Lord Cornwallis and laid down under the Code of Regulations 
  • Land divided into districts under a collector and landholders given land for fixed tax liberties - tax collectors supervised by Board of Revenue
  • Local judges and magistrates have control of law and are supervised by regional courst of appeal
  • Bengal army twice the size of the other two, recruiting largely from higher castes
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Reasons for clash of cultures

- Beliefs of racial superiority with less tolerance of local customs/religions - administrators seek to 'improve' India and modernise its beliefs

- 19th cent. - racial harmony challenged by the rise in evangelical Christianity - Christians seek to end inequality like slavery but deem other religions as inferior, leading to attempted conversions

- Arrival of first Brit. women reinforces cultural division between Co. men and Indians as mixed race children become rejected from a growing white society - 1780: 1/3 Co. men leave native spouses/children in wills but 1850: only tiny proportion of men involved with Indian women

- In reaction to the Co.'s attempts to challenge trad. religious/social structures, Indian Rebellion ends Co. rule and est. British Raj

- 1833-57 - Gov.s Bentinck and Dalhousie, who are influenced by Utilitarianism, attempt 'modernisation' and institute civil reform:

  • Dalhousie abolishes thagi and sati, allocates education fund to English-speaking institutes, and makes English the official language of government and courts
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William Sleeman's campaign against thagi

- Thagi: the practise of highway robbery and ritual murder

- Legal Acts introduced 1836 and 1848 that outlaw thagi and dacoity (banditry)

- Colonel William Sleeman leads campaign to stop thagi - creates the Thugge and Dacoity Department in 1835

- During campaign, over 1000 thagi transported/hanged for their crimes and about 3000 were tried/punished

- Suppression of thagi isn't widely resented by Indians at the time

- Appears as a wholly altruistic act on the part of the British as they aren't at threat from thaggi 

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The drive against sati and female infanticide

- Sati is the tradition of self-immolation (burning oneself to death) by Hindu widows and was common amongst the higher castes, like the Bengal presidency or the Sikh Punjabi Kingdom

- 1829 - Governor Bentinck holds a campaign abolishing sati, with anyone assisting it being found guilty of culpable homocide 

- Co. ban the act in Calcutta 1798 and the 1813 Charter Act allows missionaries to preach against it

- The law only applies in territory under Company control but w/ encouragement, princely states (non-Brit.) would follow

- Female infanticide stems from fathers being unable to pay for female dowries 

- Bentinck enforced laws passed in 1795 and 1802 against female infanticide 

- Improves many female Indian's lives, but is another example of Brit. intervention and creates rumbling discontent against Brit. rule

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Impact of missionaries (1)

- Brit. missionaries arrive late 18th cent. - Co. oppose this as they want to avoid cultural clashes

- First missionaries to arrive in Bengal were Baptists - concentrate on education and translation of the Bible into Bengali - 1818: colleges set up for training indigenous ministers

- Charles Grant (Anglican and Co. worker 1767-90) campaigns w/ William Wilberforce to remove Co. ban on missionaries - Charter Act 1813 gives them the power to remove the ban and the number of Protestant missionaries increase

- Anglicans and Baptists engage in education of Indians and against sati

- 1830 - Alexander Duff (Church of Scotland) arrives and promotes teaching English in schools to attract higher castes to Christianity

- 1813-35 - debate about where Co. higher education fund should be allocated - evangelicals want higher ed. in English schools to weaken trad. dominance of the Brahmin caste

- Education Act 1835 - Bentinck decides to make English the language of government/courts

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Impact of missionaries (2)

- Bengal Renaissance - Ram Mohan Roy creates complex learning system, adapting best elements of Western and Indian education - Indians want to make Bengal the centre of Indian culture

- Missionaries add to opposition against Co. taxation, bugging them to let them use the government to carry out God's work

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Reforms of Dalhousie

- Whilst Dal. is gov. gen., the Punjab is locked under Co. rule - Punjab's fertile soil yields substantial reveneue for Co.

- First Indian railroads constructed 

- He was a moderniser and a Utilitarian 

- As Brit. India was more powerful, he sees no need to retain alliances with princely statesas they interfere with modernisations 

- Assumes a Brit. paramountcy (ultimate authority) over the native states:

  • Doctrine of Lapse (if an individual dies w/o a male heir, their land lapses and becomes Co. territory)
  • Believe they should take over due to the misgovernment of the states
  • Rulers' titles and powers become non-hereditary and subject to the doctrine of the lapse
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Annexation of Awadh

- Taken by Brit. on 7 Feb 1856 under the doctrine - is a primary cause of the rebellion

- Awadh king, Nwab Wajid Ali Shah, is deposed for maladministration

- Awadh is a prosperous province that the Co. can benefit from

- Is the 7th annexation under Dal. - widely resented in Awadh

- To reform the state, Brit. take all land from all talukdars (landowners) who cannot prove legal title to their estates - this attack on the social order is very destabilising 

- 1857 - widespread Awadh participation in the uprising against Brit.

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Outbreak of rebellion and events in Meerut

- New gun cartridges lubricated with animal fat, creating a risk for Muslims who cannot eat pork and Hindus who cannot eat beef - proves Brit.'s Christianisation of of India 

- General Service Enlistment Act 1856 - Bengal army in state of unrest as it breaks the tradition that Bengal soldiers did not serve where they can't march so travel over water would have polluted their caste status

- This act only applied to new recruits but sepoys feared they were next as the Bengal army generally recruited from higher castes

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Cawnpore and Delhi

- Mutiny spreads through the Bengal Army and becomes a general revolt through the Indo-Gangetic Plain, with Brit. temporarily losing control of Awadh, Delhi and some Punjab centres

- Mutineers included talukdars, peasants and people linked to sepoys 

- 11 May 1857 - Bahadur Shah II reluctantly restored to imperial position in Delhi

- Cawnpore - Sir Hugh Wheeler not careful enough in preperations and Brit. hold out for 18 days until surrender on 27 June and promised safe conduct down the river

- During the journey, fight breaks out and 400 die on riverbanks and boats

- Remaining Brit., 200 mostly women and children, held hostage and massacred 15 July, a day before relief arrived

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The siege and relief of Lucknow

- Gov. Sir Henry Lawrence guides Europeans from the end of May and holds out with enough food/ammo for 5 months from the end of June 

- Successful relief eventually reaches Lucknow on 25 September with a force of over 3000

- Cannot evacuate immediately due to injuries in the relief force - decide to remain in residency rather than fight their way out due to the discovery of food stores

- Sir Colin Campbell leads second relief force between 14-17 Nov and evacuates/abandons Lucknow, not to be retaken by Brit. until March 1858

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How Brit. retained control

- Rebels weren't a cohesive force, made up of mutineers, aggrieved landowners in Awadh, and peasants against local land and taxation policies

- Local leaders were unwilling to work together in order to form a national revolt

- Centres of the revolt each have their own centre of power in rebel leaders, meaning Brit. just had to eliminate this central power

- Awadh come closest to representing a unified challenge, due to Brit. actions in the province and familial links to sepoys in the Bengal army 

- Two other presidencies remain loyal to the Brit. and area around Calcutta remains unaffected

- 1/2 7000 soldiers who seek refuge in Lucknow are Indian soldiers and camp followers 

- When Delhi is retaken by Brit., 82% of the soldiers killed were native sepoys

- Brit. could exploit religious/political divisions, so the competing rebel forces were unable to unify against the Brit.

- In many areas, Indians were willing to pay Co. taxes as it was the best alternative

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Results of the rebellion

Punishment:

- Cawnpore:

  • Mutineers made to lick blood off buildings 
  • Made to eat pork/beef 
  • Hanged

- Peshawar:

  • 40 men strapped to canon barrels and blown apart

- Delhi:

  • Terrible slaughter
  • Bahadur Shah's three sons arrested, stripped down and then shot

- London determined to reorganise method of ruling, getting rid of the Co. and putting it under scrutiny of parliament

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End of Company rule

- Government of India Act 1858:

  • Ends Co. rule and India becomes directly ruled by Brit. via a viceroy
  • Royal proclamation issued, setting out rights of Her Majesty's new subjects - promises religious toleration, equal protection, and rights of native princes to their land

- Princely states and the cost of the rebellion:

  • Princely states brought under indirect control through treaties with rulers who are afraid of challenging Brit. dominance
  • Mughal dynasty ended when Bahadur Shah II is sent into exile
  • Brit. prepare and mentor princes for conservatism 
  • 560 autonomous princely states remain loyal to Brit. Raj 
  • Awadh - accomodation made w/ talukdars and Brit. steer clear of further land reform 
  • Ending the rebellion cost £50 million and debt is transferred to the new Raj system rather than the Co.
  • Taxation system changed but wary of restructuring landownership and taxation - introduce income tax on wealthier, urban groups
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The activities of missionaries

- Officials keep proselytising (attempting conversion) out of official policy as much as possible 

- Laws against sati and female infanticide remain - 1891: age of consent for girls raised from 10 to 12

- 1858 - London Missionary Society send additional 20 missionaries to India over the next 2 years, costing £11,000 overall

- Missionaries' beliefs in doubling efforts to convert are not shared by administrators, who push religious tolerance and representation

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Impact on the Empire

- Explosive reaction to stories of white men, women and children being attacked by 'brown men'

- Cawnpore massacre and Lucknow resistance become legendary

- Racial prejudice, hatred and segregation grow with white imperialists  

- 2000 white men in India withdraw, resistant to growing Indian nationalism and British liberalism

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Changes to the Indian army

- Indian sepoy soldiers reduced by 40% and Brit. troops increased by 50% so sepoy to Brit. ratio is 3:1, rather than 9:1

- Recruitment no longer from Brahmin and Rajput Hindu castes, who had contributed to the revolts 

- 1858 onwards - sepoys recruited from more loyal areas (mostly Sikh Punjab and Muslim north-west)

- Ensure adjacent regiments have different ethnic and religious backgrounds to prevent spread of mutiny from regiment to regiment 

- Troops allowed to use any grease for their rifles but introduction of breech-loading rifles in 1867 makes this obsolete anyway

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Long-term lessons of the rebellion

- Bentinck and Macauley's modernising agenda was misjudged - although it was led from a sense of cultural superiority, it also had the hope that Indians could adopt Christianity and Western education so they would eventually be ready for democratic self-government 

- Brit. imperialists no longer as self-confident and optimistic with modernising agendas, becoming more pragmatic and cautious

- Brit. keen to hold India for econ. and strategic value but no longer interested in the education or development of Indian society

- Alliance with princely states upheld again and turn to infrastructure and railways - 1861: 1,588 miles of railway track compared to the 288 miles in 1857 - end of 1800s: 24,760 miles

- Steady progress in irrigation projects, telegraph and postal network, sanitation and lighting projects and avoiding famine keeps native population content

- Nationalist discontent from educated middle classes was disregared as they said these 'westernised' Indians didn't understand true rural India

- Late-19th cent. - Brit. imperialists believe removing their rule would lead to famine and chaos

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Comments

eleanorrees471

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YESSSSS!!!!

cavila1

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what does co. mean?

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