08 British India

7/31/2019 08 British India

1/12

Case Study of Empire:

The British Empire in India

Professor Lavender

21 March 2005

Sgt. B ayes of the 18th Huss ars Britis h Eas t India C ompan y Flag

British East India Company

The history of British

imperialism in India is

inextricable from thehistory of the British East

India Company (EIC)

Warren Hastings, First

Indian Governor General


At the start of the 18th

century, the East India

Company's presence in

India was one of trade

outposts.

George Vertue, The Old East India House inLeadenhall Street, London (1711)


But by the end

of the century,

the Company

was militarily

dominant over

South India

and rapidly

extending

northward.New East India House, 1880s

The Expansion of the EIC:

Two Phases

To 1850

Expand from presence

on coast (1750s) to

take over center of

India.

War on land in eastern

and south-eastern

India.

Gain control over the

rich province of

Bengal.

1850-1870s

Consolidate control over

Bengal and rest of east and

southeast.

Extend EIC control up the

Ganges valley to Delhi.

Subdue all remaining Indian

states of any consequence:

either by conquering them;

or by forcing their rulers to

become subordinate allies

British East India Company History

1600: East India

Company founded and

given a monopoly of all

English trade to Asia by

royal grant.

Traded with all of Asia --esp. China & India

East India Company ShipSeal of the East India Company


2/12

British East India Company History

Company evolved

into the worlds

largest corporation

by 1700.

Funded by the

purchase of shares

and bonds.

20-30 ships/year sent

to Asia.

Annual sales in

London were worth

up to 2 million.

East India Company Stock

British East India Company in India

By 1800, EIC turned

focus to India.

Cotton cloth woven

by Indian weavers

imported into Britain

in huge quantities to

supply a worldwide

demand for cheap,

washable,

lightweight fabrics

for dresses and

furnishings.

Indian Fabric Printer at work

Indian Textiles

The Company's main settlements -- Bombay, Madras

and Calcutta -- established in the Indian provinces

where cotton textiles for export were most readily

available.

Indian Tailor with Wife of an EIC Official

British India in 1848

A cloth merchant seated in his

shop selling chintz to a

customer, painted by a

Tanjoreartist, circa 1800.

A pile-carpet loom at Hunsur, Mysore, 1850.

Settlements evolved

from factories or

trading posts into

major commercial

towns under British

jurisdiction. Indian merchants and

artisans moved in to

do business with the

Company and with the

British inhabitants

who lived there.

Bombay, Madras and Calcutta

Bantam Market

The City of Surat, First Trading Port for English in India


3/12


4/12


5/12

Military Expansion of the East India Company

East India Company Official in

Company Uniform

Field Officer of the East India Company

Guard

As the EIC

expanded and

demanded to play

a larger role inlocal politics and

administration, its

need for an army

increased.

This need was

answered by

importing British

soldiers and

increasing Sepoys.


Armed troops of the East India Company, 1840s

But relations with Sepoy troops deterioriated as the

EIC began to require them to act more British

Introduction of pork and beef lard as rifle cartridge

lubricant triggers the Sepoy Mutiny (1858)


Mugal Attack on the British Fort at Bombay, 1858

Reasons for the Mutiny Christian Evangelism

in India after 1834

Had been kept out by

the EIC for fear of

offending locals

But British Parliament

had forced EIC to open

borders to missionaries

in 1834.

Changing Status of

Sepoy troops

Decreasing Pay

Replacement of Sepoyofficers with English-

trained ones

1856 General Service

Enlistment Act

Overseas service

requirement for all

enlisted men

Offensive to Hindus

In Hindu belief,

crossing the ocean

would make them

ritually impure

requiring expensive

purification

ceremonies

or else becoming

outcasts in their home

communities.

Loss of Military

Careers.

The Last Straw

1856, Enfield Rifles issued to EIC Army

Soldiers required to bite ends off the cartridges;

cartridges were greased with lard and tallow

For Muslims and Hindus, contact with either

would make them unclean and cause a loss of

caste status; and this seemed specifically aimed at

their religious identity.

May 9, 1857: 85 Sepoys beaten and imprisoned for

refusing orders to use them

May 10, 1857: Bengal regiment mutinied in protest

and killed their British commanders The Attack of Mutineers, July 30, 1857


6/12

Battle of Lucknow, June 1857British Depiction of the Sepoy Mutineers: Sepoy Indian troops dividing the spoils after

their mutiny against British rule

British Depiction of the Sepoy Mutineers

British Reaction We shall never again occupy a

high ground in India until we

have put a yoke upon the

Brahmins. We have conceded

too much to the insolence of

caste. Not one high caste man

should henceforward be

entrusted with a sword.... He

has been trusted with power,

and how has he betrayed it?

The graves of 100 English

women and childrenworse,

the unburied bones of those

poor victimsare the

monuments of high bred sepoy

chivalry. --Delhi Gazette

British Retribution Within the Military

"Eradication" of Sepoy

regiments

51st and 26th regiments

killed in their entirety

John Lawrence wrote to

the British high command

in August 1857:

We have killed and

drowned 500 out of the

600 men of the [26th]

regiment.

Indian troops killed with English

cannons in the aftermath of the Sepoy

mutiny, 1858

British Retribution vs. Civilians Colonel James Neill and the

Bloody Assizes beginning in

Allahabad on June 11, 1857.

Every native that appeared in

sight was shot down without

question, and in the morning

Colonel Neill sent out parties of

regiment [?]...and burned all the

villages near where the ruins of

our bungalows stood, and hung

every native that they could

catch, on the trees that lined the

road. Another party of soldiers

penetrated into the native city

and set fire to it, whilst volley

after volley of grape and

canister was poured into the

fugitives as they fled from their

burning houses. Capture of Lucknow (detail)


7/12

The Bloody Assizes June 29 1857:

Neill orders "the village of

Mullagu and neighborhood to

be attacked and destroyed

slaughter all the men take no

prisoners. All insurgents that

fall into good hands hang at

onceand shoot all you can.

A British Soldier in Delhi: All

the people found within the

walls when our troops entered

were bayoneted on the spot.

These were not mutineers but

residents of the city, who

trusted to our well-known mild

rule for pardon. I am glad to say

they were disappointed.

The judge in charge of trials at

Bareilly had lost his wife during the

conflict; he told McCausland:

If ever I get the chance of [judging]

these Black rebels I will hang a manfor every hair that was in my wifes

head.

He had executed close on 700 well

I said if you just continue you will

have made good your work and

turning to Sergt Aden I said you

mind what Sir Colin [Campbell]

said to us at Cawnpore that every

man that had a black face was our

enemy and we could not do wrong

in shooting him so you know how to

act here. -- David McAusland of

the 42nd Highland Regiment (diary)

Massacre at Satchiura Ghatin

Cawnpore, July 15, 1857

Reactions to the Massacre Huge coverage in Britain

London Times alone carried 108

stories about the massacre between

August 15, 1857 and February 3,

1860.

Lurid accounts dwelling

on rape and race women being raped in front of

their children before being

killed,

of matted blood, gory remains of

childrens limbs,

of the suffocation of living

children among their dead

mothers when the victims werethrown into a well.

British Calls for Vengeance Every British heart, from the

highest to the humblest of the

land, glows with honest wrath,

and demands justice, prompt and

unsparing, on the bloodyminded

instruments of the Rebellion. --

The Illustrated London News

London Times,Morning Post,andNewcastle Chronicle:

Muslim and Hindu rebels must

be exterminated

The paramount duty of the

British Government is now

retribution a duty to the dead

and living. --Delhi Gazette

No mercy's shown to men

whose hands/ With women's

blood yet reek! --Delhi Gazette

Official British military dispatches

depicted Sepoys as

demons, fiends, and niggers

led by passions to faithlessness,

rebellion, and crimes at which the

heart sickens,

as gangs of black satyrs,

members of that venom race, inheart as black as face.

Brevet-Major R.Poorewrites

home in 1857:

The race of men in India are

certainly the most abominable,

degraded lot of brutes that you can

imagine, they don't seem to have a

single good quality.


8/12


9/12

Advantages for those

who convert:

Education

Jobs as Missionaries

Access to English

Privilege

Cultural Imperialism

Indian cultural

practices:

Sati (Suttee) banned

1828

Thugs (Thuggee)

banned in 1830s

Suttee

Sati and Swinging, 1815

Invented Cultural Practices Apartheid

In India every European, be he German, or

Pole or Rumanian, is automatically a

member of the ruling race. Railway

carriages, station retiring rooms, benches in

parks, etc. are marked 'For Europeans Only.'This is bad enough in South Africa or

elsewhere, but to have to put up with it in

one's own country is a humiliating and

exasperating reminder of one's enslaved

condition. -- Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian

nationalist and first Prime Minister


10/12

1858: In aftermath of the 1857 Uprising, Britain seizes

direct rule over India

Direct British Rule

1869: Suez Canal

opened

Canal reduced the

sailing time between

Britain and India from

about three months to

only three weeks

Enabled London to

exercise tight control

over all aspects of

Indian trade.

Suez Canal

Railroads, roads,

and communications

developed

To bring raw

materials, especially

cotton, to ports for

shipment to England

To bring

manufactured goods

from England for

sale in an expanding

Indian market.

Railway Bridges in India, 1900 (top) and 1930 (bottom)

British-owned Indian

industry expanded

from 1880 to 1914,

but not Indian.

India remained agricultural In 1914 less than 5% of national income

came from industry

Less than 1 percent of Indias workforce

was employed in factories.

1877: Massive

Famine in Madras

Immediate cause was a

drought which lasted

two years But exacerbated by

British control over

food prices

And British use of

food as way to control

economy

Post-Railroad Famines in

19th-Century India

1865-66: Bengal, Bihar,

Orissa.

Orissa worst hit; 1 million

died in the three districts.

1876-8: Maharashtra and

South India (7 million)

1896: Maharashtra and

South India

1899-1900: Gujarat and

Rajasthan

Famine as the measure of British policies

1. Rain failure.

2. Hoarding by traders and urban

moneylenders. Export of grain.

3. Attacks on grain shops and

stores. Upsurge in robberies.

4. At normal harvest time, British

government demands tax. Manypeasants refuse to pay. Leads to

coercion by tax-officials, forcing

richer peasants to pay up. Poorer

peasants have land confiscated, or

mortgage or sell property -

jewellery, farm implements, land -

to moneylenders to pay taxes.

Richest peasants and moneylenders

enlarge their holdings.

5. British Government

establishes relief works, to

which poorest peasants go.

Middling peasants, and higher

castes without resources starve.

British government punishes

those who refuse to enter relief

works by cutting rations

6. Destitute start to wander in

search of food. Some receive

charitable relief in towns.

7. There are suicides, parents

sell or kill children, deaths

(often of disease).

DEATH TOLL: 7 Million.

Famine in Madras, 1877


11/12

State-sanctioned ration for Madras, set by Sir Richard Temple,

British Madras President

Source: Mike Davis,Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino,

Famines and the Making of the Third World(Verso, 2001).

Pierre Loti arrived at

Rajputana in 1899 by train

to a haunting scene of

wailing emaciated children:

"Oh! look at the poor little things

jostling there against the barrier,

stretching out their withered

hands towards us from the end of

the bones which represent their

arms. Every part of their meagre

skeleton protrudes with shocking

visibility through the brown skin

that hangs in folds about them;

their stomachs are so sunken that

one might think that their bowels

had been altogether removed.

Flies swarm on their lips and

eyes, drinking what moisture may

still exude... Source: Mike Davis,

Late Victorian Holocausts

Villagers inRajputanain 1899;Nearly a million villagers died in

the famine.

Famine in Rajputana, 1899

The last of the Herd, Madras (during the famine 1876-1878), Tamil Nadu, South India

Characteristics of British Rule in

India

Change in policies and attitudes

Impact of Sepoy Mutiny (or Indian

Rebellion of 1857-58)

Establishment of British Control, 1859

Full-On Empire: apartheid, cultural

imperialism

Evaluation: famine

Evaluating British Rule in India

Arundhati Roy, The New American

Century, The Nation (January 22, 2004):

Debating Imperialism is a bit like debatingthe pros and cons of rape. What can we say?

That we really miss it?

The entire article


12/12

Evaluating British Rule in India

Dinesh D'Souza, "Two Cheers forColonialism," The Chronicle of Higher

Education (May 10, 2002)

"The West did not become rich and

powerful through colonial oppression.....

The descendants of colonialism are better

off than they would be if colonialism had

never happened.

The entire article

End

Documents

08 British India