British India 1750-18571 The “Age of Reform” 1828-1857 Commerce & Conquest/ Imperial Expansion in British India

British India 1750-1857 1

The “Age of Reform” 1828-1857

Commerce & Conquest/ Imperial Expansion in British India


• 1828 has traditionally been regarded as demarcating the beginning of a new era in the history of British India.

• Up to this time attitudes concerning the governance of an alien society varied and were mostly discordant.

• But the dominant ethos was ' reformist' and it grew in strength and stridency.

• Initially held at bay, it captured the mind of Parliament first, indoctrinated the bureaucratic class that was trained at Haileybury to run the new empire, and overwhelmed the objections of orientalists and pragmatists

Stacking opium ballsFrom: The Graphic 1882


• By 1828 liberals like Macauley and Utilitarians like Mill, Bentinck and Trevelyan had the field to themselves and immediately instituted reformist programmes.

• Let’s examine those programmes, evaluate the impulses and motives that informed them, and measure their impact on Indian society.

• Whether the changes foreshadowed or legislated for between 1828-56 deserve to entitle this 30 year period as 'The Age of Reform', however, remains a moot point …


• Up to 1828 we have the development of a reforming ethos

• After 1828 we reputedly have application of a reforming program.

• This reforming program had at its heart the Doctrine of Improvement.

• India seen as a 'laboratory of experiment' in social and political engineering.


But improvement of what kind?

• Improvement could take different forms and reflect different inputs.– To liberals : improvement =

Western education– To utilitarian : improvement

= good laws– To evangelicals :

improvement = Christianity and conversion


• In historiography the period 1828-1856 has been labelled 'The Age of Reform'– Is this merited? If not, why not?– Possible explanation : Age of Reform is a

concept needed to explain the Mutiny which followed it? Thus British meddling/interference provides an ideal backdrop for Indian reaction and resistance in 1856-8.


Opposing historical explanations

• But J. Nehru disputes the point that the British were reforming zealots, who went too far too quickly, in a 'cultural blitzkrieg'. Instead, he argues, the British remained, from first to last, lily-hearted bureaucrats - who contemplated change only if it were safe.

• V.G Kiernan ['The Lords of Human Kind'] draws our attention not to what the British actually did, but to how they did it. That is, it was not British reforms that were the problem so much as British methods.


The Coming of Bentinck• [Gov.-General 1828-1835]

– What sort of man was he?– Relied on advice from strong-willed advisers.– Therefore susceptibility to instigate change in line

with current reformist views.

• His "Reforms" fall into 3 categories– 1. Social : Do they amount to much? Negative in

character– 2. Legal : Macaulay's New Legal Code 1834 (Mill's

influence) = Western, uniform, far-reaching.– 3. Educative : Macaulay's Reform Minute of 1835 =

considered the Key Measure of this period.


Educative measures

• 1835 Education Minute – Features :['Filtration' theory; Education filters down from elite to masses; Brown Englishmen created]

• - Motivations:• - Racial - administrative - commercial• Results: - (1) An unexpected Growth of

nationalist sentiment • - - (2) An unexpected development

of Hindu/Muslim rivalry


Dalhousie 1852-1856

• Dalhousie and Economic 'Improvement'• - Infrastructure of modern state put in place• (a) railways (b) telegraph (c) universities• - Emphasis on both shovel and pen• Dalhousie [Gov.General 1852-56] an

interventionist• Able to execute utilitarian policy; not simply

make policy statements.• Conclusion: Do the above 'Reforms' constitute a

full-scale-assault on Indian Custom? If not, how do we explain the Mutiny?


Blog Questions

• 1. What did Utilitarianism, as outlined by James Mill and applied by its apologists for generations, consist of in the Indian context?

• 2. T. B. Macauley's Minute of Education (1838) is always depicted as the centrepiece of British 'reformism'. Why was it important?

• 3. In what ways was Dalhousie's approach to the improvement of Indian society different from either Mill's or Macauley's?


Articles• K.A. Ballhatchet, 'The Home Government and British

Educational Policy', Cambridge Historical Journal, 10, 1951

• Special Issue of Indo-British Review: 'The East India Company Raj', Vol. XXI, no. 2 (1996)

• G.D. Bearce, 'Lord William Bentinck: The Application of Liberalism to India', Journal of Modern History. 28, 1956

• S. Gopal, 'Dalhousie', History Today, 9, 1959• G & N Sirkin, 'Battle of Indian Education: Macaulay's

Opening Salvo Newly Discovered', Victorian Studies, 14, 1971

• E. Stokes, 'Macaulay: the Indian Years 1834-38', Review of English Literature, 1, 1960

Documents

British India 1750-18571 The “Age of Reform” 1828-1857 Commerce & Conquest/ Imperial Expansion in British India