British Imperalism

Case Study: India

 BACKGROUND - 18th Century India
Aurangzeb was the last of the powerful Mughal rulers. He established control over a very
large part of the territory that is now known as India. After his death in 1707, many Mughal
governors (subadars) and big zamindars began asserting their authority and establishing
regional kingdoms. As powerful regionalkingdoms emerged in various parts of India, Delhi
could no longer function as an effective centre.

Fun fact: By the second half of the eighteenth century, however,

a new power was emerging on the political horizon – the British. Did you know that the
British originally came as a small trading company and were reluctant to acquire
territories? How then did they come to be masters of a vast empire?
Zamindars were recognized as the owner
of the lands. Zamindars were given the
rights to collect the rent from the
peasants. While the zamindars became
the owners of the land, the actual farmers
became tenants.
 Recap

● The English East India Company was established in 1600

● Established its first factory in India in 1606 when the Mughals were still
powerful
● The British primarily came in as a trading entity to make profits
● Decline of the Mughal Empire after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707
● Collapse of a centralised power that could effectively check the British
 Background
● Emergence of several princely states in the 18th century-
- The Maratha Confederacy
- The Nizams of Hyderabad
- The Nazims of Bengal
- The Nawabs of Awadh
- The Rajputs
- The Sikhs in Punjab
Among many smaller princely states
● Each state began competing for more resources, land, and power
● Gave the British and French a chance to interfere in internal affairs
 Methods of Annexations

01 02 03
Wars & Treaties Subsidiary Alliance Doctrine of Lapse
Introduced by Lord
Headed by Lord Wellesley
Dalhousie
 1. Wars and Treaties
● The British fought three Carnatic wars in the South to diminish French
influence
● The Portuguese and the Dutch were already weak back home
● Against powerful rulers the British fought outright wars and took over
the region
● For example: The Battle of Plassey (1757) against Siraj Ud Daulah the
ruler of Bengal
● Tactic: Betrayal and deceit (Mir Jafar)
● Instate a puppet ruler (Mir Qasim) that could be controlled
● Significance: Gave the British Diwani rights over Bengal and Bihar
(1776)
● Appointed the first governor general of Bengal (1772): Warren Hastings
 1. Wars and Treaties

● The British also fought wars against Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan of
Mysore
● Against the Marathas in the three Anglo-Maratha wars
● Methods could also be used simultaneously

After wars, rulers forced to sign the Subsidiary Alliance

Sometimes this was signed voluntarily

Diwani rights
means the right
to collect revenue
and taxes.

As Diwan, the
company became
the chief financial
administrator of
the territory
under its control.
A plan of the Battle of
Plassey, fought 23 June
1757 by Col. Robert
Clive, against the
Nawab of Bengal.
Depiction of the
battlefield, with
explanations of troop
movements.
battle gave the British trading company a far superior position in India as
compared to the other Europeans.
Imagine that you have come across two old
newspapers reporting on the Battle of
Seringapatam and the death of Tipu Sultan. One
is a British paper and the other is from Mysore.

Write the headline for each of the two

newspapers.
With the gradual weakening of the Maratha Empire in the
aftermath of the three Anglo-Maratha wars fought during
1772-1818, the British also secured the Maratha territories.
It was during these campaigns, both against Mysore and
the Marathas, that under the command of Arthur Wellesley,
the British had secured the entire region of Southern India
(with the exception of small enclaves of French and local
rulers), Western India and Eastern India.
Punjab remained the last Indian state to be conquered by
the British in 1849. It was under the rule of Maharaja
Ranjit Singh who had united the various Sikh
confederacies into one state. He had established a
modern administrative system. His army was the second
largest modernized regular army in Asia after the British
army. The East India Company maintained friendly
relations with Ranjit Singh. But just within one decade of
his death in 1839, two Anglo-Sikh wars were fought and
in 1849 Punjab also became part of the British India.
 2. Subsidiary Alliance - Recap

● Was used to bring the Indian states within the

boundary of the British political power
● Under this agreement, Indian rulers under
British protection suspended their native
armies, instead maintaining British troops
within their states
● They surrendered control of their foreign affairs
to the British
● In return, the East India Company would
protect them from the attacks of their rivals.
 3. Doctrine of Lapse
The final wave of annexations occurred under Lord Dalhousie who was
the Governor-General from 1848 to 1856. He devised a policy that came to
be known as the Doctrine of Lapse. The doctrine declared that if an Indian
ruler died without a male heir his kingdom would “lapse”, that is, become
part of Company territory. One kingdom after another was annexed
simply by applying this doctrine: Satara (1848), Sambalpur (1850),
Udaipur (1852), Nagpur (1853) and Jhansi (1854). Finally, in 1856, the
Company also took over Awadh. This time the British had an added
argument – they said they were “obliged by duty” to take over Awadh in
order to free the people from the “misgovernment” of the Nawab!
Enraged by the humiliating way in which the Nawab was deposed, the
people of Awadh joined the great revolt that broke out in 1857.
The policy of annexation not only affected the Indian rulers, but
also all those who were dependent upon these rulers - soldiers,
crafts people, nobles, scholars, priests, chieftains, zamindars, etc

Due to these policies of the British, by the mid nineteenth century

there was no single Indian power who could challenge the
British
 Recap

● An annexation policy by the British East India Company

● Under the doctrine princely territory under the direct rule of the East
India Company would automatically be annexed if the ruler was either
incompetent or died without a direct heir

● Many states under the Marathas were enjoying British protection

● In this way Dalhousie annexed Satara, Sambalpur, Udaipur, Nagpur,

Jhansi and Awadh
 Revolt of 1857
What’s in a name?

● First War of Independence

● Sepoy Mutiny
● Great Rebellion etc
There are two major views regarding the nature of
the Revolt of 1857. While many people have treated
the great uprising of 1857 as a sepoy mutiny; on the
other hand, the staunch patriotic and nationalist
Indian writers & historians regarded the Revolt of
1857 as the First War of Indian Independence.
However, the truth lies somewhere in between.
Though initially it started as a mutiny of the Indian
soldiers, the revolt spread rapidly and assumed the
nature of a mass rebellion.
The British and colonial press, along with contemporary
Europeans, referred to the events under a number of
titles, the most common being the Sepoy Mutiny and the
Indian Mutiny.Contemporary anti-imperialists viewed
those terms as propaganda and pushed to characterise
the uprising as more than just the actions of mutinous
native soldiers. At the time, they used the term Indian
Insurrection in the British and colonial press. Karl Marx
was the first Western scholar to call the events of 1857 a
"national revolt",although he used the term Sepoy Revolt
to describe them.
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar first used the term War of Independence to describe the 1857 uprising in
his 1909 book The History of the War of Indian Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime
Minister of India, insisted on using the term First War of Independence to refer to the event, and the
terminology was adopted by the Government of India.
Some South Indian historians have opposed the use of the term First War of Independence by the
Government to describe the 1857 revolt. These historians insist that several other anti-British
uprisings in South India, such as the Vellore Mutiny in 1806 had preceded the 1857 revolt, and should
be called the First War of Indian independence.
Some Sikh groups have also opposed the use of the term. They insist that the First Anglo-Sikh War
(1845–46) should be called the First War of Independence instead, although other localised wars
against the British had taken place previously, such as the First Anglo-Maratha War and the
First Anglo-Mysore War. Some Indian writers also insist that none of the armed uprisings against
the British in India, including the 1857 uprising, should be termed as a "war of independence" since
they were neither national in nature nor motivated mainly by nationalist sentiment and they involved
only a minority of people or soldiers.
 Causes of Revolt

Political Social / Religious Economic

Military Immediate Cause

 Political Causes

Disrespect shown to the Unpopular

Mughal Emperor administration

British policies of Treatment towards

annexation Nana Saheb
 Social / Religious Causes

Racial Discrimination Laws passed by the

British Government

Conversion into Promotion of Western Levy of tax on lands

Christianity Education owned for religious
purpose
 Economic Causes

Impact on handicrafts Reforms in Taxation &

Exploitation of India
industries Revenue system (Zamindari,
Ryatwari, Mahalwari)

Loss of Jobs Famines

 Military Causes

Discrimination against the Disproportion between

Indian Soldiers Indian & British troops

Religious issues among Discrimination

Indian Soldiers regarding allowance
 Immediate Cause

● Hindus - Cows were sacred

● Muslims - Pig meat was forbidden by Quran
The rumour of the greased cartridge being made of
cow and pig’s flesh and meat sparked off fire of
discontent against the British in the form of the
revolt. The first sign of unrest appeared in 1857 at
Barrackpore in Bengal.
A sepoy, Mangal Pandey on 29th March, 1857,
killed senior officers on parade and started the
revolt.
○ Mangal Pandey was hanged to death on 8th
April.
○ On 9th May, 85 soldiers in Meerut refused to
use the new rifle and were sentenced to ten
years’ imprisonment.
■ The Revolt of 1857 lasted for more than a year. On July 8, 1858, peace was finally
proclaimed by Lord Canning.