2a.1 Flashcards
What was the role of the Viceroy?
He was a political appointment made in Westminster, and represented the crown in India.
He worked from Delhi with a staff of 700 and a salary 5 times of the prime minister.
What was the role of the Secretary of State.
Like the Viceroy he was appointed by Westminster and was responsible for the government policy in India.
He was guided by the council of India based in London, which was 15 men, who had experience living in India but this was out of date.
What was the Indian Civil Service?
Who could join?
What skills were prioritised?
What was it like for Indians?
- Ensured that British, Laws and Regulations were enforced in India.
- Young men had to pass competitive exams for them to get in.
- All round intelligence was prized more than academics because they had to deal with rogue elephants and tax assessments.
-Indians had to go through a series of exams in London and had to be educated in UK university to join. (5%).
Only in 1919 were exams also in India.
What were the Princely states?
How much of the country was this?
What is an example of a Princely state and how big was it?
-These were large areas of subcontinent that were not directly subject to the British Raj.
The Princes rules 35% of the country, consisting of 562 separate states.
Hyderabad was 77,000 sq km and one of the largest princely states and contained 14 million people.
What was the reality of the princely states.
Even though they were not directly subject to British rule:
They made treaties with the British.
Did not act counter to the British Raj.
What was the Caste system in India?
What religion believed in this?
It was a hierarchy whereby society was divided into those who were pure and those who came into contact with impure substances.
Those who came into contact with impure substances during their work were lower down.
Women were temporarily impure during childbirth.
The lowest in the Caste system was the untouchables.
Even though this was based on separation, it also relied on interdependence.
Hindus were bound to this system and could not leave these castes
What were the main religions in India?
Where were they based?
Hinduism, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians.
North and east.
How large was the Muslim faith in India?
Muslims were the largest minority (around 20%).
In the North-east that had positions of high power but in areas like Bengal they were peasants.
Sikh faith in India?
Sikhs formed a localised group in the Punjab, and grew out of the interactions between Muslims and Hindus.
Christian faith in India?
In the far south of India there was an ancient denomination of Christians that aged back to St Thomas.
Why was religion important in India?
Religion was a powerful force as the groups tried to maintain their identities in independence.
The temples became a location of political activity and some felt that policies were endangering Islams.
What was the importance of India to Britain.
It was of economic importance as India supplied raw materials to Britain and vice versa.
What did Britain supply India with?
Initially they were supplied with cotton goods, but later this included amounts of steel, iron and engineering products.
What products did India supply Britain with?
Jute, Cotton, rice and oil seed.
Why was trading between Britain and India convenient?
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 ran between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea reduced the travelling time between India and Britain. Which decreased costs for Britain.
How did tariff and investment work in India?
What was the exception to this?
1.Tariffs were removed in India.
LANCASHIRE COTTON.
Tariffs were removed off Lancashire cotton in 1879 which meant it flooded the market in a time where the Indian cotton industry needed support and there was a famine.
2.In 1917 some protection was given to Indian industries.
What was the British investment in India?
What was it in the form of?
- In the early years of the 20th Century Britain received 1/10 of all overseas investment. 360 million in 1910.
- Nearly half of this was in the form of government loans to subsidise railway development and tea and coffee plantations.
How else did Britain invest in India?
They invested in India through people:
Many British worked as part of the Indian Civil Service, medicine and engineering.
When they went back to England and retired they were given pensions that were paid by India.
What were the Indian attitudes to the Raj?
How did the English language connect to this?
How were the negative attitudes demonstrated?
The Indians were aware that they owed their livelihoods to their masters and were not openly critical to them.
The language of English allowed Indians to break into the Indian Civil Service.
It was also a unifying aspect.
The partition of Bengal caused riots and emerged the nationalist movement.
What was the Indian National Congress?
When was it formed?
First nationalist movement to emerge in India.
Who took part in the Indian National Congress?
How did the personnel progress?
What were its aims initially?
In the first meeting of the Indian National Congress in 1885 it was mostly high-class hindu caste members and 2 muslims.
3 years later there were 83 members of the 600 delegates and this Hindu domination continued.
It started as a political forum and not a political party and wanted to power share with the British Raj but there were some members who were more extreme.
Why did the Muslim league emerge.
What was the Muslim League?
Another political organisation for the muslims who did not feel comfortable under the Indian National Congress umbrella.
What was the main problem for the Muslim league?
And what did they oppose?
Muslims were always the minority in every situation. This was not a massive problem during the Raj as they would make decisions.
The Raj were opposed to the ‘one man one vote system’ as this would mean there would be few muslims elected to provincial or National Assemblies.
What was the Indian Councils Act and when was it?
1909- was the outcome of a series of reforms agreed between John Morley, and the viceroy, Lord Minto. Reflecting on the understanding of the problems faced by Hindus and Muslims.
What were three features of the Indian Councils Act 1909?
What else did Morely do?
- Sixty Indian representatives were to be elected to serve on the viceroy’s Executive council.
- The provincial councils were to be enlarged to create unofficial minorities.
- Separate electorates were provided for Muslims or Hindus.
Morely also added 2 Indians to his group of London-based advisors.
What was India’s response to the outbreak of war?
What did the Princely states do?
As soon as war broke out in Europe. India poured out support in terms of Congress, Muslim Leagues and Princely states.
27 of the largest princely states put their armies at the disposal of Britain and commissioned a hospital ship, ‘loyalty’
Bal Tilak who was the leader of an extremist group also pledged loyalty.
Gandhi also pledged loyalty.
How many Indians enlisted to the army?
By 1918 827,000 had enlisted as combatants.
How many Indians died as a result of the war?
64,500 died as a result of the war.
What were the attitudes to fighting?
The Indians believed that they were upholding their ancestral tradition to protect their emperor.
Few claimed to be fighting for India and cited the king or emperor.
What was the Montagu Declaration?
when was it?
Montagu agreed to give India more self government and change the political geography.
20TH AUG 1917.
How did the Montagu declaration lead to self governance and how did it not.
-Led to self governance as it presented a reorganised political geography of India.
-Montagu visited India and criticised those who wanted more British participation in government .
(critical of O’Dwyer.)
Negatives.
There was no timescale.
