Depth - the British in India 1829-58

Question 1

Role of the East India Company

Answer 1

Had three private armies on the field, one for each of the company presidencies (Bengal, Madras and Bombay), to protect its trading interests and to support its local collaborators

Nabobs earned large private fortunes, but poor management and corruption meant gov took over EIC’s structure and Acts were passed in 1773, 1784 and 1786 to establish the relationship between the East India Company and parliament.

Relationship between EIC and gov was altered by free trade – while the charter renewed in 1813 and 1833, they reduced and then ended the trade monopoly which hastened the evolving function of the Company.

Changes in Company functions from the Charter Acts caused Company reps to think about the way the territory should be controlled, administered and ‘improved” and now British reps now saw themselves as rulers, rather engaging and protecting commercial interests.

Instead of concentrating on trade, they were now more than ever involved in local administration and tax collection. They had been tax collecting for local princes for many years, but as only one aspect of their commercial activities.

However, the EIC could put private armies equal or stronger than the locals, central to their growing tax role and locals allied for protection from others and tax collection. Company civil servants oversaw tax collection, supported by Company’s armies.

Question 2

Role of the Governor Generals

Answer 2

From 1773 the Governor was appointed was by a council of four (Crown appointed) bringing the governor under Crown control. Warren Hastings served as first governor under this system from 1774 to 1785. Other presidents of EIC territory, in Madras, Bombay and Bencoolen, could not make war or accept a peace from an Indian prince without the approval of the governor in Bengal.

1784 India Act – strengthened governor’s executive power and stipulated other presidencies couldn’t make war or peace unless told by Bengal, giving foreign policy control to Benga governor + 1736 Act enabled governors to override their council if deemed necessary

1st governor with increased powers was Lord Cornwallis (fresh from Yorktown defeat) appointed as commander-in-chief of Indian forces

Due to legislation between 1774 and 1784, government regulation was extended over EIC, especially over political activities and over this era there was power centralisation within the presidencies, giving the Bengali governor power over the other two presidencies.

In 1833, due to the Government of India Act, the governor general became the coexisting governor general of India and filled by the Board of Directors of EIC, but subject to the Crown but due to slow communications they used huge powers and autonomy comparable to other governors in British colonies – Sir William Bentinck (new GovGen) was responsible for territory foreign policy and administration but had legislative control over all Company territory

Question 3

Importance of the Company Army

Answer 3

1820 – troops numbered 200,000 with men of all ethnicities under European officers – ensured local rulers signed treaties for protection against other local rules or self-preservation from British military superiority and armies supported tax collection and admin roles. Strength meant that Company territory increased notably – Sir Wellesley (1798-1805) increase territory and stop French influence

Training of civil servants and military personnel reflected the change to civil administration in the 19th century, as it developed from a purely commercial company with hired mercs. Recruits shared the same sense of cultural superiority as Civil Service intake.

1829–1853 – EIC fought several campaigns in Afghanistan, Sind and the Punjab with varying success – successfully annexed Assam, Manipur and Cacher between 1823 and 1826 (costly)

British obsession was fuelled by fear of a Russian invasion, through Afghanistan or Sind through Persia. The First Afghan War from 1838 to 1842 was a disaster after the governor was foolish enough to be persuaded by his secretary to meddle in Afghan internal politics without support of the Punjab ruler – cost Britain 20,000 lives and over £15 million and the immediate impact made the Company determined to secure Sind and the Punjab in compensation.

Sind was formally annexed in 1843, following a decisive campaign, but the Punjab took the 1840s until 1849. The British admiration for the warlike Sikhs was repaid during the Indian Rebellion when the Sikhs supported the British against the rebellious local soldiers, partly as a result of long-held grievances relating to the Anglo-Sikh wars of annexation, which had been fought in part by sepoy regiments of different religions.

The bitterness which the Punjabi soldiers nursed towards the native sepoys of the Bengali Company army illustrates the complicated local tensions that the Company was so successfully able to exploit as it expanded its presence in the subcontinent

Question 4

Importance of the Bengal Army

Answer 4

Most important presidency in the Company in the 19th century and its president was the governor general of all the territory controlled by the EIC after the Government of India Act 1833.

Administrative structure of Bengal was developed under the governor generalship of Lord Cornwallis (1786-93) and the system laid down in his Code of Regulations was the framework of Indian government for nearly two centuries.

Land put into districts under collectors and landholders settled with land rights for fixed tax liabilities. Collectors were supervised by the Board of Revenue at Calcutta. Legal administration was placed in the hands of local judges and magistrates, who were supervised by regional courts of appeal. Until 1911, Calcutta was the capital of British India and the building of the initial British trading factory of Fort William can still be seen in modern-day Kolkata.

The Bengal army was twice the size of the other armies. Traditionally recruited from among the higher castes who held privileges, which they guarded, and they were to sensitive caste pollution. Bengali sepoys were from provinces, like Awadh and played a pivotal role in Punjab annexation with resulting Sikh enmity to sepoys was part of British survival in rebellion (1857)

Question 5

Importance of the British Army

Answer 5

The British Army had only one European regiment between Calcutta and Agra, which made asserting initial control difficult and played a part in encouraging the native soldiers to take action

Question 6

Culture Clashes between India and Britain - Company operators

Answer 6

Becoming less tolerant of local customs and religions and increasingly seeking to change society

Sense of cultural superiority emerging in the Company staff resulting in the paternalistic desire to change and ‘improve’ Indians

Question 7

Cultural clashes between India and Britain - Christianity

Answer 7

Racial harmony was challenged by a growth of evangelical Christinaity and the arrival of more British women in India

Committed Christians challenged inequality resulting in laudable campaigns e.g. the abolition of slavery.

They judged other religions and by extension societies to be inferior because they were not Christian.

Increasingly, missionaries attempted to convert the Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists whom they found on the subcontinent and this often destabilised local social systems

Question 8

Cultural challenges between India and Britain - British women

Answer 8

Reinforced a sense of growing cultural division between the Company employees and Indians with British women increasingly coming to find themselves husbands.

Racial intermingling that had been commonplace in the 18th century was now socially taboo.

Mixed-race children were not accepted in the developing white ‘society’ in India and, while an English man could visit the home of another Englishman with an Indian wife or partner, no English woman would do so.

In 1780 ⅓ Company men left wills making provisions for native spouses or cohabitees and their children.

By 1950 the wills of Company men show that only a tiny proportion of men were involved in relationships with indian women

Question 9

What is Thagi?

Answer 9

Thagi was most prevalent in northern India and was the legal assault which began in the 1830s.
They practiced highway robbery and ritual murder by strangling in service of a Hindu goddess. Bands of up to 400 Thagi existed acting in small groups preying on travelers by befriending and accompanying them, before stealing and strangling them

Question 10

How did the British restrict Thagi?

Answer 10

1835 campaign- led by Colonel William Sleeman followed his capture of a thagi who described the practices. Led to Sleeman becoming devoted to its eradication.

1836-1848 a number of Acts were passed outlawing thagi and dacoity (a form of banditry) which became a justification for further ‘modernisation’ by the British

1835- the Thuggee and Dacoity Department was created with Sleeman as the superintendent with a vigorous and highly publicised campaign happening

Over 1,000 thagi were transported or hanged and around 3,000 tried and punished. Used their confessions to track and capture others.

Question 11

The reaction to suppresing Thagi

Answer 11

Congratulation by the British as the thagi only attacked other Indians, so it was depicted as an unselfish act which led to him being identified as a true imperial hero in Britain.

Actual thagi activity seems to have been largely dealt with by Sleeman’s efforts. The suppression did not seem to have been widely resented at the time, unlike other campaigns resulting from the ‘modernising agenda.

Question 12

What was Sati?

Answer 12

The tradition of self-immolation by Hindu widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands which reflected the Hindu belief that remarriage was not an option for widows- most common among higher castes

The caste involved suggests the motivation was primarily religion not economic

Occurred most commonly in the Bengal presidency and the Sikh Punjabi kingdom, which was outside British jurisdiction in 1829.

The British estimated that around 600 deaths a year in their territories was a result of the custom

Question 13

The campaign to restrict Sati

Answer 13

In 1813 Wilberforce forced an amendment to the 1813 Charter Law to allow missionaries to preach against sati and other Hindu practices.

The Hindu religious philosopher, Ram Mohan Roy began to campaign against the practice in 1818, following the death of his sister-in-law, who was forced to commit sati.

British Company officials disliked the practice and had tried to discourage it for years but without Govenor Bentinck, it is unlikely abolition would have been implemented as early

Bentinck’s long and detailed minute- shows he even gave serious thought to the possible consequences of introducing the ban

Question 14

How did the British suppress Sati?

Answer 14

The Company banned the practice in Calcutta in 1798

The Act of Abolition in 1829 abolished sati - anyone assisting was deemed to be guilty of culpable homicide and prosecuted accordingly

Roy counselled Bentinck against the ban in 1829, judging it to be too contentious but once the ban was in place he supported

Efforts were made to reverse the law, but Roy presented evidence to the Privy Council where Bentinck’s law was upheld in 1832.

The law only applied in territory under the control of the Company, although encouragement many of the princely states followed in the 1830s and 1840s.

The practice was outlawed in the entirety of India in 1861, although cases continued throughout the 19th century.

Question 15

The reaction to suppressing Sati

Answer 15

Was not received positively by Indians

For higher caste Indians who practised sati, the interference by the British was a deliberate attack on caste purity and the presumption of cultural superiority inherent in the new law.

Represents a new departure in terms of gov intervention in Indian society, and in the case of sati of ritual religious practice
The intervention contributed to the rumbling discontent towards British rule which existed in the 1830s and 1840s.

Question 16

What was female infanticide?

Answer 16

The practice of killing girl babies at birth was common in Rajputana, Maharashtra and some parts of northern India.

It stemmed from the difficulty of providing dowries for female children and the shame attached to having unmarried daughters

Question 17

How did the British suppress female infanticide?

Answer 17

Bentinck enforced the laws that had been passed in 1795 and 1802 against female infanticide
Bentinck’s efforts materially improved the lot of women in India and, as such, are worthy of celebration

Question 18

The reaction to suppressing female infanticide

Answer 18

Represents a new departure in terms of gov intervention in Indian society
The intervention contributed to the rumbling discontent towards British rule which existed in the 1830s and 1840s.

Question 19

Missionaries aims

Answer 19

Both the Anglicans (the London Missionary Society and the Church Missionary Society) and Baptists (Baptist Missionary Society) were primarily engaged in the education of Indians in their native languages

Hoped that a new ‘educated’ class of Indians would rise up and weaken the traditional dominance of the Brahmin caste- translate the new ideas they had learned back into their native languages and disseminating Western ideas and thought.

Question 20

Influence of Missionaries

Answer 20

Exercised their influence in campaigns against traditions like sati.

Made a significant contribution to the debate that raged from 1813-35 on the allocation of Company funding for higher education for Indians.

The 1835 Education Act and Bentinck’s decision to make English, not Persian, the language of gov and the higher legal courts partially resulted from this evangelical pressure.

Question 21

Charles Grant + Alexander Duff

Answer 21

Grant was an Anglican and member of the Clapham Sect, who worked for the EIC from 1767-90. He campaigned with Wilberforce to remove the Company’s ban on missionaries.
By the Charter Act 1813, their influence in London was powerful enough to insist the removal of the Company’s blanket ban on missionaries. From the Charter Act onwards, Protestant missionaries arrived in increasing numbers

Duff (a missionary from the Church of Scotland). arrived in Bengal in 1830 to promote the teaching of English in schools with the intention of attracting higher caste Hindus to Christianity. He believed the teaching of English was attractive to Indians ambitious for their children’s futures and that Bible studies taught by English schools would naturally convince students that Christianity was superior. Influential in the development of Bentinck’s educational policy.

Question 22

Impact of Missionaries

Answer 22

The arrival threw another group into India’s complex social mix adding to the undercurrents of opposition that Company officials faced in trying to tax and administer their territories.

Administrators often shared the cultural prejudices and perceptions of missionaries, but their appetite for sweeping change was always tempered by the realities of having to govern successfully and continue to collect taxes.

Often the bugbear of local officials as they were driven to carry out what they believed to be God’s work, regardless of the trouble they might cause

Were physically much closer to the Indians and, as they were poor and insisted on living alongside the Indians, this proximity was often the cause of specific local tensions.

Their presence was another long-term destabilising factor and, at a local level, Indian society was alive with different strands of opposition to Company consolidation of power

Throughout the 1830s and 1840s, there was resistance to the British in all the regions they governed and across caste and social groups.

Question 23

Negative reforms of Dalhousie

Answer 23

Doctrine of Lapse and policy of Paramountcy - an annexation policy which stated that any princely state under direct influence of the British should be annexed if the ruler was incompetent or died without an heir.
Paramountcy over Indian states had been claimed by the British since 1813, but Dalhousie’s policies of intervention were an extension of this principle.
After 1857, the British supported the officials of the princely states rather than attempting to remove them and annex their territories.

Question 24

Positives of Dalhousie’s reforms to government

Answer 24

Laying the foundations of the railway system with the construction of the line to Bombay.

Dalhousie was personally involved with the details of planning

The construction of the Ganges canal

Fundamental reform of the postal service with a uniform rate of charge which was half that of the UK

Development of the telegraph system with 4,000 miles of cable.

Question 25

Annexation of Awdah

Answer 25

Awadh - traditional recruiting ground of the sepoys of the Company’s Bengali army

Occurred under the doctrine of lapse

Dalhousie’s worst blunder and a primary cause of the rebellion the following year that ended Company rule and whose echoes were to reverberate throughout the rest of the British Empire until it was dismantled in the 20th century.

Nwab Wajid Ali Shah was deposed after being accused of maladministration as he conformed to British prejudices regarding debouched and extravagant princes.

The annexation was widely resented

Determined to reform the state, the British announced that land would be taken from all talukdars (landowners) unable to prove legal title to their estates.

As each landowner was responsible for large retinues of relations and servants living with them, the British attack on the established social order was deeply destabilising. In 1857, Awadh was one of the areas which saw widespread participation in the uprising against the British, as what began as a mutiny became a rebellion.

Question 26

Outbreak and Events in Meerut

Answer 26

The immediate cause were rumours amongst the sepoys that new cartridges were about to be issued, lubricated with animal fat, placing both Hindus and Muslims at risk of defilement, as beef fat was repugnant to Hindus and pork to Muslims – seemingly proved Britain’s plan for the Christianisation of India and sparked the resentments against missionaries

The Bengal army was in a state of unrest following the General Service Enlistment Act 1856,

Broke the long-held tradition by which soldiers of the Bengali army did not serve where they were unable to march, as travel over water would pollute their caste status.

Canning (new governor general) wanted to rectify this so that he could use the army alongside the other two company armies in Burma.

The Act only applied to new recruits, but the sepoys feared that eventually they too would be forced to serve abroad. As recruitment in the Bengal army traditionally drew very largely from the higher caste Hindus, this was a very contentious issue.

Following the court martial of 85 sepoys for refusing to load the new rifles in Meerut on 9 May 1857, all three sepoy regiments rose in revolt while the British were at church, freeing the original mutineers and then proceeding to massacre all the local Europeans, including women and children.

Question 27

Cawnpore and Delhi

Answer 27

Mutiny spread rapidly throughout the rest of the Bengal army, and the fact that the British had only a single European regiment between Calcutta and Agra meant that nothing could be done to stop the mutineers.

Became a more general revolt and the British temporarily lost control of Awadh, Delhi and some centres within the Punjab.

In Awadh, the mutiny proved to be the spark which ignited a wider revolt as the discontented talukdars were joined in opposition to the British by those with familial links to the sepoys of the Bengali army.

Complicated by peasant uprisings, whose grievances were centred on local issues around changing land structures and excessive tax collection. Local leaders emerged as the head of anti-British forces, including the surprising female, the Rani of Jhansi, who died in battle.

In Cawnpore, Sir Wheeler was not been careful in his preparations and the British held out for only 18 days before surrendering – promised safe extraction down the river to Allahabad.

During transfer, fighting broke out and 400 were killed on the riverbanks and in the boats. The remaining 200 British were held, possibly for as hostages, but were massacred on 15 July, the day before relief arrived.

Question 28

Siege and relief of Lucknow

Answer 28

The governor, Sir Henry Lawrence, had read the situation accurately and shepherded his Europeans into the fortified residency, with enough food and ammunition to hold out against attack for 5 months.

Successful relief arrived, with a force over 3,000, made up of 6 British infantry battalions and 1 Sikh battalion, 87 days after the siege began

Not possible to evacuate immediately due to the casualties that the relief effort sustained, but the defended area was extended. This decision was influenced by the discovery of buried stores which Lawrence’s 2nd-in-command was unaware of which could provide for everyone for the next 2 months.

Twenty-four Victoria Crosses were awarded for actions which took place on 16 November, the highest number ever awarded in a single day.

Because Campbell deemed the area to be so volatile and was conscious of his stretched supply lines, Lucknow was evacuated and abandoned and the area was not retaken by the British until March 1858.

Question 29

Why the British retained control - Rebels were uncohesive

Answer 29

Punjabi sepoys, holding a grudge against the sepoys of the Bengali army, proved key in suppressing the rebellion. Even in Lucknow, the centre of disaffected Awadh, about half of the 7,000 soldiers who sought refuge in the Residency were Indian soldiers and camp followers.
When Delhi was retaken by the British, 82 percent of the soldiers killed in the action were native sepoys.

The British had gained a foothold, and then ascendency, in the subcontinent because they were able to exploit local religious and political divisions

The competing rebel power blocs were unable to forget their differences to unify against the British and drive them out, and in many cases the alliances forged between the British and local allies proved enduring.

Question 30

Why the British retained control - Presidency armies

Answer 30

The rebels were not a cohesive force. There were mutineers, aggrieved landowners in Awadh, peasants expressing their resentment against local land and taxation policies and local leaders unwilling to co-operate together to forge a national revolt.

The centres of the revolt in Delhi, Lucknow, and Cawnpore each had their own centres of power converged around rebel leaders, two Muslim rulers and one Hindu Maratha, so once the British had regrouped, they simply needed to eliminate one centre of resistance after another.

Awadh came closest to representing a unified challenge from all social levels to the British because of British actions in the province and the familial links to the sepoys of the Bengali army, but this was not replicated anywhere else in India.

The other two presidency armies remained loyal to the British and the area around Calcutta itself remained unaffected by the unrest.

Question 31

Why the British Retained control - British rule was still attractive

Answer 31

Indians in many areas had originally been prepared to pay taxes to the Company because they were better than the local alternative on offer and this remained the case.

British rule remained acceptable to many Indians because of their record and this local support ensured their continuing presence in the subcontinent.

Question 32

Results of the Rebellion on rebels

Answer 32

Entire villages massacred.

Cawnpore - mutineers were forced to try to lick clean blood- stained buildings, before being forced to eat pork or beef and then publicly hanged.

Peshawar - 40 men were strapped to the barrels of cannon and blown apart

Delhi - after retaking the city they slaughtered Bahadur Shah’s 3 sons - they were arrested, stripped and shot

Question 33

Results of the Rebellion on Company Rule

Answer 33

The Government of India Act 1858 - ended EIC rule until Indian Independence. Instead, British India was ruled directly by Britain, through a viceroy (a ruler on behalf of the British)

The viceroy was accountable to parliament and there was a secretary of state for India and an Indian Council.

A royal proclamation was issued setting out the future rights - the tone was conciliatory and benevolent

Indians were promised religious toleration, equal protection under the law and the rights of native princes to their lands were protected.

Question 34

Results of the Rebellion on princely states

Answer 34

Brought under indirect control by a series of treaties - indigenous rulers knew their privileged existence was preserved by British dominance and shouldn’t be challenged.

Bahadur Shah II, who survived the retaking of Delhi was exiled, ending the Mughal dynasty

Annexation of territory ceased - the British now carefully cultivated the princes as bastions of conservatism and collaborators.

Success as the 560 autonomous states remained loyal till the end of the Empire

In Awadh, accommodation was made with the rebellious talukdars - the British avoided land reform which challenged feudal ties - resulted in the stagnation of much of rural India in feudal poverty.

Question 35

Results of the Rebellion on debt and tax

Answer 35

The cost of ending the rebellion was £50 million and, with the end of the EIC, the debt was transferred to the new Raj.

The taxation system was revamped, wary of the impact of restructuring landownership and taxation in Awadh

Instead of the wholesale reform of landownership and taxation that Dalhousie instigated, the British relied on their old collaborators in the countryside and instead introduced an income tax on wealthier urban groups.

Question 36

Results of the Rebellion on missionaries

Answer 36

A clear link between the activities of missionaries and the outbreak of the rebellion.

While the British could not stop missionaries did keep proselytising (attempting conversion) out of official policy as much as possible

The laws on sati and female infanticide remained in place, but it was only in 1891 that the age of consent for girls for marriage was raised from 10 to 12.

Evangelicals showed no regret - in 1858, the London Missionary Society sent an additional 20 missionaries within the next 2 years. While the London Missionary Society’s response to the events was a belief that efforts must be redoubled, this was not shared by the administrators on the ground.

Religious toleration and an increasing view that all religious groups must be represented politically, shaped much of the 20th- century policy response to Indian nationalism.

Question 37

Results of the Rebellion on the Indian Army

Answer 37

The proportion of Indian sepoys in the army was reduced by 40%. While British troops were increased by 50% so the ratio became 3:1 rather than 9:1

No longer recruited from the Brahmin and Rajput Hindu castes - had formed the backbone of the Bengali army and whose wholesale recruitment in Awadh had contributed to events in the province.

1858 onwards - sepoys were recruited from areas deemed to be more loyal (the Sikh Punjab and the Muslim north-west)

Army policy and planning ensured adjacent regiments had different ethnic and religious backgrounds to prevent the spread of mutiny, and within regiments sepoys were to come from a mix of geographical areas and ethnicities.

Troops could use the grease they preferred and the introduction of the breech-loading rifle in 1867 made this type of cartridge obsolete anyway.