EXTRA READING Flashcards
What point does the historian Copland make about Britain and In-
dia’s relationship?
suggests relationship was two-way, London would continue to make profit, power and influence from it and in return would invest heavily and maintain financially
What was situation like by 1900?
🐘Britain had the most powerful empire in the world—India was the
jewel in the crown
🐘Viceroy Curzon and Winston Churchill had remarked that without In-
dia Britain would be a 2nd or even 3rd rate country
🐘India was the biggest market for British manufacturing eg Iron,
Steel, Cotton Fabric.
🐘India supplied Britain with raw cotton, rice, tea, oil seed and wheat
🐘After 1882 there were no import duties on British goods sold in India
so British goods were cheap—this made Indian manufacturing suffer
🐘The impact of the 1857 mutiny could still be felt in the high level of
racial mistrust between the British in India was the Indians them-
selves
🐘The British separated themselves from the Indian people. They lived
separately, some towns were built with purposefully enlarged streets
where troops could move freely to put down any trouble
🐘Intermarriage between British and Indians stopped after the Muti-
ny—British officials brought their wives over to India and raised
their children in India.
🐘Indians were servants to the British.
What did overseers trade look like between India and Britain 1854-1913?
- UK imports FROM India:
- Tea, 1854-24, 1913-7839
- wheat, 1854-0, 1913-7999
- UK imports TO India:
- Machinery, 1854-101, 1913-4558
- Railways and locomotives, 1854-10, 1913-2200
Name some of Lord Curzon’s beliefs about India:
- saw princes as ‘undisciplined’ and ‘undeserving’ ‘schoolboys’
- helped princes for the Indian people and to ‘fit them for the unique position which we have placed within their grasp’ not for them themselves
- believed that their ‘race’ has never attained capacity to guide itself to its own goals and needs Britain
- believed one of greatest perils of English administration is the growing number of Indians at higher posts (examinations ICS)
What were the consequences of the Amritsar Massacre? Did much changed in the 10 years after the massacre?
The Indian Congress was outraged and became much more radical. Gandhi became the lead- er and the call was for Independence—not home rule
Congress gained a lot of popular support for Gandhi’s civil disobedience campaign and boy- cotts.
The nationalist movement changed from a small political elite to being a truly mass protest movement with demands for complete independence
The British implemented the reforms promised by the Montagu Declaration—Government of India Act 1919
British Reforms were seen as too little too late Did much change in the 10 years after the massacre?
The British had still not given a specific timeline for self rule
The divisions within the nationalist movement had caused Gandhi’s initial campaign to fail
A conservative government controlled the Indian agenda so further reform was delayed
and the Government of India Act of 1919 not to be review until 1929
However historian Tim Leadbeater author of ‘Britain and India 1845-1947’ sums up how
things had changed after Amritsar
“The year 1919 saw the end of hope for moderate, gradual constitutional change.’
- 2.3- S. Newman, India and the British War Effort, 1939-45:
- why was India important in the War Effort and what was the main aim of the British?
- source of men and material
- British interest lay in getting as many Indian troops as possible eg: 1942 Cabinet Mission
- Leo Amery, Secretary of State for India 1940-5, wrote to Churchill, 8 April 1941: ‘My prime care had naturally been the expansion of India’s war effort.’
- India’s army rose from 75,000 to 2,500,000
- Early in the war India sent troops to Egypt and Malaya.
- By the end of 1941 900,000 were under arms, including 300,000 in the Middle East
- Recruits came in at a rate of 50,000 a month.
- key in support for British and in gaining control of many areas eg: 90,000 Indians were involved in the capitulation of Singapore.
-it was not only India’s reserves of manpower, but also her potential as a supplier of goods for the Allied War effort- explain this further:
- was the world’s seventh industrial nation
- her steel and textile industries were well established
- The Eastern Supply Group functioned 1940-1943
- main provider of cotton textiles, jute, leather products and wooden furniture
-However, what problems did India also face?
-India was a developing country, her transport and communications were inadequate for contemporary warfare.
-eg: no through road to Assam or East Bengal, which lacked main roads
-violence after the arrest of leading Congressmen in their ‘Quit India’ campaign= 1942 trains were derailed in Bengal and made worse by flooding, poor transport system reduced the value of India as a base for
Allied operations as well as aggravating food shortages.
-what were the consequences and reasons for food shortages?
- Shortage of food was bad for morale- caused internal disorder
- also led to civilian disturbances, the curbing of which required troops who should have been used against the Japanese
- permanently undernourished
- caused by cyclones and floods as well as by the Japanese occupation of Burma eliminating a major rice supply
- Bengal Famine 1943- Churchill refused to help
-What was Wavell’s efforts in trying to provide food?
-Army in grain transport, and introduced rationing into Calcutta. He tried to get the British government to allocate more food to India, but this involved the use of shipping essential to the war effort
elsewhere.
What was another issue the Indian army faced?
-Lack of up-to-date equipment also posed a problem
-British troops arriving in India had to be retrained in the use of
obsolete weapons
-Indians had to be taught afresh before they can take their places in British field formations
-Lack of equipment was paralleled by shortage of skilled manpower
-Technical personnel were hard to find and needed long training. Technicians and mechanics were scarce and untrained in equipment that arrived after 1940
-cannot be utilised without a supply of officers of suitable types eg: lack of medical officers- only some 14,000 for the whole of India
-no lack of material for the Indian Air Force, but the numbers possessing the necessary educational qualification and technical ability and who are suitable in other respects are not very large
-what was the biggest question that was an issue amongst the war effort?
- was the constitutional question. When was India to gain independence?
- contributed so much- The Princely States contributed men and money to the war effort. The role of Moslems in the Indian Army was crucial. Support given by police, civil servants and soldiers could falter at the prospect of an imminent transfer of power.
- INC did not participate but concessions could damage allied war effort
- what implications did congress demands have for Britain and the war?
-Congress demand for an immediate British abdication could paralyse India’s whole war effort and put her at the mercy of Japan, involving the permanent cutting off of China and the link up of Japan with the Axis powers in the West through the Middle East
- what small confidences did the British have?
- Army were entirely indifferent to Congress
- on the whole more active in trade unionism, especially railway workers= at variance with Congress
-to boost Indian support for the war effort what did the British War Cabinet have to do?
- had accepted Linlithgow’s idea of Indian representation
- thought it might improve Indian morale
- Representatives of both Princely and British India were invited to attend on occasion
-who did the question of British rule in India affect the most?
- The question of British rule in India troubled Anglo-American relations throughout the war years and consumed time and attention that the Prime Minister preferred to devote to the war effort.
- Churchill fought Roosevelt’s arguments opposing the idea of Independent India, thought had a higher priority on the European scene
- left most cabinet discussions on the sub-continent
-What is Newman’s conclusion about Indian war effort and supporting the British?
-In Newman’s opinion India’s contribution to the war effort, more than made up for the problems her constitutional, political, social and economic situation provided the British cabinet.
- 2.1- S. Lang, India in 1914:
- what does he argue?
-violent trauma of Partition in 1947 were well established in the
pre-1914 Raj
- that this time period does not present the clichéd spectacle of colonists
but that sort of relationship did exist, Indians often rigidly excluded but not as powerful as thought
-India’s way of life:
-lived and worked in ways that would have looked familiar to their medieval ancestors.
-extensive hierarchy of European-style administration and law
-sight of a European was still relatively unusual
-railway system- noticeable as well as increasing numbers of public institutions – schools, colleges, hospitals, museums, law courts…
-but investment stopped short of giving India what it needed to
operate as an independent unit in the modern world
-Cotton:
-Indian cotton was picked and then shipped off to Lancashire to be turned into cotton cloth, which was then re-exported back
to India as a British product. India might have competed by setting up its own cotton mills and undercutting the Lancashire prices, but was
forbidden by imperial power, specifically in order to protect the British home market.
-(same with salt)
-British domination in Indian ways of life:
-British rule both modernised Indian life but also distorted it and held Indian economic development back
-Some in the military or in civil administration but in both, the higher ranks were reserved exclusively for Europeans.
-Indians were not allowed to hold commissions in the Indian Army until
after the First World War and even then they were not supposed to be placed in charge of European troops
-Europeans in India were also usually to be found in positions of command or leadership: school-teachers and principals, missionaries and clergymen, doctors, surgeons, university professors…
-only part in India which could be called working class were ordinary
British soldiers and even they enjoyed a social status above that of the ordinary Indian simply by virtue of their race
-enjoyed a monopoly of positions of leadership in India
-Give an example- ICS:
-case of Surendrenath Banerjea, who in 1869 became the first Indian to sit the Indian Civil Service (ICS) entrance examination BUT sacked within a short time of his finally being admitted
-no surprise joined INC (twice served as President
of the Indian National Congress)
Before 1914 what was the INC?
- The INC was an annual event rather than a political party and it attracted liberal-minded Europeans as well as Indians
- British were surprisingly tolerant of criticism and they read the Indian press in order to gauge public opinion, not to follow it.
-at first what was INC demands?
-the INC argued for home rule (swaraj in Hindi) rather than
independence; its expressed wish was to find a way whereby Indians could play more of a role in the administration of the British Raj.
-led by Banerjea and later Gopal Krishna Gokhale
-what was Gokhale’s philosophy?
-Gokhale’s philosophy was one of non-violent campaigning for change; he also recognised the need to address the inequalities and injustices within Indian society alongside putting pressure on the British for swaraj. Gokhale’s moderate approach appealed also to European sympathisers with Indian nationalism eg: British social reformer Annie Besant
-who challenges Gokhale’s approach?
-challenged by a more militant wing of the INC headed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Tilak placed himself at the head of a major Hindu revivalist movement
-eg: revived and refined such features as the annual Ganpati festival
-challenged the widespread assumption, enthusiastically encouraged
by the British, that western technology, culture and manners were all inherently superior to anything India had to offer
What did Tilak’s approach do?
-alienated those like Gokhale, who thought it unnecessarily
provocative, and thoroughly alarmed India’s Muslim community, who feared they would be marginalised and victimised in the sort of Hindu India
-by 1906 Tilak’s assertive Hinduism and anti-Muslim rhetoric had alarmed the Muslim community sufficiently for a delegation led by the Aga Khan to petition the Viceroy for separate Muslim representation in any elections the British might be planning to introduce
-formation in 1906 of a breakaway Muslim League headed by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.
-what happened in 1905 and what were the reactions?
-1905 by the announcement by the Viceroy, Lord Curzon, that the
ancient kingdom of Bengal was to be partitioned
-was seen as an arrogant move disregarding the kingdom’s age-old borders and territorial integrity
-Tilak led protests against the move, starting with a national day of mourning and massive boycott of British-made clothing
-British clothes were thrown on to huge public bonfires; in what became known as the swadeshi (home-produced goods) movement, to wear Indian-produced clothing
How did Gokhale feel about Tilak’s response?
-strongly opposed to the way Tilak was using the boycott to promote a more militant campaign and at the 1907 Congress meeting in Northwest Frontier Province - split between the
two wings came out into the open.
-Tilak and his followers were excluded from the Congress and went on to take ever more militant action against the British eg: tried assassination in 1911 of Viceroy Lord Hardinge, who had in fact reversed the partition- was badly injured in a bomb attack
What was the Muslim response?
-alarmed the Muslims, for whom it had in fact seemed very good
news. Eastern Bengal was home to a large population of mostly very poor Muslim peasants, and they regarded the prospect of separation from their richer Hindu neighbours as a major blessing
-The more the Hindus campaigned against the partition, the more attached to the idea Muslims became. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan openly attacked the nationalists’ boycott campaign
-the Muslim League was also to be disappointed
-Curzon’s enemies – and he had many – to use it as a means of criticising him= Hardinge’s act in reversing the partition in 1911= felt they had been
betrayed by the British, caved in to Hindu militancy and their own internal rivalries
-By 1914 what had nationalist movements shown?
-By 1914, therefore, India displayed many of the features that would characterise it by 1939: a nationalist movement split between Hindus and Muslims and a deep division within the Indian National Congress between moderates espousing non-violent protests and militants prepared to undertake terrorism and assassination.
Give an example of British control and imperialism:
-Coronation Durbar ceremony of 1911, in which George V as Emperor of India, received the public homage of India’s ruling princes. The Emperor and Empress stood in their finery at the balcony of Shah Jehan’s Red Fort to show themselves as successors of
the Mughals, before taking their seats on thrones prepared on the fort’s flat roof.
-Give a example of a controversial idea put forward in 1883:
-In 1883, for example, the liberal Viceroy Lord Ripon had
provoked a storm of controversy when he put forward a measure to enable Indian magistrates to hear cases with European defendants: to Europeans who only grudgingly accepted the idea of Indian magistrates at all, the idea that they should sit in judgement on Europeans was self evident nonsense and the measure was duly withdrawn
What is Slang’s argument in terms of the long term durability of the Raj:
-Britain’s policy of westernising the Indian professional classes in effect put a sell-by date on the Raj itself
-British-founded institutions in India could provide Indian graduates,
doctors, surgeons, nurses, teachers, lawyers and administrators, then at some point, it was reasonable to suppose, these people would rise to the top of their professions and be able to run them without further help or leadership from Europeans
-what was the Indian Councils Act of 1892? What was the consequences?
-This allowed for an indirectly-elected Indian presence on the ruling councils of India’s provinces
-very minor concession to the INC’s calls for greater participation in the administration of their country
-it prompted splits between moderates and radicals over whether or not to have anything to do with it
-mistake for British- enshrined an enormous consequence for British India
-British rule was predicated on the notion that Indians, by their very
nature, could not rule; the Act flatly contradicted that by conceding that
some, albeit in a limited role, could. Once this was conceded, it would be
almost impossible to reverse the policy; more likely to accelerate.
How did it accelerate in 1909?
-1909 when the Liberal Secretary of State for India, John
Morley, produced with the Viceroy, Lord Minto, a set of proposals for reforming the government of British India further:
-more Indians were to be elected to the provincial councils, which themselves would grow in size to accommodate them
-the first time Indians were to be appointed to the Council of the Viceroy himself.
-why did this further increase a sense of Indian nationalism?
-If Indians were not debarred by race, creed or education from sitting on the Viceroy’s Council then what, in due course, was to debar them from sitting in his chair?
