Indian Mutiny and India Up To 1890

Question 1

How were colonial affairs dealt with by the British government?

Answer 1

The colonial cabinet office, headed by the Colonial secretary dealt with colonial affairs:
Administrators of the colonies were tasked with day-to-day running of colonies while the office dealt with overall affairs.
Some colonies (Egypt, Chinese ports) were controlled by the foreign office

Question 2

How was India governed before 1858?

Answer 2

The expansion of British influence in India had been overseen by the British East India company, who had a monopoly over English trade in Asia and operated largely independent from the British government.

Question 3

What was the government of India act?

Answer 3

• Properties of the East India company would be transferred to the Queen, the company would cease to exist
• The position of Secretary of State for India (Cabinet post) would be created. It would exercise similar powers as the former EIC directors
• The India council would be appointed to assist the Secretary of State
• The crown would appoint a Viceroy for India to replace the old Governor-General
• The Indian civil service was placed under the control of the Secretary of State

Question 4

How did the Indian Mutiny begin?

Answer 4

The Mutiny began among Sepoys in the British army, with anger about new weapons that used beef/pork fat along with anger within landlords and nobles who had their lands taken.
Sepoys in Bengal refused to obey orders in February 1857 with sepoys turning on their British officers and local Europeans.
Other battalions in At Meerut, Delhi and Cawnpore followed.

Question 5

How was religion a factor in the beginning of the indian mutiny?

Answer 5

New bullet cartridges that used animal fat (beef and pork) offended religous traditions of Muslim and Hindu soldiers.

Question 6

What was the ‘doctrine of the lapse’?

Answer 6

It was a policy followed by the EIC that stated that they had the right to expand into princely state terriotry if its ruler died ‘without a suitable heir’

Question 7

What were the Dalhousie reforms?

Answer 7

They were a series of reforms under Lord Dalhousie (EIC Gov-Gen):

• legalised hindu widow’s remarriage
• set up tea plantations
• encouraged ‘christianising’ missions to India
• Opened up Indian markets to free trade

Question 8

What was the Cawnpore massacre?

Answer 8

• Occured on June 4th 1857
• Europeans were taken prisoner in the rebel-held town of cawnpore, inlcuding women and children
• As the British forces closed in on the indians they killed 200 of their captives and threw their bodies down a nearby dry-well
• This caused a huge uproar amingst the British press and public and can be seen as a main reaosn for the British’s brutal respejse to the uprising

Question 9

Where did the Indian mutiny begin?

Answer 9

It started in Meerut

Question 10

How many British troops were sent to deal with the mutiny?

Answer 10

70,000

Question 11

How did the British ‘punish’ the rebels?

Answer 11

• They sowed Muslim muitneers into pig skins and hanged them
• Some were forced to lick blood off the bibigar floor (cawnpore)
• Some tied to the end of cannons and fired through

Question 12

Which parts if Indian society remained loyal to the British during the rebellion?

Answer 12

• Majority of Indian princes
• Sepoy units in Bengal, Punjab and Madras
• Gurkhas and Sikhs

Question 13

Where were the main points of conflict during the Revolt and when did the fughting there end?

Answer 13

• Lucknow, full control restored in March 1858 (12 months)
• Dehli, full control restored after 3 months
• State of peace declared in July 1859

Question 14

How many Indians were killed during and as a consequence of the revolt?

Answer 14

Around 100,000

Question 15

How did British efforts to ‘westernise’ India change as a consequence of the 1857 Mutiny?

Answer 15

Britian abandoned efforts to replace the old Indian elite with a Western-educated elite, They began working with India’s traditonal ruler in order to reduce the threat of another revolt.
Social, religous and cultural matters were left in the control of the traditional Idian elite - Christian Evangelism in the region was no discouraged.

Question 16

By the 1860’s how man miles of railway track had been laid by the British since 1857?

Answer 16

5000 miles

Question 17

What schemes did the British put in place to improve the standard of livingin India and reduce the threat of famine?

Answer 17

Number of canal, irragation, Postal and telegraphic services created and improved - despite this the majority of Indian taxes was still spent of maintaing the British army’s presence in India.

Question 18

How was India adminsistered during the latter half of the 19th C?

Answer 18

Around 1000 British officials ruled the whole of India, most were :

• Educated in British public schools
• Living completely seperately from everyday Indians
• Under the belief that India was a long way from being able to self-govern effectively

Question 19

Why did he British governement place a large empahsis on the control of Afghanistan in the 1870s?

Answer 19

The British, under Benjamin Disraeli, were becomng increasingly weary of growing russian influence in Afghanistan and were afraid of the threat the Russain empire would pose to the Indian Raj if they shared a border.

Question 20

Which Afghan region was annexxed by Brtian in 1876

Answer 20

Baluchistan, an unsettled area South of Afghanistan

Question 21

When was a Russain envoy accepted in the Afghan emir’s court? What was the British response?

Answer 21

• 1878
• Lord Lytton (Viceroy) demanded a British envoy be accepted, Lytton sent troops to Kabul to force a British Envoy to be accepted

Question 22

What was the consequnce of th British occupation of Kabul to impose an envoy in the afghan court?

Answer 22

By 1879, the people of Kabul rebelled against the British, the British envoy was killed.
Disraeli then declared war against the afghans, installed a new emir and forced him to accpet British control of afghan foregin policy.

Question 23

Profile of Lord Lytton as Indian Viceroy

Answer 23

• Served from 1876-1880
• Continued conciliating the Indina Princely class
• Proclaimed Queen Victoria Empress Of India
• Ruled during a famine that killed over 5 million
• Created a two-tier civil service system wherein Indian were racially dscriminated agaisnt and prevented from moving up to the highest ranks
• Removed duties on imported goods (therefoe hurting indian production in favour of British)
• Created censorship laws against dissent in non-english publications

Question 24

Profile of Lord Ripon as Viceroy:

Answer 24

• Ruled 1880-84
• Gladstonian Liberal who governed more sympathetic to Indian problems
• Saw it as vital to make peace with educated Indians and make sure not to alienate them the same way Lytton had
• Repealed Vernacular Press Act
• Attempted to allow Indian judges to try Europeans; was forced to back down
• Respected by Indians but not Anglo-Indians

Question 25

What led to the need for the British to chnage their polciytowards the intellectual and middle class community in India?

Answer 25

Imrovements in transport and communication infrastructure brought India closer to Europe and as a result exposed more people to new ideas.
Well-deucated indian shwo were once committed to the ‘modernisation’ of india, began to doubt their chnaces of being able to move up in the British Raj.

Question 26

When was the Indian National Congress founded?

Answer 26

December 1885

Question 27

How did British leadership intially react to the formation of the Indian National Congress?

Answer 27

• The new Viceroy, Lord Dufferin approed the new organsiation - seeing it as an opportunity to find out about Indina grivenaces with the Raj
• British civil servants were more suspicous of the congress and saw it as likely to develop and foster a spirit of nationalism in India.