Key Figures - India Colonial 1857-62

Question 1

Lord William Bentick dates as governor general?

Answer 1

1828-35

Question 2

Lord Dalhousie dates as governor general?

Answer 2

1848-56

Question 3

Reforms promoted by Lord Bentick and Dalhousie? (4)

Answer 3

English was made the official language of law, administration and education

Several traditional Indian customs such as sati were outlawed
Irrigation schemes were implemented

Dalhousie set out to create a system of communications that united India. The building of the great road from Calcutta to Peshawar was a major undertaking, and the building of railways

Dalhousie reformed the tax gathering system

Question 4

When was Curzon Viceroy?

Answer 4

1899-1905

Question 5

When was the Indian National Congress established?

Answer 5

1885

Question 6

What did the INC criticise?

Answer 6

British trading arrangements, restraints on Indian industry, the heavy taxation to which the Indian were subjected in order to pay the high earning British civil servants of the Raj.

Question 7

What other pressures were there during Viceroy Curzon?

Answer 7

Social and humanitarian groups such as ‘the Servant of India Industry’, which was active among the ‘untouchable’ community at the bottom of the caste system and wanted to see the reform of old restrictive laws and practises.

Question 8

Curzon’s reforms? (4)

Answer 8

Changes to civil service to improve efficiency and founded the Imperial Cadet Corps, in 1901, to give native princes and elite figures military training, and ‘special’ officer commissions

Reformed universities

Reformed police force

Lowered taxes and adopted gold standard to ensure stable currency

Question 9

What was Curzon’s ill-fated attempt?

Answer 9

The partition of bengal 1905

July 1905, Curzon decided to divide bengal into 2 provinces: Muslim majority province of East Bengal and Assam and a Hindu majority province in West Bengal. This produced an uproar among the Hindu elite of West Bengal, many of whom owned land in East Bengal that they leased to Muslim peasants

Hindus saw the partition as a payback for their criticism of British rule and there were strikes, protests, boycotts of British made goods.

Question 10

When was Viceroy Minto in charge?

Answer 10

1905-10

Question 11

Who helped Viceroy Minto introduce a limited programme of reforms in 1909 to appease the Bengalis?

Answer 11

Encouragement from Liberal government i Britain fro the help of John Morley, Secretary of State for India

Question 12

Reforms by Viceroy Minto- Indian council Act, and further development of the Act?

Answer 12

The Indian Council Act of 1909 enabled 27 Indians to be elected form provincial constituencies to the Viceroy’s council, which advised the Viceroy and assisted in the making of laws

Further reform in 1910 meant that in elections for large provincial courts, 135 Indians were able to secure seats across the sub continent and thus played a greater part in government at provincial level

Question 13

When was Viceroy Hardinge Viceroy?

Answer 13

1910-16

Question 14

What did Viceroy Hardinge do to reunite Bengal in 1911?

Answer 14

During the visit of King-Emperor George V to India, Viceroy Hardinge used it to reunite Bengal. He also moved the capital form Calcutta to Delhi. King George V was crowned Emperor and there was a celebratory durbar to display both power and pageantry.

Question 15

Why was the capital of India moved?

Answer 15

Delhi was the Muslim stronghold, and it was as a means of undermining revolutionary Hindu group, and the monarch laid the foundation stone of the capital, New Delhi

Question 16

When was Disraeli PM?

Answer 16

1868

1874-80

Question 17

What year did Disraeli announce Queen Victoria Empress of India?

Answer 17

1876

Question 18

Who was Mary Carpenter?

Answer 18

Primarily concerned with the state of girls’ education and women’s prisons in India, Carpenter set up the national India Association in 1870 in order to promote reforms in British India.

Question 19

When was Lord Canning Governor General/ Viceroy?

Answer 19

During the Indian Mutiny of 1857, then became the first Viceroy of India in 1858 and played an important role in the work if construction in the colony.

Question 20

Important events during Lord Canning’s tenure?

Answer 20

The Mutiny of 1857, which he was able to suppress successfully, Passing of Indian Councils Act, 1861 which introduced portfolio system in India, withdrawal of ‘Doctrine of Lapse’ in which was one of the main reasons of mutiny of 1858, introduction of Code of criminal procedure, enactment of Indian High Courts Act, Indian Bengal Code (1858), Bengal Rent Act(1859), and introduction of Income tax on experimental basis etc.

Question 21

When was Lord Morley secretary of state for India?

Answer 21

1905-10

Question 22

Reforms of Lord Morley?

Answer 22

The Indian Councils Act 1909, commonly known as the Morely-Minto or vice versa Reforms, was an Act of the parliament of the UK that brought limited increase of the Indians in the governance of India

Question 23

Who was Tilak?

Answer 23

First leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities called him “The father of the Indian unrest”. He also conferred with the title “Lokmanya” which means “accepted by the people (as their leader)”. Mahatma Gandhi called him “The Maker of Modern India”.

Question 24

What didi Lokmanya do?

Answer 24

Founded an edited 2 newspapers - Kersari in Marathi and The Mahratta in English. He criticised colonial rulers. He was imprisoned a number of times, during this time he read and wrote.

Question 25

Who was Gokhale Krishna?

Answer 25

An Indian liberal political leader and a social reformer during the Indian Independence movement. Gokhale was a senior leader of the INC and the founder of the Servants of India Society.

Question 26

When did Disraeli buy shares of the Suez Canal?

Answer 26

1875

Question 27

What did Disraeli say in his famous Crystal Palace speech?

Answer 27

Criticised Liberal policy regarding India, and the Liberal governments decision to offer self governance to the colonies of settlement without accompanying arrangements for a custom union.

Question 28

During Disraeli’s period as PM who did Britain go to war with?

Answer 28

Afghanistan and the Zulus in southern Africa