Relations With Indigenous Peoples Flashcards
What the the traditional explanation for the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny?
That the cartridges in the Enfield rifle were greased in animal fat which offended their religious sensibilities, both Muslim and Hindu.
What was the real trigger of the Indian Mutiny?
It was the anger felt by the landlords and nobles who had been deprived of their lands by Governor-General Dalhousie.
What were the immediate consequences of the Mutiny?
Immense human suffering
At least 13,000 British soldiers
100,000 Indian deaths
When was the Mutiny?
1857-59
How did the way in which Britain used India change following the mutiny?
India was being used in a way that provided compensation for the costs of suppressing the revolt - hence its rapid extension of the rail network and, for instance, of the tea trade.
What was the impact of the Mutiny?
In 1858, India passed into the direct rule of the British Crown and the internal wars, that had been a feature of the East India Company rule, came to an end.
India had a single, centralised government.
How was the British view on Indian Society changed post-mutiny?
The reported savagery of the Indians prompted sanctimonious views from the arrogant white man, their own brutality was ignored.
After 1858, a greater degree of separation set in.
Benefits and Drawbacks of The British Raj
The British built railways - however they were geared to needs of control and trade, lost villages lacked mud roads.
The British offered markets for Indian agricultural produce, but this encouraged specialisation in the higher value cash-crops at the cost of the lower value grains which were the main food staple.
British developed schemes for irrigation and land improvements, but these only took place where they supported British commercial interests and affected only 6% of land.
British provided Indians with cheap British manufactures - but India was unable to develop viable industries of its own and economy skewed.
The British provided schools and universities - only privileged few could benefit, illiteracy remained widespread.
British provided jobs for a Indians, on railways, army, civil service as clerks. Only a minority of Indians gained such employment.
Poverty continued, death rates from famine were high.
Who was Mary Carpenter?
Educational and social reformer in India, primarily concerned with the state of girls’ education and women’s prisons in India.
How many times did Mary Carpenter visit India?
Four times between 1866 and 1875.
What impact did Mary Carpenter have in India?
She helped establish a corps of British teachers for India as well as girls’ schools in Bombay and Ahmedabad.
She also opened a college to train female Indian teachers.
What was the greatest change to the Indian economy after the changes of 1858?
Growth investment, particularly in railways which were built more for strategic rather than economic purposes but certainly helped stimulate trade and the development of previously inaccessible areas.
What was the increase in Tea Plantations between the years 1851 - 1871?
From 1 to 295
What were the contemporary attitudes towards the ‘benign’ rule in India?
Many British genuinely believed that the rule was a liberating experience for the Indians.
Educating Indians to ensure they became ‘English in taste, in opinions, in morals’, was sufficient to justify the British domination of the subcontinent.
What event opened up the path towards greater tension between the British and the Boers?
The discovery of diamonds in 1867 near Kimberley, in West Griqualand.
