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British Empire > The British in India, 1829-58 > Flashcards

The British in India, 1829-58 Flashcards

1
Q

What was the Indian rebellion?

A

The Indian rebellion was a major uprising in India against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown

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2
Q

Who is Lord Dalhousie?

A

Lord Dalhousie was an energetic moderniser and utilitarian, devoted to his vision of an improved India

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3
Q

What are the three causes of the Indian rebellion?

A
  • Lord Dalhousie and his reforms (short-term)
  • The earlier cultural and religious clashes between the British and the Indians (long-term)
  • The primary cause that unites these factors is the racialised notion of the “White Man’s burden”
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4
Q

What is the “White Man’s burden”

A

This was the duty, believed by white colonisers to be incumbent upon them, of imposing Western civilisation on the inhabitants of their colonies, whom they believed to be less developed - a euphemism for imperialism

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5
Q

The British objective to execercise their superiority on the Indians has always been the ____________ and __________ basis for their ___________ strategies

A

psychological
ideological
imperialist

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6
Q

Dalhousie and his attempts at modernising British India provoked…

A

resentment by the Indians and hastened the drive for a rebellion against British leadership

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7
Q

By assuming British paramountcy, Dalhousie introduced…

A

the “doctrine of the lapse”

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8
Q

Doctrine of the Lapse

A
  • Acted as an annexation policy for princely states
  • This policy legally justified territorial expansion and was in direct conflict with Hindu law
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9
Q

How was the Doctrine of the Lapse in direct conflict with Hindu law?

A

The Doctrine redefined a number of rulers titles and powers as non-hereditary

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10
Q

The annexation of Awadh occurred under the ‘doctrine of lapse’ which was depicted as Dalhousie’s…

A

worst blunder and a primary cause of the rebellion the following year which ended Company rule and whose echoes were to reverberate throughout the rest of the British Empire until it was dismantled

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11
Q

Annexation of Awadh 1856

A

On 7th February 1856, Lord Dalhousie ordered to depose Wajid Ali Shah on the account of alleged internal misrule

(the seventh to occur under this policy)

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12
Q

What did the Annexation of Awadh in 1856 show?

A

This truly showed the motive of British ignorance and their disregard for India

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13
Q

The annexation was widely resented in…

A

Awadh

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14
Q

Why was Awadh especially significant to the Indian rebellion?

A

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

Unsurprisingly, Awadh was one of the areas which saw widespread participation in the uprising against the British

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15
Q

Talukdars

A

Aristocrats who formed the ruling class

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16
Q

What happened to the Talukdars under Lord Dalhousie?

A

They had their vast estates seized

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17
Q

The Takukdards had their vast estates seized under Lord Dalhousie – how did this influence the Indian Rebellion?

A

Talukdars were the primary employers, thus, their estates being seized destabilised the social order of the region causing unemployment

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18
Q

The upheaval and disturbance to the pattern of rural landownership in Awadh and Dalhousie’s “doctrine of lapse”…

A

aggravated the mutineers

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19
Q

Dalhousie’s lack of perspective ignited…

A

simmering resentments which led to the Indian rebellion

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20
Q

Driven by their perception of racial superiority, Company operators were becoming less tolerant of…

A

local customs and religions

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21
Q

A sense of cultural superiority was emerging in the Company staff, which resulted in the…

A

paternalistic desire to change and ‘improve’ Indians

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22
Q

Legal assaults began under…

A

Bentinck in the 1830s on the practice of thagi/thuggee

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23
Q

What is thagi/thuggee

A

Those who practice highway robbery and ritual murder by strangling in the service of the Hindu mother goddess

24
Q

Who was the campaign against thagi led by?

A

Colonel William Sleeman

25
Q

The campaign against thagi – led by Colonel William Sleeman – was based on capturing thagi and then using their confessions to…

A

track down and capture others

26
Q

Sleeman’s activities in the suppression of the thagi led to his identification as…

A

a true imperial hero in Britain

27
Q

The action against thagi led to significant amounts of self-congratulation on the part of the British – why was this case?

A

The thagi only attacked other Indians, so the suppression of the cult was depicted as a wholly altruistic act

28
Q

The impact of the campaign against thagi on the Indian rebellion itself is _______

A

ambiguous

29
Q

The impact of the campaign against thagi on the Indian rebellion itself is ambiguous – why is this the case?

A

There has been some revisionism regarding Sleeman’s presentation of the thagi campaign by historians, its suppression does not seem to have been widely resented by Indians at the time - unlike other campaigns

30
Q

What is the most significant impact of the campaign against thagi?

A

Its impact on the British in India and the lessons they drew from the campaign for other social reforms

31
Q

Which scholars are associated with thagi?

A

Professor Caroline Reitz
Historian Radhika Singha

32
Q

What does Caroline Reitz state about thagi?

A

“if Thuggee had not been discovered, it would have had to be invented”

33
Q

What does Radhika Singha state about thagi?

A

The campaign against thagi was strategically utilised by colonial government to justify intervention in the princely states through the “doctrine of lapse”

34
Q

Singha and Reitz indicate that the campaign against thagi provided the colonisers with…

A

a case that could be repeatedly summoned to destabilise Indian resistance against British rule which aggravated the Indians

35
Q

This justification for British intervention is displayed in…

A

the drive against sati and female infanticide

36
Q

Sati

A

The tradition of self-immolation by Hindu widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands

37
Q

The tradition (sati) reflected the Hindu belief in the…

A

sanctity of the marriage bond which meant that remarriage was not an option for widows

38
Q

Sati was most common among…

A

higher castes and the caste of those involved suggests that the motivation was primarily religious belief rather than economic necessity

39
Q

Driven by a campaign by evangelical Christians, such as ________ ________ and ________ _______ own strongly held personal views, sati was ________

A

William Wilberforce
Governor Bentinck’s
abolished

40
Q

Anyone assisting with a sati was deemed to be guilty of…

A

culpable homicide and prosecuted accordingly

41
Q

For higher caste Indians who practiced sati, the interference by the British was…

A

a deliberate attack on caste purity and the presumption of cultural superiority inherent in the new law rankled

42
Q

What was the Immediate cause of the Indian Rebellion?

A

Rumours amongst the sepoys that new cartridges were about to be issued, lubricated with animal fat

43
Q

The immediate cause of the Indian rebellion were rumours amongst the sepoys that new cartridges were about to be issued, lubricated with animal fat. This placed both Hindus and Muslims at risk of…

A

defilement, as beef fat was repugnant to Hindus and pork to Muslims

44
Q

To many sepoys, what did the “The Rumour” (1856) seem to prove?

A

Britain’s dark plan for the Christianisation of India and the rumour proved to be the spark that ignited all the simmering resentments held against missionaries

45
Q

Why were missionaries resented by the sepoys?

A

For interference in religious practices and the choice of English as the official language

46
Q

General Service Enlistment Act (1856)

A

It required every Indian soldier to go overseas for deployment if required

47
Q

Why was the General Service Enlistment Act (1856) controversial?

A

Hindus believed travelling over water polluted their caste status (religious ignorance)

48
Q

How did the “White Man’s Burden” puppeteer the implementation of the policies that fuelled the Indians indignation?

A

Dalhousie, Sleeman and the British imperialists perceived the conquering of non-white races as white people’s selfless moral duty in order to justify their naive impositions

49
Q

Meerut Uprising 1857

A

Initial revolt amongst the sepoys in the Bengal army, - freeing the original mutineers and then proceeding to massacre all the local Europeans (including women and children)

50
Q

Spread of Rebellion

A

The rebellion of the sepoys also sparked the peasant rebellion

51
Q

Peasant Rebellion

A

The disgruntled talukdars joined the opposition along with the peasants, revolting against the changing land structure and new taxes

52
Q

Cawnpore Massacre

A

200 British men, women and children were held, possibly for use as hostages, but were massacred on 15 July, the day before relief arrived

53
Q

Reasons why the British Retained Control

A

A Lack of Cohesion
The Bengal Army

54
Q

A Lack of Cohesion

A

The rebels were not a united force which made the rebellion easier to eliminate

Local leaders were unwilling to co-operate together to forge a national revolt

55
Q

The Bengal Army

A

The only army out of the three presidencies to revolt against British rule

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

The revolt was not widespread across India, many remained sympathetic

56
Q

Impact of the rebellion on Company Rule

A

The Government of India Act (1858) was passed on 2 August and ended Company rule in India. From this Act until Indian Independence, British India was ruled directly by Britain, through the medium of a viceroy - a ruler exercising authority in a colony on behalf of a sovereign

57
Q

Impact of the rebellion on policy of Westernisation

A

officials could not prevent missionary activity, but they kept proselytising (attempting conversion) out of official policy as much as possible

when they sought to move against religious customs and rituals, they proceeded with extreme caution

British Empire (8 decks)

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