Topics on the Page

India and the British Empire

• The British East India Company (1757-1858)

The British Raj

• Indian Penal Code and LGBT Rights

Women's History in India
 

Gandhi and the Indian Independence Movement

Focus Question: How did the British empire expand in India?

An interactive timeline of the British Indian History 

Coat of arms, East India Company, 1700's. Image byTRAJAN 117

India in the British Empire

Image to the right is 'Bombay on the Malabar Coast belonging to the East India Company of England, 1754." Painting by Jan van Ryne

India was a centerpiece of the vast British Empire. By 1900, noted historians William Duiker and Jackson Spielvogel, "all the societies of Africa and Asia were either under full colonial rule or, as in the case of China and the Ottoman Empire, at the point of virtual collapse" (The Essential World History, 2005, p. 435).

The first European power in India was the Portuguese, but they were soon superseded by the British who established trading posts in India in the 1600s.

• In the 1700s, with the decline of the Mughal Empire, British influence became prominent.

• Following a victory in the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the British East India Company gained the authority to collect taxes on the lands it controlled.

• The British East India Company continued to expand its influence and by the early 1800s the entire Indian subcontinent was under its control.

Click here for a timeline overview the history of the East India Company.

The British Raj

British control is often called the British Raj (for Indian raja or prince). Unlike the French who favored a centralized administrative system, British rule was more decentralized. At first, the British established control through economic dominance of the East India Company, which eventually controlled all European trade with India. [1] In time, India was a colony of the British government.

Four Indian Natives Pushing a Hand Car, 1895

British rule was justified in various ways.

• Much like its effects in North America and Native Americans, Indians were seen by the British as unsophisticated and in need of becoming more civilized.
• The British provided a system of justice, laws, and the notion of fair play by eliminating the various traditional practices already in place.
• Social policies were upheld in India because the British saw various religious and social practices as abhorrent and primitive. It is a common theme throughout history that Britain viewed cultures other than their own as primitive and in need of formalized government and leadership.[ 2]

The Raj brought many modern improvements such as railroads, telegraphs, postal service, highways, and schools, but the colonial system meant economic hardship to millions of Indians while British entrepreneurs enjoyed enormous financial gains.

• Systems of trade existed to provide markets for British goods, but local industries did not expand or were disbanded. England's primary mission in India was the same as in North America - extract raw materials at low cost and force the creation of a "willing" market for its manufactured goods.
• All was ancillary to the pursuit of profit - exporting tea and importing fabrics and salt (for example). While they did leave India with some useful infrastructure, they left a very small industrial base in proportion to the population. They also left widespread consolidation of land ownership which left many millions at the complete mercy of the economic winds.

The British effectively controlled the sub-continent, but large portions remained under Indian administration and they ruled through a complicated network of alliances with local rulers. 

• They established schools which trained several generations of young Indians to work in the Civil Service, modeled on the British system. Anyone who wanted to get ahead had to play by the foreigner's rules - local elites sent their children to English boarding schools where they completely internalized the notion that theirs was an inferior culture. This had a very destructive effect on the Indian psyche which outlived the Colonial era.

Click here for lesson plans about Britain's attitudes toward India.

The Indian Penal Code and LGBT rights during the British Raj

The Indian Penal Code dates from 1860.

• Section 377 of the IPC criminalizes sexual acts that are "against the order of nature."

Section 377 of the IPC is still in effect, and it has been used to discriminate against Indians who identify as LGBT.

Click here to read the Indian Penal Code in its entirety.

• Click here for a scholarly paper on the intersections between British colonialism, the Indian Penal Code, and Section 377 in particular.

Women's History in the British Empire in India

A lot has been written and studied about women's history during the British Empire - including women in India as well as British women in both India and England.

• From George Mason University: "A number of British women did seek to alleviate the situation of colonized women through missionary work, education, and medicine. They called colonized women their “sisters,” in a relationship that has been characterized by Antoinette Burton as “imperial maternalism.” Attitudes towards colonized women varied, depending on the site of empire. It was not uncommon for British women to view Indian women as needing sisterly protection from child marriage and the restrictions of purdah." [4]

• Click on the source from GMU for more info about British women and relationships with Indian women in the setting of a colonized India.

A few books written about women's roles and politics in British colonization:
1. Women of the Raj: The Mothers, Wives, and Daughters of the British Empire in India
2. Married to the Empire: Gender, Politics, and Imperialism in India

Primary source of a British woman's diary entry from 1828: http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/p/102.html "Fanny Parks wrote her diary as a record for her mother in England and included descriptions of her daily activities and her observations of Indian religion, society, and customs."

For a video describing the role Indian women played through the time of British influence in India click here.

Gandhi and the Indian Independence Movement

• The colonial system was slow to change, setting the stage for the rise of nationalism as a force opposing colonialism and British rule. The Indian National Congress was formed in 1885.

• In 1915, a young western-educated lawyer, Mohandas Gandhi returned to India and assumed leadership of the nationalist movement that would eventually end the Raj system with Indian independence in 1947.

• Gandhi has been an icon for peace. His practices included rebellion without violence. Gandhi was repeatedly imprisoned by the British and resorted to hunger strikes as part of his civil disobedience. His final imprisonment came in 1942-44, after he had demanded total withdrawal of the British.

A quick clip showcasing actual footage of the India Independence Movements lead by Peace Revolutionaries like Gandhi

Click here for an audio link to the video, Mahatma Ghandi: Pilgrim of Peace.

Legacies

• A great article of how the British Raj still has influence in 21st Century India following British Prime Minister David Cameron in 2010; found here

Additional Links:

http://www.britishempire.co.uk/empire.htm

Sources:

[1} Geographia Asia, (2005). A Conscise History of India. Retrieved February 22, 2007, from Geographia Asia Web site: http://www.geographia.com/india/india02.htm
[2] http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/British/BrIndia.html
[3] For the first picture and caption: http://library.thinkquest.org/C006203/cgi-bin/stories.cgi?article=expansion&section=history/british&frame=parent 
[4] Women in World History - http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/modules/lesson8/lesson8.php?s=0
[5] Indian Penal Code of 1860 - http://punjabrevenue.nic.in/crime13.htm.