British Colonial Rule in India

Land-based Empire: Mughal India

1526-1858

Taj Mahal, 1653

Indian political fragmentation, 18th c.

*Mughals

Marathas

*Nawabs (Muslim princes)

European trading posts

Portugal, Goa, 1510

Netherlands, Ceylon

Britain, Calcutta, 1691

France, Pondicherry, 1764

*British East India Company (EIC)

Gradual encroachment

Seven Years' Wars (1756-1763)

*Bengal, 1757-65

Mysore, 1792-99

Tipu Sultan of Mysore, r. 1782-99

Alliance with French

Modern weapons

British advantage: Indian allies

Delhi, 1803

Bombay, 1818

EIC Administration, 1757-1858

Direct rule

Land taxes

Trade Monopolies

Indirect rule

Nawabs

Revolt, 1857

Disgruntled soldiers (sepoys)

Direct colonial administration, 1858-1947

Viceroy

Indian Civil Service

1,000 British, ca. 1900

Indian officials and employees

Economic impact

India as Market for British goods

India as producer of raw materials

Cotton

Opium, Bengal

Coffee, Ceylon

Tea, Assam

Tea Plantation

Type of labor?

Environmental impact?

*Elite Nationalism

Western education

*Dadabhai Naoroji, 1825-1917

Professor of Mathematics, Bombay (Mumbai)

Businessman

Member of British Parliament 1892-95

Study Questions-Lecture

1. How did the East India Company (EIC) create a British colony in India from 1757 to 1858? Why was it difficult for the East India Company to defeat Tipu Sultan? What explains the EIC's victory in 1799?

2. What was the economic and social impact of the British colonialism in India during the 19th century under the EIC and later direct colonial administration?
 

Study Questions-Reading

Hansen 583-90, 709-19

1. Why did the Mughal land-based Empire decline in the eighteenth century?

2. How did East India Company (EIC) officials cooperate with local nawabs to rule Bengal and other parts of northeast India?

3. Explain why the British presence in India led to Rammohun Roy's reform movement in the early 19th century, the Indian Revolt of 1857, and nationalistic ideals of the late 19th c.

Andrea, pp. 330-336

Rammohun Roy, “Letter to Lord Amherst,” pp. 330-33

1. What weaknesses did Roy see in traditional Indian learning? Is he going too far in rejecting his own cultural heritage?

2. What does Roy think that India needs from the Britain? Does he want Indians to become British?

"Azamgarh Proclamation," pp. 334-336

1. What grievances against the British are expressed in the proclamation?

Pomeranz, pp. 163-165, 233-236

1. Why were the East India Companies the world's first permanent corporations?

2. Why was the Indian cotton industry the most important in the world until the end of the 18th century?

3. How did the British kill the Indian cotton business?