BRITISH INDIA(1757-1947)

Arrival of European traders

                                         Indian trade links with Europe started in through sea route only after the arrival of Vasco da Gama in Calicut, India on May 20, 1498. The Portuguese had traded in Goa as early as 1510, and later founded three other colonies on the west coast in Diu, Bassein, and Mangalore. In 1601 the East India Company was chartered, and the English began their first inroads into the Indian Ocean. At first they were little interested in India, but rather, like the Portuguese and Dutch before them, with the Spice Islands. But the English were unable to dislodge the Dutch from Spice Islands. In 1610, the British chased away a Portuguese naval squadron, and the East India Company created its own outpost at Surat. This small outpost marked the beginning of a remarkable presence that would last over 300 years and eventually dominate the entire subcontinent. In 1612 British established a trading post in Gujarat. As a result of English disappointments with dislodging the Dutch from the Spice Islands, they turned instead to India. In 1614 Sir Thomas Roe was instructed by James I to visit the court of Jahangir, the Mughal emperor of Hindustan. Sir Thomas was to arrange a commercial treaty and to secure for the East India Company sites for commercial agencies, -"factories" as they were called. Sir Thomas was successful in getting permission from Jahangir for setting up factories. East India Company set up factories at Ahmedabad, Broach and Agra. In 1640 East India Company established an outpost at Madras. In 1661 the company obtained Bombay from Charles II and converted it to a flourishing center of trade by 1668. English settlements rose in Orissa and Bengal. In 1633, in the Mahanadi delta of Hariharpur at Balasore in Orissa, factories were set up. In 1650 Gabriel Boughton an employee of the Company obtained a license for trade in Bengal. An English factory was set up in 1651 at Hugli.  In 1690 Job Charnock established a factory. In 1698 the factory was fortified and called Fort William. The villages of Sutanati, Kalikata and Gobindpore were developed into a single area called Calcutta. Calcutta became a trading center for East India Company. Once in India, the British began to compete with the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the French. Through a combination of outright combat and deft alliances with local princes, the East India Company gained control of all European trade in India by 1769. In 1672 the French established themselves at Pondicherry and stage was set for a rivalry between the British and French for control of Indian trade.

BATTLE OF PLASSEY

       On June 23rd, 1757 at Plassey, a small village and mango grove between Calcutta and Murshidabad, the forces of the East India Company under Robert Clive met the army of Siraj-ud-Doula, the Nawab of Bengal.

Clive had 800 Europeans and 2200 Indians whereas Siraj-ud-doula in his entrenched camp at Plassey was said to have about 50,000 men with a train of heavy artillery. During the battle a monsoon storm, lasting nearly an hour, drenched both sides and the ground, The Indian guns slackened their fire because their powder was insufficiently protected, but when the Indian cavalry charged in the hope that the British guns had suffered similarly they were sharply repulsed by heavy fire. The battle lasted no more than a few hours, and indeed the outcome of the battle had been decided long before the soldiers came to the battlefield. The aspirant to the Nawab's throne, Mir Jafar, was induced to throw in his lot with Clive, and by far the greater number of the Nawab's soldiers were bribed to throw away their weapons, surrender prematurely, and even turn their arms against their own army. Battle of Plassey marked the first major military success for British East India Company.

Battle of Wandiwash,

 (Jan. 22, 1760), in the history of India, a confrontation between the French, under the comte de Lally, and the British, under Sir Eyre Coote. It was the decisive battle in the Anglo-French struggle in southern India during the Seven Years’ War (1756–63).

Lally, cut off from sea support by the withdrawal of Admiral d’Aché’s fleet and hampered by a lack of funds and by dissensions among his troops, tried to recover the fort of Wandiwash near Pondicherry (Puducherry). There he was attacked and routed by Coote, with about 1,700 British troops against about 2,000 French. Lally’s best general, the marquis de Bussy, was captured. The French were thereafter confined to Pondicherry, which surrendered on Jan. 16, 1761, after much privation. Lally was later imprisoned and executed, after a trial in Paris, for alleged treason.

Battle of Buxar

BUXAR’ is situated in the Mungher district of Bihar. The battle of Buxar was very important in the history of India as the East India company's win in this battle paved the way of establishing British colonial rule in Bengal presidency and subsequent expansion of British rule all over India. The battle was faught between the British and the combined force of Mir quashim of Bengal, Nawab of Audh and Mughal Badsah Sah Alam in the year 1764.

After wining the battle of Pallesy in 1757, the East India company made Mir zaffar as the Nawab of Bengal (The then Bengal means Bengal+Bihar+Orissa)

But ultimately the company lost faith on Mirzafar and his son in law Mir quashim was made Nawab. Mirquashim denied to be the puppet of the British. He shifted his capital from Murshidabad to Mungher. Mirquashim was a freedom loving Nawab, tried a last opportunity to get rid of the British, he organised a pact with Nawab Sujauddaullah of Audh and the then Mughal badsah Sah Alam. But unfortunately the combind force of Mirquashim, Sujauddaulla and Sah Alam faced the defeat in the battle. The British faught under the its chief commander John Adam with five thousands trained soldier only while the combined force of Mirquashim had five times more . Hystorian Dr R.C Majumdar said " They also reveal that the establishment of British rule in Bengal was due to as much at least to the irresistible of facts as to the element of chance".

The battle of Buxar played a very important role results a long term effect on Indian history. After wining the battle the company reached an agreement Allahabad Agreement) with the Nawab Sujauddaullah and they returned Audh to Sujauddaulla except two district Kara and Allahabad in exchange of huge money. In another agreement with Mughal badsah Sah Alam-2nd, they presented Kara and Allahabad to Sah Alam and and agreed to pay an annual amount of Rs. 26 lakhs in exchange of the power of revenue collection and rule Bengal presidency ("Grant of Diwani"). And thus emerged the British colonial rule and expansion in India.

The hystorian Dodwell said "In short the grant of Diwani was designed to secure the full contr ol Bengal affairs so far as the company's interest went, without incurring the inconvenience formal dominion."

ANGLO MYSORE WAR

            Mysore Wars, (1767–69; 1780–84; 1790–92; 1799), four military confrontations in India between the British and the rulers of Mysore.

About 1761 a Muslim adventurer, Hyder Ali, already commander in chief, made himself ruler of the state of Mysore and set about expanding his dominions. In 1766 the East India Company joined the nizam (ruler) of Hyderabad against Hyder Ali in return for the cession of the Northern Sarkars. But the nizam abandoned the war in 1768, leaving the British to face Hyder Ali alone. In 1769 Hyder Ali appeared before the company’s government in Madras (now Chennai) and dictated peace on the basis of the status quo.

In the second war, Hyder Ali joined forces with the Marathas in 1780 and again devastated Karnataka. The tide was turned by the dispatch of British help from Calcutta (now Kolkata) and by the death of Hyder Ali in December 1782. French help came too late to affect the issue. Peace was made with Hyder Ali’s son Tippu Sultan by the Treaty of Mangalore (1784).

The third war began in 1790, when Governor-General Lord Cornwallis dropped Tippu’s name from the list of the company’s “friends.” After two campaigns, Tippu was checked at Seringapatam and forced to cede half his dominions (1792).

The fourth war was undertaken by Governor-General Lord Mornington (later Wellesley) on the plea that Tippu was receiving help from France. British troops stormed Seringapatam in May 1799; Tippu died in the fighting and his troops were defeated.

British and marathas

The first, second, and third Anglo-Maratha wars were fought between the army of the British East India Company, which after 1757 was de facto ruler of Bengal and of other provinces in North East India, and the Maratha Empire, or confederacy, in the south of India. The Moghul Empire was already effectively under British control but its power had never extended far into the South, where the French—defeated in the North at the Battle of Plassey (1757)—still vied with the British for dominance. The wars started in 1777 and ended with British victory in 1818. This left the British in control, directly or indirectly via treaties with Princely states, of a vast proportion of India, making India the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. Typically, the British divided and ruled by benefiting from conflict between different Indian rulers, such as that between the ruler of Indore, and the Maratha overlord, or Peshwa and by neutralizing others. What had started as a commercial enterprise was now a full-blown imperial project. Making a profit for the mother-land was still the bottom line but the concept of the British race as destined to rule others, for their eventual benefit, was now rapidly developing. As Rudyard Kipling, the India-born novelist and poet of Empire would put later it, it was ‘the white man’s burden’ to shed light into dark places to ‘seek another’s profit and work another’s gain.’[1] though the more cynical Mary Henrietta Kingley, the African explorer, described empire as the ‘blackman’s burden’ for its often wonton destruction of other cultures.

India’s cultures were never quite as despised as those of Africa but they were regarded as decadent and immoral, and thus in need of correction. If at the start of the Maratha wars men such as Warren Hastings (Governor-General 1773-1785) valued Indian culture and thought more of partnership than domination, at the end of the Maratha wars, India was ready to be possessed, mapped, defined and ‘owned’ in its entirety in true, full bodied Orientalist style.[2] This feeling of ownership was further consolidated after the failure of the 1857 First War of Indian Independence or Mutiny when governmental responsibility was transferred to Westminster, and was finally sealed (May 1, 1876) when Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India.

REVOLT OF 1857

   Revolt of 1857 is the first Indian revolt for independence against the British government, ruling India at that time under Imperialism as a colonial master. The main causes of the revolt were the so-called unjust exploitative and oppressive policies of the British government at that time. It shook the very foundations of the British rule in India. British historian call it 'THE SEPOY MUTINY'. Indian historians call it as 'THE REVOLT OF 1857'.

CAUSES OF THE REVOLT

POLITICAL CAUSES

1. Lord Dalhousie caused widespread resentment among the Indian rulers and their subjects by aggressively expanding his state and annexing native Indian states

2. He annexed states of satara nagpur and jhansi by applying the doctrine of lapse

3. NANA SAHEB was denied a pension after his father's death. He was the son of Peshwa Baji rao II

4. Bahadur Shah's successor was denied the right to live at the red fort

5. He annexed Awadh, accusing the government of maladministration and shocking the nawab who was a faithful ally and the people of India

6. The British did not obey the treaties sometimes and they were broken according to the need of the British and the nawabs at that time could not trust any treaty at all.

Rise of Indian nationalism. The Indian intelligentsia highlighted the drain of wealth from India and the consequent poverty of the people. The critique of British colonial rule helped to hasten the rise of nationalism. The intelligentsia's admiration for liberal and democratic principles stressed by Western education was another factor that promoted nationalism.

1885-1947

In 1885, educated middle class nationals had founded the Indian National Conference (INC). Their aim was to get a much greater say in the way India was governed.

In response to this development, the Morley-Minto reforms were introduced in 1909. Morley was the Secretary of State for India and Lord Morley was Viceroy of India. Their reforms lead to each province in India having its own governor and Indian nationals were allowed to sit on the councils which advised these governors.

After 1918, nationalism within India intensified. This was probably due to 2 reasons:

1. Many educated nationals in India were far from satisfied with the Morley-Minto reforms. White Englishmen still dominated India and there had been no real decrease in their power or increase in national power. The INC (Indian National Council) wanted a lot more.

2. Woodrow Wilson had stimulated the minds of many people with his belief in national self-determination – i.e. that people from a country had a right to govern themselves. The whole concept of national self-determination undermined the basic idea of the British Empire – that the British governed this empire (or people appointed by the British to do the same). For national self-determination to fully work, India would have to be governed by the Indians living there.

As early as 1917, Britain had toyed with the idea of giving India a measure of self-government: "the gradual development of self-governing institutions with a view to the progressive realisation of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire".

In 1919, the Government of India Act was introduced.

This introduced a national parliament with two houses for India.

About 5 million of the wealthiest Indians were given the right to vote (a very small percentage of the total population)

Within the provincial governments, ministers of education, health and public works could now be Indian nationals

A commission would be held in 1929, to see if India was ready for more concessions/reforms.

However, the British controlled all central government and within the provincial governments, the British kept control of the key posts of tax and law and order.

Many Tory MP’s in Britain were against the whole idea of giving anything whatsoever to India in terms of self-government. They had two complaints about the whole idea:

1. If you gave India some form of self-rule, where would it end?

2. Would it start the process that would lead to the break-up of the British Empire?

The reforms were introduced very slowly and their spread throughout such a large country was equally as slow. This angered many as there was a general belief that the British were deliberately stalling on introducing these reforms to ensure their continued supremacy in India.

Riots did break out and the most infamous was at Amritsar in the Punjab where 379 unarmed protesters were shot dead by British soldiers based there. 1200 were injured. This incident shocked many in India but what caused equal outrage was the British reaction to Amritsar – the officer commanding British troops at Amritsar, General Dyer, was simply allowed to resign his commission after an inquiry criticised his leadership during the riot. Many national Indians felt that he, and others in the army, had got away very lightly. The more radical Indians felt that the British government had all but sanctioned murder.

As a result of Amritsar, many Indians rushed to join the INC and it very quickly became the party of the masses.

"After Amritsar, no matter what compromises and concessions the British might suggest, British rule would ultimately be swept away."

The most vocal opponent of the idea of some form of self-rule for India was Lord Birkenhead whole was Secretary of State for India from 1924 to 1928. With such an opponent, any move to self-rule was very difficult at best, and probably impossible in reality.

In India, the 1920’s saw the emergence of three men who were to have a huge impact on the future of India:

Jawaharlal Nehru

Mahatma Gandhi

Muhammed Jinnah

Gandhi persuaded many of his followers to use non-violent protests. They had sit-down strikes, they refused to work, they refused to pay their taxes etc. If the British reacted in a heavy-handed manner, it only made the British look worse; essentially, the British would come across as bullies enforcing their rule on the bullied. However, there were those in India who wanted to use more extreme measures.

Part of the 1919 Government of India Act stated that a commission would be established after 10 years to assess whether India could/should have more self-rule. This first met in 1928 – the Simon Commission.

This commission reported in 1930. There were no Indians on the commission. It proposed self-government for the provinces but nothing else. This was unacceptable for the INC, which wanted dominion status, granted immediately.

During the time the Simon Commission reported, Gandhi started his second civil disobedience campaign. This included Gandhi deliberately breaking the law. The law in India stated that only the government could manufacture salt. After a 250-mile march to the sea, Gandhi started to produce his own salt. This produced a violent clash with the British authorities and Gandhi was arrested.

At this time, a sympathetic Viceroy to India had been appointed – Lord Irwin. He believed that India should have dominion status – and he publicly expressed this idea. Irwin pushed for the issue to be discussed. He organised two Round Table conferences in 1930 and 1931. They were both held in London.

The first conference failed as no INC members were present. Most were in Indian prisons. Irwin pushed for their release and he persuaded Gandhi to travel to Britain to take part in the second conference. Despite this development, the conference achieved little as it broke down over an issue that was to haunt India in future years – religion. Those present at the second conference, argued and failed to agree over what the representation of Muslims would be in an independent Indian parliament.

In 1935, the Government of India Act was introduced. Britain, at this time, had a National Government and progress was made over India purely because Stanley Baldwin, the Tory leader, and Ramsey-MacDonald, the Labour leader, agreed on a joint course of action. Winston Churchill was bitterly opposed to it. The Act introduced:

An elected Indian assembly to have a say in everything in India except defence and foreign affairs.

The eleven provincial assemblies were to have effective full control over local affairs.

The nationalists in India were not satisfied with this as the act did not introduce dominion status and white dominions were allowed to control their own defence and foreign policies. Also the princes who still ruled areas of India still refused to co-operate with the provincial assemblies so the second strand of the Act would have been meaningless.

The act’s major failing was that it ignored the religious rivalry between the Muslims and Hindus. Nearly two-thirds of India’s population were Hindus and the Muslims feared that in an independent and democratic India they would be treated unfairly. In the 1937 provincial elections, the Hindus, who dominated the Congress Party under Nehru, won eight out of the eleven provinces. The Muslim League under Jinnah demanded a separate state of their own to be called Pakistan. Both Gandhi and the Congress Party were determined to preserve Indian unity. Such a rivalry between the Hindus and Muslims could only bode ill for the future of India.

World War Two shelved the Indian issue – albeit temporarily. The Indians provided valuable military help in the fight against Japan especially in the campaign in Burma. The British promised dominion status for India once the war had ended.

In 1945, the newly elected Labour government headed by Clement Attlee wanted to push ahead with solving what was seen as the "Indian Problem". However, the religious rivalry in India was coming to a head and made any potential solution very complex. Attempts to draw up a compromise constitution that was acceptable to both Muslims and Hindus failed. The British plan was to allow the provincial governments extensive powers whilst central government would only have limited powers. The Labour government put its faith in the hope that most Muslims lived in one or two provinces and that the governments in these provinces would reflect this in their decision making. If this plan worked, the need for a separate Muslim state would not be needed. The plan was accepted in principle but the details for it were not.

The Governor-General of India, Lord Wavell, invited Nehru to form an interim government in August 1946. Wavell hoped that the details of such a government could be sorted out later – but he hoped that the creation of an actual government headed by Indian nationals would be supported by all. The Hindu Nehru included two Muslims in his cabinet but this did not succeed in stopping violence. Jinnah became convinced that Nehru could not be trusted and he called on Muslims to take "direct action" to get an independent Muslim state. Violence spread and over 5000 people were killed in Calcutta. India descended into civil war.

Early in 1947, Atlee announced that Britain would leave India no later than June 1948. A new Viceroy was appointed – Lord Mountbatten – and he concluded that peace could only be achieved if partition was introduced. The Hindu Congress agreed with him. Mountbatten became convinced that any delay would increase violence and he pushed forward the date for Britain leaving India to August 1947.

In August 1947, the Indian Independence Act was signed. This separated the Muslim majority areas (in the north-west and north-east regions of India) from India to create the independent state of Pakistan. This new state was split in two, the two parts being 1000 miles apart. The act was not easy to put into action.

Some people found themselves on the wrong side of frontiers especially in the mixed provinces of the Punjab and Bengal. Millions moved to the new frontiers – Hindus in what was to be the new Pakistan moved to India while Muslims in India moved to Pakistan. Where the two moving groups met, violence occurred especially in the volatile Punjab province where it is though 250,000 people were murdered in religious clashes. By the end of 1947, it seemed as if the violence was on the wane but in January 1948, a Hindu assassinated Gandhi. In a gesture that summed up the whole problem of India, the Hindu detested Gandhi’s tolerance towards Muslims. However, the murder of Gandhi shocked so many people, that ironically it ushered in a period of stability.