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IGNOU ASSIGNMENT GURU 2019-20

EHI-05
INDIA FROM MID 18TH TO MID 19TH CENTURY
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SECTION I

Q1 WAS THE 18TH CENTURY IN INDIA A ‘DARK AGE’? DISCUSS.

ANSWER:

Till recently the 18th century was described as a Dark Age when chaos and anarchy ruled.
The Mughal empire collapsed, regional powers failed to establish empires and stability
returned only with the spread of British supremacy in the late 18th Century. It suited the
British writers of the Cambridge History of India, and their Indian followers, to paint the 18th
Century as black so that British rule would show up as a blessing in comparison. Historian
Jadunath Sarkar's words in the History of Bengal, Vol. 11, deserve to be quoted:

On 23rd June 1757 the Middle ages of India ended and her modem age began ... in the
twenty years from Plassey Warren Hastings ... all felt the revivifying touch of the impetus
from the west.

There are obvious problems with such a view. The Mughal empire's influence was not as
widespread or deep as was believed. Significant parts of India, especially in the North East
and South, remained outside it, as did many social groups. Hence Mughal decline cannot
serve as an adequate theme for discussing changes taking place all over India. Scholars have
recently argued that the establishment of regional polities was perhaps the dominant
feature of the eighteenth century, rather than the fall and rise of all-India empires. The 18th
Century is presented by Satish Chandra, a leading historian of medieval India, as a distinct
chronological whole, rather than split into two halves, pre-British and British.
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According to B.D Chattopadhyay a historian after the decline or fall of any huge empire such
political chaos and instability is command and nothing is wrong in it. For instance, the same
thing happened after the fall of Mauryan empire, Gupta empire and after decline of Delhi
Sultanat after Tughlaqs. According to him the fights and struggle between the kingdoms to
increase their area of dominance and dominate the entire sub - continent or part of it is the
need of the time otherwise no empire can be found for instance the Marathas in the 18th
century established thier empire in the same manner under Baji Rao 1 and Nana Saheb
Peshwa and similarly the British East India Company also established their empire. In the
similar manner the founders of Vijanagar empire and Bahamani Sultanat established their
regional empires, Rana Kumbha did the same thing in in 16th century. So, we cannot see such
political chaos and fights in a negative way.

Secondly, it is true that there was a great level of decline that happened in the sub-continent
in the period as the old centres of trade, culture and politics like Agra, Surat, Murshidabad,

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Allahabad, Delhi declined and were almost of no importance new centres of trade, culture
and politics replaced them such as Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Bangalore, Srirangapattanam,
Pune, Gwalior, Hyderabad, Lucknow and many more. Partho Dutta in his essay on 18th
century has mentioned this and has also stated that the economy of the subcontinent was in
a quite good condition it was growing in a sluggish rate but not declining. Also, Bengal and
Mysore were the two most prosperous and rich kingdoms of the subcontinent in this period.
And at one hand if the inland trade declined during this period on the other hand the
overseas trade increased a lot during this century. So, the period of 18th century in India is
actually not a period of dark age rather it is a period of both decline as well as development.

Q2 HOW DID WESTERN KNOWLEDGES SHAPE THE INDIAN MIND?

ANSWER:

India, thus, became a British colony. The British imposed heavy taxes on the Indians,
exported raw materials from India to feed England’s industries and sold their cheap
machine-made goods in Indian markets. Most of the money they earned in India and the
goods they bought with such money were sent to England. Thus, India’s wealth was drained
out.

Although British rule caused many hardships to the Indians, some of the British policies
benefited the Indians in the long run. Let us see how British rule affected education,
transport and communication, and social and cultural life in India.

1. Education:

In the eighteenth century, elementary education in India was imparted in pathshalas for
Hindus and maktabs for Muslims. Children were taught to read and write, memorise religious
texts and do simple arithmetic. Tols and madarsas imparted higher education in Sanskrit and
Persian respectively.

However, these institutions did not promote the spirit of enquiry. They made no effort to
make students aware of the latest scientific developments around the world.

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Initially, the British did not try to change the existing system of education. But, in the early
nineteenth century, Christian missionaries, Indians influenced by Western liberal ideas, and
the British government began to encourage the spread of Western education among the
Indians.

The Christian missionaries believed that the spread of Western education in India would help
them win converts. So, they established educational institutions attached to their churches,
mainly in Madras, Bombay and Calcutta.

2. Transport and Communication:

In the eighteenth century, the transport and communication system in India was rather poor.
Bullock-carts plying on poor-quality roads and boats plying on rivers were the chief means

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of transport. In the nineteenth century, the British built a network of sturdy roads in India.
They also dug canals and introduced steamships. Above all, they introduced railways in India.
All this was done to improve the transportation of raw materials to the ports and imported
goods to the Indian markets.

Lord Dalhousie rebuilt a part of the ancient road connecting Sonargaon in Bangladesh to
Peshawar in Pakistan. This road is known as the Grand Trunk Road. Dalhousie also
inaugurated the first Indian railway line, between Bombay and Thane, in 1853.

The railways not only ensured the quicker movement of goods, but also ensured the quick
movement of British troops from one part of India to another. To improve communication,
Dalhousie established the Post and Telegraph Department.

He introduced a half-anna postage stamp for a letter to be carried from one part of the
country to another. These changes helped the British to strengthen their administrative
control over India. However, in the long run, these changes also brought Indians from all over
the country closer to each other

3. Social Impact:

Equality before the law:

The British introduced uniform laws in all the Indian territories under their direct control.
These laws were written down in the form of a code. They applied to all without any
discrimination, at least in principle. Thus, they denied traditional social privileges to the
upper castes and helped reduce caste discrimination in Indian society. The British, however,
practised racial discrimination. Indians were not permitted to use public utilities and services
meant for the whites.

Improved social interaction:

The British introduced new systems of mass transport, like railways, in which people of
different castes had to travel together. This forced people of different castes to interact
and mix with each other. The British also improved the communication system, which
resulted in greater interaction among people living in different parts of India.

The schools and colleges set up by the British for spreading Western education were open
to all sections of the society. Indians speaking different languages learnt English in these
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institutions and used it to communicate with each other. Western education also introduced
Indians to modern liberal ideas. This led to social reform movements, and later aroused
national pride among the Indians.

Emergence of new professional class:

British rule opened up new employment opportunities in administrative offices, business

houses, law courts, workshops and educational institutions. This led to the emergence of a
class of professionals such as clerks, merchants, lawyers, teachers and industrial workers.
Entry into such professions was not based on caste or social status but on educational
qualification and specific skills.

Movements and legislations for social reform In the early nineteenth century, enlightened
Indians started reform movements against social evils such as cruelty towards women and

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discrimination against the lower castes. Responding to these movements, Lord William
Bentinck abolished sati in 1829 and Lord Dalhousie legalised widow remarriage in 1856.

4. Cultural Impact:

Rediscovery of India’s past:

When the English East India Company’s rule in India began, the Company’s servants were
unfamiliar with the laws and customs of India. To make them familiar with the existing
Muslim and Hindu laws, Warren Hastings established the Calcutta Madarsa in 1781 and
Jonathan Duncan set up the Sanskrit College at Varanasi in 1792. New trends in literature:

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Western influence on Indian literature became
prominent. The authors of the period started writing on humanistic issues such as social
problems, unlike earlier authors, who wrote on religion, mythology and the lives of rulers.
New styles of prose and verse were introduced, and simple language was used. Dramas,
short stories and novels became very popular.

Many works based on patriotic themes were produced. Dinabandhu Mitra wrote the play
Neel Darpan, describing the suffering of indigo cultivators under British plantation owners.
Bankim Chandra Chatterji wrote the famous novel Anandmath, which contains the national
song Vande Mataram. Muhammad Iqbal wrote the national song Saare Jahan Se Achchha.
Such works aroused national pride among the Indians.

SECTION II

Q3 DISCUSS IN BRIEF THE HINDI-URDU CONTROVERSY.

ANSWER:

The Hindi–Urdu controversy arose in 19th century colonial India out of the debate over
whether the Hindi or Urdu languages should be chosen as a national language. Hindi and
Urdu are generally understood in linguistic terms as two forms or dialects of a single
language, Hindustani (or Hindi-Urdu), that are written in two different scripts: Devanagari
(for Hindi) and a modified Perso-Arabic script (for Urdu).

Both Hindi and Urdu represent forms of the Khariboli dialect of Hindustani. A Persianized
variant of Hindustani began to take shape during the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526 AD) and 5
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Mughal Empire (1526–1858 AD) in South Asia. Known as Dakkani in southern India, and by
names such as Hindi, Hindavi, and Hindustani in northern India and elsewhere, it emerged as
a lingua franca across much of India and was written in several scripts including Perso-
Arabic, Devanagari, Kaithi, and Gurmukhi.

The Perso-Arabic script form of this language underwent a standardization process and
further Persianization in the late Mughal period (18th century) and came to be known as
Urdu, a name derived from the Turkic word ordu (army) or orda and is said to have arisen as
the "language of the camp", or "Zaban-i-Ordu", or in the local "Lashkari Zaban". As a literary
language, Urdu took shape in courtly, elite settings. Along with English, it became the first
official language of British India in 1850.

Hindi as a standardized literary register of Khariboli arose later; the Braj dialect was the
dominant literary language in the Devanagari script up until and through the nineteenth

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century. Efforts to promote a Devanagari version of the Khariboli dialect under the name of
Hindi gained pace around 1880 as an effort to displace Urdu's official position.

In 1900, the government issued a decree granting symbolic equal status to both Hindi and
Urdu. Hindi and Urdu started to diverge linguistically, with Hindi drawing on Sanskrit as the
primary source for formal and academic vocabulary, often with a conscious attempt to
purge the language of Persian-derived equivalents. Deploring this Hindu-Muslim divide,
Gandhi proposed re-merging the standards, using either Devanagari or Urdu script, under
the traditional generic term Hindustani. Bolstered by the support of the Indian National
Congress and various leaders involved in the Indian Independence Movement, Hindi, in the
Devanagari script, along with English, replaced Urdu as one of the official languages of India
during the institution of the Indian constitution in 1950.

Q4 WHAT WERE THE OBJECTIVES OF PERMANENT SETTLEMENT?

ANS

Prior to the arrival of Lord Cornwallis in India, no permanent settlement was made in Bengal
in the sphere of revenue administration.

Cornwallis was the first Governor General who paid his attention to the revenue reforms
and attained a great success and tremendous fame.

It was the permanent reform of Cornwallis in India. At the time of appointment of Cornwallis
as governor General. The condition of the farmers of India was very deplorable and the land
revenue system of the East India Company was ridden with defects.

Hence, Cornwalis resorted to Permanent Settlement for the good of the farmers. When
Cornwallis arrived in India, the land revenue system was as follows:

1. The farmers had to pay cultivation tax to the Government.

2. The system of annual settlement was in Vogue.

Hastings had introduced the Five-Year Settlement according to which the right of realisation
of tax was given to the highest bidder for five years on contract basis. 6
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But there was a great problem in this system in as much as that at the time of auction, the
contractors to make such a high bid, that they failed to deposit the amount of the bid in tie
royal treasury.

Hence this system was converted into annual system on contract basis but this alternative
made the situation all the more intricate the new contractors who had no experience of
realisation of the tax could not control the situation.

The contract system proved harmful for both the peasants and the company and the
productivity of the land begin to decrease rapidly. Hence the weaknesses of the annual
system were clearly apparent at the time of the appointment of Cornwallis.

In order to improve the deplorbale condition of the peasants and the company, Cornwallis
started this system which came to be known as permanent settlement.

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Q5 WHY DID THE REVOLT OF 1857 FAIL? DISCUSS.

ANSWER:

Although the revolt was a big event in the history of India, it had very little chance of success
against an organized and powerful enemy. The revolt was suppressed within a little over a
year of its outbreak. There were many reasons for its failure.

1. The revolt did not spread to all parts of the country. Nor was it supported by all groups and
sections of the Indian society. South and West India remained largely outside the fold of the
revolt. Many Indian rulers refused to help the rebels and some were openly hostile to the
rebels and helped the British in suppressing eh revolt. The middle and upper classes and the
modern educated Indians also did not support the revolt.

2. The revolt was an un-organized effort. The rebels lacked an ideology or programme which
could be implemented in the captured areas. None of them knew what to do after the
capture of a region.

3. The leadership of the movement was weak. Most of its leaders lacked a national
perspective and were motivated by narrow, personal gains. They fought to liberate only their
own territories. No national leaders emerged to coordinate the movement and give it a
purpose and direction.

4. The rebels were short of weapons and finances. Whatever few weapons existed were
outdated and no match for the sophisticated and modern weapons of the British. The rebels
were also poorly organized. The uprisings in different parts of the country were
uncoordinated. Often the sepoys were an uncontrolled group of people. They were unable
to carry through their early military successes.

The revolt of 1857 was a landmark event in the history of India. It was the first great struggle
of the Indians for freedom from British imperialism. The period after the revolt saw major
changes in British policies and in the administrative set-up of India. Broadly speaking, the
revolt sowed the seeds of nationalism in the minds of the Indian masses.

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Q6 WHAT IS DEINDUSTRIALIZATION?

ANSWER:

De-industrialization is a process of social and economic change caused by the removal or

reduction of industrial capacity or activity in a country or region, especially of heavy industry
or manufacturing industry. It is the opposite of industrialization.

There are different interpretations of what de-industrialization is. Many associate de-
industrialization of the United States with the mass closing of automaker plants in the now
so-called "Rust Belt" between 1980 and 1990.[1][2] The US Federal Reserve raised interest
and exchange rates 1979 to 1984, which automatically caused import prices to fall. Japan
was rapidly expanding productivity at that time, and this killed the US machine tool sector. A
second wave of de-industrialization occurred in the US between 2001 and 2009, culminating

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in the automaker bailout, from which the US did not recover. Some point out that the
percentage loss of industrial jobs 2001-2009 exceeded the industrial job loss of the Great
Depression. Some attribute the decline of industrial investment to the diversion of business
profits to stock buybacks.

Others point to investment in patents rather than in new capital equipment. The opioid
epidemic took off during this time period of 21st de-industrialization.[3] At a more
fundamental level, Cairncross and Lever offer four possible definitions of deindustrialization:

A straightforward long-term decline in the output of manufactured goods or in employment

in the manufacturing sector.

A shift from manufacturing to the service sectors, so that manufacturing has a lower share
of total employment. Such a shift may occur even if manufacturing employment is growing
in absolute terms

That manufactured goods comprise a declining share of external trade, so that there is a
progressive failure to achieve a sufficient surplus of exports over imports to maintain an
economy in external balance

A continuing state of balance of trade deficit (as described in the third definition above) that
accumulates to the extent that a country or region is unable to pay for necessary imports to
sustain further production of goods, thus initiating a further downward spiral of economic
decline.

SECTION III

Q7

I. ISHWAR CHANDRA VIDYASAGAR

ANSWER:

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar CIE (26 September 1820 – 29 July 1891), born Ishwar Chandra
Bandyopadhyay (Ishshor Chôndro Bôndopaddhae), was a Bengali polymath from the Indian 8
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subcontinent, and a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance. He was a philosopher, academic
educator, writer, translator, printer, publisher, entrepreneur, reformer and philanthropist. His
efforts to simplify and modernize Bengali prose were significant. He also rationalized and
simplified the Bengali alphabet and type, which had remained unchanged since Charles
Wilkins and Panchanan Karmakar had cut the first (wooden) Bengali type in 1780.

He was the most prominent campaigner for Hindu widow remarriage and petitioned
Legislative council despite severe opposition and a counter petition against the proposal
with nearly four times more signatures by Radhakanta Deb and the Dharma Sabha. But Lord
Dalhousie personally finalised the bill despite the opposition and it being considered a
flagrant breach of Hindu customs as prevalent then and the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act,
1856 was passed.

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He received the title "Vidyasagar" (in Sanskrit Vidya means knowledge and Sagar means
ocean, i.e., Ocean of Knowledge) from Sanskrit College, Calcutta (from where he
graduated), due to his excellent performance in Sanskrit studies and philosophy. Noted
Cambridge mathematician Anil Kumar Gain founded Vidyasagar University, named in his
honour.

In 2004, Vidyasagar was ranked number 9 in BBC's poll of the Greatest Bengali of all time.

IV. SANYASI REBELLION

ANSWER:

The Sannyasi rebellion or Sannyasi Revolt (1770-1820) were the activities of sannyasis and
fakirs (Hindu and Muslim ascetics, respectively) in Bengal against the East India Company
rule in the late 18th century. It is also known as the Sannyasi rebellion which took place
around Murshidabad and Baikunthupur forests of Jalpaiguri. Historians have not only
debated what events constitute the rebellion, but have also varied on the significance of the
rebellion in Indian history. While some refer to it as an early war for India's independence
from foreign rule, since the right to collect tax had been given to the British East India
Company after the Battle of Buxar in 1764, others categorize it as acts of violent banditry
following the depopulation of the province in the Bengal famine of 1770.

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