INDIA

BRITISH RULE IN INDIA

INDIA
LINGUISTIC COMPOSITION IN INDIA
RELIGIONS
RELIGIONS

 Because religion forms a crucial aspect of identity for most Indians, much of India’s
history can be understood through the interplay among its diverse religious groups.
 One of the many religions born in India is Hinduism, a collection of diverse
doctrines, sects, and ways of life followed by the great majority of the population.
 Other religions are Buddhism and Islam
 Hindus now make up nearly four-fifths of India’s population. Muslims, however, are
still the largest single minority faith (about one-seventh of the total population)
THE BRITISH IN INDIA
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY

 British trading company

 It was given power by the British government to interfere in India´s
political affairs
 It ad its own soldiers
 It also hired Indian soldiers, sepoys.
THE GREAT REBELLION, OR THE SEPOY MUTINY

The sepoys rebelled due to religious reasons (bullets)

The British crushed the rebellions
The Indians did not succeed partly because of rivalries between
Hindus and Muslims
As a consequence, the British Parliament took control of India,
and Queen Victoria became Empress of India
COSTS OF BRITISH RULE
 The British government ruled India directly through a British official known as a
viceroy, a governor who ruled as a representative of a monarch
 The British brought order and stability to India, but they also hurt the economy and
degraded the Indian people.
 British manufactured goods destroyed local industries.
 Railroads, the telegraph, and a postal service were introduced to India shortly after
they appeared in Great Britain.
 British rule was degrading, even for the newly educated upper classes who benefited
the most from it. The best jobs and the best housing were reserved for Britons.
 Despite their education, the Indians were never considered equals of the British
EUROCENTRIC VIEW

 Lord Kitchener, one of Britain’s military commanders in India, said,

“It is this consciousness of the inherent superiority of the
European which has won for us India. However well
educated and clever a native may be, and however
brave he may prove himself, I believe that no rank we
can bestow on him would cause him to be considered
an equal of the British officer.”
QUESTION!

In your opinion, was British rule more

beneficial or detrimental to India? Explain.
INDEPENDENCE:
THE RESULT OF BOTH LONG AND SHORT TERM FACTORS

 The pressure from the rising tide of nationalism made running the empire politically and economically
very challenging
 Britain's strategy of a gradual devolution of power, its representation to Indians through successive
constitutional acts and a deliberate 'Indianisation' of the administration, gathered a momentum of its
own. As a result, India moved inexorably towards self-government.
 The actual timing of independence owed a great deal to World War Two and the demands it put on the
British government and people.
 With US foreign policy pressurizing the end of western imperialism, it seemed only a matter of time
before India gained its freedom.
AN INDIAN NATIONALIST MOVEMENT