British Imperialism in

India
India
 Great Britain in India

1600’s Great Britain set up trading posts through out India

 Various Paths to Colonial Status
 India and Indonesia = colonial
British authorities meeting with
Mughal leaders
conquest grew out of earlier
interactions with European
trading companies
 India = became controlled by Britain
 Indonesia = became controlled by the Dutch
 Neither country had a clear-cut plan for conquest
 Conquest evolved slowly as local authorities and
European traders made and unmade a variety of
alliances
 Acquisition of India and Indonesia = fairly easy
because both were fragmented territories with no
political unity
 British East India Company

● controlled British trade in India

 eventually the company gained political control over Bangladesh,
Southern India, and Northern India (along Ganges River)
 British East India Company
 1800’s: company operated in India with no regulation by
British government

 company had its own army

 Company army led by
British army officers
 Sepoys
 Indians who joined British armies in India
 Resented by other Indians
 Sepoy Mutiny
 1857 gossip spread amongst Sepoys (Indian soldiers for
the British)

 the seals of their ammunition had to be bitten off

 they believed the British dipped the seals of their
ammunition in beef and pork
(Hindus can not eat beef/ Muslims can not eat pork)

“ Whenever the grease around the bullet

appears to be melted away, or otherwise
removed from the cartridge, the sides of
the bullet should be wetted in the mouth
before putting it in the barrel; the saliva
will serve the pupose of grease for the time
being.-Endfield Rifle Field manual”
 “Jewel in the Crown”
 Industrial Revolution turned India into a major supplier of
raw materials to Great Britain

 300 million Indians were

a large market for
British products

Document 1
The colony benefited from
imperialism because it received food
and manufactured goods. Roads,
canals, railways, and schools are
additional “blessings of civilization”
that the colony receives. The
colonizer received tropical produce
from the “garden spot.”
 “Jewel in the Crown”
 British forbade India from
trading on its own with
other countries
 India was forced to produce raw
materials for only Britain and to
buy finished products from only
Britain

Document 2
This Indian speaker
referred to the British
colonial rule as a “knife
of sugar.” India enjoyed
peace
 Indian competition with British
and order but they finished products was forbidden
suffered from material
poverty. In the second
extract, the author pointed
out that the
British held all the high
government positions and
lived off of India.
 Raw Materials Taken from India
 Tea  Indigo (dye for clothing)
 Raw Materials Taken from India
 Coffee  Cotton
 Raw Materials Taken from India
 Jute (fiber for making rope)  Opium (plant that heroin is
made from)
 Raw Materials Taken from India
 Britain relied more on raw materials from India as wars
around the world cut off British supplies from other places

 example: American Civil War (1861-1865)

made Indian cotton more important to
Great Britain because cotton supply from
America was cut off
 Positives for India
 Great Britain laid the world’s third largest  Dams, bridges, canals
railroad network in India
 Railroads brought unity to disconnected
regions in India
 Modern road  Sanitation and public health improved
network
 Schools/
Document 3 colleges founded
This Indian, Romesh Dutt,
pointed out several benefits
 Truces between
local warring rulers
■ Telephone and telegraph lines enjoyed by India—Western
education and
in India
modern science. The British
also built a governmental
bureaucracy that was efficient  Document 4
and provided law  This author believed that British money and brains brought
and order as well as judicial
many benefits—communication and
system.
 transportation systems and an irrigation system that increased
farmland and agricultural production. India
 also had an improved sanitary system and a social welfare
system. As a result of British rule, Indians
 enjoyed a higher standard of living
 Purpose? Audience?
 Document 5
 This British author
identified the “standards
of humanity” that the
British brought to India.
These
 included the end of
female infanticide,
slavery, and slave trade
 Negatives for India
 British held all political and  Cash crops made it impossible
economic power for small farmers to produce
enough food for themselves

 Racist attitudes of most British

officials and missionaries
 British restricted Indian-
threatened Indian traditional life
owned industries
 Indian Nationalists( Purpose?
Audience?)
 Document 6  Document 7
 Nehru points out the negative effects for India of being a  Gandhi complained that Indians were not allowed to develop
“colonial economy” for the British. the skills needed for self –
 Indian economic development was disrupted when the
 Government( He wll serve as the spiritual leader for Indian
Independence)
British broke up old Indian industries. India
 supplied raw materials and agricultural products for
England, and India was a market for British industrial
 products. As a result of imperialism, unemployment and
poverty rose in India.( Will become the firsat
independent political eader of India in 1947)
 Indians Rebel
 By 1850 most Indians resented  Indians were angry at attempts
that Great Britain owned their to forcefully convert them to
country Christianity

■ Indians were angry at the constant

racism expressed towards them by
the British
 Indians were angry Britain
controlled all useful land in
their country
 Sepoy Mutiny
 British commander was  The Sepoys were jailed for
outraged when 85 Sepoys disobeying orders
refused to accept the
ammunition

 May 10, 1857 Sepoys rebelled;  rebellion spread into northern

marched on Delhi (Indian capital) and central India
 Sepoy Mutiny
 Fierce fighting between British  East India Company took more
and Sepoys (aided by other than a year to regain control of
Indians) the country

 British government sent troops

to help them
 Indians Did Not Fully Unite During Sepoy
Mutiny
 serious splits between Hindus and  unclear inconsistent leadership
Muslims

 Many Indian princes did not take  Sikhs (Indian religious group)
part in the rebellion (made remained loyal to the British
alliances with
British)
Sikhs
 Sikhs
 Minority Indian religious group

 Sikhs feared Muslims would regain

control of the country during
Sepoy Mutiny

■ Muslim Mughals ruled

India before Britain
 Sikhs
 Sikhs replaced Sepoys in
 Mughals did not allow
religious freedom
Britain’s Indian army
after the Sepoy Mutiny

 Great Britain allowed some

religious freedom in India
 Turning Point

 1858 British government took direct control over India

(because of the Mutiny)

 Raj (time period when

India was under Great
Britain’s control:
1757-1947)
 Raj
 India was divided into 11 Provinces and 250 districts

sometimes a handful
of
officials would be the only

British amongst millions of

Indians in a district
Ram Mohun Roy (1772-1833)
 well-educated Indian who
began a campaign to
modernize India
 he was opposed to India’s
caste system (social class
system that ties a person to the
social class they are into for
life: based on Hindu beliefs)
 opposed to child marriages
and widow suicides
 believed these practices
needed to be changed if India
wanted to be free from rule by
outsiders
 Ram Mohun Roy (1772-1833)
 other Indian writers picked up  Indian resented being second-
on Roy’s ideas and called for class citizens in their own country
changes

 Indians were paid 20 times less  Indians could not hold top jobs
than British in government
 Indian National Congress 1885
 Made up of Hindus; called for  upset that Britain segregated
self-government Bengal (Indian city) into Muslim
section and Hindu section in 1905

 INC led acts of violence  1911 Britain changed the order

against British in Bengal of segregation
 Muslim League 1906
 Made up of Muslims  also called for self-government

 also upset about segregation of  also participated in acts of

Bengal in1905 violence against British in India
 Indian Nationalism Grows
 Indian National Congress (Hindus)/Muslim League
(Muslims) Found Common Ground

 Both worked together towards Indian Independence

 World War I
 Great Britain got 1 Million  Britain promised Indians self-
Indians to enlist in the government in exchange for
British army to fight in them enlisting in the British
World War I army

1918 Indian troops

returned home: expected
Britain to fulfill its
promise
 Rowlatt Act (1919)
 instead Indian troops were treated as second class citizens
again by Great Britain
 many Indians committed acts of
violence against British in India
in response

Great Britain passes Rowlatt Act (1919) in response

 Rowlatt Act (1919)
 allowed British gov’t to jail protestors for 2 years with no
trial

 violent protests by Indians in Punjab (province with most Indian

World War I veterans)
 Amritsar Massacre (Spring 1919)
 10,000 Hindus and Muslims  alliance of Hindus and
went to Amritsar (capital of Muslims scared the
Punjab Province): festival to British
pray and hear political
speeches
 Amritsar Massacre (Spring 1919)
 Britain had earlier banned public  British General Reginald Dyer
protests: Britain issued the ban ordered his troops to fire on the
without informing most Indians! unarmed crowd without warning

 Shooting lasted 10 minutes: 400  news of the massacre spread

Indians Killed; 1200 wounded rapidly across India: Indians
demanded independence
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)
 Amritsar Massacre set the
stage for Mohandas
Gandhi to become leader of
the Indian Independence
Movement
 his teachings blended ideas
from all major world
religions (especially
Hinduism, Christianity,
Islam)
 Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)
 Gandhi preached/practiced
Civil Disobedience
 deliberate and public refusal
to obey any unjust law
 rebellion without violence
 1920 Indian National
Congress officially adopts
Gandhi’s policy as a means to
push for independence
 Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)
 Gandhi’s Plan for Civil Disobedience:
 Refuse to buy British goods

 Refuse to attend British schools

 Refuse to pay British taxes

 Refuse to vote in elections

 Indians weave their own

cloth (to put British cloth
out of business)
 Civil Disobedience
 1922 Indian rioters  Many British businesses went
attacked a police station out of business in India
and set officers on fire!

 British arrested Indians who

protested and boycotted
 Salt Acts 1930
 These laws required that Indians buy salt only from the
British government (without refrigeration, salt was crucial
to keeping food from spoiling)

 Required Indians to pay

a sales tax to British on salt as well
 Salt March 1930
 In protest Gandhi and his  demonstrators marched to a
followers walked 240 miles British salt processing plant to
to the coast to make their protest
own salt

 made salt by evaporating sea

water
 Salt March 1930
 British police attacked  Protestors refused to defend
protestors with steel clubs themselves: marching peacefully

 International newspapers covered the

 British arrested 60,000 peaceful event: won worldwide support for
Gandhi’s movement
protestors (including Gandhi)
 Great Britain Grants India Self-Rule
 1935 Government of  This was the first step in full
India Act independence for India
■ British Parliament
allows India some
self- rule
■ Allowed for local self-
government (mayors)
and limited elections
(regional representatives)  Gandhi and his campaign was
successful
 Internal Conflict
 India does not get full  Hindus far outnumbered
independence until after World Muslims in India
War II (after 1945)

 Hindus and Muslims had  Leads to more internal conflict

conflicting views for India’s
future