When was india controlled by the british

The Year of Africa altered the symbolic status of Africans worldwide by forcing the world to recognize the existence of African nations on the international arena. It marked the beginning of a new, more Afrocentric era in African studies and it was a major boost for African Americans, who were engaged in a civil rights strife within their own country.

The struggle of independence in Africa, however, did not end but was fueled by the events of as many colonies continued to fight for their independence throughout the s and s. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. European Imperialism in East Asia. Search for:. British India.

Permission was granted to several ships, but in a group of merchants known as the Adventurers succeeded at gaining a Royal Charter under the name Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading with the East Indies.

For 15 years, the charter awarded the newly formed company a monopoly on trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan.

The Company decided to gain a territorial foothold in mainland India with official sanction from both Britain and the Mughal Empire.

The requested diplomatic mission launched by James I in arranged for a commercial treaty that would give the Company exclusive rights to reside and establish factories in Surat and other areas. While Portuguese and Spanish influences in the region were soon eliminated, competition against the Dutch resulted in the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th and 18th centuries. These decisions would eventually turn the EIC from a trading company into de facto an administrative agent with wide powers granted by the British government.

The two companies wrestled with each other for some time but it quickly became evident that in practice, the original company faced scarcely any measurable competition. With the backing of its own private army, it was able to assert its interests in new regions in India without further obstacles from other colonial powers.

In the hundred years from the Battle of Plassey in to the Indian Rebellion of , the EIC began to function more as an administrator and less as a trading concern. The EIC was officially dissolved in and the rebellion also led the British to reorganize the army, the financial system, and the administration in India. Its provisions called for the liquidation of the British East India Company, which had been ruling British India under the auspices of Parliament, and the transference of its functions to the British Crown.

East India Company : An English and later British joint-stock company formed to pursue trade with the East Indies but actually trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and Qing China. It also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India. It led to the dissolution of the East India Company in India was thereafter directly governed by the Crown as the new British Raj. Key Takeaways Key Points The control of rich Bengal gained in the aftermath of the Battle of Plassey brought India into the public spotlight in Britain, and Parliament established regulations to manage the affairs of the East India Company.

After the Indian Rebellion of , the British government took control of the Company. All power was transferred from the EIC to the British Crown, which began to administer most of India as a number of provinces. What followed became known as the British Raj: the rule of the British Crown in the Indian subcontinent between and If the Government of India needed to enact new laws, it followed the decisions of a Legislative Council, half of which consisted of British officials with voting power and half comprised Indians and domiciled Britons in India who served only in an advisory capacity.

Their courts existed under the authority of the respective rulers. The British controlled the external affairs of the princely states absolutely. Its provisions called for the liquidation of the British East India Company, which had been ruling British India under the auspices of Parliament and the transference of its functions to the British Crown.

It ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and Qing China. Charter Act of : An act that intended to provide for an extension of the royal charter granted to the East India Company. It extended the charter by 20 years, redesignated the Governor-General of Bengal as the Governor-General of India, and deprived the Governors of Bombay and Madras of their legislative powers.

The Governor-General and his executive council were given exclusive legislative powers for the whole of British India. The act ended the activities of the British East India Company as a commercial body and it became a purely administrative body. Key Takeaways Key Points The mission civilisatric e, a French term that translates literally into English as civilising mission , is a rationale for intervention or colonization, purporting to contribute to the spread of civilization and used mostly in relation to the colonization and Westernization of indigenous peoples in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Colonial authorities fervently debated the question of the best policy. The orientalists believed that education should happen in Indian languages while the utilitarians also called anglicists strongly believed that traditional India had nothing to teach regarding modern skills and the best education would happen in English. Under Macaulay, thousands of elementary and secondary schools were opened, typically with all-male student bodies.

Universities in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras were established in The government opened universities and colleges of higher education by All these benefits, however, went to the Indian elites and middle classes, who were expected to serve as loyal supporters of the British rule in India.

The British assumed Indians had to be ruled by heavy hand, with democratic opportunities postponed indefinitely. Key Terms Whig history : An approach to historiography that presents the past as an inevitable progression towards ever greater liberty and enlightenment, culminating in modern forms of liberal democracy and constitutional monarchy. In general, historians representing this approach emphasize the rise of constitutional government, personal freedoms, and scientific progress.

The term is often applied generally and pejoratively to histories that present the past as the inexorable march of progress towards enlightenment. Learning Objectives Analyze the reasons for the Great Uprising of Key Takeaways Key Points The Indian Rebellion of resulted from an accumulation of factors over time rather than any single event.

In the military, sepoys had a number of grievances, including losing their perquisites as landed gentry and the anticipation of increased land-revenue payments that the annexation of Oudh might bring about; being convinced that the Company was masterminding mass conversions of Hindus and Muslims to Christianity; changes in the terms of professional service; and the issue of promotions based on seniority.

To load the rifle, sepoys had to bite the cartridge open to release the powder, but the grease used on these cartridges was rumored to include tallow derived from beef, offensive to Hindus, and pork, offensive to Muslims. While the Company was quick to reverse the effects of the policy to quell the unrest, this convinced many sepoys that the rumors were true and their fears were justified.

The nobility felt it interfered with a traditional system of inheritance through the Doctrine of Lapse. Rural landlords lost half their landed estates to peasant farmers as a result of the land reforms in the wake of annexation of Oudh.

Some historians have suggested that heavy land-revenue assessment in some areas resulted in many landowning families losing their land or going into great debt. The alleged killings of women and children by the rebels left many British soldiers seeking revenge. Most of the British press and British public, outraged by the stories of alleged rape and the killings of civilians and wounded British soldiers, did not advocate clemency of any kind.

By the Government of India Act , the company was formally dissolved and its ruling powers over India were transferred to the British Crown. The rebellion also transformed both the native and European armies of British India. It later referred to all native soldiers in the service of the European powers in India. Sepoy execution by blowing from a cannon. The Economy in British India The economy of British India was largely designed to protect and expand interests of the British economy, but the British collaborated closely with the Indian elites who, unlike the masses of ordinary Indians, benefited from the many economic changes.

Historians have pointed to two causes: relatively low labor costs that discouraged investment in new labor-saving technologies and British control of trade and exports of cheap Manchester cotton. Entrepreneur Jamsetji Tata became the symbol of local industrial success, establishing a company that remains an influential global brand today.

The railways were privately owned and operated and run by British administrators, engineers, and skilled craftsmen. India thus provides an example of the British Empire pouring its money and expertise into a well-built system designed for military purposes with the hope that it would stimulate industry. Historians continue to debate whether the long-term impact of British rule accelerated or hindered the economic development of India. Many scholars in India and the West agree today that the British power depended upon excellent cooperation with Indian elites and that the British rule did not change the highly divisive caste-based hierarchy of the Indian society.

Learning Objectives List the key goals of the Indian National Congress and the reasons for its formation. Key Takeaways Key Points The Indian National Congress was founded in by Indian and British members of the Theosophical Society to obtain a greater share in government for educated Indians and create a platform for civic and political dialogue between educated Indians and the British Raj. Within the next few years, the organization decided to advocate in favor of the independence movement.

After internal conflicts over how to win independence, the moderate faction advocating gradual reforms won leadership over the radical faction that called for an open rebellion. With the help of the moderate group led by Ghokhale, Gandhi became president of the Congress and in the years following World War I, he remained its unofficial spiritual leader and icon.

In , the British government allowed provincial elections in India. The Congress gained power in eight out of 11 provinces. In protest, the Congress asked all its elected representatives to resign from the government. It held power nationally until , returned to power in , and ruled until , when it was once again defeated. It formed the government in at the head of a coalition as well as in and Throughout the post-independence period, Congress leadership was dominated by the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty.

His government was accused of corruption and in , Gandhi was killed by a bomb. He was succeeded as party leader by P. Charges included treason, torture, murder, and abetment. In the late 19th and early to midth centuries, it became a pivotal participant in the Indian independence movement, with over 15 million members and over 70 million participants in its opposition to British colonial rule in India.

Gandhi and Nehru in Calls for Independence The Indian independence movement, which achieved its goal in , was one of many independence struggles that intensified after World War II across Asia and Africa. Learning Objectives Connect calls for independence in India to worldwide movements for independence. Key Takeaways Key Points The decades following the Indian Rebellion of were a period of growing political awareness, manifestation of Indian public opinion, and emergence of Indian leadership at both national and provincial levels.

Members of the upwardly mobile and successful western-educated elites established organizations that aimed to ensure that they would gain influence in Indian politics but were not focused on the question of Indian independence. By , although the Indian National Congress, the leading independence movement organization, emerged as an all-India political organization, its achievement was undermined by its failure to attract Muslims. In the s, the League played a decisive role during the s in the Indian self-rule movement and developed into the driving nationalist force that led to the creation of Pakistan in the Indian subcontinent.

The early part of the 20th century saw a more radical approach towards political self-rule swaraj propagated by increasingly influential Mahatma Gandhi. Some activists preached armed revolution, literary professionals used texts as a tool for political awareness, feminists promoted the emancipation of Indian women, and some groups championed the cause of the disadvantaged sections of Indian society. The work of these various movements led ultimately to the Indian Independence Act , which ended the suzerainty in India and the creation of Pakistan.

Independence movements emerged across Africa and in regions of Asia that remained under the European control. They often referred to the Atlantic Charter and applied a number of strategies, both militant and based on the civil disobedience model. New modernizing forms of African nationalism gained strength in the early 20th-century with the emergence of Pan-Africanism. By the s, the colonial powers in Africa had cultivated, sometimes inadvertently, a small elite group of leaders who advocated the idea of self-determination.

The struggle culminated in , known today as the Year of Africa, when the number of independent countries rose from nine to 26 and African nations were recognized as a force to be reckoned with on the international arena.

Many colonies continued to fight for their independence throughout the s and s. The destabilization of European rule led to the rapid growth of nationalist movements, and nearly all Asian colonies gained independence in the aftermath of World War II, sometimes as a result of violent conflicts. Its strong advocacy for the establishment of a separate Muslim-majority nation-state, Pakistan, successfully led to the partition of British India in by the British Empire.

Year of Africa : A term used to refer to because of the independence of 17 African nations that took place that year, highlighting the growing Pan-African sentiments in the continent. The year brought about the culmination of African independence movements and the subsequent emergence of Africa as a major force in the United Nations.

Atlantic Charter : A pivotal policy statement issued in that defined the Allied goals for the post-war world. The document stated the ideal goals of the war: no territorial aggrandizement; no territorial changes against the wishes of the people; right to self-determination; restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; reduction of trade restrictions; global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all; freedom from fear and want; freedom of the seas; and abandonment of the use of force, as well as disarmament of aggressor nations.

Pan-Africanism : A worldwide intellectual movement to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all people of African descent.

Based upon a common fate going back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement extends beyond continental Africans, with a substantial support base among the African diaspora in the Caribbean and the United States. Gandhi made a call to do or die in a speech delivered in Bombay at the Gowalia Tank Maidan. It put stress on governance not by a hierarchical government, but through individual self-governance and community building focused on political decentralization.

Licenses and Attributions. CC licensed content, Shared previously. In , all other kinds of publication, too, were brought under this rule.

Once bitten by the bug and with strict adherence to the law not being insisted on over time, Indians continued with the enterprise.

By , there were some newspapers in the subcontinent, mostly owned and edited by Indians. Alarm bells rang again, bringing another round of censorship in the form of the Vernacular Press Act of and the revised Press Act of Under the latter, publishers were required to provide a hefty security deposit, which they would forfeit if the publication carried inflammatory or abusive articles. The racism of the British-owned press was not subject to the same restrictions.

The justice system in India was even more discriminatory. For instance, an Englishman who shot dead his Indian servant got six months in jail and a modest fine.

But an Indian convicted of the attempted rape of an Englishwoman was sentenced to 20 years. Worse still, the legacy of the British legal system has left India with an unenviable judicial backlog. There are still cases pending that were filed during the days of the Raj.

Indeed, if a pluralist democracy were a British legacy, how is it that neither Pakistan nor Bangladesh have pulled off a similar feat? Few kings ever rule to benefit their people. And, yet, what the British did to India was decidedly worse. How can we be sure that the British were to blame for those hunger deaths? Worse still, the British notion at the time was that governmental interference to prevent a famine was a bad idea. For centuries, the Viennese had controlled the European branch of the Silk Road , reaping enormous profits from the sale of silk, spices, fine china, and precious metals.

The Viennese monopoly ended with the establishment of European incursions in the sea trade. At first, the European powers in Asia were solely interested in trade, but over time they became more interested in acquiring territory. Among the nations looking for a piece of the action was Britain. Britain had been trading in India since about , but it did not begin to seize large sections of land until , after the Battle of Plassey. Fighting began on the morning of June 23, Heavy rain spoiled the Nawab's cannon powder the British covered theirs , leading to his defeat.

The Nawab lost at least troops, while Britain lost only The East India Company was primarily interested in the trade of cotton, silk, tea, and opium, but following the Battle of Plassey, it functioned as the military authority in growing sections of India as well.

By , heavy Company taxation and other policies had left millions of Bengalis impoverished. While British soldiers and traders made their fortunes, the Indians starved. Between and , about 10 million people one-third of the population died of famine in Bengal. At this time, Indians were also barred from holding high office in their own land. The British considered them inherently corrupt and untrustworthy. Many Indians were distressed by the rapid cultural changes imposed by the British.

They worried that Hindu and Muslim India would be Christianized. In , a new type of rifle cartridge was given to the soldiers of the British Indian Army. Rumors spread that the cartridges had been greased with pig and cow fat, an abomination to both major Indian religions. On May 10, , the Indian Revolt began, with Bengali Muslim troops marching to Delhi and pledging their support to the Mughal emperor. After a year-long struggle, the rebels surrendered on June 20, Following the rebellion, the British government abolished the remaining vestiges of the Mughal Dynasty and the East India Company.

The Emperor, Bahadur Shah, was convicted of sedition and exiled to Burma. It should be noted that the British Raj included only about two-thirds of modern India, with the other portions under the control of local princes. However, Britain exerted great pressure on these princes, effectively controlling all of India.

Queen Victoria promised that the British government would work to "better" its Indian subjects. To the British, this meant educating the Indians in British modes of thought and stamping out cultural practices such as sati —the practice of immolating a widow on the death of her husband. The British thought of their rule as a form of "autocratic paternalism. Around were killed and about injured. His actions caused horror and outrage in India and back in Britain. General Dyer was forced to retire but was not charged with any crimes.

One of the reasons for the British reaction at Amritsar was that they were nervous about the growing nationalist movement. One of its leading figures was a remarkable man called Gandhi. He began his career protesting about the ill treatment of non-whites in South Africa.

In he returned to his home - India - to convince the British to leave. He believed in non-violent protest, and his methods were extremely effective. He led many demonstrations against British rule. For example, he led thousands of Indians in a protest against the tax on salt. This tax discriminated against Indians. The protests were broken up violently by British troops who used clubs against the peaceful protesters.

During the s and s British attitudes towards India began to shift. This was partly a result of Gandhi's protests and the work of other nationalist leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru.

At the same time, India stopped being as important to Britain's economy as it had been in the past. There was also the fact that Britain gave self-rule to the Irish Free State in and this made it even harder to deny self-rule to India.

Throughout the s and s Britain introduced a range of measures that gave more and more independence to India.