Case Study of Empire: The British Empire in India

British East India Company

The history of British imperialism in India is inextricable from the history of the British East India Company (EIC)

Sgt. Bayes of the 18th Hussars

British East India Company Flag

Professor Lavender 21 March 2005

Warren Hastings, First Indian Governor General

British East India Company

At the start of the 18th century, the East India Company's presence in India was one of trade outposts.

British East India Company

But by the end of the century, the Company was militarily dominant over South India and rapidly extending northward.
New East India House, 1880s

George Vertue, The Old East India House in Leadenhall Street, London (1711)

The Expansion of the EIC: Two Phases

To 1850 Expand from presence on coast (1750s) to take over center of India. War on land in eastern and south-eastern India. Gain control over the rich province of Bengal. 1850-1870s Consolidate control over Bengal and rest of east and southeast. Extend EIC control up the Ganges valley to Delhi. Subdue all remaining Indian states of any consequence:
either by conquering them; or by forcing their rulers to become subordinate allies

British East India Company History

1600: East India Company founded and given a monopoly of all English trade to Asia by royal grant. Traded with all of Asia -esp. China & India

Seal of the East India Company

East India Company Ship

British East India Company History

Company evolved into the worlds largest corporation by 1700. Funded by the purchase of shares and bonds. 20-30 ships/year sent to Asia. Annual sales in London were worth up to 2 million.

British East India Company in India

By 1800, EIC turned focus to India. Cotton cloth woven by Indian weavers imported into Britain in huge quantities to supply a worldwide demand for cheap, washable, lightweight fabrics for dresses and furnishings.
Indian Fabric Printer at work

East India Company Stock

Indian Textiles
The Company's main settlements -- Bombay, Madras and Calcutta -- established in the Indian provinces where cotton textiles for export were most readily available.

Indian Tailor with Wife of an EIC Official British India in 1848

A cloth merchant seated in his shop selling chintz to a customer, painted by a Tanjore artist, circa 1800.

Bombay, Madras and Calcutta

Settlements evolved from factories or trading posts into major commercial towns under British jurisdiction. Indian merchants and artisans moved in to do business with the Company and with the British inhabitants who lived there.
A pile-carpet loom at Hunsur, Mysore, 1850. The City of Surat, First Trading Port for English in India

Bantam Market

EIC and Trade in India

EICs trade built on sophisticated Indian economy. India offered foreign traders the skills of its artisans
in weaving cloth and winding raw silk, agricultural products for export,
sugar, indigo dye, opium

and services of substantial merchants & rich bankers.

Weighing Cotton at Bombay for the English Market, Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, 1862

Trading Bases of the East India Company, ca. 1770

During the 17th century at least, effective rule was maintained by Mughal emperors throughout much of the subcontinent provided secure framework for trade.

Changes in the EICs Policies (1750-)

EICs Indian trade before 1750 was stable and profitable. Companys directors in London saw no case for military or political intervention to try to change the status quo. BUT, beginning in 1750, they did start to intervene in Indian politics, with profound effects for India.

Changes in the EICs Policies (1750-)

WHY? Partly because of changed conditions in India; Partly as a consequence of the aggressive ambitions of the local British themselves.

Collapse of the Mughal Empire

Mughal empire collapsed and was replaced by a variety of regional states. This did not produce a situation of anarchy and chaos; Some of the regional states maintained stable rule and there was no marked overall economic decline throughout India. But conflicts among the states emerged.

East India Company Official Smoking a Hookah

Internal Conflicts in the Aftermath

New states sought European support for their ambitions; Europeans eager to become involved.
Acted on behalf of their companies Rivalry between British and latecomer French.

In southern India, British and the French allied with opposed political factions within the successor states.

Chaplain consecrates East India Company regimental Colors (1799) Painting of a treaty between Britain and Bengal, 1765

Military Expansion of the East India Company

Justified by the sacrifices that those serving the British Empire have made

Internal Conflicts in the Aftermath

Private ambitions also involved. Great personal rewards were promised to the European commanders who succeeded in placing their Indian clients on the thrones for which they were contending. Successful kingmakers, like Robert Clive, could become prodigiously rich.

Robert Clive, First Governor of Bengal

Price of Seapower

(Detail)

Internal Conflicts and the Militarization of the East India Company

These ongoing battles led the EIC to develop its own army. In India, EIC commercial governors became governors of provinces. EIC continued to trade, but also created huge armies
made up of Indian sepoys but with some regular British regiments.

Internal Conflicts and the Militarization of the East India Company

EIC armies were used
to defend the Company's territories, to coerce neighboring Indian states and to crush any potential internal resistance.

Sepoy Soldier, 1880s; this soldier is a Sikh, but both Muslims and Hindus also served as Sepoys.

As provincial governors, EIC officials were now allowed to collect taxes, using Indians as collectors.

Tax Collector

Military Expansion of the East India Company

Military Expansion of the East India Company

As the EIC expanded and demanded to play a larger role in local politics and administration, its need for an army increased. This need was answered by importing British soldiers and increasing Sepoys.

East India Company Official in Company Uniform

Field Officer of the East India Company Guard

Armed troops of the East India Company, 1840s

Military Expansion of the East India Company

But relations with Sepoy troops deterioriated as the EIC began to require them to act more British
Introduction of pork and beef lard as rifle cartridge lubricant triggers the Sepoy Mutiny (1858)

Reasons for the Mutiny

Christian Evangelism in India after 1834
Had been kept out by the EIC for fear of offending locals But British Parliament had forced EIC to open borders to missionaries in 1834.

1856 General Service Enlistment Act

Overseas service requirement for all enlisted men Offensive to Hindus
In Hindu belief, crossing the ocean would make them ritually impure
requiring expensive purification ceremonies or else becoming outcasts in their home communities. Loss of Military Careers.

Changing Status of Sepoy troops

Decreasing Pay Replacement of Sepoy officers with Englishtrained ones

Mugal Attack on the British Fort at Bombay, 1858

The Last Straw

1856, Enfield Rifles issued to EIC Army Soldiers required to bite ends off the cartridges; cartridges were greased with lard and tallow For Muslims and Hindus, contact with either would make them unclean and cause a loss of caste status; and this seemed specifically aimed at their religious identity.
May 9, 1857: 85 Sepoys beaten and imprisoned for refusing orders to use them May 10, 1857: Bengal regiment mutinied in protest and killed their British commanders

The Attack of Mutineers, July 30, 1857

Battle of Lucknow, June 1857

British Depiction of the Sepoy Mutineers: Sepoy Indian troops dividing the spoils after their mutiny against British rule

British Reaction
We shall never again occupy a high ground in India until we have put a yoke upon the Brahmins. We have conceded too much to the insolence of caste. Not one high caste man should henceforward be entrusted with a sword.... He has been trusted with power, and how has he betrayed it? The graves of 100 English women and childrenworse, the unburied bones of those poor victimsare the monuments of high bred sepoy chivalry. -- Delhi Gazette
British Depiction of the Sepoy Mutineers

British Retribution
Within the Military "Eradication" of Sepoy regiments
51st and 26th regiments killed in their entirety

British Retribution vs. Civilians

Colonel James Neill and the Bloody Assizes beginning in Allahabad on June 11, 1857. Every native that appeared in sight was shot down without question, and in the morning Colonel Neill sent out parties of regiment [?]...and burned all the villages near where the ruins of our bungalows stood, and hung every native that they could catch, on the trees that lined the road. Another party of soldiers penetrated into the native city and set fire to it, whilst volley after volley of grape and canister was poured into the fugitives as they fled from their burning houses.

John Lawrence wrote to the British high command in August 1857: We have killed and drowned 500 out of the 600 men of the [26th] regiment.

Indian troops killed with English cannons in the aftermath of the Sepoy mutiny, 1858

Capture of Lucknow (detail)

The Bloody Assizes

June 29 1857: Neill orders "the village of Mullagu and neighborhood to be attacked and destroyed slaughter all the men take no prisoners. All insurgents that fall into good hands hang at onceand shoot all you can. A British Soldier in Delhi: All the people found within the walls when our troops entered were bayoneted on the spot. These were not mutineers but residents of the city, who trusted to our well-known mild rule for pardon. I am glad to say they were disappointed. The judge in charge of trials at Bareilly had lost his wife during the conflict; he told McCausland: If ever I get the chance of [judging] these Black rebels I will hang a man for every hair that was in my wifes head. He had executed close on 700 well I said if you just continue you will have made good your work and turning to Sergt Aden I said you mind what Sir Colin [Campbell] said to us at Cawnpore that every man that had a black face was our enemy and we could not do wrong in shooting him so you know how to act here. -- David McAusland of the 42nd Highland Regiment (diary)

Reactions to the Massacre

Huge coverage in Britain
London Times alone carried 108 stories about the massacre between August 15, 1857 and February 3, 1860.

Lurid accounts dwelling on rape and race

women being raped in front of their children before being killed, of matted blood, gory remains of childrens limbs, of the suffocation of living children among their dead mothers when the victims were thrown into a well.

Massacre at Satchiura Ghat in Cawnpore, July 15, 1857

British Calls for Vengeance

Every British heart, from the highest to the humblest of the land, glows with honest wrath, and demands justice, prompt and unsparing, on the bloodyminded instruments of the Rebellion. -The Illustrated London News London Times, Morning Post, and Newcastle Chronicle: Muslim and Hindu rebels must be exterminated The paramount duty of the British Government is now retribution a duty to the dead and living. -- Delhi Gazette No mercy's shown to men whose hands/ With women's blood yet reek! -- Delhi Gazette Official British military dispatches depicted Sepoys as
demons, fiends, and niggers led by passions to faithlessness, rebellion, and crimes at which the heart sickens, as gangs of black satyrs, members of that venom race, in heart as black as face.

Brevet-Major R. Poore writes home in 1857:

The race of men in India are certainly the most abominable, degraded lot of brutes that you can imagine, they don't seem to have a single good quality.

Military Expansion of the East India Company

In the aftermath of the Uprising, Indian troops are replaced by British troops.

But even before the mutiny, trade policies of the company were changing Local crafts were de-emphasized as export products Indian raw materials became the main focus of EIC production India became more a market for British finished goods than it had been before (especially in the area of textiles) This has a profound effect on local Indian economic development

East India Company's Military Seminary, a military academy, at Addiscombe House, Croydon, in England, 1860s

After 1860, The East India Company focuses on making the Indian more British and less Indian
Cultural Imperialism Religion and the arrival of missionaries Forced conversion from Muslim, Sijk, and Hindu faiths Rewards for those who convert to Christianity And penalties for those who resist.
India to Britain Britain to India

 Advantages for those who convert: Education Jobs as Missionaries Access to English Privilege

Cultural Imperialism
Indian cultural practices: Sati (Suttee) banned 1828 Thugs (Thuggee) banned in 1830s

Sati and Swinging, 1815

Suttee

Invented Cultural Practices

Apartheid
In India every European, be he German, or Pole or Rumanian, is automatically a member of the ruling race. Railway carriages, station retiring rooms, benches in parks, etc. are marked 'For Europeans Only.' This is bad enough in South Africa or elsewhere, but to have to put up with it in one's own country is a humiliating and exasperating reminder of one's enslaved condition. -- Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian nationalist and first Prime Minister

Direct British Rule

1858: In aftermath of the 1857 Uprising, Britain seizes direct rule over India

Suez Canal
1869: Suez Canal opened Canal reduced the sailing time between Britain and India from about three months to only three weeks Enabled London to exercise tight control over all aspects of Indian trade.

Railroads, roads, and communications developed To bring raw materials, especially cotton, to ports for shipment to England To bring manufactured goods from England for sale in an expanding Indian market.

British-owned Indian India remained agricultural In 1914 less than 5% of national income industry expanded came from industry from 1880 to 1914, Less than 1 percent of Indias workforce but not Indian. was employed in factories.

Railway Bridges in India, 1900 (top) and 1930 (bottom)

Famine as the measure of British policies

Post-Railroad Famines in 19th-Century India 1865-66: Bengal, Bihar, Orissa.
Orissa worst hit; 1 million died in the three districts.

Famine in Madras, 1877

1. Rain failure. 2. Hoarding by traders and urban moneylenders. Export of grain. 3. Attacks on grain shops and stores. Upsurge in robberies. 4. At normal harvest time, British government demands tax. Many peasants refuse to pay. Leads to coercion by tax-officials, forcing richer peasants to pay up. Poorer peasants have land confiscated, or mortgage or sell property jewellery, farm implements, land to moneylenders to pay taxes. Richest peasants and moneylenders enlarge their holdings. 5. British Government establishes relief works, to which poorest peasants go. Middling peasants, and higher castes without resources starve.
British government punishes those who refuse to enter relief works by cutting rations

1876-8: Maharashtra and South India (7 million) 1896: Maharashtra and South India 1899-1900: Gujarat and Rajasthan

1877: Massive Famine in Madras Immediate cause was a drought which lasted two years But exacerbated by British control over food prices And British use of food as way to control economy

6. Destitute start to wander in search of food. Some receive charitable relief in towns. 7. There are suicides, parents sell or kill children, deaths (often of disease). DEATH TOLL: 7 Million.

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State-sanctioned ration for Madras, set by Sir Richard Temple, British Madras President Source: Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino, Famines and the Making of the Third World (Verso, 2001).

Pierre Loti arrived at Rajputana in 1899 by train to a haunting scene of wailing emaciated children:
"Oh! look at the poor little things jostling there against the barrier, stretching out their withered hands towards us from the end of the bones which represent their arms. Every part of their meagre skeleton protrudes with shocking visibility through the brown skin that hangs in folds about them; their stomachs are so sunken that one might think that their bowels had been altogether removed. Flies swarm on their lips and eyes, drinking what moisture may still exude... Source: Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts

Famine in Rajputana, 1899

Villagers in Rajputana in 1899; Nearly a million villagers died in the famine.

The last of the Herd, Madras (during the famine 1876-1878), Tamil Nadu, South India

Characteristics of British Rule in India

Change in policies and attitudes Impact of Sepoy Mutiny (or Indian Rebellion of 1857-58) Establishment of British Control, 1859 Full-On Empire: apartheid, cultural imperialism Evaluation: famine

Evaluating British Rule in India

Arundhati Roy, The New American Century, The Nation (January 22, 2004): Debating Imperialism is a bit like debating the pros and cons of rape. What can we say? That we really miss it? The entire article

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Evaluating British Rule in India

Dinesh D'Souza, "Two Cheers for Colonialism," The Chronicle of Higher Education (May 10, 2002) "The West did not become rich and powerful through colonial oppression..... The descendants of colonialism are better off than they would be if colonialism had never happened. The entire article

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