This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more

History Notes Empire and Nation: Britain and India Since 1750 Notes

Course Work Notes

Updated Course Work Notes

Empire and Nation: Britain and India Since 1750 Notes

Empire and Nation: Britain and India Since 1750

Approximately 10 pages

History of the subcontinent, from the arrival of the East India Company and the demise of the early Mughal Empire upto post-1947 trajectories of India and Pakistan. Notes include reading summaries, essay plans etc...

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Empire and Nation: Britain and India Since 1750 Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

“Far from being an age of increased racial difference, the period after the Revolt of 1857 was a golden age of cooperation between the British and Indian elites”. Discuss.

Argument

This essay suggests that the period after the Revolt of 1857 was born out of historical processes marked by an interplay of

  • A deconstruction of the question necessitates

  • Relativity of the term increased, this requires an understanding of the level of racial difference that existed prior to 1857

  • The need to define the period after the Revolt of 1857

British and Indian elites – hence the subject matter of this essay excludes a focus on peasants, sepoys etc. A definition of elites. According to British experts of the term, the new western-educated intelligentsia were both neglibible in number as well as untrustworthy. Rather, it was the landed aristocracy, in particular the princes, that constituted what Claude Markovits refers to as the ‘natural’ elite of India1. The intellegentsia too operated in a socio-economic context of landed wealth over mobavle wealth

  • Creates conditions of

  • This essay seeks to argue

Essay

The immediate consequence of the Revolt was that India came under the direct sovereignty of the British Crown. The Act of 1858 completely altered the basis of government in India, as the mercantile corporation that was the East India Company lost control of the subcontinent. Following the suppression of the Sepoy Revolt, the colonial state reorganized itself.

British rule began to be contested by a nationalist movement manifested within the Indian National Congress formed in 1885.

YES THERE WAS A GOLDEN AGE OF COOPERATION

According to Claude Markovits, the colonial government endeavored to consolidate its relationship with local Indians, especially the elite, since it was expected that this would be followed by acceptance from the masses2. The Queen’s proclamation of November 1858 promised the Indian princes that their rights, dignity, as well as the integrity of their territorial possessions would all be respected. This signaled a break from the policy of annexation of princely states practiced by Lord Dalhousie. Thus in 1862 Lord Canning permitted princes to adopt heirs in accordance with their religious laws and customs3. These personal concessions to individual rulers give credence to the idea that the years after the revolt were indicative of a golden age of cooperation between British and Indian elites. of In 1861 the creation of the order of the Star of India led to the integration of notable Indian princes into a purely British honours system. The Royal Titles Act of 1861, it can thus be argued, was an illustration of the growing sense of understanding and cultural assimilation between the British and Indian elites wherein Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India in a durbar before an assembly of the principal notables and princes of India. Other measures taken by the British to appease Indian princes and landowners also included the reinstatement of full prerogatives of the taluqdars of Oudh4.

EXPLAINING THE NEED FOR COOPERATION

The removal of Bahadur Shah Zafar as the last Mughal emperor brought an end to the Mughal dynasty, and thus deprived the British of the suzerainty that had provided them with legitimacy in the eyes of two hundred million Indians.

“No political regime can survive very long if it relies on pure force”5

The necessity to manage a fiscal balance. Militrary expenditure in 1858 was a quarter fo the budget, and the repression of the Sepuy Revolt caused governent expenditure to rise by 115 million rupees between 1856 and 18596.

NO THERE WAS ACTUALLY INCREASED RACIAL DIFFERENCE

“The severity of the British repression of the uprising widened the gulf between the colonizers and the colonized, even if the Indians, all of whom were a priori suspected of harbouring sympathy for the revolt, ostensibly flaunted their loyalty”7.

The racial-military complex. However, the British were now acutely aware of the skill displayed by the mutinous sepoys, as a result within the Indian Army they reinforced the supervisory role of Europeans, and made sure that Indians no longer could be elevated to grades higher than that of a non-commissioned officer. This forced removal of Indians from the elite military strata in fact represented British disinclination towards allowing the formation of an Indian military elite that might ultimately threaten colonial rule. this was simultaneously matched by a significant rise in British military staff stationed in India after 1857, that ultimately led to an increased militarization of British society in India. This was accomplished by a growing affirmation of imperialist ideology, and of the intrinsic racial superiority of the British over the Indians8. In fact, Claude Markovits argues that after 1857, the British tended to live in an increasingly “insular” society, avoiding all contacts with Indians that was not strictly necessary – this repudiates the idea of a golden age of cooperation, instead suggesting a tepid and lukewarm relationship that never went beyond required protocol.

Influx of British women. A rise in...

Buy the full version of these notes or essay plans and more in our Empire and Nation: Britain and India Since 1750 Notes.

More Empire And Nation: Britain And India Since 1750 Samples