Name:
Western Imperialism in India and Pakistan
The Portuguese
The first Europeans to establish roots in India - since the fall of the Roman Empire - were the Portuguese.
Led by Vasco da Gama’s landing at Calicut in 1498, they established themselves along the Malabar Coast
trading with the rest of the subcontinent from there. (The Portuguese maintained some holdings in India
as late as 1961.)
The English
Early British Imperialism in India was not carried out by the government but by a trading company, the
British East India Company. In 1600, the British East India Company was given the right to a monopoly
to trade and establish factories within India. As long as the Mughal Empire remained strong in India, the
East India Company’s activity was limited to coastal trading cities. When the empire began to break apart
into small states in the mid-1700s, the leaders of the East India Company turned the local rulers against
one another to keep India in chaos. The company, then, swept in with its own armies and took over much
of India, claiming to have done so to restore order.
The Rise of the British East India Company
In 1786, Lord Cornwallis became British governor of India. He strengthened the Sepoy (1) armies that the
East India Company had raised. Also, under Cornwallis and his successor Lord Wellesley, the British
slowly expanded their holdings. In 1813, the monopoly of the English East India Company was broken
and all British citizens were allowed to trade with India. Over the next 30 years, the British continued to
acquire new lands and strengthen their grip on those already under their rule.
The British also aggravated the Hindu population of India during this time period. They made English,
instead of Persian, the official language. They prohibited suttee (in which Hindu widows threw
themselves on their husbands' funeral pyres) and infanticide. They also allowed Hindu widows to remarry
and sanctioned missionary activity.
The Sepoy Mutiny
The growing Indian discontent with British rule erupted on May 10, 1857. The Sepoys, who were Indians
trained by the British as soldiers, heard rumors that the cartridges for their new Enfield rifles were greased
with lard and beef fat. Since the cow is sacred to Hindus, and the pig is abhorrent (2) to Muslims, all the
Sepoys were outraged, and they mutinied. Although, initially, the mutiny was spontaneous, it quickly
became more organized and the Sepoys took control of the cities of Delhi and Kanpur.
The violence of this rebellion was ferocious. Both sides were guilty of committing terrible atrocities.
Sepoys killed not only their British Officers but British women and children as well. The British
responded with extreme brutality accompanied by widespread recrimination (3) and, in many cases,
unarmed Sepoys were bayoneted, sown up in the carcasses of pigs or cows, or fired by cannons. On
September 20, 1857, the British recaptured Delhi and, in the following months, the British recaptured the
city of Kanpur and withstood a Sepoy siege of Lucknow.
The British Take Control
As a result of the mutiny, the British ended the rule of the East India Company in 1858. On August 2,
1858, the British Parliament passed the Government of India Act allowing the British Government to
directly rule India. This act transferred authority for India from the East India Company to Queen
Victoria. In 1876, Queen Victoria declared herself "Empress of India." In 1869, the Suez Canal (4) was
completed, reducing the time for sea passage from England to India from 3 months to 3 weeks. Because
of this, British women began to come to India, and the British developed their own society in India
separate from the native society. Another effect of the opening of the Suez Canal was that more and more
British goods were imported to India, effectively destroying many Indian crafts. By the end of the
nineteenth century, approximately 90% of the Indian population was farmers. This number was even
larger at the beginning of the century. At the same time, however, an increasing number of factories,
railroads, hospitals, schools, and roads were built by and for the British.
The Beginnings of Indian Nationalism
The first Indian nationalist organization, Indian National Congress, was founded in 1885. A popular
organization, the Indian National Congress was established by English-speaking Indians, most of whom
were Hindu. Their goal was to gain national self-determination (5). Indian scholars and journalists began
to call for Indians to take more pride in their own history and in their own products. The Congress
consisted mostly of upper middle class Indians: lawyers, journalists, businessmen, and professors. The
Congress was widely ignored by the British, but it quickly gained popular support among Indians.
In 1905, the British partitioned the state of Bengal, which many Indians believed was an attempt was an
attempt to break up Bengal’s Hindu population. This prompted huge protests, boycotts of British goods,
and attracted millions more to the nationalist movement. These protests also indirectly led to the
formation of the Muslim League, an organization of Indian Muslims. The Muslim League feared that the
Indian National Congress was attempting to preserve power of the Hindus at the expense of the Muslims.
Due to this, the Muslim League continued to support the British.
The End of the Empire
Situations in India took a turn for the worse in 1919 when Britain passed the Rowlatt Acts (6). Both
Hindu and Muslim leaders protested these Acts. Protests were especially fierce in the state of Punjab. On
April 13, 1919, around twenty thousand unarmed men, women, and children gathered in a public square
in Punjab's capital to protest these Acts. British General R.E.H. Dyer brought 50 soldiers to the one
passageway in and out of the square. Without warning, he ordered soldiers to fire into the gathering. In
the next 15 minutes, 1650 shots were fired. Around 400 people were killed, and another 1200 wounded
received no medical attention. Dyer later said that if he had had more ammunition, he would have
continued to fire.
The Amritsar Massacre caused Mahatma Gandhi and other nationalist leaders to cease all cooperation
with the British. Their strategy for gaining independence was to boycott all British goods, schools,
courts, and elections. Despite Gandhi's efforts, however, he was unable to gain widespread Muslim
support for his efforts. By the beginning of 1921, it became clear that the Hindu and Muslim populations
were taking separate paths. During World War II, for example, while the Hindu Congress refused to
support the British, war efforts were quietly supported by the Muslim League. In March, 1914, the
Muslim League called for a separate Muslim state in India.
After WWII ended, the British Secretary of State for India established a committee with the goal to
resolve the conflict between the Congress and the Muslim League and to turn over authority for India to a
single Indian administration. This lofty goal, however, could not be achieved and in 1947, the British
Parliament passed an Act establishing the Hindu majority country of India and the Muslim majority
country of Pakistan. At midnight of August 14, 1947, these two countries became independent, ending
British imperial rule of India.
Information Courtesy of: http://www.gloriousindia.com/history/british_india.html
Footnotes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
British-trained Indian soldiers - both Hindu and Muslim - who fought in the British Army in India
repulsive
Counter accusations and retaliations
Man-made waterway in Egypt that connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea
Political, economic, and social independence
The Rowlatt Acts vested the government with extraordinary powers to prevent uprisings against
the British Government by granting the ability to silence the press, detain political activists
without trial, and arrest any suspected individuals without a warrant.
Name:
Western Imperialism in India and Pakistan: A Review
1.
Based on your reading, speculate the goal of the British East India Company?
2.
How did the decline of Mughal Empire contribute to the rise of British power in India?
3.
What evidence from the reading supports the Indians’ belief that the British were attempting to
destroy their culture?
4.
What was the cause of the Sepoy Mutiny?
5.
Describe two results of this mutiny.
6.
Explain how the opening of the Suez Canal led to the decline in production of Indian crafts?
7.
What steps did the Indian National Congress take to unify the Indian people?
8.
How did the British partition of the state of Bengal impact the relationship of Hindu and Muslim
Indians?
9.
How did Indians respond to the Amritsar Massacre of April 13, 1919?
10. Grade the effectiveness of Gandhi’s policy of “civil disobedience.” Cite specific examples to justify
your grade.