Nearly losing an Empire: The British in India 1829-58

• The East India Company 

  • Three private armies for each presidency: Bengal, Madras, Bombay
  • The 1773 Regulating Act created a governing council and governor generals had to be approved by the Crown.  
  • The 1784 Act made the Company subordinate to the Crown in all political functions.  
  • affected by the  doctrine of free trade by abolishing its monopolies.  
  • British representatives began to see themselves as ruling rather than trading 
  • The Company could raise private armies that were often stronger than those of local rulers. 
• The Role of the Governor 

  • Governor of Bengal was approved by a Crown-controlled council
  • Warren Hastings was the first governor of the new crown-controlled system
  • After 1833 the Bengal president became the governor-general of India 
  • The Governor General had huge power due to the lack of communication with London 
• The importance of Bengal and the Company army

  • Three armies were established in the mid-18th century to protect commercial interests.  They had 200,000 troops by 1820.  
  • There were regiments of white troops and of sepoys (Indians) commanded by Europeans.  
  • Company armies ensured that local rulers signed treaties with the Company and supported tax collection.
  • Governors used the armies to expand territory. 
• Campaigns

  • The Company fought a number of campaigns in the North West with varying success in  areas like Sind and Punjab.  
  • Britain was obsessed with the north-west frontier because of the fear of Russian  invasion or influence in Persia.  
  • Sind was finally annexed in 1843 and Punjab in 1849.  
  • British soldiers admired ‘warlike’ Sikhs and this would be repaid during the Rebellion.  
  • The Sikh Punjabi soldiers were extremely bitter toward to native Bengali sepoys. 
• Bengal  

  • Bengal was at the heart of the Company in India: its governor was the governor general  of all of India.  
  • The army of the Bengal presidency was twice as large as the other two.  
  • The Bengali army was made up of Indians of high castes with special privileges which  they guarded jealously.  
  • The sepoys of the Bengali army were actually recruited from neighbouring areas,  particularly Awadh.  
  • The Bengali army played a pivotal role in the annexation of the Punjab and the bitterness of the Sikhs which partly explains Britain’s survival in 1857. 
• Clashes of Cultures

  • Company officials felt racially superior and sought to change the societies they governed 
  • Early nabobs immersed themselves in the culture
  • Evangelical Christians judged other religions to be inferior and missionaries attempted to convert Indians to Christianity 
  • inter-mingling became taboo when women arrived
  • Moderning agenda between 1829 and 1857 created grievances
• William Sleemans campaign against thagi 

  • Thagi was highway robbery and ritual murder 
  • began a legal assault on the practice during the 1830s and it became a  justification for further modernisation 
  • Sleeman wrote a book on his campaign and became an imperial hero. 
  •  It was portrayed as altruistic as British people were not affected by it.  
  • Actual activity was largely dealt with by Sleeman during the 1830s.  
  •  Eliminating thagi was not resented by Indians. The effect that it had on the British in  encouraging them to undertake further modernisation was more important.
• Sati 

  • Indians were far more offended by the banning of sati than by thagi 
  • Sati was the seld-immolation of hindu women due to the sanctity of marriage 
  • The Act of Abolition in 1829 was driven by the personal agendas of Bentinck and the  campaigns of evangelicals like Wilberforce. Under it, anyone assisting with sati could be  tried for culpable homicide. 
  • The law only applied in Company territory but princely states followed due to British  pressure. It wasn’t banned in all of India until 1861.  
  • For Indians of high caste, the interference over sati was a deliberate attack by Britain
• Female Infanticide 

  • Bentinck enforced existing laws against female infanticide strongly. 
  • The Practice was common in certain regions due to the shame of having unmarried children 
  • Improved the lives of a lot of women but showed an increased government intervention
  • Contributed to rumbling discontent during the 1830s and 40s
• The impact of missionaries 

  • Arrived from the late 18th century 
  • William wilberforce and other anglicans campaigned for the end of the ban on missionaries
  • Primarily engaged in education leading to Bentincks 1835 education act - then influenced issues like sati 
  • Missionaries disrupted indians social mix in favour of western ideas 
• Dalhousies significance

  • Governor General from 1848-56
  • Modernisation occurred with the building of roads and the pacification of the punjab
  • Committed to ‘improving’ india 
  • Saw no reason to continue with the princely states, redefining them as under British control. 
• The Doctrine of Lapse and Paramountcy 

  • An annexation policy devised by Dalhousie which stated that any princely state under influence should be annexed if the ruler was incompetent or dead without a ‘legitimate’ hier 
• The Annexation of Awadh

  • Dalhousie annexed awadh in 1856 under the doctrine of lapse for maladministration 
  • The British annexation took power from all Talukdars (landowners) and attacked the social order 
  • It was deeply destabilizing
• Outbreak of rebellion

  • There was a rumour that new cartridges were held together with grease from cows and pigs - this caused problems as the sepoy troops were all Hindu or Muslim, the cow is sacred to Hinduism and the pig is dirty to muslims
  • Sepoys viewed this as part of the plan to christianise india 
  • Bengal army was already in a state of unrest following the 1856 General Enlistment Act which broke the tradition of sepys only fighting where they could march 
  • 85 soldiers were court martialled in Meerut for refusing to load new cartridges in May 1857, three regiments rose in revolt
• The Cawnpore massacre 

  • The army mutiny became a more general revolt and the British lost control of Awadh, Delhi and parts of the punjab 
  • All alienated groups rose up, Talukdars, Peasants and local leaders (Rani of Jhansi) 
  • The British were not prepared in Cawnpore and surrendered. They were promised safe passage but fighting broke out and 400 were killed. The remaning women and children were taken hostage and massacred. 
• Seige and Relief of Lucknow 

  • The resident Sir henry Lawrence had prepared well and sheperded Europeans into the residency 
  • Besieged from late may 
  • Successful relief reached Lucknow in September but the residency could not be evacuated 
  • Further Supplies were discovered 
  • Sir Colin Campbell led an evacuation in November and Lucknow was abandoned in march 1858 
• Reasons why Britian retained control in India 

  • Rebels were not a cohesive force, with different grievances 
  • No central organisation of revolt 
  • The other presidency armies of Madras and Bombay remained loyal to Britain 
  • Many accepted British rule due to indifference or preference to the alternative 
• Results of the rebellion

  • Entire villages were massacred in retribution 
  • Mutineers were forced to lick the blood off buildings before eating pork or beef the hanged 
  • 40 men were blown apart by cannons 
  • The Comapny was blamed
• The end of Company rule 

  • Government of India Act 1858 placed British India under the direct control of Britain through a viceroy 
  • The Viceroy was accountable to parliament and there was a secretary of state for India and an Indian council 
  • Rights like religious tolerance and native rulers were issued 
  • annexation ceased
  • Feudal structures were left alone, and further moves to modernise were much more cautious 
• Changes to the indian Army 

  • Ratio of sepys to british troops reduced from 9:1 to 3:1 
  • Recruitment was switched from high Hindu castes to the Sikhs and Muslims from the north west who remained loyal 
  • Army planning aimed to keep regiments of the same background apart to stop rebellion
• Long-term lessons of the rebellion 

  • Acceptance that modernising agendas had been misjudged 
  • Shift from self-confidence to pragmatism and caution
  • Wanted india for its wealth and strategic advantage, not to develop indian society 
  • Expressions of nationalism from educated indians were ignored as they were not in touch with the rural poor