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British India Presidencies and The Age of Reform: Security, Stability, and Social Change

Explore the British presidencies in India, key figures like Munro and Elphinstone, military and diplomatic strategies, the ryotwari system, educational reforms, and the Age of Reform under figures like Dadabhai Naoroji and Jamsetji Tata. Discover the impacts on security, stability, and social reform in colonial India.

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British India Presidencies and The Age of Reform: Security, Stability, and Social Change

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  1. Presidencies of British India Madras (est. 1640) Bombay (EIC there, 1687) • Britain in east Africa as well Bengal (est. 1690)

  2. A question of practicality Sir Thomas Munro(Governor of Madras, 1820) Mountstuart Elphinstone(Governor of Bombay, 1819) → Scots → patronage → military/diplomacy → administration ryotwari system → education

  3. An account of the kingdom of Caubul(1815)

  4. And it doesn’t go one way: Dadabhai Naoroji Assistant Professor, 1850 Parsi intellectual, educator, businessman helped found INC MP for Finsbury; elected 1892 wrote Poverty and un-British Rule in India Jamsetji Tata ‘Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it’ -Tata

  5. Security, Stability, Profitabilityand social reform • Security: threats from all sides • Colonial armies to ‘pacify’ and thus secure the peace pacified territories contributed new forces – Sikhs post 1857 [Punjab subdued: 1820s-1839 diplomacy; 1840s war] military forces deemed paramount Indian Army 200 000 1800 to 300 000 thirty years later 6-9::1; officers (very few soldiers) British recruited using pre-existing labour market – paid regularly – loyal • Administration and law – marrying Mughal to English: personnel, language and knowledge, religious and cultural genesis • Tax: Permanent settlement – 1793 - zamindars

  6. the result… in London and Calcuttaincreased commitment to reform →utilitarian political principles ? self rule → introduction of Christianity → abolition of sati(1829), child marriage, infanticide → eradication of thagi treatment of ‘tribals’ → slavery and indentured workers

  7. The Age of Reformvia…. • replicatingBritish School system • Infrastructure: railways roads canals and water systems hospitals • Reform work: sati thagi age of consent widows CD Acts

  8. Interest in empire changes memsahibs missionaries Christianity and ‘civilization’ St Joseph’s College, Nainital

  9. Good for India?

  10. Good for India? 1900s • O.3% Today • 1.6%

  11. Reactions and Initiatives • Accommodation: Indian rulers • bankers and commerce • sepoys • Acculturation: a chance to re-make society • western beliefs and ideas [taken and adapted] • m.c. urban Bengal in 19C • Rammohun Roy ‘Brahmo Samaj’ • Avoidance: return to a ‘golden age’ • Muslim community loss of status – retreat • Resistance: across 19C – Mutiny the most spectacular

  12. Not looking good: conditions for change how to respond, and who • focus on the Mutiny dismissive historiographically ‘dumbs’ it down • but lots of other sites of resistance landed classes: (traditional elite, mostly Muslim) middle classes: well educated urban and rural elite the poor: agrarian workers (free and unfree) urban poor ‘tribals’ this should sound familiar

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