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Presidencies of British India. Madras (est. 1640) Bombay (EIC there, 1687) Britain in east Africa as well Bengal (est. 1690). A question of practicality. Sir Thomas Munro (Governor of Madras, 1820) Mountstuart Elphinstone (Governor of Bombay, 1819) → Scots → patronage
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Presidencies of British India Madras (est. 1640) Bombay (EIC there, 1687) • Britain in east Africa as well Bengal (est. 1690)
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
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
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
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
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
Interest in empire changes memsahibs missionaries Christianity and ‘civilization’ St Joseph’s College, Nainital
Good for India? 1900s • O.3% Today • 1.6%
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
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