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The British Raj is an informal term for the period of British
rule of most of the Indian subcontinent, or present-day
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (previously known as Ceylon). It
lasted from 1858, when the rule of the British East India Company was transferred to the Crown, until 1947, when the independence of British India was granted and Pakistan was formed. From 1886 to 1937 it included Burma, now
called Myanmar.
Sepoy Rebellion, 1857-1859
Main article: Indian Mutiny
On May 10, 1857, Indian soldiers of the
British Indian Army (known as "sepoys," from Hindi sipahi or sepahi), drawn mostly from Muslim units from Bengal, mutinied in Meerut, a cantonment eighty kilometers northeast of Delhi. The rebels
marched to Delhi to offer their services to the Mughal emperor, and soon much of north
and central India was plunged into a year-long insurrection against the British.
The uprising, which seriously threatened British rule in India, has been called many names by historians, including the
Sepoy Rebellion, the Great Mutiny, and the Revolt of 1857; many people in South Asia, however, prefer to call it India's first war of independence. Undoubtedly, it was the
culmination of mounting Indian resentment toward British economic and social policies over many decades. Until the rebellion, the
British had succeeded in suppressing numerous riots and "tribal" wars or in accommodating them through concessions, but two
events triggered the violent explosion of wrath in 1857.
First, was the annexation in 1856 of Oudh, a wealthy princely state that generated huge
revenue and represented a vestige of Mughal authority. The second was the British blunder in using cartridges for the Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle
that were allegedly greased with animal fat, which was offensive to the religious beliefs of Muslim and Hindu sepoys. The
rebellion soon engulfed much of North India, including Oudh and various areas once under the control of Maratha princes. Isolated mutinies also occurred at military posts in the center of the subcontinent.
Initially, the rebels, although divided and uncoordinated, gained the upper hand, while the unprepared British were terrified,
and even paralyzed, without replacements for the casualties. The civil war inflicted havoc on both Indians and British as each
vented its fury on the other; each community suffered humiliation and triumph in battle as well, although the final outcome was
victory for the British. The last major sepoy rebels surrendered on June 21, 1858, at Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh), one of the principal centers of
the revolt. A final battle was fought at Sirwa Pass on May 21, 1859, and
the defeated rebels fled into Nepal.
Although the rebellious sepoys fought with great bravery, the British gained the victory due to superior leadership and
organization, and the fact that the majority of the sepoys remained loyal to the British.
The spontaneous and widespread rebellion later fired the imagination of the nationalists who would debate the most effective
method of protest against British rule. For them, the rebellion represented the first Indian attempt at gaining independence.
This interpretation, however, is open to serious question.
Post-Rebellion Developments
The civil war was a major turning point in the history of modern India. In May 1858, the British exiled Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II (r. 1837-1857) to Burma, thus formally liquidating the Mughal Empire. At
the same time, they abolished the British East
India Company and replaced it with direct rule under the British Crown. In proclaiming the new direct-rule policy to "the
Princes, Chiefs, and Peoples of India," Queen Victoria (who was given
the title Empress of India in 1877) promised equal treatment under
British law, but Indian mistrust of
British rule had become a legacy of the 1857 rebellion.
Many existing economic and revenue policies remained virtually unchanged in the post-1857 period, but several administrative
modifications were introduced, beginning with the creation in London of a cabinet post, the Secretary of State for India. The governor-general (called viceroy when acting as representative to the nominally sovereign "princely states" or "native states"), headquartered in Calcutta, ran the
administration in India, assisted by executive and legislative councils. Beneath the governor-general were the provincial
governors, who held power over the district officials, who formed the lower rungs of the Indian Civil Service. For
decades the Indian Civil Service was the exclusive preserve of the British-born, as were the superior ranks in such other
professions as law and medicine. The British administrators were imbued with a sense of duty in ruling India and were rewarded
with good salaries, high status, and opportunities for promotion. Not until the 1910s did the British reluctantly permit a few
Indians into their cadre as the number of English-educated Indians rose steadily.
The Viceroy of India announced in 1858 that the government would
honor former treaties with princely states and renounced the "doctrine of lapse," whereby the East India Company had annexed territories of rulers who died without
male heirs. About 40 percent of Indian territory and between 20 and 25 percent of the population remained under the control of
562 princes notable for their religious (Islamic, Hindu, Sikh and other) and ethnic diversity. Their propensity for pomp and
ceremony became proverbial, while their domains, varying in size and wealth, lagged behind sociopolitical transformations that
took place elsewhere in British-controlled India.
A more thorough reorganization was effected in the constitution of army and government finances. Shocked by the extent of
solidarity among Indian soldiers during the rebellion, the government separated the army into the three presidencies.
British attitudes toward Indians shifted from relative openness to insularity and xenophobia, even against those with comparable background and achievement as well as loyalty. British families
and their servants lived in cantonments at a distance from Indian settlements. Private clubs where the British gathered for
social interaction became symbols of exclusivity and snobbery that refused to disappear decades after the British had left India.
In 1883 the government of India attempted to remove race barriers in criminal jurisdictions by introducing a bill empowering
Indian judges to adjudicate offenses committed by Europeans. Public protests and
editorials in the British press, however, forced the viceroy George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon, (who served from 1880 to 1884), to
capitulate and modify the bill drastically. The Bengali Hindu intelligentsia learned a
valuable political lesson from this "white mutiny": the effectiveness of well-orchestrated agitation through demonstrations in
the streets and publicity in the media when seeking redress for real and imagined grievances.
Beginnings of Self-Government
In the late 1800s, the first steps were taken toward self-government in British India
with the appointment of Indian councilors to advise the British viceroy and the establishment of provincial councils with Indian
members; the British subsequently widened participation in legislative councils.
The Government of India Act of 1909 - also known as the Morley-Minto Reforms (John Morley was the secretary of state for India, and Gilbert Elliot, fourth earl of Minto, was viceroy)-- gave Indians
limited roles in the central and provincial legislatures, known as legislative councils. Indians had previously been appointed to
legislative councils, but after the reforms some were elected to them. At the center, the majority of council members continued
to be government-appointed officials, and the viceroy was in no way responsible to the legislature. At the provincial level, the
elected members, together with unofficial appointees, outnumbered the appointed officials, but responsibility of the governor to
the legislature was not contemplated. Morley made it clear in introducing the legislation to the British Parliament that parliamentary self-government was not the goal
of the British government.
The Morley-Minto Reforms were a milestone. Step by step, the elective principle was introduced for membership in Indian
legislative councils. The "electorate" was limited, however, to a small group of upper-class Indians. These elected members
increasingly became an "opposition" to the "official government." Communal electorates were later extended to other communities
and made a political factor of the Indian tendency toward group identification through religion. The practice created certain
vital questions for all concerned. The intentions of the British were questioned. How humanitarian was their concern for the
minorities? Were separate electorates a manifestation of "divide and rule"?
For Muslims it was important both to gain a place in all - India politics and to retain their Muslim identity, objectives that
required varying responses according to circumstances, as the example of Muhammed Ali Jinnah illustrates. Jinnah, who was born in 1876, studied law in England and began his
career as an enthusiastic liberal in Congress on returning to India. In 1913 he joined the Muslim League, which had been shocked by the 1911 annulment of the partition of Bengal into cooperating with
Congress to make demands on the British. Jinnah continued his membership in Congress until 1919. During this dual membership
period, he was described by a leading Congress spokesperson as the "ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity."
India's important contributions to the efforts of the British Empire
in World War I stimulated further demands by Indians and further response
from the British. The Congress Party and the Muslim League met in joint
session in December 1916. Under the leadership of Jinnah and Pandit Motilal
Nehru (father of Jawalharlal Nehru), unity was preached and a
proposal for constitutional reform was made that included the concept of separate electorates. The resulting Congress-Muslim
League Pact (often referred to as the Lucknow Pact) was a sincere effort to compromise. Congress accepted the separate
electorates demanded by the Muslim League, and the Muslim League joined with Congress in demanding self-government. The pact was
expected to lead to permanent and constitutional united action.
In August 1917, the British government formally announced a policy of "increasing
association of Indians in every branch of the administration and the gradual development of self-governing institutions with a
view to the progressive realization of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire." Constitutional
reforms were embodied in the Government of India Act of 1919 - also known as the Montagu-Chelmsford
Reforms (Edwin Samuel Montagu was Britain's secretary
of state for India; the Marquess of Chelmsford was viceroy). These reforms
represented the maximum concessions the British were prepared to make at that time. The franchise was extended, and increased
authority was given to central and provincial legislative councils, but the viceroy remained responsible only to London.
The changes at the provincial level were significant, as the provincial legislative councils contained a considerable majority
of elected members. In a system called "dyarchy," the nation-building departments of government - agriculture, education, public works, and the like - were
placed under ministers who were individually responsible to the legislature. The departments that made up the "steel frame" of
British rule - finance, revenue, and home affairs - were retained by executive councillors who were often, but not always,
British and who were responsible to the governor.
The 1919 reforms did not satisfy political demands in India. The British repressed opposition, and restrictions on the press
and on movement were reenacted. An apparently unwitting example of violation of rules against the gathering of people led to the
massacre at Jalianwala Bagh in Amritsar in April 1919. This tragedy galvanized such political leaders as Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) and the masses who followed them to press for further
action.
The Allies' post-World War I peace settlement with Turkey provided an additional stimulus to the grievances of the Muslims, who feared that one goal of the Allies was
to end the caliphate of the Ottoman sultan. After the end of the Mughal Empire, the Ottoman caliph had become the symbol of Islamic
authority and unity to Indian Sunni Muslims. A pan-Islamic movement, known
as the Khilafat Movement, spread in India. It was a mass
repudiation of Muslim loyalty to British rule and thus legitimated Muslim participation in the Indian nationalist movement. The
leaders of the Khilafat Movement used Islamic symbols to unite the diverse but assertive Muslim community on an all-India basis
and bargain with both Congress leaders and the British for recognition of minority rights and political concessions.
Muslim leaders from the Deoband and Aligarh movements joined Gandhi in mobilizing the masses for the 1920
and 1921 demonstrations of civil disobedience and noncooperation in response to the massacre at Amritsar. At the same time,
Gandhi endorsed the Khilafat Movement, thereby placing many Hindus behind what had been solely a Muslim demand.
Despite impressive achievements, however, the Khilafat Movement failed. Turkey rejected the caliphate and became a secular
state. Furthermore, the religious, mass-based aspects of the movement alienated such Western-oriented constitutional politicians
as Jinnah, who resigned from Congress. Other Muslims also were uncomfortable with Gandhi's leadership. The British historian Sir
Percival Spear wrote that "a
mass appeal in his [Gandhi's] hands could not be other than a Hindu one. He could transcend caste but not community. The [Hindu] devices he used went sour in the mouths of Muslims." In the final analysis, the
movement failed to lay a lasting foundation of Indian unity and served only to aggravate Hindu-Muslim differences among masses
that were being politicized. Indeed, as India moved closer to the self-government implied in the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms,
rivalry over what might be called the spoils of independence sharpened the differences between the communities.
The political picture in India was not at all clear when the mandated decennial review of the Government of India Act of 1919
became due in 1929. Prospects of further constitutional reforms spurred greater agitation and a frenzy of demands from different
groups. The commission in charge of the review was headed by Sir John Simon,
who recommended further constitutional change, but it was not until 1935 that a new Government of India Act was passed. Three
consecutive roundtable conferences were held in London in 1930, 1931, and 1932, at which a wide variety of interests from India
were represented. The major disagreement concerned the continuation of separate electorates, which Gandhi and Congress strongly
opposed. As a result, the decision was forced on the British government. Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald issued his "communal award," which continued the system of separate electorates at both
the central and the provincial level.
The principal result of the act was "provincial autonomy." The dyarchical system was discontinued, and all subjects were
placed under ministers who were individually and collectively responsible to the former legislative councils, which were renamed
legislative assemblies. (In a few provinces, including Bengal, a bicameral system was established; the upper house continued to
be called a legislative council.) Almost all assembly members were elected, with the exception of some special and otherwise
unrepresented groups. After the elections, provincial chief ministers and cabinets took office, although the governors had
limited "emergency powers." Sindh was separated from Bombay and became a province. The 1919 reforms had earlier been introduced in the North-West Frontier Province. Balochistan, however, retained special status; it had no legislature and was governed
by an "agent general to the governor general." At the center, the act essentially provided for the establishment of dyarchy, but
it also provided for a federal system that included the princes. The princes refused to join a system that might force them to
accept decisions made by elected politicians. Thus, the full provisions of the 1935 act did not come into force at the
centre.
At the start of World War II, the viceroy brought India into the war
without consultation, and this led to resistance from the Indian independence movement. Victory in 1945 and the
election of a Labour government in Westminster led to
partition and independence on 15 August 1947 for India and (the then two-part) Pakistan, as Dominions within the British Commonwealth, and with the British monarch as head of state (some years later they declared themselves republics) though no
longer Emperor of India.
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