The British East India Company

Many people believe that in the 1940’s most of India’s problems involving independence was to do with divisions within India rather than British imperialism. In this essay I will be looking at both points of view and finally giving my opinion. I will be using three sources also to help me show both sides of the story. I will also be using my further knowledge to add a wider range of knowledge.

Throughout the years many historians have compilated and examined why Indian people were so desperate to gain back their independence from the British Empire during their rule over India, from 1612 to 1947. The reasoning can most definitely be found as the British discriminated against Indian people as they believe that they were inferior; it is no surprise that Indian people fought so hard for their independence. Throughout the British Raj, they placed and put forward unbelievably racist acts and laws which discriminated against Indian people. Which of course led to Indians to rebel against the British rule and which the British reacted with causing massacres. Explaining the nationalistic many India’s felt during the British Raj.

The purpose of this historical inquiry is to analyze to what extent did British Imperialism have an effect on shaping modern India? The main source that will be discussed in this paper is the seventh book of the Spotlight on History Series called The British Raj, which explains the reasons behind the conflicts between the British Empire and Indian nationalism and assess the achievements of a memorable relationship.

"All the leadership had spent their early years in England. They were influenced by British thought, British ideas, that is why our leaders were always telling the British "How can you do these things? They're against your own basic values.". We had no hatred, in fact it was the other way round - it was their values that made us revolt."

Nonetheless, after Great Britain’s exponential period of growth and prosperity, they encountered rising opposition. Examining British Imperialism’s overbearing effects on the Indian society as a whole traces the pathway leading to the fight for Indian Independence. British Imperialism’s extremely protruding effects on India hold the sole answer to why India actively fought for independence against Britain in full force but did not strive to do so against previous, foreign powers.

Further evidence shows that more British involvement over the course of two centuries made nearly all aspects of Indian society weaker overall. Areas that experienced direct British rule have significantly lower levels of access to education, roads, and healthcare in the postcolonial period, thereby demonstrating that the quality of governance during Britain’s imperial rule in India had a significant effect on the country after becoming an independent nation in 1947 (Fisher).

The question for this investigation is: “How did WW1 affect India’s social development with Great Britain?

In Colonialism and Forms of Knowledge, Bernard Cohn argues that knowledge and power help the British control India using language. He analyzes different forms of “investigated modalities” that England constructed to justify their actions in India; in particular, these modalities produced knowledge in the form of official written documents, reports, and legal codes. These forms of knowledge allowed imperialist to construct their own historical narrative of their time in India, which served as a form of justification for their actions. In order to fully control the Indian masses, the British began learning different languages related to Indian culture. For instance, learning Persian seemed quite difficult for some because of the writing system

The controversy of Anglicist-Orientalist during early 1820s to 1830s was about the public funds allocated for Indian education. This controversy exploded in the year of 1830s (Clive 343). In this controversy holds around two important people of both parties that John Tytler on the Orientalist side and Thomas Babington Macaulay for Anglicist. In the early of British ruling India, the method used by them to get close to the community is by supporting their traditional learning of Sanskrit and Arabic by funding them also providing emolument for learning and translating works into these two

After the failure of trying to hold on to its colonies in North America, the British focused mainly on India. The British East India Company after their success in Bengal would expand from several trading areas to the entire region of India. The British had an advantage during the late 1700s when the Marathas lost the war to the Bombay presidency and when the British captured Seringapatam. With the victory at hand, Great Britain was able to utilize India to produce raw cotton and an export market for the British textile industry. The industrial revolution in Great Britain helped manufacture those resources coming from India more quickly which helped reversed their trade with China. In 1828 the Chinese market increased its demand for opium grown

The British Raj colonized India in an organized fashion while utilizing its ‘luxury, wealth and pleasure’ regardless of the fact that, that was only true in rare situations. The majority of the time the British Raj confronted political confusion, revolts and extreme racism towards both British and Indian people; these conflicts subdued with the common stereotype that India was a realm of spice, wealth, and glory. Suggesting the British Raj was beneficial to the Indian subcontinent would be an indistinct opposition.

The colonization of India and the immense transfer of wealth that moved from the latter to Britain were vital to the success of the British Empire. In fact, the Viceroy of British India in 1894 called India “the pivot of our Empire …” I examine the effects of the Industrial Revolution on the subcontinent. Besides highlighting the fact that without cheap labor and raw materials from India, the modernization of Britain during this era would have been highly unlikely, I will show how colonial policy led to the privation and death of millions of natives. I conclude that while India undoubtedly benefited from British colonial rule, the negatives for the subject population far outweighed the positives.

The Indian subcontinent experienced a huge shift in the economical and social conditions with the advent of the first Mughal emperor, Babar. Babar introduced reforms of which the natives were not used to. His successors continued the same policies, with each implementing his own will. This report is targeted on the social and economical reforms each of the great Mughal brought. Each period is unique in its own sense.

The ideas and institutions of colonial modernity were brought to India from outside that is by the agents of European, especially British imperialism. This was in sharp contrast to the primarily or largely internal or indigenous processes through which Europe itself had launched its project of enlightenment and modernity. The claim of monopoly and expertise over modernity was used as justification by the colonial powers to fulfil its imperial ambitions. The colonial rule reflected dichotomies at two different levels. Firstly, liberty that was held to be the most sacred value of the enlightenment project was being curtailed through the process of colonialism- another product of the same project. Further, the same argument of modernity which was being used to enlarge civil liberties in west was used to deny basic rights to the colonial masses. This was also reflected in the case of freedom of expression. The people who celebrated and claimed freedom of expression and press as sacred in their own societies, under the garb of imperial rulers became its ardent critique in the colonies, restricting both free expression and freedom of press for their own benefits. For many, British India was a contradictory political formation. In Henry Maine’s words, it was a “most extraordinary experiment” involving “the virtually despotic government of a dependency by a free people.” These dichotomies produced a new context through the interaction of ‘east’ and ‘west’ which is clearly

The Bengal region had a complex political organisation structure that completely changed the region in the mid to late eighteenth century. This essay will examine the Bengali culture in broad sense and then go on to discuss the political organisation of the Bengal region and study how governing of the state occurred between the assigned time period of 1750-1800. The essay will also compare the political organisation of the Qing Dynasty, the Chakri Dynasty, the Neo-Sumerian Empire, the Inca Empire and imperial China to that of the Mughal Empire that ruled the Bengal region. To conclude, the essay will explain how political organisation influenced Bengali trade and exchange internationally and within the Bengal region.