Effects of Colonialism/Imperialism on India

Pair-Share Activity: What is he saying?

• Dadabhai Naoroji, former president of the Indian Congress, described the effects of British imperialism on India in 1887 as:

• “To sum up the whole, the British rule has been----morally, a great blessing; politically, peace and order on one hand...on the other, materially, impoverishment....The natives call the British system...’the knife of sugar.’ That is to say there is no oppression, it is all smooth and sweet, but it is a knife, nevertheless.”

Negatives

Famines in India

Negative

Madras Famine 1876-77

Major Famines in India 1860-1900   

1860-61 - Western United Provinces. 

1865-66 - Bengal, Bihar, Orissa. Orissa worst hit. 

1876-77 - Maharashtra and South India. 

1896-97 - Maharashtra and South India 

1899-1900 - Gujarat and Rajasthan 

Features of Famine in late Nineteenth Century India 1. Rain failure.2. Hoarding by traders and urban moneylenders. Export of grain.3. Attacks on grain shops and stores. Upsurge in robberies.4. At normal harvest time, Government demands tax. • Many peasants refuse to pay. •Leads to coercion by tax-officials, forcing richer peasants to pay up.• Poorer peasants have land confiscated, or mortgage or sell property - jewelry, farm implements, land - to moneylenders to pay taxes. •Richest peasants and moneylenders enlarge their holdings.5. Government establishes relief works, to which poorest peasants go. Middling peasants, and higher castes without resources starve.6. Destitute start to wander in search of food. Some receive charitable relief in towns. 7. Suicides, parents sell or kill children, deaths (often of disease).

Famine Victims, 1877

British Policy Towards Famine

 

 1. Commitment to free trade, following economic theory of Adam Smith. 2. Belief that famine corrected over-population, following theory of Thomas Malthus. 3. Belief that free relief promotes idleness and saps initiative, following doctrines of the Utilitarians. People must labour for their subsistence. 4. ‘Famine-proofing’ through building of irrigation canals 5. Famine Codes – drawn up in 1880, but only implemented effectively after 1900.

Famine Relief

Works – Hyderabad

State

Famine Primary SourceThere was a devastating famine in India, 1876-1878. Lord Lytton, viceroy of India, opposed any efforts to intervene in the famine as violating the principles of laissez faire economics. In The Wealth of Nations (1776), Adam Smith had written that “famine has never arisen from any other cause but the violence of government attempting, by improper means, to remedy the inconvenience of death.” Lytton opposed government charity because it would diminish the work ethic of those receiving it. The only charity he allowed was given out in small amounts and included difficult requirements for those receiving it. Lytton appointed Sir Richard Temple a Famine Delegate to control government expenditures. He set up a government program where those in need could get work as manual labor for railroad and canal projects. However, the workers had to travel far away from their homes and live in camps in order to do this work. They were given food, but the prescribed ration was 1627 calories per day. By comparison, the ration provided to prisoners at Buchenwald, a Holocaust concentration camp, was 1750 calories.

Primary Source ContinuedThere were calls for a Famine Fund to counteract future famines. However, Lytton opposed financing it with an income tax, which would affect the rich, and instead supported a land tax on the peasantry. This was rejected, so Lytton pushed taxes on small traders and on salt. In the end, the Famine Fund wasn’t even spend on famine relief, but rather was used to reduce the tariff on cotton goods imported into India and on the war in Afghanistan.In 1876, at the beginning of the famine, the proclamation of Queen Victoria as Empress of India was celebrated with a week-long feast for 68,000 officials. Meanwhile, a British journalist estimated that 100,000 people died during the course of the festivities.The death toll of the famine is hard to calculate. One British demographer provides a figure of 7.1 million deaths.- Adapted from Mr. Carroll’s synopsis of Late Victorian Holocausts (2001) by Mike Davis

Famine Victims 1899-1900

Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, 1898-1905

“There has never been anything so great in the world’s history as the British empire, so great an instrument for the good of humanity.”

- Lord Curzon, British Viceroy of India, 1898-1905

Pair-Share Activity

• How do the actions of the British during the Indian famines contradict Lord Curzon’s quote on the previous slide?

Loss of Political Control

Negative

Loss of Political Control

• The British government could take control of a state whose Indian ruler was deemed unfit or who had died without a male heir.

• Under this policy in 1856, Governor-General Dalhousie annexed Awadh, the largest, richest, and most loyal of the Indian states.

• Dalhousie also changed the old Mughal ruler’s title from emperor to king and ordered that the king’s son would inherit only the tile of prince.

Pair-Share Activity: This was a complaint in Africa as well. Why did this set the stage for problems when

granted independence?• Gandhi offered this complaint about British

imperialism:• “You English committed one supreme crime

against my people. For a hundred years you have done everything for us. You have given us no responsibility in our own government.”

Treated as Second-Class Citizens

Negative

Pair-Share Activity: What is he saying?

• Dadabhai Naoroji said about the social effects of British imperialism in 1887:

• “The British occupy almost all the higher places in every department of government...Natives, no matter how fit, are deliberately kept out of the social institutions started by Europeans....All the Europeans do is live off India while they are here. When they go, they carry all they have gained.”

Treated as Second-Class Citizens• There was little interaction between the

British and Indians.• The British believed themselves to be

superior because they were descended from Greek and Roman civilization, practiced Christianity, and according to a British textbook demonstrated: “a reckless devotion to great causes, an unflinching pursuit of untrodden paths.”

Treated as Second-Class Citizens• The British believed themselves to be more

intelligent than the Indians.• Discrimination was common.• In department stores, Indians would wait while

Englishmen who had come in after them were served.

• Wealthy Indian families would be denied entrance into first-class compartments on the railways.

• Socialization between the two was frowned upon.

Treated as Second-Class Citizens

• For an Englishman to court or marry an Indian woman, it was considered a betrayal of his race.

• It was considered even worse for an Englishwoman to engage in such activity.

• In tea rooms, English and Indians would usually be seated separately.

Second-Class Citizen• British held all political and

economic power

• British restricted Indian-owned industries

• Racist attitudes of most British officials and missionaries threatened Indian traditional life

Second-Class Citizen

• Second-class citizens in their own country.

• Even Indians with a European education faced discrimination.

• Barred from top posts in the Indian Civil Service.

• Paid less than Europeans.

Pair-Share Activity: How does this relate to what we learned about Apartheid?

•Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian nationalist and first Prime Minister

• “In India every European, be he German, or Pole or Rumanian, is automatically a member of the ruling race. Railway carriages, station retiring rooms, benches in parks, etc. are marked 'For Europeans Only.‘ This is bad enough in South Africa or elsewhere, but to have to put up with it in one's own country is a humiliating and exasperating reminder of one's enslaved condition.”

Cultural Changes

Negative

Pair-Share Activity:

• What is Sahib saying about the British imperialism in India?

• What historical events is he referring to?

• Moulavy Syad Kutb Shah Sahib, Indian Muslim leader in 1870 said the following about the negatives of British imperialism:

• “The English are people who overthrow all religions. You should understand well the object of destroying the religions of Hindustan; they have for a long time been causing books to be written and circulated throughout the country by the hands of their priests, and exercising their authority, have brought out numbers of preachers to spread their own tenets: this has been learned from one of their own trusted agents...The British ordered the Brahmans and others of their army to bite cartridges, in the making of which fat has been used. The Muslim soldiers perceived that by this expedient the religion of the Brahmans and Hindus was only in danger, but nevertheless, they also refused to bite them. On this the English now resolved on ruining the faith of both...”

• It is now my firm conviction that if these English continue in Hindustan they will kill every one in the country, and will utterly overthrow our religions...Under these circumstances, I would ask, what course have you decided on to protect your lives and faith? Were your views and mine the same, we might destroy them entirely with very little trouble; and if we do so, we shall protect our religions and save the country...All you Hindus are hereby solemnly adjured, by your faith in Ganges, Tulsi, and Saligram; and all you Muslims, by your faith in God and Koran, as these English are the common enemy of both, to unite in considering their slaughter extremely expedient, for by this alone will the lives and faith of both be saved. It is expedient, then, that you should coalesce and slay them...”

Cultural Changes

• In 1813, Christian missionaries were given free access to India.

• English became the official language for education instead of Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit.

• This angered the religious leaders in India.• To the British, as English scholar T.B. Macaulay

wrote: “a single shelf of a good European library is worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.”

Cultural Changes

• The sepoys, or native soldiers in the Indian army, were ordered not to display religious marks on their faces and to wear leather stockings and hats.

• Hindus are forbidden from wearing leather as they consider the cow sacred.

• Some Hindu sepoys were forced to travel overseas even though the Hindus believed this could endanger their caste.

• This led to revolts in 1806 and 1824.

Social and Cultural

• The few educated Indians were expected to be loyal to the British.

• They were taught to appreciate the culture and opinion of the British.

• They would spread the English culture to the masses.

• Education became the monopoly of the rich and urban Indians.

Social and Cultural

• Schools were taught only in English.• Only a few English schools and colleges were

opened in 1857 instead of multiple elementary schools.

• The British ignored the education of the masses.

Economic Problems

Negative

Economic Problems

• The main aim of the British was to transform India into a consumer of British products.

• Because of this policy, Indian textile, metal work, glass, and paper industries were soon out of business in India.

• By 1813, the Indian handicrafts lost both their domestic and foreign markets.

Economic Problems• Economic ruin of lower and middle class Indians.

– Thousands of Indians had just left peasant farm work to work in small factories—put out of work (large number of Bengali women).

– Forced to return to the land or emigrate as indentured labor

– 1861-1865, growing cotton, not food• White supremacy—Indians made second-class

citizens in their own country—prohibited from certain all-white facilities and sections of cities (cantonments).

Economic Problems• There was a massive import of machine made clothes

from the British factories in England to India.• The Indian weavers who made textiles by hand could not

compete against the cheaper prices of the machine made British textiles.

• The British did not have to pay any duties or taxes and were given free entry into India.

• But the Indian weavers had their textiles taxed heavily when they were sent out of the country.

• Because of this India went from being a exporter of clothes to become an exporter of raw cotton and an importer of British clothes.

Economic Problems

• Indian weavers could not compete with the machine-made British textiles.

• One weaver said: “we cannot complete with the blankets being sold in the markets.”

• Another said: “ we are forced to sell our products in villages because of limited access to urban markets.

Economic Problems• Many profits drained from India go to benefit Britain• The improvements mentioned above were paid for by Indian

taxes, (one of reasons for American Revolution)• Famines caused by British production of commercial crops

instead of food• British manufactured goods sold cheaper than Indian hand-

made goods• Taxes collected in cash, bad for poor, increases debt and

poverty• Separation of ruler from ruled – Indians treated as inferiors

socially, morally and culturally– British segregated society further, “Europeans Only” signs for public

facilities

Economic Problems

• The Indians were heavily taxed for anything that was built within India.

• Direct and indirect taxes affected the lives of the Indian people who could not meet their daily needs, because they had to provide the landowners and collectors their share in the produce.

Economic Problems

• Cash Crops: Tea, coffee, indigo, opium, cotton, jute, sugarcane, and oilseed

• Indians were forced to grow these crops but could only sell to the British.

• These crops were not a food source for them.• Food grain production went down.• Some of these crops turned the land infertile.

Economic Problems

• Focus on cash crops produced famines.• Racists attitudes: Indians treated as

inferiors• Top jobs go to British• British try to replace Indian culture with

British culture• British made goods replace local goods

Economic Problems

• Impact of Colonialism– Railroads move cash crops and goods faster– British control political and economic power– Cash crops resulted in loss of self-sufficiency and

caused famine– Indian culture is disrupted due to racism and

missionaries– Britain sought to “modernize” India

Negatives for British

What was Negative for British?

• Paid for infrastructure (roads, telephone, railroads, etc.) development

• Paid for education improvement• Money spent on military and government in

India

Positives

Pair-Share Activity: What is he saying?

• Dadabhai Naaoroji, former president of the Indian Congress said about the benefits of British imperialism:

• “Let us speak out like men and proclaim that we are loyal to the backbone; that we understand the benefits British rule has conferred upon us; that we thoroughly appreciate the education that has been given to us, the new light which has been poured upon us, turning us from darkness into light and teaching us the new lesson that kings are made for the people, not people for the kings; and this new lesson we have learned amidst the darkness of Asiatic despotism only by the light of the free English civilization.”

Positives: Social and Cultural

Positives: Many British families moved to India as their permanent home. They imported European culture with them. They established factories,

hospitals, and schools in India

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Social and Cultural• The British brought the ideas of liberty, equality,

freedom, and human rights to India.• These ideas led to the reform movements of Raja

Ram Mohan Roy, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Aruna Asaf Ali, and Pandita Ramabai.

• These movements looked for social unity.• Many legal measures were passed to improve the

status of women.• For example the practice of sati was banned in

1829.

Social and Cultural• The spread of the English language and western

education helped Indians adopt modern, rational democratic, liberal, and patriotic outlooks.

• New fields of knowledge in science, humanities, and literature were now open to the Indians.

• English became the language of educated Indians and helped to unite them politically.

• It gave Indians the opportunity to study in England and learn about the workings of democratic institutions there.

Social and Cultural

• The Indians were taught the Enlightenment ideas of John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau---liberty, equality, fraternity, human rights, self-government

• Western thinkers like Max Mueller and Annie Besant encouraged vernacular languages and literary works to instill a sense of pride in Indian heritage and culture.

Theosophical Theosophical Library – Madras, Library – Madras,

19131913

Social and Cultural• Important institutions were created that became the

epicenter of the study of Indian culture, languages, and literature.

• Translated ancient writers so the world could read their works

• Calcutta Madarsas founded in 1781 by William Hastings• The Asiatic Society of Bengal founded by William Jones in

1784• The Sanskrit College founded by Jonathan Duncan in 1794• Fort William College founded by the Wellesley Family in

1800

Social and Cultural• The role of the press became important in the

arousing of political awakening and exchange of ideas.

• The newspapers and journals gave opportunities to share ideas and problems.

• Novels, drama, short story, poetry, song, dance, theatre, art, and cinema were used to spread views and express resistance to imperial rule.

• They promoted the feelings of self-confidence, self-respect, awareness, and Indian patriotism.

Social and Cultural

• In 1856, widow remarriage was legally permitted.• In 1872, a law made it okay for Indians of different

castes to marry.• In 1929, the Sharda Law was passed to prevent

child marriage. • The law made it illegal to marry a girl below 14

and a boy below 18.

Pair-Share Activity: How do you think the British rationalized making all of these positive reforms, but

still discriminating against the Indians?

• Sir Reginald Coupland in 1945 wrote about the benefits of British imperialism:

• “British rule brought with it from the West certain standards of humanity that Indian society had not reached. Early action was taken to stop infanticide (the killing of female babies)...The slave trade was ended and the owning of slaves forbidden...One result of the new order was a steady rise in the value of India’s export trade.”

Social and Cultural

• Women were getting better education opportunities.

• Women took up professions and employment outside their homes.

Social and Cultural

• Rise of a new middle class in India• New opportunities for a small group of

Indian• Acted as the agents and intermediaries of

the British traders and made huge fortunes

• Received English education and became new elite

Pair-Share Activity: Do you think the positives outweigh the negatives? Why or why not?

• Romesh Dutt in 1902 wrote about the benefits of British imperialism:

• “Englishmen...have given the people of India the greatest human blessing---peace. They introduced Western education. This has brought an ancient and civilized nation in touch with modern thought, modern sciences, and modern life. They have built an administration that is strong and efficient. They have framed wise laws and have established courts of justice.”

Positives: Political Changes

Political Changes

• Introduction of new law courts• New government officials manned by

the educated middle class Indians

Pair-Share Activity: What is he saying?

• Dadabhai Naaoroji, former president of the Indian Congress said about the benefits of British imperialism:

• “Let us speak out like men and proclaim that we are loyal to the backbone; that we understand the benefits British rule has conferred upon us; that we thoroughly appreciate the education that has been given to us, the new light which has been poured upon us, turning us from darkness into light and teaching us the new lesson that kings are made for the people, not people for the kings; and this new lesson we have learned amidst the darkness of Asiatic despotism only by the light of the free English civilization.”

Positives: Infrastructure

Infrastructure

• The world’s third largest railroad network was a major British achievement.

• Railroads enabled India to develop a modern economy and brought unity to the connected regions.

• A modern road network, telephone and telegraph lines, dams, bridges, and irrigation canals

• Sanitation and public health improved. • Schools and colleges were founded, and literacy

increased. • British troops cleared central India of bandits • End to local warfare among competing local rulers.

Bengal Medical Bengal Medical Service, 1860Service, 1860

Positives for India• Great Britain laid the

world’s third largest railroad network in India

• Railroads brought unity to disconnected regions in India

• Modern road network

■ Telephone and telegraph lines

• Dams, bridges, canals

• Sanitation and public health improved

• Schools/colleges founded• Truces betweenlocal warring rulers in India

Positives: Trains and Railway Lines• Railway lines were

developed in India because of trade.

• This made it much easier to transport goods from and to different places in India.

Infrastructure

• 1837: First Railway known as the Red Hill Railroad Line

• 1853: First Passenger Railway • 1853: First Telegraphic Line from Calcutta to

Agra• 1853: Introduced the Postal Service

Benefits of British Rule• Pax Britanica – law and order creates political

unity previously unknown in India• Best railroad system in Asia, 4,000-40,000 miles• National Postal and telegraph system• Canal system irrigates millions of acres• Public health measures against cholera, smallpox,

etc. lower death rate• Famine relief system aided millions when harvests

were poor• New schools at all levels – English is used in higher

levels of ed. – study ideas of democracy and nationalism

• Equality before law regardless of status• Industrialization, shipping and banking facilities

expanded

It was important for the British to have a strong

network of transportation and

communication in India. They designed India’s

railroad system, brought telegraph and telephone

technology, a postal system, news reporting,

and banking.

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Chartered Bank of Chartered Bank of Calcutta, Calcutta,

19151915

Pair-Share Activity: Do you think India benefitted more from European imperialism

than Africa? Why or why not?• J.A.R. Marriott in 1932 wrote about the benefits of British

imperialism:• “British brains, British enterprise, and British capital have changed

the face of India. Means of communication have been developed. There are a great number of bridges, more than 40,000 miles of railway, and 70,000 miles of paved roads. These testify to the skill and industry of British engineers. Irrigation works on a very large scale have brought 30 million acres under cultivation. This has greatly added to the agricultural wealth of the country. Industrialization has also begun. India now has improved sanitation and a higher standard of living. It has a fine transport system and carefully thought-out schemes for relief work. Because of these things famines have now almost disappeared.”

Positives for British

Positives Effects for British: What did the British get?

• To bring raw materials, especially cotton, to ports for shipment to England.

• To bring manufactured goods from England for sale in an expanding Indian market.

• British-owned Indian industry expanded from 1880 to 1914, but not Indian.

• Spread British language, customs and Christian religion

• Took many artworks – sculpture, paintings and other Indian artifacts - that can be seen in many British museums today

Pair-Share Activity: Do you agree or disagree with Gandhi? Why or why not?

• In his book Indian Home Rule in 1938, Gandhi asked the question “Why do you want to drive away the English?” His reply was:

• “...Because India has become impoverished by the Government. They take away our money from year to year. The most important posts are reserved for themselves. We are kept in a state of slavery. They behave insolently towards us and disregard our feelings.”