History
312 Gandhi's India
Outline #
1
Sanjay Joshi
1. POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS LEADING TO BRITISH CONTROL
a. The Emergence of Regional Powers after Mughal power declines. OUDH, MARATHAS, BENGAL, HYDERABAD and MYSORE the most important of the "successor states."
b. The English East India Company (EIC) in competition with its
French counterparts begins to play a role in political affairs and lending out
its troops in regional conflicts.
c. 1757 Battle of Plassey - EIC defeats
forces of Nawab (ruler) of Bengal.
d. 1764 Battle of Buxar - Victory gains EIC right to DIWANI, collect revenue from Bengal.
e. Further exansion a gradual process,
helped on by (i) military conquests, e.g. victories
over TIPU of Mysore in 1799 and annexation of Punjab in 1848. (ii) "legal" doctrines, e.g. Doctrine of Lapse, or
(iii) "diplomatic" maneuvers, e.g. the Subsidiary Alliance system.
Then came cases of annexations based on "maladministration" by native
rulers, e.g. of Oudh in 1857. of
Oudh in 1857.
Map
of British Expansion: 1797-1805 {encyclopedia britannica online}
Map
of British Expansion: 1797-1805 {encyclopedia britannica
online}
2. ECONOMIC LOGIC OF COLONIALISM
Mercantile Phase: Initial interest in India only for trade, large profits to be made from India trade. Problem is trade deficit. Military victories and rights to collect revenue from India solve that problem. Characterized by some as the Drain of Wealth. Initially, brutal collection policy creates a famine in which 1/3 of the population of Bengal dies. Then, through the Permanent Settlement of 1793 actually create a class of landowners in Bengal.
Phase of Industrial Capitalism: With the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in England (late 1700s, but more evidently by 1810-1820. India important now as a captive market for British manufactures. Leads to collapse of Indian handicraft industry in cotton weaving, for example. Termed the Deindustrialization of India. More British concern for peasant well-being. Peasants important because they produce raw materials for British factories, but also as possible consumers of British goods. The Ryotwari and Mahalwari systems of revenue collection avoid some mistakes of the Permanent Settlement, but reinforce private property in land. Because peasant can now be thrown off the land for non-payment, they are encouraged to produce for the market rather than for personal or family consumption. This Commercialization of Agriculture makes them dependent on vagaries of the market at terms very unfavorable to them.
Important Dates and Events
1765 DIWANI rights.
1770 Famine in Bengal.
1793 Permanent Settlement in Bengal - introduces private property in
land.
1820s Ryotwari and Mahalwari
settlements.
3. COLONIALISM, CULTURE, AND POWER
Orientalists: Early EIC scholar-officials with an appreciative eye towards what they believed were "authentic" Indian traditions. Their reinterpretation of Indian traditions also served colonial needs, e.g. the transformation of Indian law under influence of Orientalists like William Jones.
Anglicists: Later EIC and Crown officials, believed in the supremacy of western ideas. Wished to build a class of Indians who would support colonial rule because of their appreciation of such ideas. Exemplified by Macaulay's ideas about education. Initiated western-style educational institutions in India. Link to Full Text of Macaulay's Minute on Indian Education
Race: With growth of ideas of scientific racism prejudices also "modernized." Operations like the Census based upon categories that reinforced some kinds of stereotypes, particularly based on race, religion, or ethnicity.
New Technologies of Power: Experiments with "modern" forms of state power; less brutal, but more "disciplining." State now reach out to control more aspects of subjects' lives. Belief that India could be controlled through acquisition of knowledge about the colonized, e.g. the Census operations begun in 1871.
