How Important are Dates?

Historians were fascinated with dates. History is about changes that occur over
time, finding out how things were in the past and how things have changed.
History was an account of battles and big events. It was about rulers and their
policies. Historians wrote about the year a king was crowned, the year he
married, the year he had a child, the year he fought a particular war, the year he
died, and the year the next ruler succeeded to the throne. For events such as
these, specific dates can be determined.

Which dates?
The dates we select and compose our story of the past are not important. They
become vital because we focus on a particular set of events as significant. The
chronology of different personalities’ lives marked the different chapters of the
history of British India. It is to give each chapter some coherence. It is to tell a
story in a way that makes some sense and can be followed.

How do we periodise?
In 1817, James Mill, published a massive three-volume work, A History of British
India. In his book, he divided Indian history into three periods – Hindu, Muslim
and British. Mill thought that all Asian societies were at a lower level of
civilisation than Europe. According to his telling of history, before the British
came to India, Hindu and Muslim despots ruled the country. Religious
intolerance, caste taboos and superstitious practices dominated social life.
According to him, British rule could civilise India. In this idea of history, British
rule represented all the forces of progress and civilisation. Historians had divided
Indian history into ‘ancient’, ‘medieval’ and ‘modern’.

What is colonial?
By reading this chapter you will understand how the British came to conquer the
country and establish their rule, subjugating local nawabs and rajas. How they
established control over the economy and society, collected revenue to meet all
their expenses, bought the goods they wanted at low prices, produced crops they
needed for export, and you will understand the changes that came about as a
consequence. You will get to learn about the changes British rule brought about
in values and tastes, customs and practices. When the subjugation of one
country by another leads to these kinds of political, economic, social and cultural
changes,it is referred to as colonisation.

How do We Know?
Administration produces records
British believed in the act of writing which produced an administrative culture of
memos, notings and reports. They also carefully preserved important documents
and letters. Important records are preserved in all administrative institutions. In
the early years of the nineteenth century, these documents were carefully copied
out and beautifully written by calligraphists – by those who specialised in the art
of beautiful writing. By the middle of the nineteenth century, with the spread of
printing, multiple copies of these records were printed as proceedings of each
government department.

Surveys become important

Under the colonial administration, the practice of surveying became common. By
the early nineteenth century, detailed surveys were being carried out to map the
entire country. In the villages, revenue surveys were conducted to know the
topography, the soil quality, the flora, the fauna, the local histories, and the
cropping pattern. From the end of the nineteenth century, Census operations
were held every ten years which prepared detailed records of the number of
people in all the provinces of India, noting information on castes, religions and
occupation. There were many other surveys – botanical surveys, zoological
surveys, archaeological surveys, anthropological surveys, forest surveys.

What official records do not tell

Official records will not help us to understand what other people in the country
felt, and what lay behind their actions. Records like diaries of people, accounts of
pilgrims and travellers, autobiographies of important personalities, and popular
booklets are found other than official records. Printing was introduced and
newspapers were published and issues were debated in public. Leaders and
reformers wrote to spread their ideas, poets and novelists wrote to express their
feelings. But, from these sources, history cannot be explained and how the tribals
and the peasants, the workers in the mines or the poor on the streets, lived their
lives.

What is meant by ‘periodising’?

The act of dividing history and historic events into various periods is known as
‘periodising’.

What is the abbreviation of B.C and A.D?

B.C refers to before christ and A.D refers to after death. These are used as
references to denote different eras and periods.

How long was the colonial rule in India?

Britishers rules India for over 200 years and it started in the year 1757 when
Robert Clive won the Battle of Plassey.
Overview
The last powerful Mughal ruler was Aurangzeb and after his death in 1707, many
Mughal governors (subadars) and big zamindars began asserting their authority
and establishing regional kingdoms. By the second half of the eighteenth
century, a new power emerged on the political horizon – the British.

East India Company Comes East

The East India Company, in 1600, acquired a charter from the ruler of England,
Queen Elizabeth I, granting the Company sole right to trade with the East.
According to the charter, the Company could venture across the oceans, looking
for new lands to buy goods at a cheaper price, and carry them back to Europe to
sell at higher prices. The Portuguese established their presence on the western
coast of India and had their base in Goa. By the early seventeenth century, the
Dutch were exploring the possibilities of trade in the Indian Ocean and very soon
the French arrived on the scene.
All the companies are interested in buying the same things. The fine qualities of
cotton, silk, pepper, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon were in great demand. The
urge to secure markets led to fierce battles between the trading companies. Trade
was carried on with arms and trading posts were protected through fortification.

East India Company begins trade in Bengal

In 1651, the first English factory was set up. It was the base from which the
Company’s traders, known as “factors”, operated. In the warehouse of the
factory, goods for export were stored. The Company by 1696 built a fort around
the settlement. The Company continuously tried to press for more concessions
and manipulate existing privileges.

How trade led to battles

The conflict between the Company and the nawabs of Bengal intensified. The
Bengal nawabs refused to grant the Company concessions, demanded large
tributes for the Company’s right to trade, denied it any right to mint coins, and
stopped it from extending its fortifications. They also claimed that the Company
was depriving the Bengal government of huge amounts of revenue and
undermining the authority of the nawab. The conflicts led to confrontations and
finally culminated in the famous Battle of Plassey.

The Battle of Plassey

In 1756, Alivardi Khan died and Sirajuddaulah became the nawab of Bengal. The
Company tried to help one of Sirajuddaulah’s rivals to become the nawab. After
Sirajuddaulah came to know about the Company’s strategy, he asked them to
stop meddling in their political affairs, stop fortification, and pay the revenues. In
1757, Robert Clive led the Company’s army against Sirajuddaulah at Plassey. The
main reason for the defeat was that the forces led by Mir Jafar never fought the
battle. The Battle of Plassey became famous because it was the first major victory
the Company won in India.
The prime objective of the Company was the expansion of trade. If it can be done
without conquest, through the help of local rulers, then territories need not be
taken over directly. But, very soon the Company discovered that this was rather
difficult. In 1765, the Mughal emperor appointed the Company as the Diwan of the
provinces of Bengal. It allowed the Company to use the vast revenue resources of
Bengal. From the early eighteenth century, the Company’s trade with India had
expanded. Goods from India had to be brought with gold and silver imported from
Britain.
Company officials become “nabobs”
After the Battle of Plassey, the Company officials forced the actual nawabs of
Bengal to give land and vast sums of money as personal gifts. When Robert Clive
left India, his Indian fortune was worth £401,102. In 1764, he was appointed as the
Governor of Bengal and was asked to remove corruption in Company
administration. Many Company officials died an early death in India due to
disease and war. Some of the officials came from humble backgrounds and their
desire was to earn enough in India, return to Britain and lead a comfortable life.
Those who managed to return with wealth were called “nabobs” – an anglicised
version of the Indian word nawab.

Company Rule Expands

After analysing the process of annexation of Indian states by the East India
Company from 1757 to 1857, certain key aspects emerge.
The Company rarely launched a direct military attack on an unknown territory. It
alternately used a variety of political, economic and diplomatic methods to extend
its influence before annexing an Indian kingdom. After the Battle of Buxar, the
Company appointed Residents in Indian states. They were political or commercial
agents and their job was to serve and further the interests of the Company.
Subsidiary alliance means Indian rulers were not allowed to have their
independent armed forces. They were to be protected by the Company, but had to
pay for the “subsidiary forces” that the Company was supposed to maintain for
the purpose of this protection. If the Indian rulers failed to make the payment,
then part of their territory was taken away as a penalty.
Tipu Sultan – The “Tiger of Mysore”
Mysore, under the leadership of powerful rulers like Haidar Ali (ruled from 1761 to
1782) and his famous son Tipu Sultan (ruled from 1782 to 1799) had grown in
strength. It controlled the profitable trade of the Malabar coast where the
Company purchased pepper and cardamom. Tipu Sultan, in 1785, stopped the
export of sandalwood, pepper and cardamom. The Company fought four wars
with Mysore (1767-69, 1780-84, 1790-92 and 1799). Finally, in the last – the Battle
of Seringapatam – the Company achieved victory.
War with the Marathas
The Company from the late eighteenth century was planning to destroy Maratha
power. The Third Battle of Panipat in 1761, the Marathas were defeated and their
dream of ruling from Delhi was shattered. They were divided into many states
under different chiefs (sardars) belonging to dynasties such as Sindhia, Holkar,
Gaikwad and Bhonsle. These chiefs were held together under a Peshwa (Principal
Minister) who became its effective military and administrative head based in
Pune.
Marathas were indulged in a series of wars. The first war ended in 1782 with the
Treaty of Salbai, there was no clear victor. The Second AngloMaratha War (1803-
05) was fought on different fronts, resulting in the British gaining Orissa and the
territories north of the Yamuna river including Agra and Delhi. Finally, the Third
Anglo-Maratha War of 1817-19 crushed Maratha power.

The claim to paramountcy

Paramountcy a new policy was initiated under Lord Hastings (GovernorGeneral
from 1813 to 1823). The Company claimed that its power was greater than that of
Indian states. In the late 1830s, the East India Company became worried about
Russia. It imagined that Russia might expand across Asia and enter India from
the north-west. The Company fought a prolonged war with Afghanistan between
1838 and 1842 and established indirect Company rule there. Punjab was annexed
in 1849, after two prolonged wars.

The Doctrine of Lapse

Under Lord Dalhousie who was the Governor-General from 1848 to 1856 the final
wave of annexations occurred. The Doctrine of Lapse is a policy devised by him
which declared that if an Indian ruler died without a male heir his kingdom would
“lapse”, that is, become part of Company territory. In 1856, the Company took
over Awadh. Enraged by the humiliating way in which the Nawab was deposed,
the people of Awadh joined the great revolt that broke out in 1857.

Setting up a New Administration

Warren Hastings (Governor-General from 1773 to 1785) played a significant role
in the expansion of Company power. During his time, the Company had acquired
power in Bengal, Bombay and Madras. British territories were broadly divided
into administrative units called Presidencies. There were three Presidencies:
Bengal, Madras and Bombay. Each was ruled by a Governor. From 1772 a new
system of justice was established. According to the new system, each district
needed to have two courts – a criminal court ( faujdari adalat ) and a civil court
(diwani adalat).
The Brahman pandits have different interpretations of local laws based on
different schools of the dharmashastra. To bring uniformity, in 1775 eleven
pandits were asked to compile a digest of Hindu laws. By 1778 a code of Muslim
laws was also compiled for the benefit of European judges. Under the Regulating
Act of 1773, a new Supreme Court was established, while a court of appeal – the
Sadar Nizamat Adalat – was also set up at Calcutta. The Collector was the
principal figure in an Indian district. His job was to collect revenue and taxes and
maintain law and order in his district with the help of judges, police officers and
darogas.
The Company army
In India, colonial rule brought some new ideas of administration and reform. The
Mughal army composed of cavalry (sawars: trained soldiers on horseback) and
infantry, that is, paidal (foot) soldiers. The army of the Mughal was dominated by
cavalry. In the eighteenth century, changes occurred when Mughal successor
states like Awadh and Benaras started recruiting peasants into their armies and
training them as professional soldiers.
The East India Company adopted the same method which came to be known as
the sepoy army (from the Indian word sipahi, meaning soldier). In the early
nineteenth century, the British began to develop a uniform military culture.
Soldiers were subjected to European-style training, drill and discipline that
regulated their life far more than before.

Conclusion
The East India Company was transformed from a trading company to a territorial
colonial power. In the early nineteenth century, new steam technology arrived. By
1857 the Company came to exercise direct rule over about 63 per cent of the
territory and 78 percent of the population of the Indian subcontinent.
The Company Become the Diwan
The East India Company became the Diwan of Bengal, on 12 August 1765. As
Diwan, the Company became the chief financial administrator of the territory
under its control. The Company needed to administer the land and organise its
revenue resources. It needed to be done in a way that could yield enough revenue
to meet the growing expenses of the company.

Revenue for the Company

The Company’s aim was to increase the revenue to buy fine cotton and silk cloth
as cheaply as possible. Within a span of five years, the value of goods bought by
the Company in Bengal doubled. The Company, before 1865, purchased goods in
India by importing gold and silver from Britain. Now it was financed by the
revenue collected in Bengal. Artisanal production was in decline, and agricultural
cultivation showed signs of collapse. Then in 1770, a terrible famine killed ten
million people in Bengal.

The need to improve agriculture

In 1793, the Company introduced the Permanent Settlement. By the terms of the
settlement, the rajas and taluqdars were recognised as zamindars, who were
asked to collect rent from the peasants and pay revenue to the Company. The
amount to be paid was fixed permanently. This settlement would ensure a regular
flow of revenue into the Company’s coffers and at the same time encourage the
zamindars to invest in improving the land.

The problem
The Permanent Settlement created problems. Soon, the company officials
discovered that the zamindars were not investing in the improvement of land
because the fixed revenue was very high. By the first decade of the nineteenth
century, the situation changed. The prices in the market rose and cultivation
slowly expanded. Even then the zamindars were not interested in improving the
land.
In the villages, the cultivator found the system extremely oppressive. The rent
they paid to the zamindar was high so they took a loan from the moneylender,
and when they failed to pay the rent they were evicted from the land.

A new system was devised

The Company officials decided to change the system of revenue. Holt Mackenzie
devised the new system which came into effect in 1822. Under his directions,
collectors went from village to village, inspecting the land, measuring the fields,
and recording the customs and rights of different groups. The estimated revenue
of each plot within a village was added up to calculate the revenue that each
village (mahal) had to pay. This demand was to be revised periodically, not
permanently fixed. The charge of collecting the revenue and paying it to the
Company was given to the village headman, rather than the zamindar. This
system came to be known as the mahalwari settlement.

The Munro system

In the British territories in the south, a new system was devised known as the
ryotwar (or ryotwari). This system was gradually extended all over south India.
The settlement had to be made directly with the cultivators (ryots) who had tilled
the land for generations. Their fields had to be carefully and separately surveyed
before the revenue assessment was made.

All was not well

In order to increase the income from land, revenue officials fixed high revenue
demand. Peasants were unable to pay, ryots fled the countryside, and villages
became deserted in many regions.

Crops for Europe

By the late eighteenth century, the Company tried to expand the cultivation of
opium and indigo. The Company forced cultivators in various parts of India to
produce other crops: jute in Bengal, tea in Assam, sugarcane in the United
Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), wheat in Punjab, cotton in Maharashtra and
Punjab, rice in Madras.

Does colour have a history?

The rich blue colour was produced from a plant called indigo. The blue dye used
in the Morris prints in nineteenth-century Britain was manufactured from indigo
plants cultivated in India. India was the biggest supplier of indigo in the world at
that time.

Why the demand for Indian indigo?

Indigo plants grow in the tropics and Indian indigo was used by cloth
manufacturers in Italy, France and Britain to dye cloth. Small amounts of Indian
indigo reached the European market and its price was very high. Therefore,
European cloth manufacturers had to depend on another plant called woad to
make violet and blue dyes. Indigo produced a rich blue colour, whereas the dye
from woad was pale and dull. By the end of the eighteenth century, the demand
for Indian indigo grew further. While the demand for indigo increased, its existing
supplies from the West Indies and America collapsed for a variety of reasons.
Between 1783 and 1789 the production of indigo in the world fell by half.

Britain turns to India

In Europe, the demand for indigo was high, so the Company in India looked for
ways to expand the area under indigo cultivation. Gradually, the indigo trade
grew, so commercial agents and officials of the Company began investing in
indigo production. The Company officials were attracted by the prospect of high
profits and came to India to become indigo planters.

How was indigo cultivated?

There were two main systems of indigo cultivation – nij and ryoti. Within the
system of nij cultivation, the planter produced indigo in lands that he directly
controlled. He either bought the land or rented it from other zamindars and
produced indigo by directly employing hired labourers.

The problem with nij cultivation

Under nij cultivation, the planters found it difficult to expand the area. Indigo
could only be cultivated on fertile lands. Planters attempted to lease land around
the indigo factory, and evict the peasants from the area. Nij cultivation on a large
scale also required many ploughs and bullocks. Till the late nineteenth century,
planters were, therefore, reluctant to expand the area under nij cultivation.

Indigo on the land of ryots

The planters, under the ryoti system, were forced to sign a contract, an
agreement (satta). Those who signed the contract got cash advances from the
planters at low rates of interest to produce indigo. When the harvested crop was
delivered to the planter, a new loan was sanctioned, and the cycle starts all over
again. Peasants soon realised how the loan system was. After an indigo harvest
the land could not be sown with rice.

The “Blue Rebellion” and After

Ryots in Bengal refused to grow indigo. People who worked for the planters were
socially boycotted, and the gomasthas – agents of planters – who came to collect
rent were beaten up. The Bengal ryots had the support of the local zamindars and
village headmen in their rebellion against the planters. The indigo peasants
believed that the British government would support them in their struggle against
the planters. After the Revolt of 1857 the British government was worried about
the possibility of another popular rebellion. As the rebellion spread, intellectuals
from Calcutta rushed to the indigo districts. The government set up the Indigo
Commission to enquire into the system of indigo production. The Commission
asked the ryots to fulfil their existing contracts but also told them that they could
refuse to produce indigo in future.
Indigo production collapsed in Bengal, after the revolt. When Mahatma Gandhi
returned from South Africa, a peasant from Bihar persuaded him to visit
Champaran and see the plight of the indigo cultivators. In 1917, he visited which
marked the beginning of the Champaran movement against the indigo planters.
Overview
The customs and rituals followed by most tribes were very different from those
laid down by Brahmans. These societies were not characterised by division of
caste societies. All those who belonged to the same tribe thought of themselves
as sharing common ties of kinship. But, they did have social and economic
differences within tribes.

How Did Tribal Groups Live?

The tribal people of India were involved in a variety of activities by the nineteenth
century.

Some were jhum cultivators

Some tribal people practised jhum cultivation, that is, shifting cultivation. This
cultivation is done on small patches of land and the planters cut down the
treetops to allow sunlight to reach the ground, and burnt the vegetation to clear it
for cultivation. After the crop was ready and harvested they were shifted to
another field. Shifting cultivators were found in the hilly and forested tracts of
north-east and central India. These tribal people moved freely within the forests
and that’s the reason they practised shifting cultivation.

Some were hunters and gatherers

Tribal groups in many regions survived on hunting animals and gathering forest
produce. The Khonds were a community who survived on collective hunts and
divide the meat amongst themselves. This community ate fruits and roots and
used oil extracted from the seeds of the sal and mahua to cook food. Shrubs and
herbs were used from forests for medicinal purposes.
These forest people exchanged goods with the things they needed in return for
their valuable forest produce. When the forest produced shrank, tribal people had
to wander out in search of work as labourers. Tribal groups were dependent on
traders and moneylenders because they often needed money to buy and sell in
order to be able to get the goods that were not produced within the locality. But,
the interest charged on the loans was very high.

Some herded animals

Herding and rearing was also an occupation for many tribal groups. They were
pastoralists who moved with their herds of cattle or sheep according to the
seasons.

Some took to settled cultivation

Tribal groups, even before the nineteenth century, began settling down. The land
for the Mundas of Chottanagpur belonged to the clan as a whole. All members of
the clan were regarded as descendants of the original settlers, who had first
cleared the land. British officials saw settled tribal groups as more civilised than
hunter-gatherers or shifting cultivators.

How Did Colonial Rule Affect Tribal Lives?

During British rule, the lives of tribal people changed.

What happened to tribal chiefs?

Before the British arrived, the tribal chiefs were important people. They enjoyed
economic power and had the right to administer and control their territories. But,
their functions and powers changed under British rule. They lost their
administrative powers and were forced to follow laws made by British officials in
India.
What happened to the shifting cultivators?
The British wanted tribal groups to settle down as it was easier to control and
administer settled peasants. The British introduced land settlements to get
regular revenue sources for the state. Land settlement means the British
measured the land, defined the rights of each individual to that land, and fixed the
revenue demand for the state. The British effort to settle jhum cultivators was not
very successful. Facing widespread protests, the British had to ultimately allow
them the right to carry on shifting cultivation in some parts of the forest.

Forest laws and their impact

Tribal lives were directly affected by the changes in forest laws. Some forests
were classified as Reserved Forests as they produced timber which the British
wanted. The British people stopped the tribal people entering the forests but they
faced a problem of getting laborers. So, the colonial officials came up with a
solution. The colonial officials decided to give jhum cultivators small patches of
land in the forests and allow them to cultivate. In return, those who lived in the
villages had to provide labour to the Forest Department. Many tribal groups
disobeyed the new rules, continued with practices that were declared illegal, and
at times rose in open rebellion.

The problem with trade

During the nineteenth century, traders and moneylenders started coming into the
forest more often. They wanted to buy forest products, offered cash loans, and
asked tribal groups to work for ages. In the eighteenth century, the demand for
Indian silk was high in European markets. The silk market expanded so the East
India Company encouraged silk production. The Santhals of Hazaribagh reared
cocoons and the traders dealing in silk gave loans to the tribal people and
collected the cocoons. The middlemen made huge profits.

The search for work

From the late nineteenth century, tea plantations started coming up and mining
became an important industry. Tribals were recruited in large numbers to work at
the tea plantations of Assam and the coal mines of Jharkhand.

A Closer Look
Tribal groups from different parts of the country rebelled against the changes in
laws, the restrictions on their practices, the new taxes they had to pay, and the
exploitation by traders and moneylenders.

Birsa Munda
Birsa was born in the mid-1870s and as an adolescent, he heard tales of the
Munda uprisings of the past and saw the sirdars (leaders) of the community
urging the people to revolt. In the local missionary school, he heard that it was
possible for the Mundas to attain the Kingdom of Heaven, and regain their lost
rights. Birsa also spent some time in the company of a prominent Vaishnav
preacher. Birsa started a movement and it aimed at reforming tribal society. He
urged the Mundas to give up drinking liquor, clean their village, and stop
believing in witchcraft and sorcery.
In 1895 Birsa urged his followers to recover their glorious past. He talked of a
golden age in the past – a satyug (the age of truth) – when Mundas lived a good
life, constructed embankments, tapped natural springs, planted trees and
orchards, practised cultivation to earn their living.
The political aim of the Birsa movement was to drive out missionaries,
moneylenders, Hindu landlords, and the government and set up a Munda Raj with
Birsa at its head. The movement was widespread so the British officials decided
to act. Birsa started touring the villages to gain support using traditional symbols
and language to rouse people, urging them to destroy “Ravana” (dikus and the
Europeans) and establish a kingdom under his leadership.
In 1900 Birsa died of cholera and the movement faded out. But, the movement
was significant in at least two ways. First – it forced the colonial government to
introduce laws so that the land of the Tribals could not be easily taken over by
dikus. Second – it showed once again that the tribal people had the capacity to
protest against injustice and express their anger against colonial rule.
The Company Become the Diwan
The East India Company became the Diwan of Bengal, on 12 August 1765. As
Diwan, the Company became the chief financial administrator of the territory
under its control. The Company needed to administer the land and organise its
revenue resources. It needed to be done in a way that could yield enough revenue
to meet the growing expenses of the company.

Revenue for the Company

The Company’s aim was to increase the revenue to buy fine cotton and silk cloth
as cheaply as possible. Within a span of five years, the value of goods bought by
the Company in Bengal doubled. The Company, before 1865, purchased goods in
India by importing gold and silver from Britain. Now it was financed by the
revenue collected in Bengal. Artisanal production was in decline, and agricultural
cultivation showed signs of collapse. Then in 1770, a terrible famine killed ten
million people in Bengal.

The need to improve agriculture

In 1793, the Company introduced the Permanent Settlement. By the terms of the
settlement, the rajas and taluqdars were recognised as zamindars, who were
asked to collect rent from the peasants and pay revenue to the Company. The
amount to be paid was fixed permanently. This settlement would ensure a regular
flow of revenue into the Company’s coffers and at the same time encourage the
zamindars to invest in improving the land.

The problem
The Permanent Settlement created problems. Soon, the company officials
discovered that the zamindars were not investing in the improvement of land
because the fixed revenue was very high. By the first decade of the nineteenth
century, the situation changed. The prices in the market rose and cultivation
slowly expanded. Even then the zamindars were not interested in improving the
land.
In the villages, the cultivator found the system extremely oppressive. The rent
they paid to the zamindar was high so they took a loan from the moneylender,
and when they failed to pay the rent they were evicted from the land.

A new system was devised

The Company officials decided to change the system of revenue. Holt Mackenzie
devised the new system which came into effect in 1822. Under his directions,
collectors went from village to village, inspecting the land, measuring the fields,
and recording the customs and rights of different groups. The estimated revenue
of each plot within a village was added up to calculate the revenue that each
village (mahal) had to pay. This demand was to be revised periodically, not
permanently fixed. The charge of collecting the revenue and paying it to the
Company was given to the village headman, rather than the zamindar. This
system came to be known as the mahalwari settlement.

The Munro system

In the British territories in the south, a new system was devised known as the
ryotwar (or ryotwari). This system was gradually extended all over south India.
The settlement had to be made directly with the cultivators (ryots) who had tilled
the land for generations. Their fields had to be carefully and separately surveyed
before the revenue assessment was made.

All was not well

In order to increase the income from land, revenue officials fixed high revenue
demand. Peasants were unable to pay, ryots fled the countryside, and villages
became deserted in many regions.

Crops for Europe

By the late eighteenth century, the Company tried to expand the cultivation of
opium and indigo. The Company forced cultivators in various parts of India to
produce other crops: jute in Bengal, tea in Assam, sugarcane in the United
Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), wheat in Punjab, cotton in Maharashtra and
Punjab, rice in Madras.

Does colour have a history?

The rich blue colour was produced from a plant called indigo. The blue dye used
in the Morris prints in nineteenth-century Britain was manufactured from indigo
plants cultivated in India. India was the biggest supplier of indigo in the world at
that time.

Why the demand for Indian indigo?

Indigo plants grow in the tropics and Indian indigo was used by cloth
manufacturers in Italy, France and Britain to dye cloth. Small amounts of Indian
indigo reached the European market and its price was very high. Therefore,
European cloth manufacturers had to depend on another plant called woad to
make violet and blue dyes. Indigo produced a rich blue colour, whereas the dye
from woad was pale and dull. By the end of the eighteenth century, the demand
for Indian indigo grew further. While the demand for indigo increased, its existing
supplies from the West Indies and America collapsed for a variety of reasons.
Between 1783 and 1789 the production of indigo in the world fell by half.

Britain turns to India

In Europe, the demand for indigo was high, so the Company in India looked for
ways to expand the area under indigo cultivation. Gradually, the indigo trade
grew, so commercial agents and officials of the Company began investing in
indigo production. The Company officials were attracted by the prospect of high
profits and came to India to become indigo planters.

How was indigo cultivated?

There were two main systems of indigo cultivation – nij and ryoti. Within the
system of nij cultivation, the planter produced indigo in lands that he directly
controlled. He either bought the land or rented it from other zamindars and
produced indigo by directly employing hired labourers.

The problem with nij cultivation

Under nij cultivation, the planters found it difficult to expand the area. Indigo
could only be cultivated on fertile lands. Planters attempted to lease land around
the indigo factory, and evict the peasants from the area. Nij cultivation on a large
scale also required many ploughs and bullocks. Till the late nineteenth century,
planters were, therefore, reluctant to expand the area under nij cultivation.

Indigo on the land of ryots

The planters, under the ryoti system, were forced to sign a contract, an
agreement (satta). Those who signed the contract got cash advances from the
planters at low rates of interest to produce indigo. When the harvested crop was
delivered to the planter, a new loan was sanctioned, and the cycle starts all over
again. Peasants soon realised how the loan system was. After an indigo harvest
the land could not be sown with rice.

The “Blue Rebellion” and After

Ryots in Bengal refused to grow indigo. People who worked for the planters were
socially boycotted, and the gomasthas – agents of planters – who came to collect
rent were beaten up. The Bengal ryots had the support of the local zamindars and
village headmen in their rebellion against the planters. The indigo peasants
believed that the British government would support them in their struggle against
the planters. After the Revolt of 1857 the British government was worried about
the possibility of another popular rebellion. As the rebellion spread, intellectuals
from Calcutta rushed to the indigo districts. The government set up the Indigo
Commission to enquire into the system of indigo production. The Commission
asked the ryots to fulfil their existing contracts but also told them that they could
refuse to produce indigo in future.
Indigo production collapsed in Bengal, after the revolt. When Mahatma Gandhi
returned from South Africa, a peasant from Bihar persuaded him to visit
Champaran and see the plight of the indigo cultivators. In 1917, he visited which
marked the beginning of the Champaran movement against the indigo planters.
Indian Textiles and the World Market
Around 1750, India was the world’s largest producer of cotton textiles renowned
both for their fine quality and exquisite craftsmanship. They were traded in
Southeast Asia (Java, Sumatra and Penang) and West and Central Asia. European
trading companies bought Indian textiles and sold them in Europe.

Words tell us histories

European traders first encountered fine cotton cloth from India carried by Arab
merchants in Mosul present-day Iraq. The Portuguese came to India in search of
spices and the cotton textiles they took back to Europe, called “calico” (derived
from Calicut). There were many other words which pointed to the popularity of
Indian textiles in Western markets.
Different varieties of cloth were named differently such as printed cotton cloths
were called chintz, cossaes (or khassa) and bandanna. Chintz is derived from the
Hindi word chhint, a cloth with small and colourful flowery designs. A craze
started for Indian cotton textiles in England and Europe mainly for their exquisite
floral designs, fine texture and relative cheapness.
Bandanna, derived from the word “bandhna” refers to any brightly coloured and
printed scarf for the neck or head produced through a method of tying and dying.

Indian textiles in European markets

Indian textiles became widely popular by the early eighteenth century, which
worried wool and silk makers in England. They began protesting against the
import of Indian cotton textiles. In 1720, the British government enacted
legislation banning the use of printed cotton textiles – chintz – in England, called
the Calico Act.
In England, textile industries had just begun to develop and they wanted a secure
market within the country by preventing the entry of Indian textiles. The Calico
printing industry was set up under government protection. Indian designs were
imitated and printed in England on white muslin or plain unbleached Indian cloth.
In 1764, the spinning jenny was invented by John Kaye. Richard Arkwright in
1786 invented the steam engine which revolutionised cotton textile weaving.
Indian textiles dominated world trade till the end of the eighteenth century.
European trading companies purchased cotton and silk textiles in India by
importing silver.

Who were the weavers?

Weavers belonged to communities that specialised in weaving and skills were
passed on from one generation to the next. Some of the communities famous for
weaving were the tanti weavers of Bengal, the julahas or momin weavers of north
India, sale and kaikollar and devangs of south India. Spinning is the first stage of
production where charkha and the takli were used. The thread was spun on the
charkha and rolled on the takli. After spinning the thread was woven into cloth by
the weaver. For coloured textiles, the thread was dyed by the dyer, known as
rangrez. For printed cloth the weavers needed the help of specialist block printers
known as chhipigars.
The decline of Indian textiles
In Britain, cotton industries were developed which affected textile producers in
India.

1. Indian textiles had to compete with British textiles in the European and
American markets.
2. Exporting textiles to England also became increasingly difficult since very
high duties were imposed on Indian textiles imported into Britain.

In Africa, America and Europe Indian goods traditional market was ousted by
English made cotton textiles. English and European companies stopped buying
Indian goods and distressed weavers wrote petitions to the government to help
them.
By the 1830s British cotton cloth flooded Indian markets which affected specialist
weavers and spinners. In India, handloom weaving continued as some types of
cloths could not be supplied by machines.
Sholapur in western India and Madura in South India emerged as important new
centres of weaving in the late nineteenth century. Mahatma Gandhi, during the
national movement, urged people to boycott imported textiles and use hand-spun
and handwoven cloth. Khadi became a symbol of nationalism and the charkha
represented India. The charkha was put at the centre of the tricolour flag of the
Indian National Congress adopted in 1931.

Cotton mills come up

In 1854, the first cotton mill was set up in Bombay and it had grown as an
important port for the export of raw cotton from India to England and China. In
Bombay, over 84 mills were established by Parsi and Gujarati businessmen by
1900. Mills started developing in cities and the first mill in Ahmedabad was
started in 1861. Growth of cotton mills demanded labour. Poor peasants, artisans
and agricultural labourers worked in the mills.
Textile factory industry in India faced problems such as difficulty competing with
the cheap textiles imported from Britain. In most countries, the government
supported industrialisation by imposing heavy duties on imports which
eliminated competition and protected infant industries.
The first major spurt in the development of cotton factory production in India,
therefore, was during the First World War when textile imports from Britain
declined and Indian factories were called upon to produce cloth for military
supplies.
The sword of Tipu Sultan and Wootz steel
The sword of Tipu Sultan, was special because it had an incredibly hard and
sharp edge that could easily rip through the opponent’s armour. This quality of
the sword came from a special type of high carbon steel called Wootz which was
produced all over south India. Wootz steel, when made into swords, produced a
very sharp edge with a flowing water pattern which came from very small carbon
crystals embedded in the iron.
Wootz steel was produced in many hundreds of smelting furnaces in Mysore. In
these furnaces, iron was mixed with charcoal and put inside small clay pots.
Through an intricate control of temperatures, the smelters produced steel ingots
used for sword making.
Wootz is an anglicised version of the Kannada word ukku, Telugu hukku and
Tamil and Malayalam urukku – meaning steel. Wootz steel making process was
widely known in south India, which completely lost its existence by the mid-
nineteenth century. The swords and armour making industry died with the
conquest of India by the British and imports of iron and steel from England
displaced the iron and steel produced by craftspeople in India.

Abandoned furnaces in villages

Wootz steel production required a highly specialised technique of refining iron. In
India, iron smelting was common till the end of the nineteenth century. In Bihar
and Central India, every district had smelters. The furnaces were built of clay and
sun-dried bricks. By the late nineteenth century, the craft of iron smelting
declined. The reason was the government prevented people from entering the
reserved forests.
The government granted access to the forest in some areas but the iron smelters
had to pay a very high tax to the forest department for every furnace they used.
by the late nineteenth-century iron and steel were imported from Britain. By the
early twentieth century, the artisans producing iron and steel faced new
competition.

Iron and steel factories come up in India

In 1904, Charles Weld, an American geologist and Dorabji Tata, the eldest son of
Jamsetji Tata, travelled to Chhattisgarh in search of iron ore deposits. They
wanted to set up a modern iron and steel plant in India. After travelling for
months, Weld and Dorabji found Rajhara Hills which had one of the finest ores in
the world. But the region was dry and water was not to be found nearby. So, the
search continued and the Agarias helped in the discovery of a source of iron ore.
A large area of forest was cleared on the banks of the river Subarnarekha to set
up the factory and an industrial township – Jamshedpur. The Tata Iron and Steel
Company (TISCO) began producing steel in 1912.
Before TISCO, India was importing steel that was manufactured in Britain. The
situation was changed by the time TISCO set up. In 1914 the First World War
broke out and steel produced in Britain had to meet the demands of war in
Europe. The war continued for several years, so TISCO had to produce shells and
carriage wheels for the war. TISCO became the biggest steel industry within the
British empire.
In the case of iron and steel, industrial expansion occurred when British imports
into India declined and the market for Indian industrial goods increased. The
development of the nationalist movement and the industrial class emerged
stronger, the demand for government protection became louder.
How the British saw Education
The tradition of Orientalism
In 1783, William Jones arrived in Calcutta, appointed as a junior judge at the
Supreme Court. Jones was a linguist who had studied Greek and Latin at Oxford
and knew French, English, Arabic and Persian. At Calcutta, he learnt the
subtleties of Sanskrit language, grammar and poetry from pandits. He also
studied ancient Indian texts on law, philosophy, religion, politics, morality,
arithmetic, medicine and the other sciences.
Henry Thomas Colebrooke and Nathaniel Halhed were also interested in the
ancient Indian heritage, to master the Indian languages and to translate Sanskrit
and Persian works into English. Jones along with them set up the Asiatic Society
of Bengal and started a journal called Asiatick Researches.
Jones and Colebrooke felt that the Indian civilisation had attained its glory in the
ancient past, but had subsequently declined. To understand India better, it was
necessary to discover the sacred and legal texts that were produced in the
ancient period. Jones and Colebrooke went on discovering ancient texts,
understanding their meaning, translating them, and making their findings known
to others. This project will help Indians rediscover their own heritage, and
understand the lost glories of their past.
The Company officials felt that institutions should encourage the study of ancient
Indian texts and Sanskrit and Persian literature and poetry. Hindus and Muslims
should learn what they were already familiar with, and what they valued and
treasured.
In 1781, a madrasa was set up in Calcutta to promote the study of Arabic, Persian
and Islamic law; and the Hindu College was established in Benaras in 1791 to
encourage the study of ancient Sanskrit texts that would be useful for the
administration of the country.
“Grave errors of the East”
The British officials started criticising the Orientalist vision of learning and said
that knowledge of the East was full of errors and unscientific thought. Eastern
literature was non-serious and light-hearted. James Mill was one of those who
attacked the Orientalists. The aim of education should be to teach what was
useful and practical. So Indians should be familiar with the scientific and
technical advances that the West had made.
Thomas Babington Macaulay saw India as an uncivilised country that needed to
be civilised. He urged that the British government in India should stop wasting
public money in promoting Oriental learning, for it was of no practical use.
Macaulay thought English language would help Indians to read some of the finest
literature the world had produced; make them aware of the developments in
Western science and philosophy. The English Education Act of 1835 was
introduced and English was made the medium of instruction for higher education.
English textbooks began to be produced for schools.

Education for commerce

In 1854, the Court of Directors of the East India Company in London sent an
educational dispatch to the Governor-General in India. It was issued by Charles
Wood, the President of the Board of Control of the Company, known as Wood’s
Despatch. It draws an outline of the educational policy that was to be followed in
India, and emphasised on the practical benefits of a system of European learning,
as opposed to Oriental knowledge.
European learning would enable Indians to recognise the advantages of the
expansion of trade and commerce and the importance of developing the
resources of the country. By adopting European ways of life, their tastes and
desires would change. European learning would improve the moral character of
Indians.
The British introduced several measures, following the 1854 Despatch. Education
departments of the government were set up to extend control over all matters
regarding education. Steps were taken to establish a system of university
education. In 1857, universities were being established in Calcutta, Madras and
Bombay. Attempts were also made to bring about changes within the system of
school education.

What Happened to the Local Schools?

The report of William Adam
In the 1830s, William Adam toured the districts of Bengal and Bihar and had been
asked by the Company to report on the progress of education in vernacular
schools.
According to the report presented by Adam, over 1 lakh, pathshalas were present
in Bengal and Bihar with no more than 20 students each. These institutions were
set up by wealthy people, or the local community. The education system was
flexible with no fixed fee, no printed books, no separate school building, no
benches or chairs, no blackboards, no system of separate classes, no roll call
registers, no annual examinations, and no regular time-table.
Classes were held under a banyan tree, in the corner of a village shop or temple,
or at the guru’s home. School fees depended on the income of the parents: the
rich had to pay more than the poor. The guru decided what to teach, orally in
accordance with the needs of the students. Students were sat together in one
place and the guru interacted separately with groups of children with different
levels of learning.
This flexible system was suited to local needs. During the harvest time classes
were not held. The pathshala started once again when the crops had been cut and
stored.
New routines, new rules
The Company was concerned primarily with higher education. After 1854 the
Company decided to improve the system of vernacular education by introducing
order within the system, imposing routines, establishing rules, ensuring regular
inspections.
The Company appointed a number of government pandits, gave them charge of
four to five schools. The task of the pandit was to visit the pathshalas and try and
improve the standard of teaching. Each guru was asked to submit periodic
reports and take classes according to a regular timetable. Teaching was based on
textbooks and learning was to be tested through a system of annual examination.
Students were asked to pay a regular fee, attend regular classes, sit on fixed
seats, and obey the new rules of discipline.
Pathshalas which accepted the new rules were supported through government
grants. The consequence of new rules and routines was earlier children from
poor peasant families had been able to go to pathshalas, since the timetable was
flexible. The new system demanded regular attendance, even during harvest time
when children of poor families had to work in the fields.

The Agenda for a National Education

Before the British officials, many thinkers from different parts of India began to
talk of the need for a wider spread of education. Some Indians felt that Western
education would help modernise India and urged the British to open more
schools, colleges and universities, and spend more money on education. There
were other Indians who reacted against Western education. Mahatma Gandhi and
Rabindranath Tagore were two such individuals.
“English education has enslaved us”
According to Mahatma Gandhi, Western civilisation created a sense of inferiority
in the minds of Indians. It made the Indians perceive it as superior and destroyed
the pride they had in their own culture. Indians educated in these institutions
began admiring British rule. Mahatma Gandhi wanted an education that could
help Indians recover their sense of dignity and self-respect. During the national
movement, he urged students to leave educational institutions in order to show
to the British that Indians were no longer willing to be enslaved.
Education in English distanced Indians from their own social surroundings, and
made them “strangers in their own lands”. Mahatma Gandhi said that education
ought to develop a person’s mind and soul. Literacy did not count as education.
As nationalist sentiments spread, other thinkers also began thinking of a system
of national education, which would be radically different from that set up by the
British.
Tagore’s “abode of peace”
Rabindranath Tagore started Shantiniketan in 1901. During his childhood days,
he found school suffocating and oppressive. So, after growing up he wanted to
establish a school where the child was happy, free and creative, and able to
explore his own thoughts and desires. He felt that childhood ought to be a time of
self-learning, outside the rigid and restricting discipline of the schooling system
set up by the British. According to Tagore, the existing schools killed the natural
desire of the child to be creative, along with his sense of wonder.
Tagore said that creative learning could be encouraged only within a natural
environment. Gandhiji was against Western civilisation and its worship of
machines and technology. Tagore, on the other hand, wanted to combine
elements of modern Western civilisation with the best Indian tradition. He
emphasised the need to teach science and technology at Shantiniketan, along
with art, music and dance.
Many individuals and thinkers were thinking of a way as to how the national
educational system could be fashioned. Some wanted changes within the system
set up by the British and felt that the system could be extended to include wider
sections of people. Others urged that alternative systems be created so that
people were educated into a culture that was truly national.
Overview
In today’s modern world, girls go to school and study with boys. After growing
up, they go to colleges and universities and take up jobs after that. Before getting
legally married, they have to be adults and can marry anyone they like,
irrespective of their caste and community, and widows can remarry too. All
women can vote and stand for elections. But these rights were not enjoyed by
poor people as they had little or no access to education.
But, things were different two hundred years ago. At an early stage, most children
were married. In some parts of the country, women were forced to practice sati.
Women’s rights to property were also restricted and there was no access to
education.
According to the caste system, Brahmans and Kshatriyas were considered as
“upper castes”. Others, such as traders and moneylenders (often referred to as
Vaishyas) were placed after them. Then came peasants, and artisans such as
weavers and potters referred to as Shudras. The lowest rung were those who
laboured to keep cities and villages clean or worked under upper castes. The
upper castes considered these groups as “untouchable”.

Working Towards Change

Debates and discussions about social customs and practices took on a new
character. One important reason was the development of new forms of
communication like books, newspapers, magazines, leaflets and pamphlets. All
kinds of issues like social, political, economic and religious could be debated and
discussed by men and sometimes by women in the new cities.
Raja Rammohun Roy (1772-1833) founded the Brahmo Sabha (later known as the
Brahmo Samaj) in Calcutta. Rammohun Roy felt that changes were necessary in
society, and unjust practices needed to be done away with. He was keen to
spread the knowledge of Western education in the country and bring about
greater freedom and equality for women.

Changing the lives of widows

Rammohun Roy began a campaign against the practice of sati. He tried to show
through his writings that the practice of widow burning had no sanction in
ancient texts. In 1829, sati was banned. Later reformers adopted the strategy of
Rammohun to challenge a practice that seemed harmful and tried to find a verse
or sentence in the ancient sacred texts that supported their point of view.
Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, through ancient texts, suggested that widows could
remarry. In 1856, a law was passed permitting widow remarriage. By the second
half of the nineteenth century, the movement of widow remarriage spread to other
parts of the country. Swami Dayanand Saraswati founded the Arya Samaj, to
support widow remarriage.
Girls begin going to school
Education for girls was necessary to improve their condition. In the mid-
nineteenth century, the first schools were opened. Many feared that schools
would take girls away from home and prevent them from doing their domestic
duties. To reach schools girls had to travel through public spaces. Many people
felt that girls should stay away from public spaces. So, most educated women
were taught at home by liberal fathers or husbands.
In the latter part of the century, Arya Samaj established schools for girls in
Punjab and Jyotirao Phule established schools in Maharashtra. In aristocratic
Muslim households, women learnt to read the Koran in Arabic taught by women
who came home to teach. The first Urdu novels began to be written from the late
nineteenth century.

Women write about women

In the early twentieth century, Begums of Bhopal played a notable role in
promoting education among women. They founded a primary school for girls at
Aligarh. Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain started schools for Muslim girls in
Patna and Calcutta. Indian women started going to universities, by the 1880s
where they were trained to be doctors and some became teachers. Pandita
Ramabai wrote a book about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women.
Many Hindu nationalists felt that Hindu women were adopting Western ways and
that this would corrupt Hindu culture and erode family values. By the end of the
nineteenth century, women wrote books, edited magazines, founded schools and
training centres, and set up women’s associations. They also formed political
groups to push through laws for female suffrage (the right to vote) and better
health care and education for women. In the twentieth century, Jawaharlal Nehru
and Subhas Chandra Bose extended their support to demands for greater
equality and freedom for women.

Caste and Social Reform

The Prarthana Samaj adhered to the tradition of Bhakti that believed in spiritual
equality of all castes. The Paramhans Mandali founded in Bombay in 1840 worked
for the abolition of caste. During the course of the nineteenth century, Christian
missionaries began setting up schools for tribal groups and “lower”-caste
children.
At the same time, the poor from the villages and small towns, people from low
castes, began moving to the cities where there was a new demand for labour.
Some also went to work in plantations in Assam, Mauritius, Trinidad and
Indonesia. For the poor and the people from low castes, it was an opportunity to
get away from the oppressive hold that upper-caste landowners exercised over
their lives and the daily humiliation they suffered.

Demands for equality and justice

By the second half of the nineteenth century, Non-Brahman castes began
organising movements against caste discrimination and demanded social
equality and justice.
The Satnami movement was founded by Ghasidas, who worked as the leather
workers and organised a movement to improve their social status. In eastern
Bengal, Haridas Thakur questioned Brahmanical texts that supported the caste
system. Shri Narayana Guru proclaimed the ideals of unity for his people. He
argued against treating people unequally on the basis of caste differences.

Gulamgiri
Jyotirao Phule was born in 1827, who developed his own ideas about the
injustices of caste society. According to him, Brahmans’ were Aryans considered
as foreigners, came from outside the subcontinent, and defeated and subjugated
those who had lived here from before the coming of the Aryans. Phule said that
the upper castes had no right to their land and power.
He claimed that before Aryan rule there existed a golden age when warrior-
peasants tilled the land and ruled the Maratha countryside fairly. He proposed
that Shudras and Ati Shudras should unite to challenge caste discrimination. The
Satyashodhak Samaj, founded by Phule, propagated caste equality.
In 1873, Phule wrote a book named Gulamgiri, meaning slavery. Ten years before
this, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in America. He dedicated his
book to all those Americans who had fought to free slaves. Phule was concerned
about the plight of upper-caste women, the miseries of the labourer, and the
humiliation of the low castes.

Who could enter temples?

In 1927, Ambedkar started a temple entry movement, supported by Mahar caste.
Brahman priests were outraged when the Dalits used water from the temple tank.
Ambedkar led three such movements for temple entry between 1927 and 1935.
His aim was to make everyone see the power of caste prejudices within society.

The Non-Brahman movement

The non-Brahman movement started initiated by those non-Brahman castes that
had acquired access to education, wealth and influence. They argued that
Brahmans were heirs of Aryan invaders from the north who had conquered
southern lands from the original inhabitants of the region – the indigenous
Dravidian races.
E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker, or Periyar, joined Congress and left it when he found
out that the lower castes were made to sit at a distance from the upper castes.
Periyar founded the Self Respect Movement and argued that untouchables were
the true upholders of an original Tamil and Dravidian culture which had been
subjugated by Brahmans.
Periyar was a critic of Hindu scriptures, especially the Codes of Manu, the ancient
lawgiver, and the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana. According to him, these
texts had been used to establish the authority of Brahmans over lower castes and
the domination of men over women.
These assertions did not go unchallenged, which lead to rethinking and some
self-criticism among upper-caste nationalist leaders. But orthodox Hindu society
reacted by founding Sanatan Dharma Sabhas and the Bharat Dharma
Mahamandal in the north, and associations like the Brahman Sabha in Bengal.
The objective of these associations was to uphold caste distinctions as a
cornerstone of Hinduism, and show how this was sanctified by scriptures.
The Emergence of Nationalism
India was the people of India irrespective of class, colour, caste, creed, language,
or gender. Even its resources and systems were meant for all of them. But, the
British were exercising control over the resources of India and the lives of its
people. This consciousness began to be clearly stated by the political
associations formed after 1850, especially those that came into being in the 1870s
and 1880s. The more important ones were the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, the Indian
Association, the Madras Mahajan Sabha, the Bombay Presidency Association,
and the Indian National Congress.
These associations functioned in specific parts of the country and their goals
were stated as the goals of all the people of India. They believed that the Indian
people should be empowered to take decisions regarding their affairs.
In 1878, the Arms Act was passed, which disallowed Indians from possessing
arms. During the same year, the Vernacular Press Act was enacted in an effort to
silence those who were critical of the government. Under this Act, the
government was allowed to confiscate the assets of newspapers including their
printing presses if anything that was published was found “objectionable”. In
1883, the Ilbert Bill was introduced which provided for the trial of British or
European persons by Indians and sought equality between British and Indian
judges in the country.
The Indian National Congress was established in December 1885. The early
leaders were Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, Badruddin Tyabji, W.C.
Bonnerji, Surendranath Banerji, Romesh Chandra Dutt, S. Subramania Iyer,
among others largely belonged to Bombay and Calcutta.

A nation in the making

In the first twenty years, Congress demanded Indians in the government and in
administration. It wanted the Legislative Council to be more representative, more
powerful and introduced in provinces where none existed. It demanded Indians to
be placed in high positions in the government. The demand for Indianisation of
the administration was against racism since most important jobs were
monopolised by white officials. Indianisation would reduce the drain of wealth to
England. Other demands included the separation of the judiciary from the
executive, the repeal of the Arms Act and the freedom of speech and expression.
The Congress raised a number of economic issues. The British rule led to poverty
and famines. They demanded reduction of revenue, cut in military expenditure,
and more funds for irrigation. The Congress also passed many resolutions on the
salt tax, treatment of Indian labourers abroad, and the sufferings of forest
dwellers.
The Moderate leaders published newspapers, wrote articles, and showed how
British rule was leading to the economic ruin of the country. They felt that the
British had respect for the ideals of freedom and justice, and so they would
accept the demands of Indians.
“Freedom is our birthright”
Many Indians raised questions against the political style of the Congress. In
Bengal, Maharashtra and Punjab, leaders such as Bepin Chandra Pal, Bal
Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai criticised the Moderates for their politics of
prayers and emphasised the importance of self-reliance and constructive work.
Bengal got partitioned in 1905 which was the biggest province of British India.
The British divided Bengal for reasons of administrative convenience. The British
instead of removing the non-Bengali areas from the province, separated East
Bengal and merged it with Assam.
The Moderates and the Radicals opposed the partition of Bengal. The mast
protest and large public meetings led to the Swadeshi movement, strongest in
Bengal and in deltaic Andhra, it was known as the Vandemataram Movement.
The Swadeshi movement opposed British rule and encouraged the ideas of self-
help, swadeshi enterprise, national education, and use of Indian languages. Some
individuals suggested that revolutionary violence would be necessary to
overthrow British rule.
All India Muslim League was founded by a group of Muslim landlords and nawabs
at Dacca in 1906. It supported the partition of Bengal. The League desired
separate electorates for Muslims, a demand conceded by the government in 1909.
The Congress split in 1907. After the split, the Congress came to be dominated by
the Moderates with Tilak’s followers functioning from outside. The two groups
reunited in December 1915. The Congress and the Muslim League signed the
Lucknow Pact and decided to work together for representative government in the
country.

The Growth of Mass Nationalism

After 1919 the struggle against British rule gradually became a mass movement,
involving peasants, tribals, students and women in large numbers and
occasionally factory workers as well.
After the First World War India’s economic and political situation got altered,
which led to a huge rise in the defence expenditure of the Government of India.
Taxes on individual incomes and business profits were increased. During the
war, Indian industries expanded and Indian business groups began to demand
greater opportunities for development. The war also demanded expansion of the
British army. In 1917 there was a revolution in Russia.

The advent of Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi emerged as a mass leader. He arrived in India in 1915 from
South Africa. Gandhi led Indians in non-violent marches against racist
restrictions. His South African campaigns had brought him in contact with
various types of Indians. He spent his first year travelling throughout the country,
understanding the people, their needs and the overall situation.

The Rowlatt Satyagraha

In 1919 Gandhiji called for satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act. The Act curbed
fundamental rights such as the freedom of expression and strengthened police
powers. Gandhiji and people of India observed 6 April 1919 as a day of non-
violent opposition to this Act. Satyagraha Sabhas were set up to launch the
movement.
In April 1919 there were a number of demonstrations and hartals in the country
and the government used brutal measures to suppress them. The Jallianwala
Bagh atrocities, inflicted by General Dyer in Amritsar on Baisakhi day (13 April),
were a part of this repression.
During the Rowlatt Satyagraha, the participants ensured that Hindus and Muslims
were united against British rule. Mahatma Gandhi saw India as a land of all the
people who lived in the country – Hindus, Muslims and those of other religions.

Khilafat agitation and the Non-Cooperation Movement

In 1920 the British imposed a harsh treaty on the Turkish Sultan or Khalifa. The
leaders of the Khilafat agitation, Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali initiated a full-
fledged Non-Cooperation Movement. Gandhiji supported their movement and
urged the Congress to campaign against Jallianwala massacre, the Khilafat
wrong and demanded swaraj.
The Non-Cooperation Movement gained momentum through 1921-22.C. British
titles were surrendered and boycotted the legislature. The imports of foreign
cloth fell drastically between 1920 and 1922. Large parts of the country were on
the brink of a formidable revolt.

People’s initiatives
Some people resisted British rule non-violently. People from different classes and
groups interpreted Gandhiji’s call in their own manner, protested in ways that
were not in accordance with his ideas. In some cases, people linked their
movements to local grievances.
In Kheda, Gujarat, Patidar peasants organised nonviolent campaigns against the
high land revenue demand of the British. In coastal Andhra and interior Tamil
Nadu, liquor shops were picketed. In the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh,
tribals and poor peasants staged a number of “forest satyagrahas”, sometimes
sending their cattle into forests without paying grazing fee.
In Sind, Muslim traders and peasants were very enthusiastic about the Khilafat
call. In Bengal, the Khilafat-Non-Cooperation alliance gave enormous communal
unity and strength to the national movement. In Punjab, the Akali agitation of the
Sikhs sought to remove corrupt mahants from their gurdwaras.
The people’s Mahatma
Gandhiji believed in building class unity, not class conflict. Peasants believed
that Gandhi would help them in their fight against zamindars, and agricultural
labourers believed he would provide them land. At the end of a powerful
movement, peasants of Pratapgarh in the United Provinces managed to stop
illegal eviction of tenants; but they felt it was Gandhiji who had won this demand
for them.

The happenings of 1922-1929

Mahatma Gandhi called off the Non-Cooperation Movement. When the Non-
Cooperation movement was over, Gandhi’s followers stressed that Congress
must undertake constructive work in rural areas. Other leaders argued that the
party should fight elections to the councils. In 1930, the Civil Disobedience
movement was launched. Two important developments of the mid-1920s were the
formation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu organisation, and
the Communist Party of India. By the end of the decade, the Congress resolved to
fight for Purna Swaraj in 1929 under the presidentship of Jawaharlal Nehru.
Consequently, “Independence Day ” was observed on 26 January 1930 all over
the country.

The March to Dandi

In 1930, Gandhiji marched to break the salt law. According to this law, the state
had a monopoly on the manufacture and sale of salt. The Salt March related the
general desire of freedom to a specific grievance shared by everybody and thus,
did not divide the rich and the poor. Gandhiji and his followers marched for over
240 miles from Sabarmati to the coastal town of Dandi where they broke the
government law by gathering natural salt found on the seashore, and boiling
seawater to produce salt.
Peasants, tribals and women participated in large numbers. The Government of
India Act of 1935 prescribed provincial autonomy and the government announced
elections to the provincial legislatures in 1937. In September 1939, the Second
World War broke out. Congress leaders were ready to support the British war
effort, but in return they demanded independence. The British refused to concede
the demand and the Congress ministries resigned in protest.

Quit India and Later

Mahatma Gandhi initiated a new phase of movement against the British. He
wanted the British to quit India immediately. To the people, he said, “do or die” in
your effort to fight the British, but non-violently. The movement attracted
peasants and the youth who gave up their studies to join it. In many areas, people
set up their own governments. The first response of the British was severe
repression. The rebellion ultimately brought the Raj to its knees.
Towards Independence and Partition
In 1940 the Muslim League demanded “Independent States” for Muslims. From
the late 1930s, the League began viewing the Muslims as a separate “nation”
from the Hindus. The provincial elections of 1937 convinced the League that
Muslims were a minority, and they would always have to play second fiddle in any
democratic structure. The Congress’s rejection of the League’s desire to form a
joint Congress League government in the United Provinces in 1937 also annoyed
the League.
At the end of the war in 1945, the British opened negotiations between the
Congress, the League and themselves for the independence of India. In 1946,
elections to the provinces were held again. The League demanded for Pakistan. In
March 1946 the British cabinet sent a three-member mission to Delhi to examine
and to suggest a suitable political framework for a free India. This mission
suggested that India should remain united and constitute itself as a loose
confederation with some autonomy for Muslim-majority areas.
After the failure of the Cabinet Mission, the Muslim League decided on mass
agitation for winning its Pakistan demand. It was announced 16 August 1946 as
“Direct Action Day”. By March 1947 violence spread to different parts of northern
India. Partition meant that India changed, many of its cities changed, and a new
country Pakistan was born.
A New and Divided Nation
In August 1947, India became independent. Due to Partition, 8 million refugees
had come into the country from what was now Pakistan. The problem of the
princely states was that each was ruled by a maharaja or a nawab, each of whom
had to be persuaded to join the new nation.
In 1947, India’s population was huge, and divided between high castes and low
castes, between the majority Hindu community and Indians who practised other
faiths. The citizens of India spoke different languages, wore different kinds of
dresses, ate different kinds of food and practised different professions.
At Independence, the majority of Indians lived in the villages. Farmers and
peasants depended on the monsoon for their survival and the non-farm sector of
the rural economy. In the cities, factory workers lived in crowded slums with little
access to education or health care.
Unity and development should go hand in hand. Divisions between different
sections of India should be healed so that it doesn’t turn into violent and costly
conflicts. The fruits of economic development should reach the broad masses of
the population, to avoid fresh divisions.

A Constitution is Written
Between December 1946 and November 1949, some three hundred Indians had a
series of meetings on the country’s political future. These “Constituent
Assembly” meetings were held in New Delhi. These discussions resulted in the
framing of the Indian Constitution, which came into effect on 26 January 1950.
One feature of the Constitution was its adoption of universal adult franchise. All
Indians above the age of 21 would be allowed to vote in state and national
elections. On the other hand, soon after Independence, India chose to grant this
right to all its citizens regardless of gender, class or education. The second
feature of the Constitution guaranteed equality before the law to all citizens,
regardless of their caste or religious affiliation.
India also had large populations of Sikhs, Christians, Parsis and Jains. Under the
new Constitution, they would have the same rights as Hindus the same
opportunities when it came to seeking jobs in government or the private sector,
the same rights before the law.
The third feature of the Constitution offered special privileges for the poorest and
most disadvantaged Indians.
The Constituent Assembly spent many days discussing the powers of the central
government versus those of the state governments. The Constitution balanced
these competing claims by providing three lists of subjects: a Union List, with
subjects such as taxes, defence and foreign affairs, which would be the exclusive
responsibility of the Centre; a State List of subjects, such as education and
health, which would be taken care of principally by the states; a Concurrent List,
under which would come subjects such as forests and agriculture, in which the
Centre and the states would have joint responsibility.
Another major debate concerned language. Many members believed that the
English language should leave India and its place should be taken by Hindi.
Finally, a compromise arrived that Hindi would be the “official language” of India,
English would be used in the courts, the services, and communications between
one state and another.
The Constitution of India was framed by Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Chairman of the
Drafting Committee. In his final speech, Dr Ambedkar pointed out that political
democracy had to be accompanied by economic and social democracy. With the
new Constitution, India was going to enter into a life of contradictions.

How were States to be Formed?

Back in the 1920s, the Indian National Congress promised that after
independence, each major linguistic group would have its own province. India
had been divided on the basis of religion. Prime Minister Nehru and Deputy Prime
Minister Vallabhbhai Patel were against the creation of linguistic states.
The Kannada speakers, Malayalam speakers, the Marathi speakers, demanded
their own state. The strongest protests came from the Telugu-speaking districts
of what was the Madras Presidency. Potti Sriramulu went on a hunger strike
demanding the formation of Andhra state to protect the interests of Telugu
speakers.
On 15 December 1952, Potti Sriramulu died. On 1 October 1953, the new state of
Andhra came into being, which subsequently became Andhra Pradesh. A States
Reorganisation Commission was set up, which submitted its report in 1956,
recommending the redrawing of the district and provincial boundaries to form
compact provinces of Assamese, Bengali, Oriya, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and
Telugu speakers respectively. The large Hindi-speaking region was broken up
into several states. In 1960, Bombay was divided into separate states for Marathi
and Gujarati speakers. In 1966, the state of Punjab was divided into Punjab and
Haryana.

Planning for Development

In 1950, the government set up a Planning Commission to design and execute
suitable policies for economic development. Mixed economy model means the
State and the private sector would play important and complementary roles in
increasing production and generating jobs. The Planning Commission work is to
define which industries should be initiated by the state and which by the market,
how to achieve a balance between the different regions and states.
In 1956, the Second Five Year Plan was formulated, which focused strongly on
the development of heavy industries such as steel, and on the building of large
dams. These sectors would be under the control of the State. Some people
criticized this approach stating that it had put inadequate emphasis on
agriculture. Others argued that it had neglected primary education.

The Nation, Sixty Years On

On 15 August 2007, India celebrated sixty years of its existence as a free nation.
India is still united, and democratic. Many foreign observers thought that India
could not survive as a single country, and would break up into many parts, with
each region or linguistic group seeking to form a nation of its own. Some
believed that it would come under military rule.
Despite constitutional guarantees, the Dalits still face violence and discrimination
in many parts of rural India. And despite the secular ideals enshrined in the
Constitution, there have been clashes between different religious groups in many
states.
Over the years, the gulf between the rich and the poor has grown. Some parts of
India and some groups of Indians have benefited a great deal from economic
development. At the same time, many others continue to live below the poverty
line.
The Constitution recognises equality before the law, but in real life, some Indians
are more equal than others. Judging by the standards it set itself at
Independence, the Republic of India has not been a great success. But it has not
been a failure either.