British Raj

by
Akshay Seenivasan
The Raj was the period of rule by the British over india. It was a very tough time for the
indians because they were being ruled by the british. They established a monarchy from the
British empire. The British Raj was a very depressing and stressing time for the Indians. It
began with the fall of the Mughal Empire, the middle was the British torturing the Indians,
and it sadly ended with India splitting into two countries.
In 1581, The Mughal Empire was founded by Babur when he defeated a colonel named
Ibrahim Lodi, the last sultan of [Link] then established a kingdom where he conquered
many vast kingdoms and established an empire. He named the Mughal Empire. The Mughal
empire covered almost all of northern India and parts of South India. It also covered all of
present day pakistan and most of Afghanistan. It was the second largest empire in Asia, the
first being the mongol empire formed by Genghis [Link] around the 1700's, the Mughal
Empire was at it's peak. The economy was very good and the people excelled. At around this
time, emperor Akbar was in power. He was the greatest Mughal empire. The Mughals
excelled in art, architecture, and crafts. One of the most famous examples is the Taj Mahal,
found in agra in North [Link] building was built by Shah Jahan. He was so sad because of
his wife's death that he built a magnificent tomb for her. It is made of marble and is the most
visited place in india. It was built in 1587.

In 1615, a British official named General Thomas Roe Visited the Mughal Emperor
Jahangir to ask for ask for a treaty that the british could own land and build factories, and in
return, Jahangir would receive riches. At first, Jahangir refused because he and his people
were already very rich and they had all that he needed, so he saw no point in trading with
Britain. However, the Indians were having trouble with the Portuguese already, and the
British said that they would get rid of them. The General was personally sent by the Queen of
England at that time, Queen Victoria. The goal of the Mission was to win the trust of the
Mughal emperor, and to establish trade with India. They would trade weapons for the
valuable spices from India. The spices were very valuable in Great Britain because They were
rare in many places of the world, and Britain did not have the climate to grow the spices.
Britain set up trading posts on the edge of all the coastlines.

The British then established trading posts. The three major ones were in Surat
(1619),Madras (1621) and Calcutta (1624.) The Company had 23 factories, and 90
employees. Some of the posts became forts Fort Williams in Bengal, Fort St George in
Madras and Bombay castle. In 1634, Jahangir allowed the british to trade in parts of Bengal.
The main trading goods were cotton, silk, Indigo dye and tea. Since the company was
becoming very powerful, the Parliament gave them the power to mint money, command
fortresses and armies, and to make war and peace. The salary of the company's workers
allowed them to go back to England and establish new estates. Then, King James allowed any
group to trade with India. Then, there was another parallel East India Company that was
called the Company trading to the east indies. However, the original East India Company
was much more powerful and more popular, so only they could trade. During the Industrial
revolution, Britain became the most powerful nation in Europe because Indian goods were in
high demand and the East India Company wast the only Company giving the goods to britain
East India company started getting involved with the Indian rulers by offering them support
against invasion in exchange for trade. Sometimes, they also went to war with the local rulers
and claimed more land. In 1717, the Mugal Emperor issued a Firman or royal order by which
the British did not have to pay custom duties in [Link] local rulers did not like this. The
famous Battle of Plassey was fought in 1757 between the British and the Nawab of Bengal,
Siraj Ud Daulah, which the British won. This helped them transform from a trading company
to a ruling company.
The problem was that the East India company had no experience in governing. They
plundered the regions they controlled. In 1769-1770, a famine occurred in Bengal, which
killed almost one third of its population. The east India Company lost a lot of money and
asked Britain for help.
England helped by passing the Tea Act which allowed the East India Company to sell
tea in America without paying taxes. This lead to the Boston Tea Party in America, where
tea was poured into the ocean as a protest because the traders in America had to pay taxes. To
better control India, the British parliament started passing laws by which England took greater
control over India. India was placed under the rule of a Governor General. This law is called
the Regulating Act of 1773. The first governor General was Warren Hastings. The British
tried expanding their kingdom under Hastings.
The British set their sights on the Mughal Empire next which was ruled by Shah Alam II.
The battle of Buxar was fought between the two, which the British won. Shah Alam gave up
the ruling rights of Bengal, Biar and orissa. Because of this , Robert Clive became the first
Governor of Bengal. The British had a hard time in South India, fighting Haider Ali and then
later on his son Tipu Sultan. They fought four wars to control Mysore and finally the British
captured it in 1799, by killing Tipu Sultan. The Marathas were a powerful force in

Maharashtra. The British fought three wars against the famous leader Shivaji and his
successors The British won again and took over Bombay and the Maratha empire. By now,
the British were controlling all of India, except for a few northern provinces.
This led to new British settlements in these regions. At this time, the company's goals were
to levy taxes and to pacify the villagers and farmers so that they paid their taxes regularly. All
the land taxes were collected by the British and sent to the local British Governor and was
used to pay for the East India Company's expenses. The Indians had signed a settlement that
they would pay a certain amount of money every year. At first the British thought that this
was a good deal because they were basically getting free money but they quickly realized that
the money was not enough to maintain the army. The permanent settlement problem was
steadily growing. In the early 1820's, the governor Sir Thomas Monroe, changed the system
so that the Indians paid taxes based on what they earned. The British used the same system of
tax collection in Gujarat, Maratha and Punjab.
To reduce the military capability of the Rajas and Princes, the British honored some kings
and fought with the others. This tactic, known as Divide and Conquer' was widely used by
the British to keep the Indian Rulers from uniting to fight against them. In 1803 urban
property values tripled. Interest rates fell sharply. The British imposed heavier taxation on
the Indians.
Lord Benedict became governor general in 1828. He improved the finances of East India
company from a deficit of, 1.5 million to a surplus of 500,000 He wiped out the Thangi
Gang, which was a gang of outlaws in North India He also abolished sati a practice where
the widows threw themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands. In 1833, the Charter Act
was passed which abolished all of East India Company's commercial functions, opening trade
for other companies. It also ended the company's existence as a commercial body.
Lord Dalhousie was appointed as Governor General in 1848, He passed in a law called
Doctrine of Lapse according to which if a king who had no heir to the throne died, the
kingdom became a property of Great Britain. It was during his time, that the telegraph system
was established, engineering colleges were opened and railroads were completed. A major
irrigation system, the Ganges canal was designed and completed during his time. The Ganges
canal was 350 miles long and was beneficial to India which was mainly an agricultural land.
Historical monuments were persevered under his rule. In spite of helping India in several
ways, he was not well liked because of his doctrine of Lapse and his disregard for the Indian
rulers. He was blamed by the British for the Sepoy mutiny which broke out in 1857, a year
after Dalhousie left India.

The Sepoy Mutiny began as a revolt of soldiers(sepoys) on May10th, 1857, in the town of
Meerut and soon spread into other places in the central India. Just before the rebellion, there

were about 20,000 indians in the British army. The army was given the Lee Enfield rifles
whose cartridges had to be bit before inserting. Rumor was that the cartridges were covered
with Beef and Lard. This was unacceptable to both the Hindus and Muslims. On 29th March,
a sepoy named Mangal Pandey fired at an officer protesting the use of cartridges. He was
tried and hanged on April 8th. All the soldiers who refused to use the cartridges were thrown
into prison.
The news spread throughout India and many people who were not involved with the army
started getting involved. There was an army uprising where British officers were killed. On
12th May, Delhi was seized by the sepoys who installed the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah
Zafar as the ruler of India. But the British fought back and on 20th September, the Shah was
captured by British General Hudson. He was exiled to Burma which brought an end to the
Mughal empire. The main areas affected by the mutiny were Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow and
Jhansi. In Jhansi, Rani Laxmibai, widow of the Raja of Jhansi, fought against the British.
The British captured Jhansi, but the Rani escaped and tried to get other kings to rebel against
the British. During the war, the Rani died fighting bravely. She is the most famous Rani in
India.
Though the sepoy mutiny failed, it is considered to be the first freedom fight of India.
Thousands of indian soldiers were killed. Due to this, British East India company lost the
rights to rule India. India was formally added to the the British Empire and came under the
direct rule of the queen. A secretary of state was put in charge of India. Three administrative
zones were introduced Bengal, Delhi and Madras. In 1861, Indian Councils act, Penal code
and High courts act were passed. Railways and telegraphs were expanded further. In the
period of 1861 to 1874, there were five severe famines in India which killed millions of
people. The British mismanaged the situation which made the situation worse. During the
famines, India was forced to produce crops to be sold by the British. Indians had to buy
goods from Britain at the cost of local cottage industries.
In 1877, Queen Victoria was proclaimed the empress of India at an assembly of prices and
nobles in Delhi. She never visited India. In 1878, The Vernacular Press Act was passed. This
limited the freedom of the press. This means that what could be written in newspapers was
determined by the British. People were jailed for writing anything which the British
considered offensive. Later that year the British returned Mysore to its original rulers, the
Wodeyars. Indians were suffering from unemployment and high taxes, while the well paying
jobs were reserved for the British. Racial discrimination angered the Indians and had to
organize to get their demands accepted.
Allen Octavian Hume was a British national working in British India. He did not like
unjust practices of the British against the Indians and he frequently criticized the government.
In 1879, he was dismissed from his position. In 1883, he wrote asked the students of Calcutta
university to form a national political movement. It was due to his efforts that the Indian

National Congress was born and he is credited as the founder. and the first meeting was in
1885. [Link] became the first president. The congress met once every year in different
parts of the country. In the beginning, congress used Petition, Prayer and Protest to the
British empire to change their attitude.
Gokhale was the president of Congress in 1905. He was a very moderate leader. The same
year, British split Bengal into Hindu and Muslim areas, following their policy of Divide and
Rule. By doing this, they hoped to raise the tension between the Hindus and Muslims,
weaken the Indian National Congress which was getting more popular and divert the attention
from protesting the British. Large scale protests were carried out in various parts of the
country. It was during this time that leaders like Gopal Krisha Gokhale, Bipin Chandra Pal,
Chidambaram Pillay became famous and well known for their freedom movement. In 1912,
he went to South Africa to help Gandhi fight against racism. He persuaded Gandhi to return
to India and take part in the freedom struggle.
Lokamanya Tilak's Swaraj(Self rule) is my birthright and I shall have it became a
national slogan. Freedom movement started taking roots and Swaraj and Swadeshi(Our
country) were on all Indian's mind. Indians were advised to boycott English goods and buy
only Indian. Tilak was imprisoned for six years since he demanded freedom and not
concessions from the British. But the partition did what the British wanted. Muslims and
Hindus started mistrusting each other. The Muslims formed their own party The Muslim
League to represent the Muslims in India because they thought they will not be represented
well by the Congress. The Indian people were angry by the partition and they started
agitating against the British. The famous poet Rabindranath Tagore supported this and Bakim
Chandra Chatterjees Bande Mataram which means I will bow to my mother(India)
became a sacred slogan. At the same time, several revolutionary groups were formed.
The Chief Presidency Magistrate Kingsford in Bihar was well known for giving tough
sentences against freedom fighters. On April 30th, 1908 two people(Khudiram Bose and
Prafulla Chaki) tried to kill Kingsford. Kingsford escaped but Khudiram was caught. Chaki
shot himself. Khudiram was 18 at that time, but was hanged for attempted murder. This act
further angered the Indians. The British moved the capital from Calcutta to Delhi in 1912. A
procession was taken out in Delhi with Lord Hardinge seated on a decorated elephant to
celebrate the capital move. An attempt was made to kill Lord Hardinge but the elephant
keeper was killed instead. About 11 people including a school teacher were held responsible.
Eveyone except two of the 11 were executed. These executions made the Indians even more
determined to have their freedom.
In 1914, World war one erupted. The British sent Indian army to fight in Europe. The
Indian army was also used in other British operations in countries like Palestine, East and
West Africa. The same year, Tilak was released after serving his 6 years in prison. He,
along with [Link] Besant and Subramaniya Iyer took part in the Freedom struggle.

[Link] Besant was a British National who settled in India. She was the editor of a
newspaper called New India. She published several articles attacking the British role in
India.
In the year 1915, M.K. Gandhi came to India from South Africa. Gandhi was born on
october 2nd, 1869 in Gujarat. He went to Cambridge to study law and become a barrister. He
took up work as a lawyer in South Africa. He stayed there for almost 20 years. He
represented the Indians in South Africa who were also ruled by the British. When he landed
in India, Gandhi was relatively unknown. Ghokale was his mentor and he advised Gandhi to
get to know India by traveling all over India. For the first year, he travelled a lot to get
familiar with India. Gandhi helped people in their struggles in the early stages. One
example is on one of the Indigo plantations in Bihar where the working conditions were bad.
In Ahmedabad, he helped workers settle a dispute between the workers and the management.
This earned Gandhi a good reputation and was known as a person to help oppressed people.
The British Government had promised several concessions to the Indians if they
participated in world war. In 1919, Government of India act was introduced. According to
this act, a small percent of Indians were allowed to vote and some Indians would be selected
to work in the British Government. But the British would still control them.
The same year, the Rowlatt acts was passed in India which took away many rights of the
Indians, including the right of trial by jury, the freedom of speech and arrest without warrant.
Gandhi led peaceful protests against this act by a Hartal by which the people stopped
doing business and fasted. But other parts of India experienced violence and riots so the
Hartal was suspended. The leaders of the Indian Congress were arrested. On 13th April,
1919, a public meeting was held in Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. The meeting place was
surrounded by walls and it was a peaceful meeting, attended by men, women and children.
General Dyer entered the park with his troops and closed the gates without giving any
warning to the people gathered inside. He wanted to teach the Indians a lesson, so he ordered
his army to open fire on the crowd. The firing lasted for 10 minutes at the end of which, more
than 2000 people were killed. A curfew was declared so the wounded could not be moved
from their place. People who protested the shooting were shot at resulting in 12 deaths.
General Dyer was pardoned after facing an enquiry and sent to England. This infuriated the
indians and made them join the freedom movement.
Gandhi started the non cooperation movement in 1921. It was based of refusing to pay
taxes, return the honors given by the British and stop studying in British Universities. The
condition which Gandhi laid down was that it should be peaceful. There were to be no
violence. It was during this period that several prominent leaders emerged. Jawaharlal Nehru,
Subhash Chandra Bose and Vallabhai Patel are a few. Nehru became a follower of Gandhi

and his principles.

Nehru was from a very wealthy family. He studied in England to be a lawyer. He did not
get into the freedom movement till 1917. It was when [Link] Besant was sent to prison he
became active in the movement. In 1919, after the Amritsar massacre, he joined Gandhi's
movement and became very close to him. He looked upon Gandhi as his mentor. He was
impressed by Gandhi's Satyagraha and Ahimsa or Non violence. In 1921, he took part in the
civil disobedience campaign and was arrested.
In February 1922, a riot broke out in a small province where several Indian policemen
were killed. This was against the nonviolence principle preached by Gandhi. Gandhi was
very disappointed and called off the movement. After this incident, Gandhi was arrested for
sedition and was sentenced to 6 years in prison. He was released in half that time due to
health issues. One of Gandhi's goals was Hindu Muslim unity. In 1924,
a Hindu-Muslim riot broke out, he was upset and fasted for 21 days. This had an effect of
calming the people who rioted. Gandhi also took on social causes of untouchability and talked
about it.
In 1928, a commission was created by the British to study the political situation in India.
It was called the Simon commission. The Indians boycotted it because there were no Indians
in the commission. Lala Lajpat Rai, one of the famous freedom fighters was killed when he
was protesting this in a nonviolent way. Bhagat Singh, another freedom fighter who
witnessed this, was enraged and he gave up his non violent ways and resorted to violent ways.
He was captured and sentenced to death in 1929.
The British passed the Salt Laws by which the salt was taxed and it was illegal to own salt
that was not produced by the government. In 1930, Gandhi wrote to the viceroy that he
would break the salt laws. On March 12, Gandhi set off on a march towards Dandi from
Sabarmati. in what is known as the Dandi March with his supporters. The people in the
cities he passed through were inspired by his act. He reached on April 5th where Gandhi
picked up a handful of salt . Gandhi and was arrested for this act. Thousands of people
across India who made salt on that day, as Gandhi wanted them to were also arrested. This
incident focussed world's attention on India. This was the beginning of civil disobedience
where the people were asked not to obey bad laws. People started disobeying the British
wherever they could. They refused to pay taxes which was very high at 22% to 60%. The
Civil Disobedience movement became very popular.
The situation was becoming bad for the British so they invited Gandhi to a round table
conference in England to talk about Indian Independence in the year 1931. During the
conference, British talked about Indian Princes instead of transferring power to the Indians.
Gandhi was very disappointed. The new Viceroy of India, Lord Willingdon adopted different

method to control the Indians. He arrested Gandhi and kept him in isolation so that the
freedom movement will die. But it did not work.
Indian Congress wanted to contest elections and share power with the British. Gandhi did
not agree with this idea. He wanted complete freedom from the British. He quit congress and
settled in a remote village in central India in a place called Sabarathi Ashram, at the same
time traveling throughout India and giving speeches. In 1936, when Nehru became the
president of Congress, Gandhi returned to being active in the freedom movement. During this
time, he and another famous leader Subhash Chandra Bose had some difference of opinion.
Bose did not believe in nonviolence and wanted to start a war with the British. Bose is a
famous freedom fighter who travelled to Japan to organize an army and went missing on his
way back to India. The mystery of his disappearance has never been solved.
When the world war II broke out in 1939, Gandhi assumed a neutral position which many
of the leaders did not like and wanted India to use this moment to get Indian Independence.
They thought that it was wrong of the British to include India in the war without asking for
the opinion of the Indians. Gandhi thought about this and came to the conclusion that it was
wrong to support a war which was fought for freedom, when India was not free.
In 1942, Gandhi started the Quit India movement. He gave a strong speech asking the
British to Quit India and told the people to lay down their lives if necessary for the sake of
freedom but not to indulge in violence. Thousands of people were killed and put in jail by the
British when people participated in the Quit India movement. The British put Gandhi in jail
along with other congress leaders till the end of world war 2. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the
president of the Muslim league and he opposed the Quit India Movement. In the years 19421945, the Muslim League became more powerful and asked for a separate country for the
muslims and their demand was encouraged by the British.
Riots between the two groups broke out because the Indians wanted one country and
Gandhi walked to rioted villages and told the people not to fight against themselves. He was
so strong that the last viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten called him a one man boundary
force between Hindus and Muslims. His talk and actions were so effective, that the riots
totally stopped and even his critics praised him. The talks of freedom were going on but the
condition was that the country has to be divided into two. Thus came the partitioning of India
into India and Pakistan. India got its freedom from the British on 15th August, 1947. Gandhi
is called the father of the nation for all the hard work and sacrifices he made for his country.
In conclusion, The raj was a very sad time for the Indians. The British were ruling India in
a very strict way. It began with the fall of the mughal empire, and ended with the partition of
India. Many people fought for Independence. Gandhi once quoted, In this world there are
tyrants and murderers and thieves and for a time they may seem invincible, but in the end,

they always fall. Think of it. Always.