Introduction
Portrait of an East India Company Official by Dip Chand
Throughout history the sub-continent of India has been made up of lots of different kingdoms with strong provincial identities coexisting together.
British interest in India started through the East India Company in the 17th Century, who went there to trade in spices, cotton, silk and indigo dye. At this time central and northern India was ruled by the Mughal Empire, but the Mughal’s had been weakened by a series of wars and their power was in decline. By 1750, the East India Company took advantage of the declining Mughal Empire and began to get involved in ruling India’s richest province, Bengal. The Company continued to trade and even raised its own army.
In 1857 there was an uprising against the East India Company which led to its abolition and the introduction of British Crown Rule, known as the Raj, from 1858. The Raj encompassed approximately three-fifths of India and, in spite of this, saw India as one place. They entered into diplomatic treaties with principalities of mutual cooperation across the remaining two-fifths of the continent. This meant that the princely rulers were in name only and the British controlled the politics.
DID YOU KNOW...?
Colonialism is the policy of one nation extending its power over another. The Raj, in Hindi meaning ‘to rule’ or ‘kingdom’, was the colonial rule by the British Crown over the Indian subcontinent from 1858 to 1947. During the Raj, around 20,000 British officials and troops ruled over 300 million Indians. Big landowners, Indian princes and the Indian middle classes gained in terms of job and business opportunities but ordinary Indians gained very little and suffered from multiple devastating famines.
A major famine during the 1870s and the introduction of the Raj created a general feeling of frustration amongst upper Indian society who began to push for more power. This led to the creation of the Indian National Congress, a secular political party made up of Indians, in 1885. This marked the beginning of the journey to independence from Britain and the partition of India.