British colonialism in India

• From 1757, Britain increased its control of India through the East India Company.
• From 1858 onwards, the British government directly ruled India, and it became known as the British Raj.
• The British Raj had a significant impact on people living in India. Many Indians suffered from extreme poverty and famines during British rule.
• The British government and British individuals gained a lot of wealth from trade with India, which they used in part to fund the Industrial Revolution.

Learn more about some of the key events in the history of the British Empire with this activity.

In 1600, Queen Elizabeth I approved the creation of the East India Company, a powerful private trading company. The East India Company was started by merchants who wanted to trade in Asia to get spices, cotton and indigo dye and then sell them in England for profit.

At first, they sailed to the East Indies, which are now modern-day Indonesia and the Philippines, and tried to compete with the Dutch, French and Portuguese merchants who were already there. They failed to compete and The East India Company turned their attention to southern India.

In 1639, a company representative purchased land in southern India. The East India Company built Fort St George on this land, which has since become part of the city of Chennai, now home to over 11 million people.

Initially English traders were welcomed by the Mughal rulers. Both sides realised that there would be benefits for each of them if they traded with each other. In exchange for trading rights the English brought European products to India. Throughout the 1600s English trade in India expanded and English traders built many trading posts and factories across India. However, by the end of the century relations with the Mughal rulers had worsened.

When further English requests for trading privileges were turned down, the East India Company blockaded ports and fought battles against the Mughal army. This conflict became known as the Anglo-Mughal War, and it lasted from 1686 to 1690.

The English lost when the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb, defeated the English merchants. He did not think the merchants were a serious threat and was satisfied with the English apologising and paying a fine.

Aurangzeb was much more worried about fighting off the Maratha Empire and so did not impose any harsher punishments on the English.

By the 1750s the British and French trading companies were the largest in India, and both wanted to control trade. In 1756 Siraj ud-Daulah became the Nawab of Bengal. He grew frustrated with the British presence in Bengal and the British East India Company grew frustrated because they thought he preferred working with the French.

In 1757, ud-Daulah captured Fort William, a British fort in Kolkata, after the British refused to stop extending the fort. The British, led by Robert Clive, planned to take back the fort, and the two sides met at Plassey. Ud-Daulah’s army outnumbered the British army, and some French soldiers joined ud-Daulah. However, the head of the Bengali army, Mir Jafar, had secretly made a deal with the British, agreeing to switch sides in exchange for being made the new Nawab of Bengal after ud-Daulah was overthrown. Jafar promised to work in support of British interests, and the British planned to use him as a puppet ruler.

The consequences of the Battle of Plassey

Ud-Daulah lost the Battle of Plassey and Mir Jafar was installed as the Nawab of Bengal. This victory is considered by many historians to be the beginning of British control of India. However, Britain did not directly rule India at this point, because the East India Company was still the controlling power rather than the British government.

1757 was a turning point for the East India Company for three main reasons:

• The Battle of Plassey was fought and Siraj ud-Daulah, who preferred the French to the British, was defeated.
• Competition from the French East India Company was removed.
• The East India Company established a puppet ruler in Bengal, Mir Jafar, to allow them to control India.

In the 1700s much of India was divided into individual principalities and different empires. Following the British victory at the Battle of Plassey, some Indian princes were removed from their positions of power by the East India Company’s private army. This army was largely made up of Indian soldiers called sepoys.

However, other Indian princes kept their positions if they promised to support the East India Company and favour British interests.

Some ordinary Indians turned British control to their financial advantage, such as shipbuilder Jamsetjee Bomanjee Wadia. He became wealthy by building ships for the British East India Company.

However, for many Indians, life under the control of the East India Company meant poverty and violence from British merchants. Indian workers were forced to sell their goods to the British at very low prices and were then made to buy British products at much higher prices.

High levels of poverty and high taxes left Indians particularly vulnerable when famines hit the region, as they struggled to afford food.

From 1757, the East India Company began to control the government, economy and education system of India.

By 1857, the sepoys in the East India Company’s army began a rebellion after a rumour spread about a new rifle they would be receiving. To load the rifle soldiers believed they would have to bite off the end of a cartridge which was covered in pigs’ and cows’ grease. This would have been an insult to both Muslims and Hindus, as it is against the religious beliefs of Muslims to eat pig products and it is against the religious beliefs of Hindus to eat cow products. These events increased the feeling that the British were not respecting Indian values.

In March 1857 a sepoy named Mangal Pandey attacked his British officer and was executed. By May, the rebellion spread as tens of thousands of other sepoys turned on their officers, in some cases killing them. Although the sepoys initially had some successes and took some territory, the British defeated the rebellion after 18 months of fighting. In August 1858, the Government of India Act was passed and direct British rule of India began.

It is estimated that several thousand British were killed during the rebellion, while the estimates for the Indian death toll are in the hundreds of thousands. Many British and Indian civilians were also killed in the violence, and many lives were also lost to a famine that occurred at the same time as the rebellion.

The East India Company’s control of India significantly impacted the British economy. Britain was able to export vast quantities of goods such as tea and pepper and sell them for a great profit. This profit helped to fund the Industrial Revolution in Britain. For example, it was used to build textile factories, which employed many people.

Imports such as silk and cotton were brought from India and turned into expensive clothes and fabrics before being sold at a higher price back in India. The profits made by the East India Company were invested in Britain. Factory owners in particular earned a lot of money from trade with India.

Although factories in Britain provided work, the conditions were often dangerous due to a lack of concern over health and safety. Textile factories particularly employed women and children, who had to work long hours and faced harsh punishments if they worked too slowly.