India - Key facts

1600

Elizabeth I grants EIC trading charter

Languages

6 main languages, over 200 dialects

1813 Charter Act

• Renewed EIC’s charter for 20 years

• Removed EIC’s monopoly on Indian trade, with the exception of the trade in tea and trade with China

• Provisions made for education of Indians

• Missionaries permitted to preach and teach English

1833 Charter Act

• Removed EIC’s monopoly on trade

• Reorganised administrative system of British territories - governor of Fort William became concurrent governor general of India

1818

Indo-Gangetic Plain under EIC control

Regulating Act 1773

• Created a governing council of 5 based in Calcutta. 2 were EIC members, 3 were nominated by parliament

• Appointment of governor generals was made subject to approval by a council of 4 nominated by the Crown

• Warren Hastings served as the first governor under this system from 1774 to 1785

1784 Act

• Made EIC subordinate to the Crown in all political functions

• Set up Board of Control - members were the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary of State and 4 privy councillors

• Strengthened executive power of governor

• Other presidencies could not make war or peace unless instructed by Bengal

1786 Act

Enabled the governor general in special cases to override his council

Troops in EIC army by 1820

200,000

Troops in EIC army by 1857

• 45,522 European

• 277,746 total

British territory in India by 1800

243,000 km2

1823-26

Annexation of Assam, Manipur and Cacher

First Afghan War (1838-42)

• 20,000 deaths

• £15 million

1843

Sind formally annexed

1849

Punjab brought under British control

1757

Battle of Plassey

Company men making provisions for native wives/cohabitees/children in their wills

• 1780 - 1/3

• 1850 - few

Colonel William Sleeman

• Led campaign against thagi after capturing Feringhea in 1835

• Wrote 3 books on thagi

Thuggee and Dacoity Department

• Created in 1836

• 1000 thagi were transported or hanged

• 3000 thagi were tried and punished

Size of thagi bands

Up to 400

Annual deaths from sati

600

Abolition of sati

• 1798 - Banned in Calcutta

• 1813 - Missionaries could preach against sati

• 1829 - Act of Abolition

• 1861 - Outlawed in the totality of India

Ram Mohan Roy

• Campaigned against sati in 1818

• Did not want outright ban

• Stimulated Bengal Renaissance

Female infanticide

Bentinck enforced laws passed in 1795 and 1802

Baptist missionaries

• First arrived in Bengal before the end of the 18th century

• Joshua Marsham, William Carey and William Ward banned from Calcutta and forced to settle in Danish territory of Serampore

• Set up college to train indigenous ministers in 1818

Charles Grant

Campaigned with William Wilberforce to remove EIC ban on missionaries

Alexander Duff

• Arrived in Bengal in 1830

• Promoted teaching of English in schools

1835

• Education Act made English the language of higher education

• Made English (not Persian) the language of government and higher legal court

Dalhousie’s reforms (1848-1856)

• Railroads

• Telegraph lines

• Penny Post

Annexation of Awadh

• Nwab Wajid Ali Shah deposed for maladministration

• 7 February 1856

• 7th annexation to occur under Dalhousie’s policy

• Land taken from talukdars unable to prove legal title to their estates

General Service Enlistment Act 1856

Broke tradition of soldiers not serving where they were unable to march

Immediate cause of rebellion

Court martial of 85 sepoys for refusing to load new rifles on 9 May 1857

Bahadur Shah II

Restored to his imperial position in Delhi on 11 May

Cawnpore

• 400 killed on riverbanks and boats

• 200 people, mostly women and children, were held but massacred on 15 July

Relief of Lucknow

• Half of 7000 soldiers who sought refuge in the Residency were Indian soldiers

• Relief force numbering over 3000 first arrived on 25 September, 87 days after siege began

• 24 Victoria Crosses awarded for actions which took place on 16 November

• Area not retaken by the British until March 1858

Punishment in Peshawar

40 men strapped to the barrels of canons and blown apart

Government of India Act 1858

Ended EIC rule

Cost of ending rebellion

£50 million

London Missionary Society response to rebellion

Sent additional 20 missionaries to India within the next 2 years

Demographics

2000 white men governed 200-300 million Indians

Changes to Indian army

• Proportion of sepoys reduced by 40% and British troops increased by 50%

• Ratio became 3:1 rather than 9:1

Rail network

• 1857 - 288 miles

• 1861 - 1588 miles

• 1900 - 24,760