HIST 05.06 Exam 1 Terms

Sick Keesar (Sheik Kesar)

Man from Bengal that is left in the U.S. in 1785. Petitions to Ben Franklin to get him and 34 other natives from Bengal and China back home.

lascar

Asian sailor / seaman (Sheik Kesar complained about being called this)

Hindustan

Name for South Asia back in the day. Really referred to Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal … not really Sri Lanka

Mughal Empire

Powerful Muslim dynasty that ruled Indian subcontinent and peaked late 1600s - early 1700s. Formally dissolved by British after Sepoy Rebellion in 1857.

calico craze

17th and 18th century global fashion wave of Indian textiles

Goa

Portuguese settlement on western coast of India

Pondicherry

French settlement on southeast coast of India

British East India Company

Joint-stock company originally created in 1600 to trade in the Indian Ocean region and Asia

Bombay

City on western coast of India, became a large trading post under the EIC. English gained control in 1638.

Madras

City founded by EIC in 1639 on southeastern coast of India. Major trading hub.

Calcutta

EIC hub in eastern India, founded in 1690.

loot

Entered the English language from Hindi when EIC established museum in London in 1801 to centralize knowledge … relates to “plunder”

Siraj-ud-Daulah

Nawab of Bengal. Takes over British fortifications, leading to Battle of Plassey (1757) where he is removed.

Robert Clive

High up in EIC who works in conspiracy with an ally of Siraj-ud-Daulah and merchant bankers in Bengal

Battle of Plassey (1757)

British conquer and destroy Siraj-ud-Daulah. They now have control of Calcutta, Robert Clive puts some puppet nawabs in charge.

Grant of the Diwani (1765)

British get this after winning Battle of Plassey … allows them to collect taxes/revenue in Bengal

Tipu Sultan

Leader of Mysore, leads a challenge against British but is defeated by 1799.

Frederic Tutor

The guy who ran the ice trade from Boston to India … ice from places like Walden Pond in Concord, MA

company bahadur

“honorable company” - referred to the EIC a lot in South Asia

sepoy

Indian soldiers British recruited for military

permanent settlement (1793)

EIC’s way to institute a landed aristocracy (set of elites). They assigned private property rights to an elite class (zamindars) who had to collect money from peasants on their land

zamindar

Indian elite revenue collectors for the British

Asiatic Society of Bengal

Founded by William Jones (orientalist) for knowledge, research about India

orientalism

Belief in ruling India with traditional languages and stuff but mainly studying/acquiring knowledge about India

thug (thuggee)

Coming from EIC officer Meadows Taylor’s writing in 1839, this describes criminals in India.

John Stuart Mill

Clerk at EIC office in London who was a liberalism writer that supported British suppression of thugs … writes like Britain needs to be India’s parent and give them tools for self-governance (SON)

James Mill

Focuses on maximizing utility in writings about India, thought that Indian society was backward (thinks that orientalists have overestimated South Asian civilization)

The History of British India

Even though he never went to India, James Mill wrote this book where he claimed that India was backwards society and talked about maximizing utility.

Thomas Babington Macaulay

Wrote “Minute on Education” (1835), viewed Indian society as backwards. Famously said that a single shelf of good European library was more valuable than all of the native literature of India and Arabia.

“Minute on Education” (1835)

Written by Thomas Babington Macaulay, argued for English to replace Hindi and Sanskrit in India as the official medium of instruction in education.

Thomas Law

Englishman who comes to the U.S. after spending time in India, gets married to Elizabeth Custis (GW’s step granddaughter)

bibi

Word to describe an Indian woman that a British man had a relationship with

lock hospital

A facility that regulated South Asian prostitutes by brutally checking for STDs and trying to limit the amount of mixed race children that would/could be born

subaltern

Term to describe those most affected/marginalized by colonial rule

Alum Bheg

Sepoy whose skull from 1857 Sepoy Rebellion was found in Lord Clyde pub in England as a “war trophy”

Marquess of Dalhousie

Governor-general of India for EIC from 1848-1856, known for aggressive annexation and the doctrine of lapse

doctrine of lapse

Policy instituted by Marquess of Dalhousie, basically said that British could annex smaller princely states if their ruler died and they didn’t have a legit male heir

Sikh Kingdom

Kingdom in the Punjab region (NW like Lahore)

Awadh (Oudh)

North/northeast area of India

Meerut

Birthplace of sepoy rebellion where sepoys rebelled over greased firearms

Bahadur Shah Zafar

Mughal emperor (just in name really atp) that sepoys forced to lead the rebellion in Delhi.

Government of India Act (1858)

Act that dissolved EIC and gave control of India to the crown after Sepoy Rebellion

Queen Victoria’s Proclamation (1858)

After Sepoy Rebellion, promise to respect princely territories (not expand into them) and emphasizes that the British won’t intervene in religious affairs (proves difficult)

William James Herschel

Invented fingerprinting by making Rajyadhar Konai stamp his hand on a contract

Rajyadhar Konai

The man that William James Herschel had stamp his hand on a contract

Francis Galton

Father of eugenics, tries to distinguish the Indian race with fingerprints even though it’s clearly not possible

caste

Social structure that shifts over time and place

varna

The ancient fourfold caste system from Hindu texts: Dalit (untouchable, doesn’t even count in the 4) —> Shudra —> Vaishya —> Kshatriya —> Brahmin

jati

Thousands of social groups across subcontinent that are endogamous (only marry within group) and form the caste sytstem

Brahminical

Describes works from the Brahmin (upper caste). British were learning about Hindu stuff from these work and therefore only gaining an upper-caste perspective.

criminal tribes

Tribes of Indians the British deem inherently criminal and in need of surveillance

martial tribes

Tribes the British deemed more fit to serve in the military and racially superior to the Bengalis

hill station

Where the British could escape north to get out of the dirty Indian cities

Simla

In Northern India, became the British capital in the summers when they went to the hill stations

Slavery Abolition Act (1833)

Abolished slavery in British Empire, led to indentured servitude on British plantations

girmit

What becomes the Hindu word for “agreement” or “contract agreement” because of indentured servitude

girmitiya

Hindu word for those who agree to contracts / become indentured servants

kangany

Practice where someone from a plantation in southeast Asia would go back to their hometown in India and recruit indentured servants by fronting money and causing debt that they can pay off by working on a plantation

home charges

Funds that Indians supplied to the British to fund like railway and British Imperial Office and other things running India that were more so for the British

Dadabhai Naoroji

Wrote “Poverty and Un-British Rule in India” in 1901, where he argued that this system of gov was really bad for both Britain and India. He initially advocated for a kinder British rule. He also cofounded India National Congress in 1885. “Drain of wealth”

drain of wealth theory

Main nationalist argument against British rule, described how the British took vast economic resources from India without giving anything in return.

Sayyid Ahmad Khan

Muslim who founded Muhammad Anglo-Oriental College that taught western style ideas, he kinda sucked up to the Briish by showing that Muslims were loyal to British Raj

Aligarh Movement

The educational reform movement for Muslims led by Sayyid Ahmad Khan

Arya Samaj

High caste Hindu movement that wanted to reform and focus on a single (Brahminian) text, cared a lot about cow protection, believed caste wasn’t hereditary but you could earn it through merit

cow protection

Movement to project upper-caste norms and present Muslims and Dalits (untouchables) as threats

Satyashodhak Samaj

“society of truth seekers”; movement challenging caste-baste exclusion and Brahimical supremacy (the Arya Samaj)

Indian National Congress (est. 1885)

Gave upper-caste Hindus more power in colonial government, didn’t truly rule over all constituencies in India (Muslims were not thrilled)

Partition of Bengal (1905)

Action to more easily rule over the 80 million people in the province, kind of split it into Hindus in the East and Muslims in the west, led to backlash like swadeshi

swadeshi

Boycott of British goods and focus on locally produced stuff

1909 Indian Councils Act (Morley-Minto Reforms)

Act of British Parliament that gave Indians some more legislative power but ultimately held British control.

All India Muslim League

Political party founded in 1906 in Dhaka to protect the rights of Muslims (goal of balancing the influence of the India National Congress)

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay

Woman that refuses to give up seat on white section of train in the South in 1941, worked with Gandhi for 20 years and is giving talks, insists to the conductor that she is “colored.”

satyagraha

Passive resistance, holding fast to truth

mahatma

great soul in Hindi

Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule)

1909 book by Gandhi that details his ideas on non-violent resistance, self-rule, and (critiques) of Western culture

swaraj

self-rule in Hindi

Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms

British act that creates diarchy in India (more provincial power for Indians but British still hold main power)

Rowlatt Act

Extends wartime measures in India like no fair trials, increased surveillance, etc. Leads to lots of protest and Gandhi’s first non-cooperation movement.

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

Famous event where 10 or 20k nonviolent protestors gathered to protest the Rowlatt Act. 379 died and 1200 wounded.

non-cooperation (1920-1922)

Gandhi’s first movement, this comes after the Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

Khilafat movement

Muslim movement to preserve the authority of the Ottoman Sultan after WW1

civil disobedience

Movement that started in 1930, included salt march where Gandhi and volunteers walked 240 miles

salt satyagraha

The 240 mile salt march where Gandhi got to the sea and picked up some natural salt, officially breaking the law

brahmacharya

control of the senses in thought, word, and deed

tropical medicine

Became like a nationalist fight idk