Have you ever wondered why the common language in India is English? Mughal Dynasty first ruled India and kept the Europeans under control until 1707 when the Mughal empire began to collapse. After the empire collapsed the East India Trading Company took over and then the British took over with the British army which was also staffed with sepoys. When the British took over India they made it significantly better although the British also caused many problems politically, economically, and socially and the British culture became the normality for India.
The British Imperial rule of India not only maintained but completely controlled the Indian government and used it against Indians instead of defending them (Gandhi). The English did make the government significantly more efficient (Lalvani) but while making it more efficient they also took complete control. As the English took over the government they also took over whatever say any of the Indian people had and instead of defending or protecting the Indians the British used India´s own
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While the British had control over India they often used it against the people of India instead of helping them. Eventually after a while the British laid down railroad tracks and bridges but only to export India’s natural resources. Meanwhile the health and life expectancies were improving dramatically the education rate was not. While the British originally thought they were helping India they weren’t as successful as they planned. When the British army was ordered to fire at the Indian people at Amritsar they killed hundreds of people causing even more conflict. After the British began to export India’s natural resources not having the resources put a lot of people into poverty resulting in one more problem for the Indian
The British improved and modernized India which formed their efficiency that they have today. They established railroads and bridges so people can travel thru their country easier. The British also ingrained a fair trading system between India and British. Some may claim that it was not fair because the Indian textiles were getting sold less and less. From 1790 and so on the sales of Indian textiles progressively declined (Doc. 6).
Before the BEIC, India was one of the wealthiest countries globally. Indian products like spices, textiles, and the country’s precious stones were highly desired, giving them a major role in trade. Once the BEIC took control, India’s wealth diminished greatly. The British put in place taxes on wealthy landowners and on “the trade of all fine and valuable merchandise.” (Document 9)
They made many changes within the country; Dadabhai Naoroji praises them about in his speech to the London audience in document 18.3. He refers to how the British abolished the religious practice of Sati(when a widow burns herself at her husband's funeral), educated both male and female, gave freedom of rights, and the security of life and prosperity to the people of India. When looking from a British point of view these seem like modern improvements but, actually these were the norms and culture of India. Which Britain had no right to impair. I oppose the harmful, unequal practices, although I believe that India was developed enough to abolish the practices themselve.
It took more than 200 years for India to shake the oppressive rule of the British. Britain seized control of Indian territory until they controlled the whole sub-continent. At first india was treasured by the British more for its potential rather than its actual profit. Its 300 million people were also a large potential market for British made products. Although Britain created sound law against killing, economic opportunities and health related advancements they caused more harm than good.
Long ago when Britain was the most powerful nation still hunting for more power, the nation took its chance to gain more glory in a far away land overseas; India. During the 1600s Britain became interested in India for its precious raw materials and the fact that the British could market many of their products to the 300 million people of India to make big profit. In 1757 the British East India Company won the Battle of Plassey against the Indians and gained some power of India. Britain would soon decimate pieces of the culture and take over the whole nation of India. Despite the fact that Britain established an advanced government in India, improved infrastructure in the nation, and also increased life expectancies of the people of India by
India was dominant towards the cotton textile industry trade, which motivated England to take the opportunity of forcibly removing all indigenous competition: “...the British who most fully took advantage of the collapse of the empire. Between 1757 and 1803, they took control of most of India except the Northwest. The result was that the East India Company now administered major sectors of the economy, and quickly reduced the role of the big Indian bankers by changes in taxes and methods of collecting them. ”(Mukherjee) By eliminating any further competition at their weakest moment, England lowered India’s economy and chances of industrializing.
The French and Indian war, also known as The Seven Years War, allowed Britain’s dominance to become prominent due to the French being exiled. The French and Indian war also marked the separation of colonial interests from British interests. Due to the debt the war caused Britain upped the taxes, the upset over the taxes sets up the stage for revolt and paved the path of revolution. The taxes, lack of Parliamentary representation, benign neglect, economic oppression, and extremely restricted trade caused by the French and Indian War catalyzed the events, marking a major turning point in the history of our young nation, leading to the war that was a long time coming to fight the Motherland of Britain for the freedom of the new and angered
They also have a higher standard of living, better sanitation, and a better means of transportation (Doc4). In addition, the coming of the British brought an end to the slave trade, infanticide, and brought the value of India’s exportation trade up (Doc5). The British used the idea of “White Man’s Burden” in order to bring civilization and justice to the “barbarians” and westernize them in a way. The British also brought free trade into India and while they were there became one of the wealthiest countries because of everything being extracted out of it. Lastly, the British kept peace on the region and introduced Western technologies.
The political causes of imperialism also turned extremely violent. The Indian people were being overworked and forced to be a part of a civilization that they were not used to nor did they even want to be in a different civilization. Ultimately, the British used not only harsh acts to get what they wanted, but they used violent acts that caused major political and racism issues even
Shown in document 6, he complained to the English that “You have given us no responsibility in our own government.” Lot of money was taken from the people to support the British government. Later India became dependant on Britain's goods coming in. The British encouraged farmers to grow cash crops causing famine in the country, many starved to death. Also racism was a huge deal because the British saw them as a lower class and having a different culture caused the people to be treated like slaves.
The British first took control of India in 1759, when the “East India Company,” a British corporation, used their private military to take advantage of the declining government of India, the Mughal Dynasty. After this, they exploited it for its natural wealth and imposed regulations on India’s people that helped profits, particularly after the British government got involved personally. Finally, after decades of protest and conflict, India gained independence in 1947 due to the efforts of activists such as Mohandas Gandhi and their supporters. As supporters of imperialism would argue, during this Britain maintained structured control, provided trade, and protected Indian culture. However, they restricted freedoms, imposed poverty, and destroyed
India, one of the many colonies England controlled in the past was the “Jewel in the Crown” of the British Empire. Although in the beginning, it was controlled by the British East India Company as a source of cotton, tea, and indigo. The British had indirect control of India until the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857. Although Britain created India’s government and military, improved trade, protected land, claimed to improve education, and increased minority safety, however the government and military controlled and excluded Indians, trade only benefitted the British, statistics show education was better after Indian Independence, valuable land was degraded and minorities still felt fear and insecurity.
The British worked to help preserve the environment and animals (#17).The British destroyed forests and the soil that they farmed on. After a few years the soil was degraded and the quality went down (Doc 7). This shows how even though they worked to preserve the environment, the British were really just tearing up India’s land to farm for their own crops and then ship them back to Britain. The British built 10,000 tracks and 136,000 bridges (#14). They built railways to secure their own British rule in India (#13).Even though they built lots of bridges and railroads for transportation most of it was mainly built to benefit themselves and make sure they kept their rule in
Building an Empire becomes problematic when the colonizers know nothing about the territory being colonized. Britain began colonizing India in the 1700s, completely ignorant about the people of India and their cultural and religious beliefs. Ignorance comes from a lack of knowledge. This lack of knowledge can be by choice, like in this situation. Despite their ignorance, Englishmen still came into India with an arrogant attitude.
The British first came to India not only because of the abundance of raw materials, but also the mass potential they seen. The British East India Company, took advantage of the collapsing Mughal Empire, and broke away from their control to flourished their company. In 1857 the Sepoy army rebelled and that caused the British to come in guns blazing and take over the country. The British rule demolished India through, taxation on anything made in India, and the exportation of raw materials, which caused a plentiful amount of famine,and throughout all of this, the British kept most on India uneducated, and those they did educate, most were forced to become interpreters for the benefits it would make in taking over India and keeping the British in control. Political Paragraph British imperialism had a negative effect on the politics of India because of the corrupt justice system, and the utter lack of respect that killed masses of innocent people.