Download - A British officer in India, 1870s
A British officer in India, 1870s
The young, pro-British Maharaja of Bharatpur, 1860:The princely states contained nearly half of India’s land
but only 20% of its people
Nripendra Naravan Bhup
Bahadur, Maharaja of Cooch
Behar, photographed in
London in the uniform of a
lieutenant-colonel of the 6th Bengal
Cavalry, 1899
Russia expands into Turkmenistan, 1880-1900
THE SECOND AFGHAN WAR, 1878-80
Aug. 1878
News that a Russian general was in Kabul impels Lord Lytton to demand that the Amir negotiate restrictions on his sovereignty
Nov.-Dec. 1878
General Roberts forces the Khyber Pass and occupies Kabul; Yakub Khan becomes Amir
Sep. 1879Enraged Kabul mob kills the British Agent Cavignari and his Sikh escort; Roberts occupies Kabul again
July 1880 Ayub Khan declares jihad, defeats the British at Mawand, near Kandahar
Sep 1880General Roberts defeats Ayub Khan, installs Abdul Rahman Khan, and withdraws
Aerial photograph of the Khyber Pass
Pathan riflemen in the Second Afghan War (1878-1880)
Afghan tribal elders in Kabul, 1878
The North-West Frontier (especially
Waziristan) has been a site of continual conflict since 1840
An Anglo-Indian force in the Kurram Valley, 1897
“A gallant subaltern saves a wounded
Sepoy” (1898)
A few advertisers sought to capitalize on the Empire
THE MARCH OF PROGRESS:
By 1900 India had285 million people;5 million literates;
23,000 college students;
25,000 miles of railway.But only 65 of 1,244 members of the ICS
were Indian.
Indian peasants with farm
implements and a yoke for oxen
(1870)
Starving Indian peasants during the great famine
of 1876/77, when millions died.
Famine recurred in 1895/96 and 1899/1900
A labor camp to provide famine relief in 1897.
Only in 1907 did the British
introduce a system to distribute food to villages in drought-
stricken regions
Heavy-handed measures to combat bubonic plague in Bombay in 1896/97 provoked violent riots and the
assassination of two British officials by Hindu nationalists.
Lord Curzon at the Delhi Durbar of
1903:He was the most
gifted and energetic of
viceroys, dedicated to government
FOR the Indians but not BY the
Indians
Lord Curzon, Tory Viceroy (1898-1905),
who favored enlightened absolutism.
John Morley, Liberal
Secretary of State, 1905-10
Curzon repressed dissent harshly but championed Indian economic interests. Morley decentralized the administration and created elected provincial councils to promote cooperation with the Indian
middle class.
At its first meeting in Bombay, 1885, the “India National Congress” only demanded
increased participation by educated Indians in the administration
Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
Grows up in Gujarat 1888-91: Studies
law in London 1893: Establishes
law practice in South Africa
1894-1914: Heads Natal Indian Congress
1900: Volunteers as stretcher bearer
1906: Organizes first “satyagraha”
1909: Publishes “Indian Home Rule”
CORE ARGUMENTS OF “INDIAN HOME RULE” (1909)
What Europeans call “civilization” has the sole aim to “make bodily welfare the object of life…. It was not that we did not know how to invent machinery, but our forefathers knew that, if we set our hearts after such things, we would become slaves and lose our moral fiber.”“Passive resistance is a method of securing rights by personal suffering; it is the revers of resistance by arms….Passive resistance cannot proceed a step without fearlessness…. A would-be warrior will have to observe chastity and to be satisfied with poverty as his lot.”“I would say to the extremists: ‘Hom Rule for India is not to be had for your asking. Everyone will have to take it for himself…. It would not be proper for you to say that you have obtained Home Rule if you have merely expelled the English.”“I would say to the moderates: …To say that British rule is indispensable, is almost a denial of the Godhead…. Anarchy under Home Rule were better than orderly foreign rule.”