imperialism 1800-1914: south asia, asia impact: south asia (india)
TRANSCRIPT
Imperialism 1800-1914: South Asia, Asia
Impact:South Asia
(India)
New Imperialism: India Introduction:
- India like ‘pivot’ for Europeans moving between Asia (Qing Dynasty – next lecture) and Africa (last lecture)and Europe itself --including Ottoman Empire: merchants, military men, administrators, civil servants
- Literally: many of the above moved between these ‘Imperial Interests’ in their careers
- More than ideas influenced ‘New Imperialist’ world
New Imperialism: IndiaAsian Connections:
-tied into hugely profitable opium trade with Qing Dynasty (18th-19th centuries – next week)
- became replacement for Chinese tea production (mid-19th c)
New Imperialism: IndiaIslamic/Ottoman Connections:
-most of subcontinent under Muslim rule until early 18th century [Mughal Empire]
-relations with British/French similar, producing similar political, intellectual movements
-Please Watch Video ‘The Story of India’, in Add’l Rdgs
India: Mughal Empire
New Imperialism: IndiaCombining cultural and commercial issues:
-respecting Hindu, Muslim culture and religion
- developing commerce that benefited elites (including religious elite)
New Imperialism: India
Major ‘footholds’: Calcutta, Bombay, Madras
- East India Company (EIC) in Bengal amassed virtual empire
-population larger than Western Europe
[Video: ‘Story of India’ – pays particular attention to this aspect of ‘empire’; textbook gives overall view, p.787]
BritishTerritory[EIC controlBengal, Coast]in India1797-1805
New Imperialism: India
Bombay:
-Bombay rapidly growing as EIC invested in development
-worked to ‘keep local princes’ happy
Bombay 18th century
Bombay 19th Century
Causeway Construction, 1826
Imperialism as Trade: India
Trade also made India part of ‘Atlantic World’:
- key was ‘cotton’
[see upcoming lectures, readings on America]
Imperialism as Trade: India
Europe: from late 17th century knew ‘Calico Craze’
- Indian prints part of domestic home décor
- fashion (men and women): ‘French could not do without them’
- industry of imitations developed
Indian Cotton & European Life
Imperialism as trade: India
Caused economic problems:
-fear that preference for Indian cottons would hurt domestic wool, silk industries
- ‘balance of trade’ – export increasing amounts of bullion lost (raw gold, silver)
New Imperialism: India
Reaction: from 1680s ‘banning’ imports – France, Prussia, Spain, Britain
- Britain enforced c.1721: reportedly ‘mobs’ chased women on London streets to strip them of calico
- calico still on market because Dutch commerce did not ban it
New Imperialism: IndiaImpact even larger on Manufacturing:
-challenges argument that more efficient cotton production in Britain, America undercut India’s
-strong ‘political hand’ assisted consumption patterns
-‘banning’ of Indian Cotton helped create domestic market for European produced products imitating Asian patterns
Indian Cotton
Indian Cotton in Global Trade
[See “Indian Cotton Textiles… 18th C. Atlantic Economy” in ‘Resources’]
Indian Cotton in Global Trade
“Cotton did not become a global commodity because its production was mechanised and Industrialised – on the contrary it became mechanised and industrialised thanks to the fact that it was a global commodity”
It was India that underpinned that early economy – and had to be ‘pushed out’ (or at least into a new role) by 19th Century Imperialism.
[from “The Making of a Global Economy” in ‘Resources’]
Expansion of British Territory “Possessions” 1805-1914
India: East India Company
Bombay 1860
“Times of India” Office, Church Gate Street
Bombay: Victoria Docks 1888
Modernization
Victoria Railroad Terminus, Completed Bombay 1888
India: Mutiny 1857
See ‘The Story of India’ (video); textbook p.788
- Text gives it little detailed attention – for video ‘Story’, is central
India: Mutiny 1857
“Indian Military”:
-initially, EIC paid for private military
- base: Bengal, so initially some ethnic, religious (Muslim) coherence
- 1850s, only 38,000 British troops – more than 200,000 sepoys
- troops also expanded by recruitment Sikhs, Gurkhas, high-classed Hindu
India: Mutiny 1857
Sikh Officers, British Infantry Unit, Punjab c.1858
India: Mutiny 1857
Indian Gurkhas, 1857
India: Mutiny 1857
Cultural, Religious mix: sensitive to changing terms of employment
- key issue: modern rifles with packaged cartridges – had to be opened by ‘tearing with teeth’
- cartridges ‘greased’ with unknown product
Was sure to contain some animal product:- ‘bovine’? Insult to Hindus- ‘pork’? Insult to Muslims
India: Mutiny 1857
Initial Rebellion: Meerut
- sparked rebellions throughout central region
- military: resentment at lack of promotion of Indian officers, orders that clashed with Hindu culture of ‘travel abroad’
- then spread to peasants, other ‘elites’ who felt discrimination in administration, ‘social’ life
1857 Mutiny
1857 Mutiny
Fort Lucknow, after Mutiny 1857 [see ‘video’]
1857 Mutiny: Lucknow
India: Mutiny 1857“Cultural Discrimination”:
- military rebellion (‘Mutiny – refusal to obey orders to load guns) touched deeper level resentments growing over first half 19th C.
- growing power of EIC, and British Government itself: seen as threatening overall autonomy of sub-continent
- power of ‘Maharaja’ princes no longer respected, Muslim Mughal power gone [expressed in video – ‘respect of the Orientalists gave way to greed and power’]
[similarities with Qing Dynasty situation c. 1830s-50s, next lecture]
India: Mutiny 1857
Consequences of 1857-58:
- although rebellion relatively short, geographically contained, consequences significant
- provoked British Government to take full political control from EIC, remaining local Mughal rulers
- India to be ruled from London, with Governor General in Delhi
India: Mutiny 1857
Princes retained local ruling powers:
- had to remain ‘loyal’ to Queen
-raised issue of legitimacy: how to ‘rule’ with traditional power when dependent on foreign authority?
- use of pageantry, ritual: elaborate, some ‘invented’– means to tie British and Indian rule together in eyes of people
India: Mutiny 1857
1877 Queen Victoria proclaimed ‘Empress of India’:
India: Mutiny 1857
New ‘British Educated’ Elite:
- created bureaucracy Indian Civil Service- widespread local powers- entry: by exam written in London
- therefore: Indians effectively excluded
- comprised rapidly expanding ‘sub-civil service’ under authority British administration
- assured large, literate ‘British’ culture, growing aspirations
India: ‘Colonial Culture’
“Colonial Culture”: reflected 19th century racism
- ‘white man’ considered most civilized
- questioned as to whether ‘others’ could ever do more then imitate or ‘improve’
“It is this consciousness of the inherent superiority of the European which had won for us India. However well educated and clever a native maybe, and however brave he may have proved himself, I believe that no rank we can bestow on him would cause him to be considered an equal of the British Officer”. [Textbook, p.789]
India: ‘Colonial Culture’
“Political Modernisation”
-(like Ottomans) movements in early part of century tried to reconcile ‘traditional’ (religion, culture) with ‘West’
- ‘Divine Society’: addressed caste system, child marriage, widow burning (sati), later slavery and female infanticide
India: ‘Colonial Culture’
Nationalism:
- Post-Mutiny: realization of what British rule meant
- education, exposure to Western ideas created expectations, demands: more control, more civil service opportunities (like Young Ottomans)
India: ‘Colonial Culture’
Intellectual Modernisation:
-by 1850s: Indian intellectuals exploring Western secular values, nationalist/democratic ideals
-Western education available, even for women
- by 1870: 25,000 students of elementary and secondary levels “the new generation”
India: ‘Colonial Culture’
1885 : former Indian National Congress
-Goals: larger role for Indians in the ‘Imperial Project’
- little attention to millions of poor and ‘untouchables’
- an ‘elite’ group created by the process of British Imperialism (education, culture)
- still too small to have impact: that would take another generation in a much larger colonial world [one that would include the continent of Africa]