British India and the 'Great Rebellion'

Page 2 of 6

• 1. Imperial authority examined
• 2. A history in two halves
• 3. Before the rebellion
• 4. Disaffection
• 5. A new royal government
• 6. Find out more
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A history in two halves

The lesson that the British drew from 1857 was that caution must prevail: Indian traditions must be respected and the assumed guardians of these traditions - priests, princes or landholders - were to be conciliated under firm authoritarian British rule.

Thus British Indian history in the 19th century is often divided into two halves, separated by the great watershed of 1857: an age of ill-considered reform, followed by an age of iron conservatism. Conservatism was eventually to provoke a different form of reaction, the nationalism out of which modern India was to be born.

'...what the British intended and what they were able to achieve were often very different things.'

There are, however, serious difficulties in any interpretation of 19th-century Indian history that divides it into an age of reform that gave way under the shock of rebellion to an age of conservatism. This may in a very rough sense reflect the intentions of India's British rulers, but what the British intended and what they were able to achieve were often very different things. Outcomes depended as much on the inclinations and efforts of Indian people as on the initiatives of their rulers.

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Published: 2002-06-01