British India and the 'Great Rebellion'

Page 3 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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Before the rebellion

In the first half of the 19th century, when the East India Company still ruled India on Britain's behalf, there was a heady rhetoric of reform and improvement in some British circles. The aspiration of Thomas Macaulay - a member of the Company's ruling council in 1835, as well as a historian - to foster 'a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions in morals and in intellect' is often quoted. Less often quoted is his preceding sentence, in which he admitted that 'it is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people'.

The means of the Company's government were indeed limited. The greater part of its resources went on its armed forces, not on schemes for improvement. An insecure government of necessity moved cautiously, in spite of its rhetoric, and at the time the Indian economy was generally stagnant.

'The authority of Brahmins and of doctrines of caste separation grew stronger, not weaker.'

European influences were strongest in the towns of India. This was especially true in the old bases of British trade, such as Calcutta, Madras or Bombay, where a new Indian intelligentsia had begun to take root. Whatever the British may have intended, their early rule seems generally to have consolidated the hold of what they regarded as 'traditional' intellectuals, rather than displacing them by new ones, and the authority of Brahmins and of doctrines of caste separation grew stronger, not weaker.

In the countryside the vital issues were the control of the land, the amount of tax the peasant farmers had to pay, and the opportunities they had to find outlets for their surplus crops. Early British occupation was disruptive: aristocracies lost power and influence to the new rulers, the conditions under which land was held could be changed, and taxation was more rigorously enforced. It took time for winners to emerge in this situation, people who had been able to extract gains from the new order, and who would compensate for those who had lost out.

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Published: 2002-06-01