More handpicked essays just for you.
Impact of the British Empire in India
Impact of the British Empire in India
Impact of the British Empire in India
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Mughals had control of India but in 1707 slowly lost it. The East India Company saw the Mughals collapse and attacked in 1757. The East India Company had officially taken complete control of India until the 19th century. The British did create an official government, built tons of railroad tracks, and educated many Indians. They also governed in their own defense, exported India's natural resources to themselves, and only 16 % of the population got educated. The British had a superbly efficient government of 500 million it, however, was not meant to help the indians ( Lavani). The British had complete control of Indian government (Doc. 1). Having mainly British in the government meant that more laws to cater to the British like the Rowell Act. The British established the framework for Indians army, police, justice, and civil system ( Lavani). The police killed 400 people at Aminstar ( Gandhi). Yes, the British gave the Indians their enforcement groups, however, these enforcement groups were only there to help and serve the british, they didn't care about the Indians well being. …show more content…
The British built 10,000 miles of railroad tracks (Lavani). They used the railroads to export cash crops to the british( Doc. 6). The British used the railroad tracks to help themselves and to sell these deadly cash crops to England. Indian weavers in Bengal being out of work by British factories ( Doc. 3&4). The Indians were getting starved because no one was buying their cloth and they had no money to buy food. Yes, The British built railroad tracks but not exactly for the right reasons, the British caused hunger by growing and selling these burdening cash
One country that had imperialism was India. By the mid-1880s, the British East India Company controlled three fifths of India. The cause of British domination was that the land was very diverse and the people could not unite and that the British either paid local princes or used weapons to get control. Positive effects of imperialistic rule in India were that the British set up a stronger economy and more powerful industries. They built roads and railroads. British rule brought peace and order to the countryside. They revised the legal system to promote justice for the Indians regardless of class. Indian landowners and princes, who still owned territory grew rich from exporting cash crops such as cotton and jute. The British introduced the telegraph and the postal system as a means of communication. These improvements and benefits from British rule eventually lead to Indian nationalism. The exposure to European ideas caused an Indian nationalist movement, the people dreamed of ending Imperial ...
This caused the Indians to starve because they depended on the British’s gifts to hunt and trade. The British didn’t respect the Indian and disregard their culture and what they follow.
From 1876 to 1900, there were 18 famines and an estimated 15 million deaths from starvation in India. Historical Investigation-The Development of Nationalism in India Worksheet. In this case, one can see that producing the cash crops instead of cash crops was directly linked to food shortages throughout India as well as a loss of self-sufficiency. This shows how the wants of the imperial power hurt the colonized people as the food shortages lead to widespread hunger.
The Indian government is corrupted and makes promises it is unable to keep. In The White Tiger, Balram describes that the government is “...the world’s greatest democracy. What a fucking joke.” (Adiga 145). When Balram lived in Laxmangarh his right to vote for the prime minister was taken from him, due to the fact that running candidates pay the current government to make sure they are elected. The government system also enables the rich to get richer. They do this by immensely taxing the poor and enforcing the caste system on the poor. The caste system is a labeling system you were born into and of what you are expected of in life. For example Balram had the caste of Halwai, which is derived from “sweet-maker”. This meant Balram was expected to work...
Deloria defines the relationship between the US Government and the Indians as paternalistic. The US Government treated and governed the Indians as a father would by providing basic needs but without given them rights. There has been some improvement with the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934. This act allowed the return to local self-government on a tribal level and restored the self management of their assets. By allowing the Indians to self govern it encouraged an economic foundation for the inhabitants of Indian reservations. Unfortunately only a few tribes have fully taken advantage of this Act, while others struggle for survival.
To begin with, one can observe that the British colonizers did indeed improve Indian civilization by developing means of communication and transport. They built a great number of bridges, over 40,000 miles of railway and paving an astounding 70,000 miles of road (Doc. 4). They established schools,newspapers and telegraphs for the people of the colonies.All blessings of civilization they could not create for themselves (Doc. 1). Furthermore, the British brought 30 million acres under cultivation with large scale irrigation works, began industrialization, improved sanitation and provided an overall higher standard of living (Doc. 4). With many new establishments and institutions to staff, job opportunities opened up left and right for Indian workers.Their contributions to Indian civilization made famine all but disappear throughout India. Without the British, it’s quite possible India could not achi...
In India the British colonization had more positive affects than negative. For Instance, When the British colonized India they built 40,000 miles of railroad and 70,000 miles of paved roadway. As a result the British made it much easier to travel across India. Another good affect that the British had on India was the jump in agriculture, through large scale irrigation works. About 30 million acres were put into cultivation. Industrialization had also begun. Because of all these reasons almost no famine existed in British colonial India. The English also built many institutions in India and setup a productive government. "They have framed wise laws and have established courts of justice"(The Economic History Of India Under Early British Rule). In addition to all these positive affects, Britain also linked India to the modern world through modern science and modern thought.
By the year 1857 the British had established complete political control of India. As Western education was introduced and missionaries eroded Hindu society resentment among Indian people grew and it was joined by unease among the old governing class when the British decided to formally abolish the Mughal Empire.
There is no doubt that British imperialism had a large impact on India. India, having previously been an group of independent and semi-independent princedoms and territories, underwent great change under British administration. Originally intended to consolidate their hold on India by establishing a population that spoke the same language as their rulers, the British decision in the 1830s to educate Indians in a Western fashion, with English as the language of instruction, was the beginning of a chain of events, including a rise in Indian nationalism, that led to Indian resentment of British imperialism and ultimately to the loss of British control over India.
In 1857 the British had invaded the nation of Hindustan (India). Many feel that if it were not for the British Empire, India would still be an under developed country. The British established a government system that before did not exist. It was a three level system including the imperial government located in London, the central government located in Calcutta, and later on provincial governments scattered throughout the regions of what was known as the British Raj1. Alt...
The decision to grant independence to India was not the logical culmination of errors in policy, neither was it as a consequence of a mass revolution forcing the British out of India, but rather, the decision was undertaken voluntarily. Patrick French argues that: “The British left India because they lost control over crucial areas of the administration, and lacked the will and the financial or military ability to recover that control”.
History shows that Indians suffered from British rule over India which involved a lot of violence against the Indians. One example of the violence is the Amritsar Massacre, where over 1,000 people were
With major control over India, the British used a combination of firepower & guile to consolidate their power over the country by expanding from their base areas along the coast into the interior (Duiker 31). Some territories were also taken over the privately run East India Company, which at the time was given authority to administer Asian territories under British occupation, while others were ruled by local maharajas (Duiker 31). British governance brought order and stability to a society that had recently been wrecked by the wars from the different empires (Duiker 31).
The world of Colonial India was much different than that of England at the time, or of the India of today. The country was ruled by the British military. British patriots and ex-patriots living in India had a culture all there own; they were not at all oppressors but did have a completely different culture than the indigenous peoples of the country.
The British rule in India caused many social, economic, and tradition changes, which still has rippling effect to this day. However, there are aspects of British involvement that helped India making this topic more delicate than a right and wrong choice. Also, many of the British actions came from good intensions, but without understanding the Indian society the British government actually caused more harm than progress. An example would be the education system in India that the British government tried to change to be more like the British system, but ended up ruining a system that had been working well in India. However, being a part of the British Empire allowed for India to be more global in a world that constantly became more global. The effects of the British rule is only worsened by the Islamic rule that preceded it. Both of these influences have