The history of British India

The history of British India is remembered for its controversial events surrounding Indian nationalism. The seemingly indestructible empire was brought down by Indian nationalists following years of reforms and suppressions. Daniel Headrick’s article, A Double-Edged Sword: Communications and Imperial Control in India, provides insight into how and why the Indians were able to attain dominance over an apparently impregnable empire. This paper will examine Headrick’s specific argument about the significance of communications technologies in British India over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I will observe the relationships between his views pertaining to the significance of British innovations — both economic and technological — and Indian nationalism. In addition to this relationship, I will argue that Headrick’s specific position is that, due to the British technological advancements in India, the Indians were able to successfully attain autonomy. His views also show that, by improving the economy and technology within their colonies, the British empire came to an ironic collapse altogether because of how the inhabitants came to use these feats against their own rulers.
I will first illustrate Headrick’s argument on how the innovations of the British — that is to say, their use of bringing economic and technological ideas to India to benefit their empire — gave the British the illusion of imperial stability. The author asserts the importance of how the British did not harm the Indians when they brought their technological influences to the area. In the beginning of his article, Headrick states how the British left the Indians’ underlying social structures and customs untouched when they brought over industri...

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... attain independence from the British. Headrick’s argument that is evident in his approach to outline the positive influences that the British had on Indians. Though the British, by utilizing their technologies to increase economic prosperity, strengthen security, and suppress early revolts, seemed to dominate the region of India, they began to show weakness once the Indians were able to show promise in their handling of British technologies. Their economic involvement within British India, the Indians were able to use their educated minds to promote nationalism. This sense of unity was spread via means of British media, resulting in demographic strife that would prove problematic for the British hold over their Indian region.

Works Cited

Daniel Headrick, “A Double-Edged Sword: Communications and Imperial Control in India”, Historical Social Research, 35:1 (2010)