• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

MODERN INDIAN HISTORY COURSE: I COLONIAL STATE AND EMERGENCE OF NATIONALISM Complementary Course BA Economics/Sociology/ English II Semester (2011 Admission onwards) UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCAATION Calicut University P.O. Malappuram, Kerala, India 673 635 377 7 School of Distance Education UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION Study Material Complementary Course for BA Economics/Sociology/ English Programmes II SEMESTER MODERN INDIAN HISTORY (AD 1857-1992) COURSE: I Colonial State and Emergence of Nationalism Prepared and Scrutinized by: Dr.N.PADMANABHAN Associate Professor P.G.Department of History C.A.S.College, Madayi P.O.Payangadi-RS-670358 Kannur District.-Kerala Layout : Computer Section, SDE © Reserved Modern Indian History‐Course I 2 School of Distance Education UNIT CONTENT PAGE I REVOLT OF 1857 5-42 II ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS UNDER THE CROWN 43- 53 III ECONOMIC IMPACT OF BRITISH RULE 54-66 IV SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS OF THE 19TH 67-114 CENTURY V EMERGENCE AND FUNCTIONING OF NATIONAL 115-140 ASSOCIATIONS VI CHALLENGES AND RESPONSES 141-156 Modern Indian History‐Course I 3 School of Distance Education Modern Indian History‐Course I 4 School of Distance Education UNIT-I REVOLT OF 1857 Arrival of European Traders Indian trade links with Europe started in through sea route only after the arrival of Vasco da Gama in Calicut, India on May 20, 1498. The Portuguese had traded in Goa as early as 1510, and later founded three other colonies on the west coast in Diu, Bassein, and Mangalore. In 1601 the East India Company was chartered, and the English began their first inroads into the Indian Ocean. At first they were little interested in India, but rather, like the Portuguese and Dutch before them, with the Spice Islands. But the English were unable to dislodge the Dutch from Spice Islands. In 1610, the British chased away a Portuguese naval squadron, and the East India Company created its own outpost at Surat.This small outpost marked the beginning of a remarkable presence that would last over 300 years and eventually dominate the entire subcontinent. In 1612 British established a trading post in Gujarat. As a result of English disappointments with dislodging the Dutch from the Spice Islands, they turned instead to India. In 1614 Sir Thomas Roe was instructed by James I to visit the court of Jahangir, the Mughal emperor of Hindustan. Sir Thomas was to arrange a commercial treaty and to secure for the East India Company sites for commercial agencies, -"factories" as they were called. Sir Thomas was successful in getting permission from Jahangir for setting up factories. East India Company set up factories at Ahmedabad, Broach and Agra. In 1640 East India Company established an outpost at Madras.In 1661 the company obtained Bombay from Charles II and converted it to a flourishing center of trade by 1668. English settlements rose in Orissa and Bengal. In 1633, in the Mahanadi delta of Hariharpur at Balasore in Orissa, factories were set up. In 1650 Gabriel Boughton an employee of the Company obtained a license for trade in Bengal. An English factory was set up in 1651 at Hugli.In 1690 Job Charnock established a factory. In 1698 the factory was fortified and called Fort William. The villages of Sutanati, Kalikata and Gobindpore were developed into a single area called Calcutta. Calcutta became a trading center for East India Company. Once in India, the British began to compete with the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the French. Through a combination of outright combat and deft alliances with local princes, the East India Company gained control of all European trade in India by 1769. In 1672 the French established themselves at Pondicherry and stage was set for a rivalry between the British and French for control of Indian trade. Battle of Plassey - On June 23rd, 1757 at Plassey, between Calcutta and Murshidabad, the forces of the East India Company under Robert Clive met the army of Siraj-ud-Doula, the Nawab of Bengal. Clive had 800 Europeans and 2200 Indians whereas Siraj-ud-doula in his entrenched camp at Plassey was said to have about 50,000 men with a train of heavy artillery. The aspirant to the Nawab's throne, Mir Jafar, was induced to throw in his lot with Clive, and by far the greater number of the Nawab's soldiers were bribed to throw away their weapons, surrender prematurely, and even turn their arms against their own army. Siraj-ud-Doula was defeated. Battle of Plassey marked the first major military success for British East India Company. Modern Indian History‐Course I 5 School of Distance Education Battle of Wandiwash, 1760: From 1744, the French and English fought a series of battles for supremacy in the Carnatic region. In the third Carnatic war, the British East India Company defeated the French forces at the battle of Wandiwash ending almost a century of conflict over supremacy in India. This battle gave the British trading company a far superior position in India compared to the other Europeans. Battle of Buxar (1764) marked the final ascendancy of the English in Bengal. After the battle of palassey (I757), the English east India Company was seized with unsurpassable greed, believing that the wealth of Bengal was inexhaustible. The Directors of the company, therefore, ordered that Bengal should pay the expenses of the Bombay and Madras Presidencies and purchase out of its revenue all the company's exports from India. The company was bent upon using its control over the nawab of Bengal to drain the wealth of the province. Mir jafar, the new nawab of Bengal, soon discovered that it was impossible to meet the full demands of the company and its officials who, on their part, began to criticise the nawab for his incapacity in fulfilling their expectations. Therefore, they forced him to abdicate in favour of his son-in-law, Mir qasim, who rewarded his benefactors handsomely. He, however, belied English hopes, and soon emerged as a threat to their position and designs in Bengal. He believed that since he had paid the company and its servants adequately for putting him on the throne, they should now leave him alone to govern Bengal. The English disliked the nawab's attempts to check the misuse of the Farman of 1717 by the company's servants, who demanded that their goods whether destined for export or for internal use should be free of duties. He sought to take measures to stop the company from selling illegally the dastaks or free passes to friendly Indian traders, thereby enabling them to evade internal customs duties and gain an unfair advantage on honest traders. He tried to save the Indian officials and zamindars from being forced to pay presents and bribes to the company's servants, and hoped to make Bengal strong by freeing himself from the company's control. All this was not to the liking of the English. The alien merchants were no longer willing to tolerate equality between themselves and Indians.The truth of the matter was that there could not exist two masters in Bengal. While Mir Qasim believed that he was an independent ruler, the English demanded that he should act as a mere tool in their hands, as they had put him in power. War was inevitable. The conflict was precipitated at Patna where an irascible English chief and an embittered nawab provoked each other beyond endurance. A regular campaign ensued during the summer of 1763, during which the nawab's new army was defeated in four pitched battles. Mir Qasim fled to Patna, and then to Oudh. Here he enlisted the support of Shujauddoulah, the nawab wazir of Oudh, who was joined by the wandering Emperor Shah Alam II. Fighting resumed in the autumn of 1764 and the campaign concluded by the resounding victory of the English at Buxar (in Bihar) on October 22. Shah Alam once more joined the British camp, Shujauddaulah fled to Rohilakhand while Oudh was overrun, and Mir Qasim disappeared into obscurity. Buxar was a decisive battle. It riveted the shackles of company rule upon Bengal. Hitherto they had been rivals and manipulators of existing authority and their power was fortuitous and hedged with doubt. It was now unchallenged and about to receive imperial recognition. Buxar also placed Oudh at the mercy of the company. It marks the final establishment of British ascendancy in Bengal. The nawab depended for his internal and external security on the British. By a treaty signed with the company on 20 February 1765, the titular nawab of Bengal was to disband most of his army and to administer Bengal through a deputy subahdar who was to be Modern Indian History‐Course I 6 School of Distance Education nominated by the company and who could not be dismissed without its approval. The company thus gained supreme control over the administration (or nizamat) of Bengal. From Shah Alam 11, who was still the titular head of the Mughal Empire, the company secured the diwanior the right to collect revenue, of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Thus, its control over Bengal was legalised and the revenues of this most prosperous of Indian provinces were placed at its command. As the diwan, the company directly collected its revenues, while through the right to nominate the deputy subahdar on behalf of the nawab; they had their say in the administration. They controlled the finances of the province and its army directly, and its administration indirectly. Thus the British now had the power without responsibility. The nawab and his officials had the responsibility of administration but not the power to discharge it.

Load more

  159

Copy Link