British Rule in India CHAPTER 14: SECTION 3

Sepoys  Sepoy : Indian soldiers hired by the British East India Company  Protected company’s interests in the region  Company involved in political/ military affairs

Sepoy Mutiny  1857 distrust of British led to revolt called the Sepoy Mutiny  Indians call if the First War of Independence  Neutral observers call it the Great Rebellion

Sepoy Mutiny Cont’d  Rumor of unsacred rifle cartridge  Sepoys refused to load their rifles with cartridge  Britain charged them with mutiny, humiliated them and put them in prison  Enraged sepoys in Meerut  Went on rampage killing 50 Europeans  Indian troops loyal to British and British troops crushed the rebellion  Sepoys hindered by religious differences and lack of organization

Effects of revolt  Indians massacred 200 defenseless women at Kanpur in a building known as the House of Ladies  British recaptured Kanpur and took their revenge before executing the Indians  After this, shift in power from British East India company directly to the British government  In 1876, Queen Victoria took the title Empress of India and India became her “Jewel in the Crown”  Rebellion failed but fueled Indian Nationalism

British Colonial Rule  Viceroy : British official who was a governor that ruled as a representative of a monarch  British civil service staff assisted viceroy, people ruled 300 million  British ruled directly after the Sepoy Mutiny

Benefits of British Rule  Order and stability  Fairly honest and efficient gov’t  New school system (but only upper-class elite Indians, remaining 95% were uneducated and illiterate)  Railroads, telegraph, postal service, etc.

Costs of British Rule  British manufacturers destroyed local industries i.e. textiles  Zamindars were local officials sent by British to collect taxes (took advantage by increasing taxes causing peasants to lose their land)  30 million Indians died of starvation by 1900 (Britain wanted cotton produced not food)  Disrespect for Indian race led to Indian nationalism

Indian Nationalists  Many Indian Nationalists were upper-class and English-educated  Many from Bombay, Madras and Calcutta  Indian National Congress (INC)   Small group of Indians met in Bombay (did not demand Independence, instead called for share in governing process  Had difficulty because of religion (Hindu vs. Muslim)

Indian Nationalists Cont’d  Mohandas Gandhi :  Learned of exploitation of Indians in South Africa  Returned to India and led India to independence  Nonviolent resistance (civil disobedience)  Improve the lot of the poor

Colonial Indian Culture  Nationalist newspapers used to arouse mass support  Reached the lower-middle class  Rabindranath Tagore : most famous Indian author among many other things like singer, painter, etc. (see book p. 471)  Tagore’s mission was to promote national Indian consciousness