The British Empire is a state that owned a huge number of colonies. India is one of the British colonies. In this lesson, you will learn how India became a British colony, how it fought hard for independence and finally gained it. And also get acquainted with the outstanding Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, learn about the sepoy uprising and the Indian National Congress.
Rice. 2. Fort William - the first bastion of the East India Company in the east of India ()
England established economic control over India because she needed sources of raw materials and additional funds that could be obtained from Indian citizens thanks to the tax system. This system actually turned into a robbery of the Indian population. For example, in 1769-1770 there was a terrible famine in Bengal(fig. 3). It was connected with the fact that the British siphoned out all resources from India, for example, grain and other foodstuffs. During this famine, at least 10 million people died in India. Such waves of hunger swept through India on a regular basis.
Rice. 3. Famine in Bengal (1769-1770) ()
The British were interested in spreading their influence as widely as possible. They fought active wars with Nepal and Bhutan, annexed Burma.
In 1838-1842. the Anglo-Afghan war passed, during which Emir Dost Mohammad Khan was captured. In 1878-1880. the second Anglo-Afghan war took place... It did not formally lead to the elimination of the independence of this state, but put Afghanistan under British control. This control was all-encompassing.
In India, despite the existence of rajas and padishahs (the title of eastern Muslim sovereigns), the British controlled absolutely everything.
Delhi was captured by the British East India Company in 1803. Padishah was offered a deal: he receives a certain salary, which was paid to him regularly and was quite substantial, in exchange for giving up political influence in the state. The padishah agreed to such conditions, because, in fact, he had no choice. As a result, with the formal preservation of the power of the Great Mughals, the country began to be ruled by the British.
Until 1911, the main city of India was Calcutta(fig. 4). It was an important city from an economic point of view, as well as the largest port in India, through which it was most convenient to communicate with Britain (Fig. 5).
Rice. 4. Government House in Kolkata ()
Rice. 5. Port in Kolkata ()
The Indian population did not like the fact that the real political power in the country belongs to the British.... But during the first half of the 19th century, there were no serious unrest in India. Local rajahs formally continued to control their principalities and suppress any actions, no matter how radical they were.
But in 1857 a powerful uprising was raised,the most important and significant... It went down in history under the name sepoy revolt(fig. 6). It is considered one of the first measures to achieve Indian independence. Sepoys are the local military... It is generally accepted that of the roughly 300,000 British soldiers, only 20,000 were British. All the rest were local residents. In fact, the sepoys took power into their own hands. They forced padishah BahadurII, who was 82 years old, to sign a decree restoring real imperial power... That is, they demanded that Bahadur II abandon the agreement with the British, according to which his power in the country was liquidated.
Rice. 6. The uprising of the sepoys in 1857 ()
In response to the actions of the sepoys, the British brought additional troops into India. In 1858, these troops stormed Delhi, and Shah BahadurIIwas captured.
The sepoy revolt was suppressed in the most brutal way(fig. 7). Mass executions have become a common feature of the suppression of protests for the indigenous population of India.
Rice. 7. Shooting sepoys ()
However, during the Sepoy uprising, the British drew conclusions for themselves with regard to India.
In the same 1858 year when the uprising was finally suppressed, the act was adopted Better Governance of India... Under this act, the authority of the British East India Company in India ceased. India turned into an ordinary colony of England. In fact, this meant that direct British rule was being introduced in India. That is, from that moment on, it was no longer possible to shift the blame for the failures of British colonization onto the trading company.
With the adoption of this act, the economic development of India received a new impetus. But this development was one-sided. Only factories for the processing of raw materials were built in the country: cotton and jute factories. The railways, which the British began to build, were oriented towards transporting raw materials to ports and from there to Great Britain or other British colonies. But even such economic development should have contributed to the progress of social relations in India.
It was at this time India is beginning to be called "the main diamond in the British crown." However, the payment for this diamond had to be very high. In India, the British used the divide and conquer method of government. They, as before, relied on the power of the rajas, who from time to time were turned against each other. They distributed land, political privileges, but at the same time played on contradictions, of which there were many in India. In addition to ethnic ones, there were also religious contradictions in India. This is due to the existence of states with different religions: some were dominated by Hindus, while others were dominated by Muslims.
Concerning social relations, working conditions in India were appalling, while labor legislation already existed in England. The 80-hour workweek was the norm in India. This means that the working day lasted more than 10 hours, even if there were no days off.
The local Indian intelligentsia continued to disagree with Britain's use of its colony this way. In 1885, the intelligentsia decided to unite in order to start a struggle for self-government. In 1885, the Indian National Congress party was created (it exists to this day, only with a changed name, and is the ruling party). The leaders of this party demanded for India self-government. This term in local languages sounds like Swaraj. India had a small chance of gaining this self-government, because then all economic power in India would pass into the hands of the local bourgeoisie, which England could not allow.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the leader of the INC (Indian National Congress) party becomes Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi(fig. 8). In India, he received the nickname Mahatma - "great soul." He continued to fight for the unification of the country and for its self-government. For this he used the experience of the struggle of other countries. The events in Russia had a great influence on the Indians (meaning the revolution of 1905, and then the February and October revolutions of 1917).
Spices and various goods that could not be found in Europe came from Muslim merchants from India to Europe. Many merchants wanted to find a sea one in this country. The British also joined the attempts to find India in the 15th century. In an attempt to find this country, they discovered the island of Newfoundlen, explored the east coast of Canada and discovered North America. And already in 1579, Thomas Stephens became the first Englishman to come to India.
The beginning of colonization
The first English East India Company was organized in 1600. By decree of Elizabeth I, a joint-stock company was created to establish trade in India and colonize it. The first trade travels were directed to the Indian archipelago, rich in spices, but soon the first trade agency was organized by the British in Masulipatam.
In 1689, the company decided to obtain territorial possessions in India. To monitor the conduct of hostilities, as well as declare peace or war, the Governor General of India was appointed.
War with France
The only serious rivals of the British were the French and the Dutch, who also fought among themselves. Until 1746, the French and British colonies got along peacefully, but their relationship changed. The focus has shifted from trade to political. The struggle for primacy began, the governors brought troops from Europe and recruited natives. They also got involved in wars with native possessions and quickly proved the superiority of the European army.
Their first clash in India happened in 1746 in Carnatica and ended in the defeat of England. In this clash, the British lost Madaras, their only possession in the south was the Fort of St. David. In 1748, the British besieged Pondicherry, the main French possession, but the siege was unsuccessful. With the help of the Aachen peace treaty, the British reclaimed Madaras. The French governor Dupley decided to make a French empire in India. He put his candidacies on the throne of Hyderabad and Arcot, which temporarily earned him authority in the south. The British put forward their candidacy for the throne of Arcot, this was the beginning of a new war. Neither side managed to gain victory from 1750 to 1760, but in 1761 the British defeated the French at the Battle of Vandivash, captured Pondicherry and the French surrendered.
At the end of the 18th century, parliament began to increasingly interfere in the affairs of the East India Company and in 1858 a law was passed according to which the power in the colony belonged to the representative of England in the status of viceroy and the lands seized by the British began to be called British India.
Rise of the Sepoy
For successful hostilities, troops were needed and the East Indian Colony began to use sepoys - specially trained Indian soldiers.
The main reason for the revolt of the sepoys was the very fact of colonization. The spread of English power, the transition to a new order of life, the huge taxes levied by the British, the inaccessibility of high positions for the natives in the service of the company.
The uprising began on May 10, 1857 in a military camp at Meerut. The sepoys freed the prisoners from the prison and began to beat all the Europeans they met, and then went to Delhi, which they captured by the morning together with Aud and Lower Bengal.
The cities of Punjab, Madaras and Bombay and the Mohammedan state of Hyderabad remained loyal to the British government. A month later, the British began to besiege Delhi and after 6 days took the city, Lucknow was also liberated from the rebels.
Although the main city was taken, and the main part of the rebellion was suppressed, uprisings in various parts of India continued until 1859.
World War I
India itself was not affected by the hostilities, but the soldiers of the Indian army took part in hostilities in Europe, Asia and Africa.
The largest Indian army was sent to Mesopotamia in 1914. There, the soldiers were sent inland, but in 1915 they were defeated at Ctesophon and were forced to retreat to El-Kut. There the Indians were besieged by Ottoman troops. They surrendered in April 1916. Later, additional Indian units arrived in Mesopotamia, in March 1917 they captured Baghdad. After that, they were part of the battles until the conclusion of the Mudross Armistice.
In March 1915, Indian troops took part in the offensive at Neuve Chapelle; in the fall, most of the Indian units were sent to Egypt.
The war brought many changes to India. Since 1916, the colonial authorities of Britain made concessions to the demands of the Indians, abolished the excise tax on cotton and began to appoint Indians to officer positions in the army, to confer awards and honorary titles on princes. The end of the war brought economic changes. Taxes rose, unemployment worsened, and there were food riots. The country's international position has grown and Indian politicians demanded the expansion of local self-government in the country.
The Second World War
In 1939 Lord Litlingow, Viceroy of India, declared war on Germany without consulting the Indian Congress. High-ranking Hindus resigned in protest against this decision.
In August 1942, Mahatma Gandhi demanded the withdrawal of all British from India, but was imprisoned, and riots broke out in the country. They were suppressed within 6 weeks, but riots continued to erupt until 1943.
Later, the influence passed to Subhas Bose, who had previously left the Congress. He collaborated with the Axis countries in an effort to free India from British influence. With the support of Japan, he organized the Indian National Army. At the end of 1945, soldiers of the Indian National Army were tried, which sparked massive protests.
In 1946, new elections were held. It was decided to divide India, the Muslims demanded the creation of British India as an Islamic national hearth. Clashes broke out between Hindus and Muslims.
In September, a new government is appointed in which Jawaharlal Nehru, an Indian, was elected prime minister.
The British government decided that it could no longer rule India, which was gaining momentum and began to withdraw its army from the country.
On August 15, India was declared an independent state, part of the country the day before was separated and received the name Pakistan.
By the middle of the XIX century. England finally established her dominance over all of India. A complex and contradictory process of Europeanization and modernization began, that is, the introduction of this gigantic colony both to the achievements and benefits, and to the shortcomings of Western European civilization. The Indians did not want to put up with the new order that threatened their traditional way of life.
India - British colony
In response to the colonization of India, a powerful popular uprising of 1857-1859 broke out, which was drowned in blood by the civilized English. After that, the struggle for independence continued by peaceful means until its successful completion in 1947. This is one of the most remarkable features of the history of India in modern and modern times.
Ranjit Singh is the great ruler (maharaja) of the Sikhs. In 1799-1839. united under his rule the Punjab, created a huge state of the Sikhs. After the death of Maharaja Singh, his state began to disintegrate and became an easy prey for the British.
The British conquered India relatively easily, without any special losses, and at the hands of the Indians themselves. The British armed forces, consisting of local soldiers - sepoys, conquered the Indian principalities one after another. The last in India to lose its freedom and independence was the Punjab, annexed to the territory of the East India Company in 1849. It took the British about a hundred years to bring this vast country under their full control. For the first time in its history, India was deprived of state independence.
The country has been subject to conquests before. But the foreigners who settled within its borders tried to adapt to the conditions of Indian social and economic life. Like the Normans in England or the Manchus in China, conquerors have always become an integral part of the existence of the Indian state.
The new conquerors were completely different. Their homeland was another and distant country. There was a huge gap between them and the Indians - the difference in traditions, way of life, habits, value system. The British treated the "natives" with contempt, shunned and shunned them, living in their own "higher" world. Even the workers and farmers who came to India were inevitably ranked here as part of the ruling class. Initially, there was nothing in common between the British and Indians, except for mutual hatred. The British represented a different - the capitalist type of civilization, which could not exist without the exploitation of other peoples.
The British in India. Europeans felt like masters of the country
In part of Indian territory, the British exercised power directly through their administration. Another part of India was left in the hands of the feudal princes. The British retained about 600 independent principalities. The smallest of them numbered hundreds of inhabitants. The princes were under the control of the colonial authorities. It was easier to govern India that way.
Colonial exploitation
India was the crown jewel in the British crown. In the course of the conquests, the enormous wealth and treasures of the Indian rajas (princes) flowed to England, replenishing the country's cash capital. This recharge contributed significantly to the industrial revolution in England.
Outright robbery gradually took the form of legalized exploitation. The main instrument of plundering the country was taxes, which went to the treasury of the East India Company. Indian goods, which used to be widely exported, now have no access to Europe. But British goods were freely imported into India. As a result, the textile industry in India fell into disrepair. The unemployment among artisans was monstrous. People were on the brink of starvation and died in thousands. The Governor-General of India reported in 1834: "The plains of India are strewn with the bones of weavers."
India has become an economic appendage of England. The well-being and wealth of the metropolis was largely due to the plundering of the Indian people.
Anti-colonial uprising 1857-1859
The establishment of British rule over India sharply intensified the plight of the masses. The sane English were aware of this. Here is what one of them wrote: "Foreign conquerors used violence and often great cruelty against the natives, but no one has yet treated them with such contempt as we do."
In the 50s. XIX century. the country was dominated by widespread dissatisfaction with the British. It increased even more when rumors spread about the forthcoming forced conversion of Hindus and Muslims to the Christian faith. Enmity towards the British was felt not only by the poorest strata of the population, but also by part of the feudal aristocracy, petty feudal lords and the communal (village) elite, infringed in their rights by the colonial administration. The sepoys, with whom the British, after the conquest of India, reckoned less and less, were also gripped by discontent.
In May 1857 the Sipay regiments mutinied. The rebels dealt with the British officers and captured Delhi. Here they announced the restoration of the power of the Mughal emperor.
Tantya Topi. Bodyguard Nana Sahiba, one of the most capable military leaders. He became famous for his partisan actions against the British. Was betrayed by Indian feudal lords, extradited to the British and hanged on April 18, 1859
The sepoys' performance was not just a military mutiny, but the beginning of a nationwide uprising against the British. It covered Northern and part of Central India. The struggle for independence was led by feudal lords with the aim of restoring the order that existed before the arrival of the colonialists. And it was initially successful. The power of the British in India hung literally by a thread. Nevertheless, the fate of the uprising was largely decided by the Indians themselves. Not all of them, especially the princes, supported the insurgents. There was no single leadership, a single organization and a single center of resistance. Sipai commanders, as a rule, acted scattered and uncoordinated. Although with great difficulty, the British managed to suppress the uprising.
Nana Sahib - adopted son of the ruler Baji Pao II, one of the rebel leaders
Nana Sahib led the uprising in Kanpur. After the defeat, he left with a part of the sepoys to the border of Nepal. Nothing is known about the further fate. In all likelihood, Nana Sahib died in the impenetrable jungle. His mysterious disappearance gave rise to a lot of rumors. Some believe that Nana Sahib served as the prototype for Captain Nemo in the famous adventure fantasy novels by Jules Verne, in which the French writer foresaw the achievements of future science.
The last effort of feudal India to resist capitalist England ended in complete failure.
While pacifying the rebellious country, the British shot a huge number of people. Many were tied to the muzzles of cannons and torn to pieces. The roadside trees have been turned into gallows. The villages were destroyed along with the inhabitants. The tragic events of 1857-1859 left an unhealed wound in relations between India and England.
The beginning of the Indian Renaissance
After the collapse of the Mughal Empire, cultural development came to a standstill. As a result of the British colonial expansion and continuous wars, painting, architecture, and other arts and crafts fell into decay.
The new masters of India rejected the values of Indian culture and doomed the population to poverty and ignorance.“One shelf of English books is worth more than all the native literature of India and Africa put together,” one British official said cynically. But the British could not do without a small stratum of educated Indians - Indian in blood and skin color, English in taste and mentality. In order to prepare such a stratum in the 30s. XIX century. a small number of European-style secondary schools were opened, in which people from wealthy families studied. Education costs were paltry. As a result, by the time the British left India in 1947, 89% of the population remained illiterate.
Despite the difficulties, the peoples of India continued to develop their national culture. In addition, there was a close contact with the culture of the West. And this served as an important prerequisite for profound transformations in religious and cultural life, called the Indian Renaissance.
Ram Roy
At the origins of the Indian Renaissance is Ram Mohan Roy, an outstanding public figure, reformer and educator of the first half of the 19th century. Compatriots call him "the father of modern India."
Indian art: "Two vendors with their products - fish and sweets." Shiva Dayal Lal is one of the famous Indian artists of the mid-19th century.
Ram Roy was born into a brahmana family. He could lead the measured life of the most learned scientist away from political storms and everyday worries. But he, in the words of Rabindranath Tagore, decided to go down to earth to the common people in order to "sow the seeds of knowledge and spread the scent of feelings."
For several years Ram Roy led the life of an itinerant ascetic. Traveled throughout India and Tibet. Then he became a tax official. After retiring, he devoted himself to literary and social activities. He opposed the reactionary rites and customs of the Hindu religion, against caste prejudices, idolatry, the barbaric custom of self-immolation of widows (sati) and the killing of newborn girls. Influenced by his advocacy for the abolition of sati, the English government banned this rite.
IT'S INTERESTING TO KNOW
Heroine of the Indian people
Among the leaders of the anti-colonial uprising of 1857-1859. the name of Lakshmi Bai, the princess (rani) of the small principality of Jhansi, stands out. After the death of her husband, she was rudely removed from the administration of the principality by the British. When the uprising began, the young princess joined the leaders of the rebels Nana Sahib and Tantya Topi, who were friends of her childhood. She fought bravely against the British in Jhansi. After the capture of the principality by the enemy, she managed to break through to Tantya Topi, from whom she began to command a cavalry detachment. In one of the battles, the twenty-year-old princess was mortally wounded. She was called “the best and bravest” of the rebel leaders by an English general who fought against her. The name of the young heroine Rani Jhansi Lakshmi Bai is especially revered by the Indian people.
References:
V.S.Koshelev, I.V. Orzhekhovsky, V.I.Sinitsa / World history of modern times XIX - early. XX century, 1998.
On Indian territories, about which in Europe in the XV century. there were legends as about the land of miracles, at the beginning Catholic missionaries began to penetrate, and the colonialists came after them. The first colony was founded in Goa by the Portuguese. True, neither the Portuguese nor the French could withstand the competition from the third European power - Great Britain.
The English East India Company, created in the early years of the 17th century, eventually seized all power in India, including control over trade relations, military campaigns, and political events. Along the entire coast of India, the British created fortified trading posts - the future large Indian cities of Bombay, Calcutta, Madras.
The growing energy of Europe rushed to the East, especially to the territory of India, precisely at the moment when the once great state was noticeably weakened politically.
Torn apart by the struggle of the newly emerging states, India was unable to provide a worthy resistance to the British. If at the end of the XVII century. The British suffered several defeats in a row from the troops of the Mughal emperors, and in 1690 the Mughals laid siege to Madras, then with the weakening of the empire, the British began to achieve more and more military successes. The formidable army of the Marathas, being a quite worthy force in the struggle for power in India, has significantly thinned out as a result of strife between the leaders. The British gradually began to gain victories over each of them individually, while they would hardly have won the united Marathas.
In 1757, the British commander Robert Clive, with the help of treachery and intrigue, managed to win the Battle of Plessis and capture Bengal and Bihar. Many researchers of Indian history believe that this year can be considered the beginning of the founding of the British colony in India.
In 1764, the British captured Aud, who for several decades opposed the seizure of Indian territories by the East India Company.
As a result of the Anglo-Maratha, Anglo-Sikh and Anglo-Mysore wars victorious for Great Britain, as well as thanks to the British policy of bribery and blackmail of local rulers, all state associations of India gradually fell under the rule of the colonialists. After defeating the Mysore, the British captured South India and made the former independent principalities of Mysore and Hyderabad their vassals. Having defeated the Marathas, they subdued Maharashtra and the territories of North India to their power. After the defeat of the Sikhs, the East India Company became the owner of Punjab, and later - of the whole of India, and in 1852 Burma was annexed to the British colonial possessions.
Despite the collapse of the Mughal empire, India was in a fairly prosperous state before the start of British rule, and only the British invaders led to the onset of complete chaos in the country. According to the descriptions of contemporaries, at the beginning of the 19th century. India was like Central Europe during the Thirty Years War.
By 1818, all the largest Maratha leaders in Central India recognized the supreme power of the East India Company and the British began to completely own Indian lands, leading the country through the created governing bodies or through puppet princes through the so-called "subsidiary agreements".
History
World War I and its aftermath
Over the course of the war, up to 1.4 million British and Indian soldiers from the British Army in India took part in hostilities around the world, fighting alongside those from dominions such as Canada and Australia. India's international role has grown. In 1920, she co-founded the League of Nations, and took part in the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp under the name "British Indies". In India itself, this led to demands for more self-government, especially among the leaders of the Indian National Congress.
In December 1919, the Government of India Act... The Imperial and Provincial Legislative Councils were expanded, and the executive branch was abolished with the passage of unpopular "official majority" laws.
Issues such as defense, criminal investigation, foreign affairs, communications, tax collection remained under the jurisdiction of the viceroy and the central government in New Delhi, while health care, land leases, and local government were transferred to the provinces. Such measures made it easier for Indians to participate in the civil service, and to obtain officer positions in the army.
Indian suffrage was expanded nationally, but the number of Indians with the right to vote was only 10% of the adult male population, many of whom were illiterate. The British authorities were involved in manipulation; thus, more seats in legislative councils were received by representatives of the villages, who were more sympathetic to the colonial authorities than the townspeople. Separate seats were reserved for non-brahmins, landowners, businessmen, college graduates. According to the principle of "community representation" seats were reserved separately for Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians, Europeans living in India, in the Imperial and provincial legislative councils.
Also in early 1946, new elections were held, in which Congress won in 8 of the 11 provinces. Negotiations have begun between the INC and the Muslim League on the partition of India. On August 16, 1946, Muslims declared a Day of Direct Action, demanding the creation of an Islamic national home in British India. The next day, in Calcutta, clashes broke out between Hindus and Muslims, quickly spreading throughout India. In September, a new government was appointed, in which the Indian Jawaharlal Nehru became the prime minister.
The British Labor government realized that the country, exhausted by the Second World War, no longer had international support, nor the support of local forces to continue to hold on to power over India, plunging into an abyss of intercommunal unrest. In early 1947, Britain announced its intention to withdraw its forces from India no later than June 1948.
As independence approached, clashes between Hindus and Muslims continued to escalate. The new Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, proposed a plan for the partition. In June 1947, representatives from Congress, Muslims, the untouchable community, and Sikhs agreed to a sectarian partition of British India. Areas with a predominantly Hindu and Sikh population drifted to a new India, with a predominantly Muslim to a new country, Pakistan.
The Dominion of Pakistan was founded on August 14, 1947, in which the Muslim leader was appointed Governor General. The next day, August 15, India was declared an independent state.
Organization
The part of the subcontinent under the direct control of the crown (through the Governor-General of India) was called British India proper; it was divided into three Presidencies - Bombay, Madras and Bengal. But the bulk of the territory was represented by "native states" (eng. Native states), or "principality" (eng. Princely states).
The total number of individual Indian principalities thus reached several hundred. British power in them was represented by residents, but in 1947 their own residents were numbered only in 4 principalities. All other principalities united around various regional divisions (agencies, residences). Formally, the "native principalities" were considered independent, and were ruled not by the British, but by local Indian rulers, with British control over the army, foreign affairs and communications; especially important rulers were entitled to a cannon salute when visiting the capital of India. At the time of granting independence to India, there were 565 principalities.
In general, the system consisted of three main levels - the imperial government in London, the central government in Calcutta, and regional governments. The Ministry of Indian Affairs and the Council of India, which consisted of 15 people, were organized in London. A prerequisite for membership in the council was residence in India for at least ten years. On most of the current issues, the Secretary of State for Indian Affairs usually asked the advice of the council. From until 1947, 27 people attended this post.
The head of India was the Governor-General of Calcutta, who was increasingly called the Viceroy; this title emphasized his role as mediator and representative of the Crown before the formally sovereign Indian principalities.
Since 1861, if the government of India needed new laws, Legislative Councils of 12 people have been convened, half - government officials ("official"), half - Indians and local British ("unofficial"). The inclusion of Hindus in Legislative Councils, including the Imperial Legislative Council in Calcutta, was a response to the Sepoy revolt, but this role was usually cast by large landowners, members of the local aristocracy, often appointed for their loyalty. This principle was far from representative.
The Indian Civil Service became the core of British rule.
The uprising of 1857 shocked British rule, but did not derail it. One of the consequences was the dissolution of the colonial troops recruited from the Muslims and Brahmans of Auda and Agra, who became the core of the uprising, and the recruitment of new troops from the Sikhs and Baluchis, who at that time showed their loyalty.
According to the 1861 census, India's British population was only 125,945, with 84,083 military personnel out of 41,862 civilians.
Hunger and epidemics
During the direct reign of the crown, India was shaken by a series of outbreaks of famine and epidemics. During the Great Famine of 1876-1878, from 6.1 to 10.3 million people died, during the Indian famine of 1899-1900, from 1.25 to 10 million people. Modern research directly blames the British Crown politician for the famine.
In 1820, a cholera pandemic swept across India, which began in Bengal, killing 10,000 British troops and countless Indians. In the period 1817-1860, more than 15 million people died, in the period 1865-1917, about 23 million more.
In the middle of the 19th century, the third plague pandemic began in China, which swept across all inhabited continents, killing 10 million people in India alone.
The British physician Hawkin, who worked mainly in India, was the first to develop vaccines for cholera and bubonic plague; in 1925 the Plague Laboratory in Bombay was renamed the Hawkin Institute. In 1898, Briton Ronald Ross, who worked in Calcutta, finally proved that mosquitoes are carriers of malaria. Massive smallpox vaccinations led to a decrease in mortality from the disease in India in the late 19th century.
Overall, despite famine and epidemics, the subcontinent's population grew from 185 million in 1800 to 380 million in 1941.
Economic and technological change
In the second half of the 19th century, India underwent significant changes associated with industrialization and close ties with Britain. In many ways, these changes were prepared before the Sepoy Revolt of 1857, but most of them occurred after the Revolt, and are usually associated with the direct rule of the Crown. The British organized the massive construction of railways, canals, bridges, and laid telegraph lines. The main goal was to more quickly transport raw materials, in particular cotton, to Bombay and other ports.
On the other hand, finished goods produced by British industry were delivered to India.
Despite the growth of infrastructure, very few highly skilled jobs were created for Indians. In 1920, India had the fourth largest rail network in the world with 60 years of history; however, only 10% of the leading positions in the Indian Railways were held by Indians.
Technology has changed India's agricultural economy; increased production of raw materials exported to markets in other parts of the world. Many small farmers have gone broke. The second half of the 19th century in India was marked by outbreaks of mass famine. Famine has happened in India several times before, but this time it killed tens of millions. Many researchers blame it on the policies of the British colonial administration.
Taxes for the majority of the population were reduced. At 15% during the Mughal times, they reached 1% at the end of the colonial period.
Chapter
During both world wars, India supported the British military efforts, but the growing resistance of the local population to the colonialists and the weakening of the mother country led to the collapse of British rule. The empire was unable to stop the campaign of civil disobedience launched in 1942 by Mahatma Gandhi.
The decision to grant India independence leads it to a division into two main states - the Hindu Indian Union (modern India), and the Muslim one - the dominion of Pakistan (the territory of modern Pakistan and Bangladesh). The core of the two states were respectively
