The British Raj in India: Doomed From the Beginning?

The transfer of ruling power in India from the East India company to the British Empire occurred during the First Indian War of Independance in 1857–58. Through this bloody action, British Crown Rule was established in India and, in my opinion, would characterize its existence. By establishing rule through military action, Britain created an immediate social chasm between itself and the Indian nationals. Especially relevant was the portrayal of barbarism by Indian rebels in the British media in the aftermath of the rebellion. Stories of rape and brutality by Indian sepoys were used to justify extreme measures of retaliation by the British army.

I find it ironic how the Indian caste system was considered barbaric by British elites but was actually mirrored by a British society deeply rooted in class separation. The social segregation created in India was perhaps best described by E.M. Forster’s book “A Passage to India”, which exposes the hypocrisy of British rulers in India as well as their fear of Indians and their desperation to maintain control on the sub-continent.

An important factor to keep in mind when thinking of the British Raj is that a full two-fifths of the subcontinent was not directly ruled by the Crown. The Raj entered into co-operative agreements with over 500 principalities. Aside from providing a very lucrative market for the British Empire, India supplied a large standing army with no expense to the British taxpayer. Despite all its material potential, the most valuable resource in India may have been inexpensive human labour. The caste system ensured that the Raj would only have to co-operate with the upper echelons of Indian society in order to have hundreds of millions of people at their utter disposal. For me, this is characteristic of a chronic failure in the British Empire, which was their treatment indigenous colonial subjects mirroring their own social and political strife.

Sources:

Essential histories, The Indian Rebellion 1857–1858, Gregory Fremont-Barnes, Osprey 2007

Kim A. Wagner (2010), The great fear of 1857: rumours, conspiracies and the making of the Indian Mutiny, Peter Lang