UPSC CSE PYQs

• • “What kind of administrative change was introduced in India under the East India Company?” [1993, 60m]
• • “The object of the Act (Regulating) was good, but system that it established was imperfect.” Comment. [2004, 20m]
• • “The Dual System of Government was a complete failure from the outset. In the first place, the abuse of the private trade reached a greater height than ever. In the second place, the demands of the Company for the increase led to gross oppression of the peasantry.” Examine. [2014, 20m]

Between 1757 and 1857, as the British conquered and annexed different parts of the country, they were faced with the difficult question of how to govern these territories. Changes were frequently made to the administrative structure that British East India Company established in India.

It was essentially a continuous process of experimentation, adjusted and readjusted either in accordance with the economic/ideological developments taking place at the time in Great Britain or in accordance with the peculiar on-the-ground realities that the Company encountered in India.

Approach to understanding Colonialism

While studying colonialism, one should keep following things in mind:

• • Although colonialism was basically an economic relationship between the mother country and a colonized country, it affected the political, social & cultural structure as well.
• • Some scholars consider colonialism as a catalyst for modernization in developing societies, while others emphasize its detrimental effects on economic and social structures, creating lasting underdevelopment. Colonialism was a series of contradictions i.e. poverty vs. development phenomena. The essential intended impact of the colonialism is backwardness and poverty, but its unintended impact was ‘development’.
• • Colonialism should be studied as a structure, not as a policy. In other words, the policy can change with the change of officers, but the structure remains the same.
  • ◦ There may be some change in the policies of individual administrators, whether Lord Hastings or Bentinck, Lytton or Ripon. But it doesn’t affect the basic colonial structure.

Colonialism can be divided colonialism into three phases:

• • Mercantilist phase
• • Industrial phase
• • Financial phase

The British policies towards India must be studied in the context of colonial interests. All the administrators from Clive to Curzon were guided by the same motive.

Limited Objectives of the Mercantile Phase (1757-1813)

This phase unfolds after the battle of Plassey and that of Buxar.

Objectives

• • Minimize bullion imports (Discourage the drain of precious metal to India)
• • Maximize revenue to invest in trade and commerce.

Policies

Although the colonial relation was basically an economic relation, it influenced political, social and cultural structure as well. During this phase, the British company followed a specific political, administrative and socio-cultural policy towards India.

• • Political Policy:
  • ◦ Ring Fence Policy
  • ◦ Subsidiary Alliance.
  • ◦ Wars were waged only for commercial interest, otherwise avoided.
• • Administrative Policy:
  • ◦ Not interested in major restructuring of the existing administrative structure. Preferred to maintain the existing Mughal structure with certain modifications.
  • ◦ Maintenance of law and order at the minimum possible cost
  • ◦ Make extraction of revenue efficient.
  • ◦ Thus,
    • ■ Clive didn’t bother to take the administration of Bengal directly into his hands.
    • ■ Warren Hastings tried to plant British elements on the Mughal system, yet he wasn’t ready to overhaul the whole structure.
    • ■ Lord Cornwallis was guided by a sense of British egoism i.e. belief in supremacy of British institutions.
    • ■ Lord Wellesley tried to strengthen the British rule by centralizing power, codifying laws, and giving sound basis to the fledging bureacracy.
• • Economic Policy:
  • ◦ Origin of drain of wealth
  • ◦ Decline of handicraft industries.
• • Socio-cultural Policy:
  • ◦ Maintain traditional social structure.
  • ◦ Orientalism

(1) Robert Clive’s Reforms

Dyarchy or Dual Government (1765-72)

Clive’s solution of the political tangle of Bengal was the setting up of the infamous Dual System whereby the Company acquired real power while the responsibility for administration rested on the shoulders of the Nawab of Bengal.

• • EIC received Diwani of Bengal directly from the Mughal emperor.
• • Clive chose not to usurp the Nizami rights directly. However, since the Nawab had become the puppet of the Company, EIC chose to control Nizamat indirectly.

Thus, the Company acquired the Diwani functions from the Emperor and the Nizamat functions from the Subahdar of Bengal.

At this time the Company was neither willing nor able to undertake the direct collection of revenue.

• • For the exercise of Diwani functions, the Company appointed two Deputy Diwans, Mohammad Reza Khan for Bengal and Raja Shitab Roy for Bihar.
• • Mohammad Reza Khan also acted as Deputy Nazim.

This system of government came to be remembered as Dual System or Dyarchy, i.e., rule of two, the Company and the Nawab. In actual practice, the Dual System proved a sham, for the East India Company exercised all political power and used the Indian agency merely as an instrument for their purposes.

Clive was fully conscious of the fact that all power had passed into the hands of the Company, and nothing was left to the Nawab except the name and shadow of authority. “This name”, wrote Clive to the Select Committee, “this shadow, it is indispensably necessary we should seem to venerate”.

Reforms in Land revenue system

• • Heavy enhancement in land revenue (almost doubled)
• • Indian revenue collectors continued but they were now under the supervision of inexperienced/untrained European authorities → excessive corruption.

Impact of Dyarchy

The system of dual government established by Clive in Bengal was a miserable failure. In this system, all the powers were enjoyed by company and responsibility of administration was in the hands of Nawab, who had neither resources nor authority to perform admin functions because of which a situation of anarchy developed in Bengal.

The company misused its authority to exploit the peasants, artisans, and traders.

• • Administrative breakdown: Owing to the impotence of the Nizamat, the administration of law and order virtually broke down and the administration of justice was reduced to a farce
• • Traders/Merchants
  • ◦ Indian merchants and traders were forced to pay different types of duties.
  • ◦ The Company’s servants virtually monopolised the internal trade of Bengal and would undersell the Indian merchants in the local markets.
  • ◦ Gomasta grain trade monopoly.
• • The artisans and craftsmen were:
  • ◦ Forced to sell their goods at cheap rates and purchase raw material from company at high price.
  • ◦ William Bolts, a contemporary, wrote about the various and innumerable methods of oppressing the poor weavers which were duly practised by the gomastahs in the country, such as by fines, imprisonments, floggings, forcing bonds from them etc.
  • ◦ They were forced by company to work at very low wage and at times without any wage at all, to escape this exploitation many craftsmen cut their thumb.
  • ◦ The craftsmen were forced to divulge their traditional crafts secrets.
• • Decline of agriculture:
  • ◦ The class hardest hit by the new system was the peasantry. The burden of land revenue was enormous on peasants. Tax farming (to highest bidder) was used to maximize the collection, it led to the exploitation of poor peasants.
  • ◦ The Bengali peasant suffered from the evils of over-assessment, harshness of collection and was subjected to the worst exactions by government officials. Peasants did not have any protection against the exploitative activities of English company.
  • ◦ Finally, it led to the failure of crops and smallpox epidemic.
• • Thus, the result of Dual Government was the impoverishment of Bengal’s economy.
• • From the British perspective, all of this led to the massive drain of wealth.
• • However, in India, this extreme exploitation resulted in massive famine in Bengal in 1770.

Company’s response to Famine of 1770

• • The Company was not responsible for the famine but it and its agents were largely to blame for a complete collapse of government. W.E.H. Lecky describes the plight of the people in the following words: “Never before had the Indians experienced a tyranny which was so skilful, so searching and so strong...”
• • Neither the Nawab nor the Company cared for the welfare of people. (Adam Morrisette)
  • ◦ There was a massive negligence.
    • ■ “When the famine of 1770 was looming on the horizon, the East India Company largely forgot all of their duties as Diwan, except those that produced a profit.”
  • ◦ Servants of the Company added to the misery of the people by trading and profiteering in essential articles of foodstuff.
    • ■ “Furthermore, if the agents of the East India Company had, in fact, bought up all the rice in anticipation of a dearth, they had gone far beyond shirking their duties as Diwan; they had grossly abused their position with no regard for the Bengalis that were, technically, under their protection.”
• • Clive’s Responsibility (William Dalrymple)
  • ◦ “Clive established an exploitative, extractive system that channelled all the profits of India back to Britain.” “While he was not in India during the famine, he had set up a system that failed to respond to the famine.”
• • It proved to be one of the worst events in the history of mankind, in which one-third of Bengal’s population perished (70 lakh to 1 crore).
• • Even after the onset of Famine in 1770, the company kept on ruthlessly collecting the revenue with equal rigour and vigour till 1772.

K. M. Pannikar very aptly remarks that during 1765-1772 the Company established a ‘robber state’ in Bengal and plundered and looted Bengal indiscriminately. During this period British Imperialism showed its worst side in India and the people of Bengal suffered greatly.

Response from London

• • As long as the Company kept paying taxes and customs, and the payment was a huge money for the British treasury, no one asked too many questions.
• • However, the reforms of Clive were a fiasco. They ruined not only the industry agriculture of Bengal, but also consequently ruined company finances and exports. Thus, both the revenue and trade of the Company were adversely affected.
• • Only when the profits sank in 1772, and the EIC had to go to the Bank of England to borrow, the questions began to be raised.
• • It was happening exactly at the time when individual company servants were going back home with huge wealth. While the servants of the Company were making huge profits, the Company itself was on the verge of insolvency.
• • At that point in 1772, when the American war was about to start and there is huge corruption going on in England, the old nobility became sensitive.
• • Thus, there were two issues that drove the London politics in 1773, the revenue fall leading to loss of profit and the rich nabobs who were corrupting London culture.

Actions taken

• • When Warren Hastings was appointed as the Governor of Bengal in 1772
  • ◦ He was shocked to see the condition of the people. Thus, he abolished the system of dual government.
  • ◦ Thus, the famine hastened the end of dual governance in Bengal, and the Company became the sole administrator.
• • In London, the parliament was recalled considering the issue of the survival of the Company. In return for salvaging the Company finances and to streamline administration, the Regulating Act of 1773 was passed.

The Regulating Act 1773

It represents the first attempt of the British Parliament to regulate EIC’s activities in India.

Background

• • As the EIC emerged as a territorial power in India, an intense struggle broke out in Britain as to whose interest the newly acquired empire would serve.
• • The acquisition of political power by the Company also had an adverse reaction in Great Britain.
  • ◦ There grew the fear that the newly rich nabob class might be able to influence British Parliamentary politics by dint of their economic power and thereby disturb the balance of British democracy.
• • Although the Company had emerged as an important political power in India, at the same time company was losing badly as a commercial entity.
  • ◦ Spending on wars, corruption in private trade and famines had led to huge losses. Thus, the Company was in dire need of credit just when its activities began to be scrutinized and had applied to the government for a large loan.
  • ◦ By 1772, it was verging on bankruptcy and had applied for a loan of 1 million pounds from the British government.
• • At that time, imperial policies began to be seriously questioned against the backdrop of problems that Britain was facing in keeping its American colonies under control.

Thus, it became necessary to determine the framework of Company’s Government in India and to exert some control on it. By the Regulating Act of 1773, the parliament sought to regulate the Company to a limited extent.

Provisions

• • Home:
  • ◦ The Directors of the Company were duty-bound to submit before the British Government all correspondence relating to civil, military and revenue affairs in India to enable it to monitor the management of the empire.
  • ◦ The Company’s organization in London was streamlined under this Act by restricting the voting rights of shareholders.
    • ■ This was done firstly by limiting the vote to those who held minimum £1,000 worth of stock. Besides, the shareholder had to be in possession of the stock for at least one year to qualify for voting.
    • ■ Members of the court of directors were to be elected for a period of four years. One fourth of the members were to retire every year and stay out of office for a minimum duration of one year before they could seek re-election.
• • The Act laid down that the Government of Bengal would be headed by the Governor General and a Council comprising 4 members. All civil and military authority was vested in the governor general and his council.
  • ◦ Hereafter, the Governor of Bengal came to be known as the ‘Governor-General of Bengal.’ Warren Hastings was the first Governor-General of Bengal.
  • ◦ The Governor-General was required to run the Government of Bengal according to the decisions taken in the council by a majority vote.
  • ◦ The Governor-General had no power to overrule the decision of the Council, though he had a casting vote in case the house was divided equally on a given issue. Each had a five-year term.
• • It recognized the precedence of the Bengal Presidency (‘Presidency of Fort William in Bengal’) over the two other presidencies.
• • The Act also provided for the establishment of a Supreme Court in Calcutta to administer justice to the Europeans and their employees.
  • ◦ Sir Elija Impey became the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1774.

Outcome

The attempt of the British Parliament to develop a remote-control mechanism to regulate the Company ended in a failure. The Act had certain inherent loopholes which created problems in the running of administration.

• • Under the provisions of the Act, it was not possible for the Governor-General to act independently.
  • ◦ The numerical composition of the council (four members in addition to the governor general) constituted under the 1773 Act rendered the governor general vulnerable in case three of the members combined to oppose him.
• • The Regulating Act intended to make the Governments of the Madras and Bombay Presidencies subordinate to the Governor-General of Bengal. But, in reality, the control of the Governor General over the other two Presidencies was inadequate.
• • Though the Act created the Supreme Court, it did not clearly indicate the specific power of the said court vis a vis the Governor-General-in-Council.
  • ◦ Later, the Amending Act of 1781 fixed the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to the city limits of Calcutta and Europeans only.
• • The Regulating Act failed to resolve the friction between the Company and its rival groups in England. The opponents of the Company continued to exert pressure on the Parliament to discipline the Company.

Although the Act was a well-meant attempt to introduce a better system of government, being designed in ignorance of the real nature of the problem, it contained several anomalies. It had neither given the state a definite control over the Company nor the Directors a definite control over their servants, nor the Governor-General a definite control over his Council nor the Calcutta Presidency a definite control over Madras and Bombay. Thus, it only added to Hastings’ difficulties instead of strengthening his hands.

Later, the anomalies were sought to be rectified through a subsequent legislative measure, enacted in 1784 (Pitt’s India Act).

(2) Warren Hastings (1772-1785)

“Hastings provided a coherent shape to a state of which Clive had only sketched an outline, and he successfully defended that state almost singlehanded with hardly any help from home against a concerted Indian attack.” – Percival Spear

• • He became the first Governor-General of Bengal (1773).
• • Abolition of Dual Government
  • ◦ The Diarchy was abolished and the Company in 1772 assumed the direct responsibility of the revenue administration of Bengal.
  • ◦ ‘the Dewanee being ours by right, and the military and political affairs by Prescription’, Warren Hastings.
  • ◦ By implication, the Company, also became in charge of the judicial administration as well.
  • ◦ Now, the Company had to shake off its commercial nature to some extent and begin to assert the authority of a state. Thus started the initial shape to the British administration in Bengal for future.

Economic Reforms

• • Financial Reforms: Transferred the royal treasury from Murshidabad to Calcutta.
• • Toll Tax Reform: Hastings opened up and incentivized inland commerce by ending the dastak system, reducing taxes and standardized collection of duties.
  • ◦ Hastings was much more successful in his commercial reforms. Trade was opened up for everybody. These changes stimulated trade.
  • ◦ At the same time, Hastings established the lucrative trades in salt and opium as monopolies for the Company.
• • Monetary Reforms: Hastings controlled the issue and value of silver coinage, establishing coins from the year 1773 as the base value for all future rupees. He also centralized the production of siccas in the Calcutta mint, and abolished the old custom of annual depreciations on circulating coin.
• • Land Revenue Reforms: Farming System (for maximization of revenue)
  • ◦ It was the phase of trial and error. Many experiments followed in quick succession.
  • ◦ Initially: a five-year scheme (1772-76). The auctioning system was carried out under supervision of diwans and European collectors.
    • ■ It proved to be a failure, didn’t make revenue stable, and adversely affected agriculture. Both peasantry as well as agriculture were affected.
  • ◦ Course-correction:
    • ■ Hastings now consciously discouraged zamindars/intermediaries whom he considered as vested interests who absorbed money.
    • ■ To gather systematic information about the different aspects of the Indian agrarian structure he appointed the Amini Commission in 1776.
  • ◦ After five years, in 1777, the five-year settlement was abolished. A new one-year scheme with role for zamindars was introduced.
  • ◦ The system of revenue collection under Hastings was by no means direct rule, but it did introduce a new principle in the idea of European superintendence of Indian agency. In the actual control of the revenue management, Hastings was not satisfied, achieving a little more than a series of unsuccessful experiments.

Judicial Plans of 1772, 1774

Hastings viewed the judicial plan as an essential corollary to the revenue farms. It was supposed to establish a competent network of law courts which would assist in the liquidation of debts at interest, deal with disputes between raiyats and farmers or between farmers and government officers, and to decide on questions of inheritance.

Thus, Warren Hastings (and later Lord Cornwallis) introduced a series of Judicial Plans, beginning in 1772. These plans established a hierarchy of courts and designated officials who were to decide matters, taking help from advisors who were well-versed with the parties’ personal laws. This system formed the basic framework for the system of courts that we have today.

• • As per the Regulating Act 1773, he established the Supreme Court in Calcutta in 1774.
• • Hastings established a hierarchy of civil and criminal courts (Development of The Adalat System).
  • ◦ To make adalats accessible, he divided Calcutta, Orissa and Bihar into six divisions with several districts each.
  • ◦ There was an Office of the Remembrancer, who had to record all cases at all levels and was under the direct supervision of the Governor-General.
• • Separation of courts handling criminal and civil cases
• • For criminal cases, Qazis and Muftis were appointed.
• • Civil district courts under Indian officials were setup.
• • Separate laws for Hindus and Muslims in civil justice.
  • ◦ It safeguarded the personal laws of Hindus and Muslims. The cases relating to inheritance, marriage, caste etc. were to be decided according to the laws of Quran with regard to Muslims, and laws of Shastras with respect to the Hindus.
• • Codification of laws:
  • ◦ The idea was to retain, as far as possible, the native magistracy and codes of law, recorded and oral, to which the people had become accustomed. The plan aimed at correcting the defects without destroying the traditions of the local systems.
  • ◦ Hastings believed that the legal practices of the earlier regime were irregular and arbitrary. He wanted fixed and immutable laws for greater efficiency.
  • ◦ In 1773, Warren Hastings appointed ten Brahmin pandits from Bengal to compile a digest of the Hindu scriptural law in four main civil matters—marriage, divorce, inheritance, and succession. Thus, a series of law codes such as ‘Code of Gentoo laws’, ‘Colebrook’s Digest’ etc. came into existence.

Despite the limitations and flaws, Warren Hastings is considered as the father of modern judiciary in India.

Impeachment Trial of Warren Hastings in the British House of Commons

In 1785, Hastings was accused of rampant corruption, abuse of office and blackmail by Sir Philip Francis and Edmund Burke. The impeachment trial went on for about a decade from 1774 to 1784. Finally, he was acquitted.

Pitt’s India Act 1784

The various limitations of the Regulating Act and the increasing pressure of the rival groups on the East India Company in England encouraged the Government of Britain to pass the Pitt’s India Act in 1784. By this Act, The British Government was finally able to tighten up its grip over the Indian administration.

According to the provisions of this Act:

• • Established a system of dual control on the Indian affairs. (most imp feature)
  • ◦ A Board of Control comprising 6 commissioners was created. The Board of Control was to work in a supervisory capacity on behalf of the parliament.
    • ■ The Board of Control had no independent executive power. It had no patronage. Its power was veiled; it had access to all the Company’s papers and its approval was necessary for all despatches that were not purely commercial.
  • ◦ However, it was the Court of Directors that actually governed the Indian empire.
    • ■ The Court of Directors retained its control over commerce and patronage, but only with the approval of the Crown could it appoint its principal servants in India, such as the governor general, governors and the commander-in-chief.
  • ◦ Normally, instructions would be sent out to India by or via the court of directors, but there was a provision for bypassing CoD and conveying orders directly to Fort William through a ‘secret committee’.
• • The Pitt’s India Act elevated the status of the Governor-General to a very large extent and in this sense, it was an improvement upon the Regulating Act. It made the Governor-General in India a royal appointment while his authority over his Council and over the Presidencies was somewhat enhanced.
  • ◦ The governor general’s council was reconstituted by reducing its strength from 4 to 3. More powers were concentrated in the hands of the governor general so that his authority might not be constrained by the council.
  • ◦ The Bombay and Madras Presidencies were subordinated to Bengal in all matters relating to war, diplomacy and revenues in unambiguous terms.
• • Thus, a clear hierarchy of command and more direct parliamentary control over Indian administration was established.

The significance of the Pitt’s India Act lies in the fact, that, hereafter, the East India Company became an organ of the broader British national interest. India was to play a subservient role in the interest of the British ruling class.

An effective and authoritarian instrument of control was thus put in place, which continued till 1858 with only little modifications.

According to Prof. PE Roberts, this Act ‘converted the Company into a quasi-state department’ and rendered its final abolition in 1858 merely ‘a formal and explicit recognition of facts already existing’.

Socio-cultural Policies: Orientalism

UPSC PYQs

• • “Orientalism produced a knowledge of the past to service the needs of the Colonial States.” Elucidate. [2011, 20m]

“Every accumulation of knowledge and especially such as is obtained by social communication with people over whom we exercise a dominion founded on the right of conquest is useful to the state… it attracts and conciliates distant affections; it lessens the weight of the chain by which the native are held in subjection and it imprints on the hearts of our countrymen the sense and obligations of benevolence.” – Warren Hastings

“Many of the advances in the sciences that we consider to have been made in Europe were in fact made in India, centuries ago.” – 19th century British historian Grant Duff

“If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered over the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions of some of them which well deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kant, I should point to India.” – Max Muller

The victories at Plassey and Buxar and acquisition of the Diwani rights opened a new chapter in the life of the East India Company.

Imperialism did not merely create structures of political and economic domination. In order to legitimize this domination, they had to create a series of stereotyped images and ideas on which basis the legitimacy of Imperial control could be established.

In the early stage of imperial rule, in the second half of the 18th century, the imperial attitude towards India is known as Orientalism. The years from 1770s to 1820s under British colonial rule in India can be described as the golden era of Orientalism.

Meaning

• • Orientalism believes in the study of the east.
• • Ideology:
  • ◦ Sensitive and sympathetic approach towards Indian past and culture.
  • ◦ Though Indian culture is different from European, it is not inferior to it.
  • ◦ Orientalists appreciated the rich heritage of Indian past.
• • Policy: Encouraging the British officials to learn Indian languages to become acclimatized in Indian conditions to become assimilated in the Indian environment.

Reasons

• • Administrative Need:
  • ◦ British had decided not to interfere in the history and culture of people they had conquered. However, under the leadership of Warren Hastings and his friends, they embarked on an intellectual project to learn more about the country they were ruling. This project was in consonance with the needs of governance.
  • ◦ The Company was clever enough to understand that an adequate knowledge of India’s culture, religion, history, language, social structure was necessary to keep India under its thumb. It was all the more necessary as the ruled (Indian) people were entirely different from their rulers (the British) in terms of culture, religion and history.
• • Political logic: Orientalism in British policy was the consequence of a relatively weak empire.
  • ◦ At that time, the British were not so confident about the future of the empire, they had to come to terms with powerful Indian classes, Indian beliefs and practices.
  • ◦ Not to antagonise the popular consciousness in Bengal: The idea was to minimize opposition from Indians as well as win Indian collaborators. For that, British wanted to rule in India, as Indian rulers would, using Indian notions and customs.
• • Economic rationale: Limited objective of Mercantilism
  • ◦ Focus on trade – maximize revenue to finance Indian trade. Thus, need to avoid any unnecessary expenses and responsibilities like social reform.
• • Intellectual Pursuit
  • ◦ The establishment of British rule in India was roughly coincidental with the development in Europe of a strictly scientific spirit in historical reconstruction (enlightenment spirit). A highly critical attitude in the treatment of the sources had come in the wake of the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth Century, a revolution which had brought about Enlightenment attitude itself.
• • Socio-cultural Mileu:
  • ◦ The first generation of British civil servants were from ordinary backgrounds, they were not meant from aristocratic classes. They came to make fortune. They came usually at a young age and became more assimilated naturally in the Indian environment.

Orientalist Initiatives

Indology may be defined as the scientific study of data relating to Indian history and culture, a study in which little emphasis is laid on the political aspect. The missionaries—particularly the Jesuits had begun the Indological quest long before the British efforts in that direction. But the missionary scholars, for all their studies made no real attempt to know the historical background of the culture of the people among whom they worked, for in them, the religious motive had a preponderance over the historical.

In this area of work, the first name that occurs is that of Alexander Dow, who wrote History of Hindustan during the period of 1768. Actually, this work was based on a Persian book called Tehrikh-e-Ferozeshahi. Dow gave a detailed description of the culture and religion of the Hindus.

The first major initiative on the part of the government was taken when in 1772 Warren Hastings became the Governor of Bengal. (Knowledge for Governance)

• • He fully understood the need for detailed information about the tradition, culture and social behavior of the people of India in the very beginning of his rule. His idea was that British need to know India better to be able to rule India better.
• • Warren Hastings didn’t believe that India didn’t have any laws. Unlike his contemporaries, he believed that India had its own traditional legal system which is required to be understood. Hastings made it clear that in respect to inheritance, social behaviour and contracts, these ancient codes would work as the main reference book.
  • ◦ On the initiative of Warren Hastings, a code of law was developed for Hindus with the help of pandits and old scriptures of India. It was published in 1776 by N. Halhed titled A Code of Gentoo laws.
• • So, British needed to learn the languages.
  • ◦ There were Sanskrit colleges or madrasahs where Persian studies, and Sanskrit studies were encouraged.
  • ◦ Establishment of Calcutta Madrasa (1784) and Benaras Sanskrit College (1794), Sanskrit College Calcutta (1824)
  • ◦ These institutes emphasized on the indigenous education and knowledge system, and were funded by the Company.

It was during the same period that William Jones, the primus among the Orientalists, came to India.

• • His role as a supreme court judge led him to learn Sanskrit and translate Manusmriti in English.
• • Sanskrit Literature
  • ◦ William Jones translated Abhijnana Shakuntalam in English and said that Kalidasa was the Shakespeare of India.
• • Comparative Religion
  • ◦ He compared the European past with the present of India. E.g. Indian deities were compared to Roman or Greek gods and goddesses. So, William Jones was the progenitor of a discipline of comparative religion.
• • Philology
  • ◦ To establish a certain commensality between Indians and the Europeans, William Jones came up with the idea of the Indo-European language family.
    • ■ He said in 1786, ‘Sanskrit language, whatever may be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure, more perfect than the Greek and more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either. Yet bearing to both a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar than could possibly have been produced by an accident.’
  • ◦ So, comparative language was also another very important contribution of William Jones.
• • Institutional work
  • ◦ He was also instrumental in founding an organization called Asiatic Society in 1784 in Calcutta. The birth of the Asiatic Society was an event of momentous importance. Jones extended to Indology the methods of organized scientific research then spreading in Europe. It was consciously modelled on the Royal Society in London and it ushered in the age of scientific and specialized study in Indian history and culture. Thus, the Oriental intellectual project was institutionalized.
    • ■ The Asiatic Society became a centre for organized research and hundreds of articles on Indian antiquities were published in its Journal. Systematic attempts were made to search for old manuscripts, and translations and critical editions of important texts on Indian history and culture were published in the Bibliotheca Indica series.
  • ◦ He also started an academic journal called the Asiatic Researches under the auspices of the same society. That journal became a chief medium for the publication of serious research work.

Jones certainly represents the best that oriented his scholarship had produced at that stage. The Asiatic Society’s unremitting labor bore its first fruit in important translations from Sanskrit literature:

• • William Jones: Shakuntala (1789), Geet Govindam, Manusmriti (published posthumously), Hitopadesha.
• • Henry Colebrooke: Translation of Samkhya Karika, a book on Sanskrit Grammar, Essay on Vedas (1805)
• • Charles Wilkins: Bhagvad Geeta (1785), Hitopadesha (1787). He also wrote a book on Sanskrit Grammar.
• • William Carey: Ramayana
• • HH Wilson: Meghdootam, Vishnupurana
  • ◦ He also wrote Sanskrit-English dictionary, Survey of Indian theatre/drama, compilation of local ayruvedic traditional practices, catalogue of Mackenzie collection, and updation of Mill’s History of India.
• • Codification of Indian laws: Henry Colebrooke: Digest of Hindu Laws (unfinished by William Jones, published in 1801), Law of Inheritance (both Mitakshara and Daybhaga)

Thus, the interest in understanding India’s past, her geography, mineral and natural wealth began at the turn of the 18th century for the purpose of trade and commerce. Later on, it became more serious research and the documentation of India’s history, the study of birds, animals, trees and plants.

Key institutions: Calcutta Madrasa (1781) • Asiatic Society, Bengal (1784) • Sanskrit College, Banaras (1791) • Fort William College, Calcutta (1800) • Asiatic Society, Bombay (1804) by Sir James Mackintosh • Indian Museum, Calcutta (1814)

Fort William College, Calcutta (1800)

It was established for the purpose of training of Civil Servants. With this, Lord Wellesley attempted to give professional training to the European Civil Servants and make them efficient. The idea was to teach the fresh British recruits so that they can understand the Oriental Culture, tradition, law and administration.

• • Most of the British officers stationed in India were guided by Orientalism here. Lord Wellesley himself designed a three-year course of study for fresh recruits (between 16-18 years old upon arrival in India).
• • Many of the pioneers of orientalist studies and scholars associated with the Asiatic Society were associated with this institute.
• • By 1805 the college had become a veritable laboratory where Europeans and Asians worked out new transliteration schemes, regularized spoken languages into precise grammatical forms, and compiled dictionaries in languages relatively unknown in Europe.
  • ◦ Along with the Asiatic Society of Bengal, this college was the centre of the creation of colonial knowledge.
  • ◦ Thousands of books translated from Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Bengali, Hindi, and Urdu into English.
  • ◦ The college was instrumental in publishing dictionaries, grammar textbooks, and translations.

Impact and Significance

• • Orientalist scholars had deep interest in the history, culture and religion of the Indian people. It inspired a number of colonial administrators to collect and collate a huge amount of research materials in respect of the Indian society and culture. For example, Thomas Munro, John Malcolm Colin Mackenzie in South India, G. Duff in Maharashtra, James Todd in Rajasthan had collected valuable information pertaining to their respective areas.

Their work led to many great historical discoveries:

• • With the discovery of Indo-European language family and the idea of Aryan Race, Jones had demonstrated the importance of linguistic studies in historical inquiry.
• • Beginning of modern sciences of comparative religion, modern philology, comparative mythology etc disciplines.
• • Not only for India, it was a major breakthrough in the world history.
  • ◦ They attempted to link up the history of India with that of Europe. They lay great emphasis on the common sources of the people of India with those of Europe.
  • ◦ A.A.MacDonnel: “Since the Renaissance there has been no event of such worldwide significance in the history of culture as the discovery of Sanskrit literature in the latter part of the eighteenth century.”
  • ◦ By a supreme irony of history even as India was helplessly passing under British rule, the British Orientalists were holding up before the world an image of the Indians as one of the creative peoples of the world with an impressive continuity of development and civilization for more than three thousand years.

Orientalism by Edward Said

Edward Said, in his book Orientalism (1978), argued that the Orientalist scholars of the eighteenth and the nineteenth century pursued their studies in respect of the Eastern countries on wrong hypotheses and intellectual formulations. According to Said:

• • Their understanding of the people of Asia was based on prejudices. It established as an ideology which:
  • ◦ Created a set of ideas/images and underlined a certain unbridgeable difference between the East and the West.
  • ◦ It was done to establish inferiority of the East. The west was considered superior racially, intellectually, scientifically, technologically…
  • ◦ These ideas were imposed by a imperialist authority from above on a weaker society.
  • ◦ Thus, it created a justification for the presence of the imperial western power.
  • ◦ Therefore, oriental knowledge was not an outcome of the innocent curiosity but the production of colonial knowledge, these scholars were working in the interest of the Western countries.

Orientalism outlined the basic features of the East, to help distinguish East and West (idea of difference)

• • Culture of despotism: There was widespread impression among a section of the European scholars that while in Europe a civilised monarchy flourished which allowed people enough property and rule of law to accumulate wealth, in India, it was the Oriental despotism that led to its decadence.
  • ◦ Oriental despotism didn’t allow people private ownership leading to wealth generation. Also, due to the despotic nature of polity, there was no scope for rule of law.
  • ◦ Some Orientalist scholars tried to remove such misunderstanding through their studies.
• • Changelessness: Indians were resistant to change. This idea of changelessness would recur repeatedly.
  • ◦ The major weakness of the Orientalists was that they were not interested in taking into consideration the ‘deterioration’ in the old Indian cultural tradition. Thomas Metcalf believes that the basic flaw in the Orientalist way of looking at the Indian situation was that they had refused to consider and analyze the Indian historical developments that took place after the ancient India.

Negative effects of Orientalism

• • Scriptural Supremacy
  • ◦ Orientalist scholars pinned their faith in the ancient books and scriptures of India as they looked upon them as the main source of Indian culture and civilization.
• • Monopoly over knowledge → Distortion
  • ◦ These were not simple translations, but they have encoded within them the power structures. With this, British gained Monopoly over interpreting Indian culture to promote colonial interest.
  • ◦ The colonial administration did not want to interfere much in the social and religious life of the people of India. Still, the attempts at collection, collation and categorization of data led to interference and distortion.
  • ◦ Examples:
    • ■ Indians more indulged in other-world, religion and spiritualism thereby neglecting this world. Centrality of religion became the basic underlying theme.
    • ■ Max Muller declared that whereas for Greeks, life was full of joy, and it was real, for Indians it was simply an illusion.
• • They believed in the golden period of the ancient Indian history. They painted the picture of regressive and degenerating present of India to gain legitimacy.
  • ◦ However, they did not concern themselves with the basic question as to what extent those old social and cultural values were relevant in their times.
• • Uncritical understanding of the past → Distortions
  • ◦ Colonial understanding of the caste system in India. William Jones translated Manusmriti (1784) which greatly impacted the colonial policy.
    • ■ In the initial years of the colonial rule, the administrators believed that the traditional code of law should be adhered to as long as it did not go against the colonial rule. Such an understanding led to a widespread acceptance of Brahminic tradition.
• • William Jones’s notion of the language-race nexus and the theory of the Aryan race has now been generally discarded. The theory, however, came to have a harmful influence on future thought.
  • ◦ The belief in the superiority of the white Aryan race became a basic assumption of European imperialism everywhere.
  • ◦ The interpretation not only contained an explanation of upper caste superiority, but also suggestion of an Aryan-Dravidian racial divide. Future revelation and research would caste many of these assertions into the realm of motivated fancy.
  • ◦ The race theory in the hands of the British imperialist historian also came to mean that everything of value in Indian life and culture, at least above reproach in European eyes, was of European origin.
• • While being appreciative/discerning about Indian knowledge, Orientalists did not raise any big question mark against European culture, civilisation and their epistemology and ontology. So, they were not oblivious of the interests of colonial rule.

Thus, Orientalist school played a crucial role in the initial evolution of the colonial knowledge and policy, which in turn gave stability and legitimacy to it. But it is equally true that the policy also strengthened the retrogressive forces of the Indian society.

Financial Phase (1858-1947)

The British Colonialism in India is categorised into three phases:

• • Mercantile Phase (1757-1813): During this phase Europeans were competing with each other to buy Indian finished products and earn hefty profits by selling them to Europe. So British had to depend on British bullion to buy Indian goods which was a drain of wealth on their economy. This led them to annex Bengal in order to earn Indian bullion which could be reinvested into Indian trade.
• • Industrial Phase (1813-1857): Industrialization was well established in Britain by now and thus it converted India into a supplier of raw materials and buyer of finished British products through discriminatory policies.

3. Financial phase (1858-1947):

• • As the Industrial revolution reached saturation in 1850s, Britain faced the problem of middle income trap – rise in wages and industrial expenses but less potential for profits through investment.
  • ◦ Thus, British investment needed other avenues. In this scenario, India with its vast resources emerged as the obvious choice.
• • Secondly, the revolt of 1857 gave the rude shock to British colonial enterprise in India.
  • ◦ Thus the era of self-confident annexation within the framework of “New Victorian imperialism” was discarded and new cautious policy was adopted.
  • ◦ British also realised the anger caused by liberal social reforms and henceforth worked consciously in what is known as Conservative liberalism. It looked on to befriend conservative and elitist sections of the society in order to have a strong alliance within the Indian society.
• • Thirdly, Britain’s monopoly over Industrialization had ended as many other countries like France, USA, Germany etc. had started emerging on the horizon. But Britain did not want to lose its monopoly over Indian commerce.
  • ◦ As such the British enacted a mechanism of tariff and non-tariff barriers to maintain the monopoly.

These factors motivated Political, administrative, economic and cultural policy of the British in India.

Political Policy

Industrial phase	Financial phase
Imperialism was supported by territorial expansion through war and unequal alliances.	During Financial phase too, British had to maintain their Paramountcy but it was based on unequal partnership.
British Paramountcy relied either on direct or indirect political control.	The direct rule of the crown was established to solve the issue of absentee rule of British monarch.
British supported liberal reforms such as Abolition of Sati and Widows’ Remarriage Act.	Now it focused on conservative liberalism which only created an impression of reforms but were meant to further British control.

1. Queen’s Proclamation (1st November, 1858):

It was organised at Allahabad. Although the Queen did not attend herself but she sent a dispatch to be delivered to the Chamber of Princes organised by Viceroy Lord Canning.

He announced that from then onwards:

• • No Indian state shall be annexed – This convinced Indian ruling classes that from now onwards the sovereignty will lie in the hands of the queen herself and they will not have to deal with annexations.
• • No forcible religious conversion should take place – It was a sigh of relief for conservative class.
• • No discrimination in the recruitment for the services – It was aimed at conciliating middle classes. They will not face discriminations in civil services or other jobs.

The significance of the Queen’s Proclamation was that:

• • It clearly established the British Queen as the sovereign of the whole of India.
• • It ended the policy of the Imperial expansion.
• • It helped British in securing the loyalty of Indian rulers
• • It dispelled the fears of orthodox Indians scared of Christianization
• • It indicated emerging middle class that they could flourish under the policy of non-discrimination under British rule.

2. Act for the Better Government of India, 1858:

• • Company’s rule ended. All its positions, assets, liabilities and privileges were transferred to the crown. British Crown was converted from an outsider to insider.
• • India Council/office headed by new cabinet minister Secretary of State consisting of 15 member replaced Board of Control – It meant that Government of India would work as an extension of the Imperial Government. Secondly, British government would have an absolute control over all its functionaries.
• • The Governor General of India was given the additional title of Viceroy. While Governor General of India was overall in charge of British administration in India, Viceroy means the direct representative of British crown towards Princely states.
• • It Formalised the beginning of Crown’s rule and marked the beginning of British Raj. It also created the emotional link between British crown and princely states and provided the continuation of British Paramountcy.

3. Indian Councils Act, 1861:

• • Although the Act introduced the Principle of representatives of non-officials in legislative bodies, still it was practically confined only to elite sections of the Indian society in order to secure their loyalty towards the British rule.

4. Royal Titles Act, 1876

During Viceroyship of Lord Lytton.

• • According to it, the power to confer titles among individuals to Government of India.
• • Accordingly, in Delhi Durbar of 1877, the title of ‘Kaiser-i-Hind’ (Empress of India) was conferred to the British Queen.
• • Similarly, hierarchical gun salutes were decided for Indian rulers according to respective titles.

It was significant because:

• • It transformed the British Queen from an outsider to the insider in the context of British Raj.
• • It integrated the Indian rulers into a common hierarchy subordinate to the Viceroy.
• • It created an avenue for the integration of ordinary Indian into the imperial aristocracy.

5. Indian Councils Act, 1892

The Act tried to enlarge the representation to Provincial Assemblies through indirect election (without actually using the word election). However, members were recommended by Universities, District boards, Municipalities, Zamindars, trade bodies and Chambers of Commerce which again belonged to the elite section. Thus, there was a conscious attempt to keep the masses away.

6. Policy of Befriending the Indian Princes

Canning noticed that Indian rulers had actively helped the company during the revolt and thus adopted this policy to ensure their continued loyalty.

• • Princes were guaranteed support and protection against external and internal threats.
• • Secondly, they were assured that British would not interfere in their internal matters.
• • Thirdly, they were also offered cooperation in commerce, defence and communication.
• • Superficially it seemed to be a major departure from the predatory attitude of Dalhousie but in reality, it represented more continuity than change.
  • ◦ The initiative defense, communication and commerce were monopolised by the British. Indian states virtually surrendered their prerogatives.
  • ◦ The real aim was to benefit British rule because on the one hand this made Indian rulers complacent vis-à-vis their responsibility as they had the assured support of British and on the other hand, the actual rule was exercised by British residents.
  • ◦ Also, the impression of rule of Indian rulers shifted the blame of misgovernance on the native princes.
• • However, British carried stick in the other hand as in 1870 Lord Mayo made the protection conditional on good governance. In reality, they even interfered in internal affairs of the Princely states. Secondly, in 1900, Curzon denied visa application of Indian princes on account of poor governance.
• • Gradually, the rise of nationalism took the national movement to the princely states under the banner of Praja Mandal movement. In 1927, All India State People’s Conference was established under the leadership of Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru thus furthering the integration of princely states with India.
• • As per the recommendations of the Harcourt-Butler Committee and Simon Commission, GoI Act of 1935 provided for the All India Federation but conditional on the approval by stipulated number of Princely states which did not happen thus proving the symbiotic relation between British and the Princely states.
• • While the national movement was trying to integrate Princely states into Pan Indian movement, the British tried to halt the process for their strategic interests:
  • ◦ They acted as Colonial collaborators;
  • ◦ Allowed the British to pass off their responsibility of providing governance;
  • ◦ Helped the British during severe crises such as both world wars;
  • ◦ Allowed British to enforce their trade regimes;
  • ◦ Allowed the British to keep the nationalists divided.
• • The same attitude was continued by British throughout 1940s:
  • ◦ Cripps Proposal – Princely states would nominate members to the Constituent Assembly. It was not accepted by Congress.
  • ◦ Cabinet Mission Plan – Similarly, the right to nominate was given to Princely states.
  • ◦ Attlee’s Proclamation (Feb 1947) – “It is not the objective of His Majesty’s Government to force the Princely States to merge with Indian Government”. The British Government was thinking of creating a constant problem for Indian nationalists.
  • ◦ Mountbatten Plan (3rd June 1947) – also provided Princely states three options:
    • ■ Join Indian Union
    • ■ Join Pakistan Union
    • ■ Remain Independent
  • ◦ It was only as a result of compulsion that the British finally accepted that maintenance of Princely states as independent domains would no longer be possible. It was due to:
    • ■ The inability of the British to protect the princely states following the second world war
    • ■ Growing pressure from the USA and the USSR to decolonize India
    • ■ Practical weaknesses of the Princely states politically, strategically, geographically, economically and defensely.
• • Chambers of Indian Princes Meeting (Delhi July 1947) – Mountbatten clarified that independence of the Princely states is a ‘mirage’. Thus by this time British guarantee of independence of Princely states was weakening.
  • ◦ The Principle of Geographical Proximity was laid down as per which Princely states should merge either with Indian or Pakistani Union considering their Geographical closeness.

Conclusion: This way British colonialism entered its financial phase post 1857 and thus began the process of ‘drain of wealth’ which became a major issue of national movement. However, British managed it by befriending elite sections such as Princely states.

Administrative Policy

British Administrative policies were guided by two objectives:

• • To maintain effective control over India
• • To reduce discontent among Indians.

It was important because:

• • To prevent another revolt;
• • To suppress nationalism;
• • To protect Indian markets from other industrialised nations.

1. Secretary of State for India:

After the revolt of 1857 the Indian Administration was taken over by the British crown, and a post of Secretary of State for India was constituted. He was assisted by a council of 15 members.

• • Initially it was difficult for the Secretary of State to supervise the Indian administration due to lack of transport and communication.
• • However after the development of modern transport and communication this problem was solved. For e.g.
  • ◦ In 1869 Suez Canal was opened. Thus Arabian Sea was directly linked to Mediterranean Sea.
  • ◦ Steamships made travel easier and faster.
  • ◦ Furthermore, by 1870 the undersea cables were laid, directly linking India and Britain.
  • ◦ Indian Postal system, Telegraph and Railways’ infrastructure introduced by Lord Dalhousie penetrated deeper to integrate the nation further.

2. Act for the Better Government of India, 1858

Through this, the offices of Governor General of India and Viceroy was merged and was authorised to oversee the postings, transfers and promotions of British residents and agents of Princely states thus aligning the administration of British government with Princely states.

3. Indian Councils Act, 1861

• • Portfolio System introduced by Lord Canning was accepted. Thus each Executive Councilor was given a specific portfolio such as finance, military, communication, public welfare etc.
• • Secondly, all Executive Councilors were made directly responsible to the Governor General of India.
• • Beginning of Legislative devolution – Legislative powers were vested in Government of Bombay and Madras (later in Awadh and Punjab as well) thus reversing the peak of centralisation reached in 1833.
• • Principle of Representation of Non officials in legislative bodies became accepted.
• • Laws were to be made through deliberations.

However the Act contained following limitations:

• • Councils could not discuss important matters and no financial matters without government’s approval;
• • Legislative councils possessed no real power with no control over budget at all;
• • It could not discuss executive action;
• • Passage of bill needed Viceroy’s approval;
• • Indians associated as non-official members were only from elite sections thus only allowing loyal members to enter.

4. Legislative Devolution:

The process began through the Act of 1861. It was conveyed that it was done to strengthen Provincial administration.

• • However, lack of resources with provincial governments only constrained their power.
• • Secondly, the central British government could shift the blame of maladministration to provinces thus relegating its responsibility.

The process of devolution got further boost in the 1870s when Mayo started the policy of financial devolution i.e. the right of taxation and finances were also given to the states. Later Lytton and Ripon further encouraged it.

The Government of India Act of 1919 finally led to the demarcation of power between the central list and state list.

It was the Government of India Act of 1935 which accepted the provision of Provincial autonomy leading to almost complete decentralisation, the principle on which federalism is still working in India.

5. Military Reforms:

The revolt of 1857 forced British to introduce changes in the military structure. The following measures were taken:

• • A better balance was created in the army between the European and Indian elements. For e.g. the ratio of European soldiers to Indian sepoys in Bengal army was increased from 1:4 to 1:2.
• • The post of officers was secured in the hands of the British.
• • Artillery was placed only under British command.
• • Policy of balance and Counterpoise – Indian regiments were consciously created in the name of region and caste so that national consciousness should not develop among soldiers.
• • It was observed that ordinary Indian sepoy was nothing but ‘Peasant in Uniform’ and it was felt necessary to check this connection. Thus it was attempted to isolate sepoys from ordinary peasants – separate townships, separate schools for their children, separate canteens for shopping etc. which are continuing even till today. Secondly, it was even tried to separate sepoys ideologically from ordinary citizens.
• • The concept of Martial and non-martial races was introduced. It discouraged recruitment from Awadh and Bengal claiming that these ‘rice eating’ people are weaker than ‘wheat eating’ people of North West and western India. Whereas actually the motive was to control Awadh and Bengal as they were the hotspots during the great revolt. This was another instrument of ‘divide and rule’.

6. Nationalist sentiments:

• • So under Lord Ripon, the government introduced the Principle of Local Self Government and Indians were allowed in the local administration.
• • Although British apologist scholars hailed this as British benevolence but in actual sense this decision was guided by following objectives:
  • ◦ Through the provision of local self-government they were looking to shift the poor governance on Indians.
  • ◦ It would save the government from the accusation that it was doing nothing for development.

7. Reforms in the Civil Services:

• • The civil services consisted of two types:
  • ◦ First was the Covenanted Civil Services (1793) introduced by Lord Cornwallis which represented the highest positions and was exclusively reserved for British officers.
  • ◦ Indians could join only the second category i.e. Uncovenanted Civil Service (1853). The same year Civil Services Examinations were provided.
  • ◦ In 1856, 1st Civil Service Examination was conducted. However there were significant challenges:
    • ■ No simultaneous examination. It could only take place in Britain.
    • ■ Secondly, the subjects were highly Anglicized and syllabus was deliberately prepared in a manner to exclude Indians.
    • ■ Discrimination was observed against Indians during personality test.
• • Lord Lytton introduced Statutory Civil Service in 1878-79 through which 1/6th of the Covenanted posts were to be filled by Indians of high families through nominations by local governments subject to approval by Secretary of State and Viceroy. The system was designed to introduce only ‘noble blood’ into the administration that would remain loyal to the British. However, the system failed. In fact, Lord Lytton also reduced the maximum age for Civil Service Examinations from 21 to 19.
• • In 1892, Statutory Civil Service was abolished. This was in response to the demands of Indian nationalists.
• • Alternatively, it was provided that some officers of the PCS will be promoted to the ICS after a given period.
• • It was only through Government of India Act 1919 that the demand for separate exam (not simultaneous) was accepted. First such exam was conducted in 1922 at Allahabad. From this time onward number of Indian civil servants started increasing reaching above 40% by the 1940s. This Indianised bureaucracy played an important role in ousting British and also provided the much needed administrative continuity post-independence.

8. Police Reforms

Before the 1860s, the concept of military police was prevalent because the purpose was to control rebellions rather than maintaining law and order. But by this time, change was necessitated.

• • Thus a Police Commission was appointed in 1860 and Indian Police Act, 1861 was enacted on its recommendation. It paved the way for civilian police.

Civil Constabulary	Village
Sub Inspector	Thana
Inspector	Circle
Superintendent of Police	District
Deputy Inspector General	Range
Inspector General	Province

Another Police Commission was appointed in 1901 and it recommended greater representation of Indians at both lower and higher levels in the police system. However, it was not implemented effectively.

9. Famine Policy:

Famine was a recurring phenomenon of colonial rule. In the first century of colonial rule, more than hundred small and big famines had occurred across the British Empire.

• • It was the major cause for peasant discontentment that had played an important role during the great revolt.
• • However, the British could easily ignore the Indian suffering since famines affected isolated regions and the suffering was largely limited to the poorer sections who had no political representation.
• • Following the revolt of 1857 this began changing as Indian nationalism began taking route along with the development of the Indian press.
• • Thus the British came under the increasing pressure to address the problem of recurring famines. As a consequence three famine Commissions were appointed:
  • ◦ Strachey Commission (1880)
  • ◦ Lyall Commission (1896)
  • ◦ Mc Donnel Commission (1901)

Each of them was constituted after the outbreak of a major famine. This reveals that the British did not have any proactive policy to address famines. Rather they were adjusting to the rising nationalist pressure.

In response to the recommendations of these commissions different famine codes were introduced with the following general provisions:

• • Automatic suspension of rent/revenue collection.
• • Food/fodder supply in the affected areas to be ensured by the state.
• • Alternative sources of income should be encouraged.
• • Rehabilitative grants/loans.
• • Improve transport and communication infrastructure.

Nationalist scholars argued that famine is primarily a man-made phenomenon resulting from administrative failure such as:

• • Inability to address food shortages by organising additional supplies
• • Inability to prevent black marketing and hoarding leading to artificial shortages.
• • Insensitive administration including depriving communities of essential services and assets that may be crucial for their survival.
• • Insufficient attention towards the development of agriculture resulting in high dependence on rainfall;
• • Lack of economic diversification resulting in higher vulnerability;
• • Excessive burden of taxation resulting in poverty, landlessness and indebtedness.
• • Nationalist scholars further argued that contrarily the colonial argument that Indian poverty was the result of frequent famines, the reverse is actually true. Recurring famines are a product of Indian poverty for which the exploitative colonial administration is solely to blame.

The British due to their flawed understanding of the phenomenon of famines continued to ignore this problem and then after the great revolt, the problem of recurring famines continued unabated with major famines occurring in 1876, 1880, 1896, 1900, 1910, 1914, 1922, 1928, 1936, 1943 and 1947.

Peasant discontent was also resulting from their exploitation by other Indians such as Zamindars and moneylenders which prompted the colonial administration to introduce certain acts:

• • Bengal Tenancy Act, 1859 which provided protection against summary evictions of tenants by Zamindars for non-payment of rent and other dues.
• • Deccan Agriculturist relief Act, 1879 which provided that property of an individual could not be confiscated for non-repayment of loans. Further defaulter could not be arrested.

10. Press Policy

In any modern society, the press plays an important role in educating the masses and spreading critical awareness among them. It acts as a check against the misuse of powers against the state functionaries and institutions and acts as an advocate of the general public interest.

• • Further the press lays a crucial role in shaping the public opinion and mobilising it towards the political action.
• • As expected from the very beginning, the attitude of the alien exploitative British colonial regime towards the Indian press was extremely hostile. Thus colonial policy toward the Indian press was always characterised more by restrictions rather than freedoms.

This restrictive approach is evident in the series of the draconian colonial legislations as follows:

• • Vernacular Press Act, 1878
• • Criminal law (Amendment) Act, 1898
• • Official Secrets Act, 1904
• • Indian Press Act, 1908
• • Defence of India Regulation Act, 1915
• • Press ordinances (1919, 1921, 1930 etc.) claimed in the backdrop of major mass movements.

Despite these restrictions the nationalist press emerged as an effective tool not only to criticise the failures of the colonial administration but also to propagate the nationalist sentiments and draw out in masses during mass movements.

In the twentieth century, radio emerged as another prominent tool of nationalist propaganda. It was used by the Indian masses to reach the masses directly.

• • During the Quit India Movement, an absolute radio blackout was imposed. However, in some pockets, revolutionaries such as Usha Mehta succeeded in operating a secret radio service by bypassing the colonial surveillance before being ultimately captured.