research paper on british raj

Articles on British Raj

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Why some Indians want to change the country’s name to ‘Bharat’

Phillip M. Carter , Florida International University

Bharat: why the recent push to change India’s name has a hidden agenda

Nitasha Kaul , University of Westminster

Ukrainian people are resisting the centuries-old force of Russian imperialism – Ukraine war at 6 months

Ronald Suny , University of Michigan

1918 flu pandemic killed 12 million Indians, and British overlords’ indifference strengthened the anti-colonial movement

Maura Chhun , Metropolitan State University

John Nicholson: the sadistic British officer who was worshipped as a living god in India

Sean Lang , Anglia Ruskin University

Colonialism was a disaster and the facts prove it

Joseph McQuade , University of Toronto

The British Empire’s homophobic legacy could finally be overturned in India

Ibtisam Ahmed , University of Nottingham

Colonialism in India was traumatic – including for some of the British officials who ruled the Raj

Colin Alexander , Nottingham Trent University

The gift of civilisation: how imperial Britons saw their mission in India

David Robinson , University of Nottingham

Related Topics

• British colonies
• British Empire
• Colonialism
• Global perspectives
• Hindu nationalism
• Imperialism
• India partition

Top contributors

Professor of Linguistics and English, Florida International University

Director, Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD), Professor of Politics, International Relations, and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Westminster

Senior Lecturer in History, Anglia Ruskin University

SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for South Asian Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto

Doctoral Researcher, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nottingham

Senior lecturer, Nottingham Trent University

Professor of History and Political Science, University of Michigan

PhD researcher, 19th century British travel literature on India and Italy, University of Nottingham

Community Faculty, Metropolitan State University

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Indian Migration During British Raj: A Literary Scrutiny

Note: Springer has shown interest in publishing this book subject to high standard of content and positive review

Concept Note:

The largest group of Indian overseas immigrants resulted from the export of labour services, with indentured labour emerging as a leading example in this regard. The proliferation of the indentured system was driven mainly by two forces – first and foremost, in the face of strong condemnation on moral grounds from various parties, the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 brought about the abolition of the slave trade throughout the vast British Empire, with some exceptions (Blackburn 1988, 420), which resulted in a labour shortage in the plantation economy of the British overseas colonies. For instance, since the beginning of the 16th century, an era of imperialism brought about the successive annexation of many Southeast Asian countries by British colonialists. These early colonies were sparsely populated, leading the British to set their eyes on India – as a populous neighbouring country, where an abundant labour force with high skills and qualifications prevailed. Moreover, considering the British colonial hegemony in India at that time, it was easier to control and manipulate the Indian immigrants than Chinese or Japanese workers from other non-British colonies.

Transporting labour from British India to the British settlements in Southeast Asia served two purposes, alleviating the population pressure, as well as the domestic class and ethnic conflict in India, and serving as a source of labour for the colonies in Southeast Asia. An apprenticeship system was adopted with the emancipation of slaves that required all enslaved persons to be transformed into “apprentices”, and to continue labouring for their former masters for a period of four to six years in exchange for provisions. It was essentially slavery by another name (Burn 1937; Green 1976), although this new system came with some inherent flaws that led to its later abandonment. The former slaves had a stronger sense of legal and self-protection, and so refused to do their work, protesting the system of gradual emancipation, and demanding immediate and full liberation. To fill the labour “vacuum”, Hugh Tinker noted, The British Empire recruited nearly 15 million Indians from inland cities in northern India and the coastal cities of Eastern India and shipped them to the overseas British colonies as far away as Natal, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad, Suriname and Fiji to replace the former slaves on the sugar plantations. Nearby were places like Malaysia and Sri Lanka in Southeast Asia where Indians were forced to grow tea, pepper, coffee, rubber and palm oil, and to work in tin mining and logging for roads (Tinker 1974, 77).

In nature, they were indentured labour, known more commonly as Coolies or Piglets, and served as cheap labour, subject to the interests of the British colonialists, and with the typical characteristics of colonial subjects. Concerning the source of indentured labour, the early immigrants were Tamils from the Madras region of India, or Eastern Indians from the present-day Bangladesh. In the later period, the majority of immigrants were farmers from the north, such as from the Gangetic plain in Uttar Pradesh. In other words, the indentured laborers came mainly from the coastal areas of south India from the very beginning but were

Exploring Indian Migration during the British Colonial Period to Different Parts of the World

Indian migration during the British Raj represents a complex and multifaceted historical phenomenon that deserves in-depth exploration. This migration spanned several centuries and was characterized by the movement of millions of Indians to various corners of the world. While economic reasons often took precedence, the motivations behind this migration were diverse, encompassing a myriad of factors. To gain a comprehensive understanding of this historical event, we invite scholars, researchers and academicians, to submit chapters for this research project that delve into Indian migration during the British colonial era.

The project will address the following with reference to literature:

• Literary representation of Indian migration to South Africa during the British Raj
• Literary representation of Indian migration to East Africa during the British Raj
• Literary representation of Indian migration to West and North Africa during the British Raj
• Literary representation of Indian migration to Caribbean Islands during the British Raj
• Literary representation of Indian migration to Middle, East, and South Asia during the British Raj
• Literary representation of Indian migration to the Western World during the British Raj

This edited book adopts a comparative approach, filling a gap in existing literature. While other works focus on specific regions or offer historical or sociological perspectives, our project provides a comprehensive literary study.

Dr. Shubhanku Kochar

Dr. M. Anjum Khan

Submission Guidelines:

• Email a 200-word chapter proposal and a 100-word author's bio-note to the editors by 15th December 2023.
• Acceptance notifications will be sent by 31st December 2023.
• Full chapters due by 30th April 2024.

Email proposals to [email protected] and [email protected]

• Undergraduate Honors Thesis

The Invisible Eyes of the Raj: Indigenous Actors in Intelligence Gathering and Empire Building Along British India's Northwest Frontiers (1860-1895) Public Deposited

Downloadable content.

Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century the two imperial juggernauts of the Russian Empire and the British Empire in India engaged each other in a geopolitical battle of espionage and exploration throughout the hitherto sovereign lands of Central Asia. This period of history, known as “The Great Game,” saw the British become increasingly paranoid of the supposed threat Russia posed to India - the “jewel in the crown” of their empire. Consequently, the British in India set about bringing the remote lands lying to the north and northwest of India into their political domain. Between 1860 and 1895 the British in India went from knowing virtually nothing about the lands beyond their Northwest Frontiers to politically and militarily subjugating the regions of Gilgit, Hunza, Nagar, and Chitral, while simultaneously establishing Afghanistan as an Anglo-friendly buffer state between India and Russia. Prior scholarship has examined this process of empire building through the select few European explorers and agents that operated in the region. However, I herein argue that this was a process firstly of intelligence collection, and secondly of tangible on-the-ground operations such as road building and warfare, that was almost exclusively performed by British-employed indigenous South and Central Asian persons. This thesis departs from other scholarly work on the topic by revealing the enormous involvement of local Indian/Afghan peoples and professions at every step of this process of empire building. These individuals have remained largely invisible in the official historical record, and this thesis recovers their stories and contributions, demonstrating that the British were utterly dependent on a cooperative relationship with a vast network of indigenous actors, ranging from political and geographical intelligence operatives to porters and soldiers in building their empire across the far reaches of the Himalayas.

• North, Adrian
• Chester, Lucy P
• Fluri, Jennifer L
• Osborne, Myles Gregory
• University of Colorado Boulder
• In Copyright
• English [eng]

Relationships

• Arts and Sciences Honors Program

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• India under Colonial Rule, 1752-1933

What's Inside

Introduction

Power and Preachers comprises 6 diverse primary source collections which detail the political, economic, and spiritual realities of British colonial rule in India. The featured collections include records from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, from the establishment of the East India Company and the India Act to the emergence of Gandhi and the independence movement. Drawn from a diverse range of sources, the materials show the Raj through the eyes of commercial, military, and bureaucratic elites, as well as missionaries, labourers, and Indians themselves. 

This series therefore provides students and researchers with a nuanced synopsis of British colonialism in India and India’s role in shaping modern Britain.

Dates Covered

Contributors.

• Bodleian Library
• British Library; LHASC; WCML
• India Office Library
• National Library of Scotland
• National Library of Wales

Collections

Licensed to access The British Raj: Resistance and Reform in India, 1879-1910

Licensed to access The East India Company: Corrupt Governance and Cruelty in India, 1806-1814

Licensed to access The East India Company: Laying the Foundations for British Colonial Domination of India, 1752-1774

Licensed to access Indian and Sri Lankan Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1770-1931

Licensed to access Indian Communists and Trade Unionists on Trial: The Meerut Conspiracy, 1929-1933

Licensed to access World News in Indian Newspapers, 1782-1908

Register your interest.

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Archiving the British Raj: History of the Archival Policy of the Government of India, with Selected Documents, 1858-1947

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The archives are generally sites where historians conduct research into our past. Seldom are they objects of research. Sabyasachi Bhattacharya traces the path that led to the creation of a central archive in India, from the setting up of the Imperial Record Department, the precursor of the National Archives of India, and the Indian Historical Records Commission, to the framing of archival policies and the change in those policies over the years. In the last two decades of colonial rule in India, there were anticipations of freedom in many areas of the public sphere. These were felt in the domain of archiving as well, chiefly in the form of reversal of earlier policies. From this perspective, Bhattacharya explores the relation between knowledge and power and discusses how the World Wars and the decline of Britain, among other factors, effected a transition from a Eurocentric and disparaging approach to India towards a more liberal and less ethnocentric one.

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BRITISH INDIA ONLINE

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The Influence of British Raj on Indian Fashion

Related Papers

Toolika Gupta

The rise of a westernized society in India was a result of the British taking over the reins of the country and ruling it for nearly 200 years. The British, like the Danes, the French, the Portuguese and the Spanish came to India as traders. The East India Companies of various European nations came with trading interests in mind, particularly for Indian spices and Indian textiles. All these countries established colonies in India along the vast coastline which the subcontinent has to offer. Although all these colonies were established with the basic purpose of trading and merchandising, there was a constant exchange of ideas, beliefs and culture. Slowly and steadily, all these colonies developed political interests and as a result there were continuous wars and treaties being signed by one colony or the other and finally, more by destiny than by design, the British became the rulers of India in 18th century CE. The various Indian kings and constituencies now had a head – the King or Queen of England to report to and became a part of the larger British Empire. As a result, the whole generation that grew up in India after colonization looked to the West for inspiration. Due to industrialization, Europe seemed more modern and thus the younger generation of India changed its dress habits to ape the mightier West. The British fashions were aped in order to reflect modernity and reject the traditional past (See Figs 22.2 and 22.4 below).

This paper focuses on the British influence on elite Indian menswear and traces the birth or evolution of the sherwani. Chronologically this is the time period from 1858 after the revolt or mutiny, when India directly came under the British crown, to 1914, before the beginning of the First World War. The core argument of the paper is the influence of politics on fashion. After 1858 there were no Mughal rulers in India, and the British crown was supreme. Indians looked at the British as fashion leaders, who had prescribed the uniforms for the army, the dress of the civilians and the judiciary, and also for the school going children. 1914 has been taken as the cut-off date as by this time the Sherwani had become the dress of the Indian elite. It is common knowledge in India that sherwani is a traditional garment, the origins of the same are not very clear and a lot of people believe it to be of the Mughal time period. My research tries to understand how and why traditions are created; and how the army uniforms and the British Frock coats influenced the garment that is considered ‘traditional Indian Menswear’.

Dissertation - MLitt Art History: Dress and Textile Histories, University of Glasgow

Rajrupa Das

Dr Vaibbhavi Pruthviraj Ranavaade , Anjali Karolia

Understanding the concept of national Fashion Identity is pertinent, before exploring the meaning of the National fashion identities of the Indian sari. According to Sandra Niessen, western dress went out into the world on the backs of missionaries, traders, colonial administrators, the military and their wives. The way they clad their 'civilized appearance' was inextricably blended with an associated set of behaviours related to hygiene and demeanour. She further states that in colonized society, success was signalled by the appearance of having adopted European norms. The retention of indigenous dress, particularly if it failed to cover bodily regions that European norms required to have covered, was considered an immediate sign of uncivilized primitiveness. The influence of western fashion on the Indian Sari Fashions during the colonial times is visible two folds, one in terms of materiality where the French chiffons and laces were imported for the elite class. The use of these light weight saris led to the practice of attaching a strip of 6-8 inch wide fabric on the hem of the sari to enhance the fall/drape, and this led to the colloquial reference of this fabric strip as " Fall " .(The traditional sari and draping styles do not require attachment of " the fall strip " due to their woven borders, hence ready to be worn once off the loom.) The second influence being the practice of wearing an undergarment; a frilly petticoat for obvious reasons of modesty and decoration too in most cases, and the transition from the traditional bodice, choli to Blouse became evident as stated by Ritu Kumar (2000), " Apart from their European extravaganzas. The royals also got together in the Calcutta season organized by the British. This was the melting post of fashion and culture in India. All these multicultural exposures transformed their attires back home. The royal women retained their saris in India, however included more modest blouses and decent petticoats with them. The saris worn in the 20th century were of chiffon exported from Europe. This trend caught on with the entire royal clan. The flip side of this however was that it caused a crisis that decreased their patronage to the high-skilled weavers. The Rajputs continued to wear the cholis but added a kurti over it. The choli got transformed into the blouse of today in a step by step transformation. The choli that ended at the bust line lengthened to cover more area, the backless cholis got their backs, the kasanis or tie-cords were replaced by hooks or buttons in the front, the ethnic fabric of blouses became more sophisticated and either complemented or supplemented the sari. "

Dr Vaibbhavi Pruthviraj Ranavaade

Understanding the concept of national Fashion Identity is pertinent, before exploring the meaning of the National fashion identities of the Indian sari. According to Sandra Niessen, western dress went out into the world on the backs of missionaries, traders, colonial administrators, the military and their wives. The way they clad their 'civilized appearance' was inextricably blended with an associated set of behaviours related to hygiene and demeanour. She further states that in colonized society, success was signalled by the appearance of having adopted European norms. The retention of indigenous dress, particularly if it failed to cover bodily regions that European norms required to have covered, was considered an immediate sign of uncivilized primitiveness.

Pallavi Patke

Anjali Karolia

The versatile draped silhouettes & heritage craft traditions redefined for contemporary connoisseurs; have further led to the rising acceptance of Indian ethnic/ fusion fashion as a paradigm shift for India to discern and emphasize local inimitability, to create a sense of belonging and stimulate consumption of a culturally promoted "Global-Desi" fashion dictum across cultures. This paper presents the study of major factors contributing to the Indian fashion system interpreting its engagement with the Indian society and also the world. This research highlights impact of the Indian Fashion system on the Indian society and its meaning. There is continued interest for classical Indian dress silhouettes, heritage textile crafts, accessories; this study concentrates on outcomes through the lens of history, culture, and sociology of fashion. The neue urban tribes and fashion social movements in the post-modern era led emergence of the apparel category-occasion wear; reserved for...

Sociology Study

The British Raj provides a deep and rich case to study the implementation(s) of real-world political utopias. It fits with the definition of political utopian theory wherein the system was a reactionary attempt to solve contemporary systemic problems. As an imperial project aimed at civilising the native population and creating a good life for both them and the British officials stationed there, it is an embodiment of the utopian quest for an ideal and perfectible society. In this paper, the author examines how this attempt at utopia extended into the private sphere through the impact the British Raj had on gender through clothing. Gender was specifically seen as an embodiment of cultural, national, and even religious values, which provided a powerful tool for a narrative of the colonial Self against the pre-or anti-colonial Other. Clothing is a powerful inherent representation of identity and the narrative of the Raj, as well as the counter-narrative of independence, relying heavily on shaping notions of masculinity and femininity by controlling acceptability in clothing.

Mehreen Chida-Razvi

Review of the 2-day conference (Nov 6-7, 2015) accompanying the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Fabric of India exhibition, published November 23, 2015, for Critical Collective: http://www.criticalcollective.in/Noticeboard.aspx From depictions of textiles in the Ajanta Caves to contemporary artists and designers in India, the 2-day conference that accompanied the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Fabric of India exhibition brought together an amazing group of speakers who, amongst other things, shared new research, personal anecdotes and questioned the very notion of ‘Indian Fashion’.

Kenna Libes

Iridescent, color-shifting beetle wing casings have been embroidered onto dress around the world for centuries. This paper explores a variation of the practice from its roots in Mughal-era India through its translocation and transformation by English dressmakers during the East India Company and colonial eras. This paper considers the first recorded English women to wear such garments, how and where they were made, and the intersections of fashion, exhibition, and naturalism. By examining extant textiles made for use in both countries , this paper asserts that the English-speaking world, influenced by its colonial sensibilities, appropriated and implemented a new style of beetle-wing embroidery.

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British Raj

• 1.1 Background
• 1.2 The Raj
• 1.3 Partition and aftermath
• 2.1 Pakistan
• 2.3 Bangladesh
• 2.4 Malaysia
• 2.5 Singapore
• 4.4 North America
• 4.5 Oceania
• 4.6 South America

The British Raj was the rule of the British Crown over South Asia and some nearby areas from 1858 to 1947. This guide deals mainly with the Indian Subcontinent — the modern day countries of Bangladesh , India and Pakistan — in that period, and with aspects of the Raj left behind in those countries. However, the British presence in the region started long before the Crown took control in 1858 and their influence extended beyond the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947.

Other areas were also administered as part of the Raj at times — Ceylon , Burma (Lower Burma 1858-1937, Upper Burma 1886-1937), Aden (1858-1937), and even briefly Singapore (1858-1867) and Somalia (1884-1898). The Trucial States on the Persian Gulf were British protectorates 1820-1968 and for part of that time they were considered princely states of the Raj; after 1971 they became the United Arab Emirates . The Gulf states of Bahrain , Kuwait , Qatar and Oman were also governed as British protectorates from their colony in India at various points in their history.

Understand [ edit ]

The region has a very long and complex history and we do not try to cover it all here, not even for the period of the Raj.

Background [ edit ]

The subcontinent had not been completely united at any point in history prior to British arrival, although several empires came quite close. The last two of these were in conflict when the British and other Europeans arrived. The great Muslim Mughal Empire ruled a substantial territory from 1526 on, and controlled nearly all the subcontinent by around 1700. After that it was displaced in many areas by the Hindu Maratha Empire. Other areas, notably Rajasthan and various parts of the Himalayas , were a patchwork of small kingdoms independent of both empires.

European trade with India is recorded as far back as a few centuries BCE, with some branches of the Silk Road passing through India, but modern European influence and colonisation began with the Portuguese when Vasco da Gama reached India via the Cape Route in 1498. Other European powers soon followed.

By the mid-17th century, the British and French were also well-established and some of their European wars spilled over into conflicts in India. Pondicherry was held by the French and Goa by the Portuguese until after Indian independence in 1947, though both are now parts of India. The Dutch held Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka) from 1640 to 1796, taking it from Portugal and eventually losing it to Britain; they also had trading posts on the Indian mainland, but never much territory. Although they were never a part of the Raj, the nearby Maldives came under British rule in 1796 during the annexation of Ceylon. From India, the British began colonising neighbouring Burma through the Anglo-Burmese Wars in 1824, ending with the defeat of the Burmese in 1885. Burma was governed at first as a province of India, but was later split off to form a separate colony in 1937.

In the 17th and early 18th century, the focus was on trade and the first joint stock companies were set up to organise this trade. These companies amassed immense wealth and eventually came to possess vast swaths of land. The most successful of these was the British East India Company; at one point, this one company was conducting approximately half of all the world's trade. It had a large number of ships and its own army with some British troops but mainly sepoys , Indian troops serving under British officers. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) was almost as rich, largely because the Dutch controlled the Spice Islands of Indonesia. The French had several companies at different times, with some spectacular failures but also considerable success.

The British East India Company colonised other parts of Asia such as Bencoolen in 1685, Penang in 1771, and Singapore in 1819. It also participated in the First Opium War from 1839 to 1842 that resulted in the colonisation of Hong Kong Island . As part of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, Bencoolen was ceded to the Dutch, while the British got the Dutch colony of Malacca in exchange. The colonies of Penang, Singapore and Malacca were merged into the Straits Settlements in 1826. The Straits Settlements were governed from India until they were ceded by the British East India Company to the British crown in 1867, thus becoming a crown colony ruled directly from London.

The switch from trading to ruling came after the Battle of Plassey in 1757; a company army defeated the French and their ally, the last Nawab of Bengal, so the company ended up in control of all the Nawab's territory: Bengal , Bihar and Orissa . Over the next century they more-or-less continually expanded their territory until they directly ruled most of the subcontinent; the rest was controlled by "princely states" ruled by local Maharajahs with varying degrees of British influence.

Although the Himalayan kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan also came under British suzerainty, through various treaties signed with the British, they were able to remain nominally independent throughout the years of the Raj. Nevertheless, many Nepalis would serve in the British Army as part of various Gurkha regiments, and were deployed throughout many parts of the empire. To this day, Gurkhas continue to be employed by governments throughout parts of the former empire, with Gurkha units in the British, Indian and Bruneian armies, and in the police force of Singapore.

The Raj [ edit ]

In 1857, there was a large mutiny among the sepoys, Indian troops who served under British officers. It began in Meerut and soon spread across most of the North Indian Plains . Several other Indian rulers and parts of the populace joined the rebellion and it became a general rising; the exception was the Punjab where the Sikh rulers supported the British. Important battles took place at Cawnpore and Lucknow , both besieged by the rebels. The British besieged Jhansi , which was ruled by the most famous of the Indian leaders, Mahharani Lakshmibai, sometimes called "India's Joan of Arc". Delhi was taken by the rebels attempting to restore the Mughal Empire to replace British rule. It was besieged by the British, and its fall marked the end of the rebellion.

A good historical novel set during the mutiny is Flashman in the Great Game .

After the mutiny was put down, the Crown took over administration from the East India Company, beginning the period of the Raj. They also seized the lands of various rulers who had supported the mutiny, including the last Mughal Emperor , so the Crown ruled even more territory than the Company had.

Calcutta was the capital of British India throughout the period of company rule and remained so under the Raj until in 1911 the government moved to New Delhi , a new capital built next to the much older city of Delhi . Shimla served as a summer capital with much of the government migrating there each year to escape the heat. All three places have many fine buildings and other sites left from those times.

Another Sepoy mutiny took place in Singapore during World War I in 1915, when many Muslim Sepoys rebelled against their British superiors due to fears of being sent to fight the Ottoman Empire , whose sultan they regarded as the Caliph of Islam. This mutiny was swiftly put down, and the mutineers were publicly executed by firing squad.

Even though ultimate control of most affairs lay with British authorities, their rule over India would not have been possible without the aid of native participation and often alliances with local rulers. The number of Brits in India doing administrative work was surprisingly small and some argue that it was exactly this hands-off laissez-faire approach to governing a vast empire, as well as the little regard that the government in London had for the Indian population at large, that resulted in disasters such as the 1876-1878 "Great famine". However, the British Raj was hugely important for the formation of an Indian and to a lesser degree Pakistani national consciousness, and also led to the establishment of Indian diaspora communities throughout the former British Empire, often in unlikely places. Many Indians were shipped to far-flung parts of the empire as indentured servants as the British needed labour after the abolition of slavery , while others went as colonial administrators, soldiers and policemen. In Africa, dictators like Idi Amin stoked racial hatred against people of Indian descent as many of them had come to accumulate some wealth as shopkeepers and businessmen. This culminated in the expulsion of the ethnic Indian community from Uganda in 1972. However, progress has been made in other parts of Africa, with Kenya formally recognising its ethnic Indian community as a tribe in 2017.

During colonial rule, ethnic Chinese communities were established in the cities of Bombay and Calcutta . They were viewed with suspicion in the wake of the Sino-Indian War in 1962, and many were rounded up, interned and eventually expelled from the country, while even those that were allowed to remain often had their property confiscated by the government. It was not until 1998 that the ethnic Chinese were allowed to apply for Indian citizenship, and many of them continue to be stateless to this day despite having families that have lived in India for several generations. Although their numbers have dwindled substantially, there remains a significant ethnic Chinese community in Kolkata's Chinatown, and Mumbai's former Chinatown still contains vestiges of the former community in the form of Chinese temples.

While India was often considered "the jewel in the crown of the British Empire", there was at least tacit acknowledgement as early as the 1920s that colonial rule would inevitably come to an end. However, this process was accelerated by the Second World War in which Indians fought for both the Axis and the Allies and some Axis sympathisers created an "Indian state" fighting against the British and for independence. The best known of these was the Japanese-backed Indian National Army (INA) led by Subhas Chandra Bose.

The decisive force for independence was the (mostly) nonviolent movement of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known by the honorific Mahatma Gandhi ( maha , great + atman , soul) and his followers. Gandhi was a British-educated lawyer who first came to prominence while working in South Africa and resisting the restrictions on Indians there. He strongly believed in traditional Hindu principles, wanted India to return to a simpler more rural form of society, and definitely wanted the British out. His was not the only group working toward independence, but it came to be the most important one.

Partition and aftermath [ edit ]

There were many Muslims, spread through nearly all of the Raj but concentrated in some areas. A movement for an independent Muslim state arose in the same period as the independence movement, partly out of Muslim fears that Gandhi and others would create a state dominated by Hindus. Eventually, Gandhi and the British agreed, and at independence in 1947, the main territory of the Raj was partitioned into mostly-Hindu India and mostly-Muslim Pakistan .

The partition was a major disaster. Several million people were uprooted, Muslims migrated from their homes in areas that would be part of India to live in Pakistan, with Hindus and Sikhs moving the other way. Mobs attacked migrants going both ways; most estimates of the death toll are a few hundred thousand, but some say well over a million. Gandhi was assassinated by Hindu fanatics who blamed him for the partition.

Neither the Indian nor the Pakistani government was happy with the border as the British defined it; some areas, notably Kashmir , are still disputed today and the two countries have fought several wars over these disputes. The first war broke out within a few months of partition.

The partition created one Muslim country, Pakistan, with two parts, East and West. East Pakistan split off to become Bangladesh in 1971; there was a war over that as well. West Pakistan is now called "Pakistan".

The cession of certain areas to the British Raj by the Tibetan Empire , and the unilateral annexation of others, continues to be unrecognized by China , resulting in ongoing border disputes between China and India in Arunachal Pradesh , Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakorum Tract. These disputes resulted in several wars between China and India being fought in the 1960s.

In the same period, 1947-48, two other countries in the region, Burma and Ceylon, also gained independence from Britain, as shown on the map. Later their governments would rename them Myanmar and Sri Lanka respectively. The Straits Settlements were dissolved in 1946, with the colonies of Malacca and Penang merged with the Federated Malay States and Unfederated Malay States to form the Malayan Union (later the Federation of Malaya), while Singapore was split off to form a separate colony. Malaya became independent in 1957 and changed its name to Malaysia with the addition of Singapore and the northern Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak in 1963, while Brunei opted out of the federation. Singapore was expelled from the Federation of Malaysia in 1965 and became an independent city-state. The Gulf state of Kuwait was granted independence in 1961, while the Maldives , another British colony in South Asia, would be granted independence in 1965. The Trucial States federated in 1968, and became independent as the United Arab Emirates in 1971. The remaining three British protectorates in the Gulf, Bahrain , Qatar and Oman , were also granted independence in 1971. Brunei became independent in 1984, while the last vestige of the British East India Company, Hong Kong , was returned to China in 1997, thus bringing the history of British colonial rule in Asia to an end.

The Sikhs, the third-largest religious group in India, did not initially demand their own state. Many of them fled from what's now Pakistan, and they now live mostly in the Indian part of Punjab , but in the 1970s and 1980s clashes between Sikhs and the government under Indira Gandhi (not related to the Mahatma) resulted in her being killed by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.

See [ edit ]

The British left behind a legacy of architecture which is still evident in many parts of South Asia, as there is much European architecture across the subcontinent, including neo-Gothic and other European styles of churches, which can be seen in what is today are railway stations, cantonments, courts, colleges and schools, churches, bridges and museums. However, a new Anglo-Indian style of architecture also developed, fusing Indian and particularly Mughal elements with European ones. Often it was the mixture English elements and components of specifically Islamic or Hindu architecture. This style was used by the British not only in the Indian Subcontinent but also for buildings like the railway stations they built in Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh , Malaysia. The British introduced railways to the subcontinent and built a huge network of railway stations, many of which are still very well preserved.

The major cities in the Subcontinent that are dotted with British architecture include Chennai (Madras), Kolkata (Calcutta), Mumbai (Bombay), Delhi , Agra , Karachi , Nagpur , Lahore , Bhopal and Hyderabad .

Pakistan [ edit ]

• In Karachi , the Mohatta Palace is a fine example of a blend of Islamic and British architecture. Frere Hall, St. Patrick Church and Empress Market all counted amongst the prominent and impressive work of Britishers.
• Lahore 's Mall Road retains a variety of Gothic and Victorian-style buildings built during the British Raj. Lahore Museum, Aitchison College, Government College University, Tollinton Market, are some renowned buildings built by Britishers.

India [ edit ]

• The Madras High Court building in Chennai (Madras) is a great example of Anglo-Indian architecture.
• The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (previously Victoria Terminus) in Mumbai (Bombay) is truly splendid.
• The Umed Bhawan Palace in Kota was built in Indo-Saracenic style in 1904.

Bangladesh [ edit ]

• Dhaka University includes some lovely Anglo-Indian buildings, including the Old High Court Building, Curzon Hall and the Department of Chemistry Building.

Malaysia [ edit ]

• Kuala Lumpur has several prominent Anglo-Indian buildings, including the Sultan Abdul Samad Building , which used to house British colonial offices and now houses Malaysian government offices; the Railway Station and Railway Administration Building .
• Ipoh 's Railway Station is probably the second most famous Anglo-Indian railway station in Malaysia after the one in Kuala Lumpur.

Singapore [ edit ]

• The Istana , the official residence of the President of Singapore, was originally built for the colonial governor of the Straits Settlements in a fusion of British, Malay and Indian architectural styles.

Eat [ edit ]

An Anglo-Indian cuisine developed, largely based on dishes that Indian cooks made for their British employers during the Raj. Some of the resulting dishes became more generally popular in India and remained part of Indian cuisine after independence, and many of them are also now popular with Britons in the United Kingdom, and elsewhere around the world where there are Indian restaurants. Each country has given this cuisine a regional variation, but some things are generally similar. One feature of Anglo-Indian cuisine that is uncommon in other Indian cuisines is the use of curry powders, including the so-called "Madras curry powder", which has more hot pepper in it than others. Other Indian cuisines usually make curries by starting with individual spices and, for example, very quickly wok-frying them in ghee or oil or dry-frying them. One well-known Anglo-Indian dish is mulligatawny soup . The famous chicken tikka masala is not really Anglo-Indian, but may be of British origin, as it was allegedly created in Glasgow by a chef who originated from the Indian Subcontinent, although that story is questioned by some. What is certain, though, is that Indian cuisine has had a huge influence on the culinary culture of the United Kingdom, and London, Birmingham and other UK cities are still regarded by many as some of the best places in the world to have Indian food.

In other areas with significant Indian communities, there are often Indian dishes that have been locally adapted or invented and thus, cannot be found in India. Examples of such dishes include roti prata or roti canai , which is unique to the Indian communities of Singapore and Malaysia , and the bunny chow , which is the signature dish of the Indian community in the South African city of Durban .

Indian diaspora [ edit ]

During the Raj, the British brought many indentured Indian labourers, as well as colonial administrators, soldiers and policemen, to their colonies around the world, many of whom established Indian diaspora communities. These communities maintained aspects of Indian culture to varying extents, but also integrated into the local culture, resulting in unique cultural blends that endure to this day. While in some places the Indians retain a distinct ethnic identity, in others they assimilated and intermarried to the point of being indistinguishable from their peers, though aspects of Indian cuisine and culture still survive in the local culture. As nearly every country has had some history of Indian immigration, this list is limited to countries and territories that have a history of British rule, are home to significant and distinct ethnic Indian communities that were established as a direct result of the Raj, and which tourists can visit to experience aspects of Indian culture. Mauritius, Guyana and some Caribbean nations celebrate Indian Arrival Day , which commemorates the arrival of the first indentured Indian labourers in their respective countries and their subsequent contributions to society.

Africa [ edit ]

• South Africa

Asia [ edit ]

Europe [ edit ].

• United Kingdom

North America [ edit ]

• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Trinidad and Tobago

Oceania [ edit ]

South america [ edit ], see also [ edit ].

• British Empire
• Around the World in Eighty Days , a fictional voyage which passes through India
• On the trail of Kipling's Kim , Wikivoyage's account of the route described in a novel set in the Raj in the late 19th century
• The Flashman Papers , a series of comic historical novels, supposedly the memoirs of a cowardly and dishonest British officer in Victoria's time. Many of his adventures take place in India.

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India Under the British Raj - Research Paper Example

• Subject: History
• Type: Research Paper
• Level: College
• Pages: 5 (1250 words)
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• Author: schimmelsydney

Extract of sample "India Under the British Raj"

The paper makes an oversight concerning various attempts of Indians to liberate themselves from the tyrannical rule of British. Introduction Many colonialists appeared in the colonies as trade partners who wanted to foster trade relationship with a foreign country. Majority of the world colonialists originated from various European countries and spread to conquer other countries outside the continent of Europe. The ordeal of these perceived colonialists was to explore certain resources in the countries of their colonies.

They were mostly interested in items like gold, ivories, skins, and some other precious items. They also targeted certain ideal reproductive lands where they could practice their commercial farming activities (Szczepanski, 2011). What was initially trade turned out to be tyrannical rule directed to the native dwellers by the foreigners. Indian British Raj is one of the vast examples of initial trade incidences turning to brutal rule and forcible transformation of cultures and societies’ ways of life.

In the views of McNamara (2011), Raj is an Indian term for king and which was used to refer to British rule in India. As used to be the common case with colonization, Indians underwent brutal treatment due from their colonizer, but also they gained in terms of civilization. Duiker (2009) mentions that British approached India subcontinent as traders who later acted to subdue every trade in and out of India. As they continued to operate and trade in India, the British started engaging in the internal politics of the country.

In 1800, British deployed its armies to attack the Mughal Empire and reduce its greatness in the land (Duiker & Spielvogel). British attacked certain territories some of which were captured by the East India Company. In the view of Duiker and Spielvogel (2006) the initial territories under the East India Company were recovered by the British crows as other ware set under indirect rule of local rajas and maharajas. Duiker and Spielvogel confirm that most of the British rule in India was more with decency considering that upon their arrival they managed to quell civil wars that were among the Indians.

British initiated a relative government that worked to favor and respect the rights and wishes of the local populace. British rule in India was termed by historians as honest and efficient that targeted enlightenment and education of the barbaric Indians. British administrators in India built learning centers that allowed the Indians to attain education up to some set levels. According to Duiker and Spielvogel (2006), Thomas Macaulay the head of British administration in India initiated and perfected plans of building schools, which trained Indian children.

Thomas in conjunction with British civil service initiated examinations for the learners. British schools also illuminated particular concerns on training Indian girls on how they would become good wives under the wedlock of learned men of Indian. In 1875, British rule in India opened official madras for training females who became medical practitioners. Duiker and Spielvogel (2006) ascertain that British rulers brought sense of humanity in India when they disregarded certain Indian traditions that did not work to respect freedom of citizens.

Furthermore, British brought into India fantastic development that included railways and telegraph for communication. The British administra

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Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care

Dr. Becky White interviewed on the British Journal of General Practice Podcast

10 November 2023

Dr. Becky White (ECHO) speaks to the British Journal of General Practice podcast about her research paper titled "Underlying cancer risk among patients with fatigue and other vague symptoms in primary care: a population-based cohort study". 

The full episode has been made available to listen to online  here . The paper, published alongside fellow ECHO members and co-authors Dr. Cristina Renzi, Dr. Matthew Barclay, and Professor Georgios Lyratzopoulos, has been published by the British Journal of General Practice and can be found  online .

• Dr. Becky White UCL Profile
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