By the early 1800s the British East India Company controlled most of India which had been left void of central power after the declain of Maughal Empire. Sepoys, native troops employed by the company , mounted by uprising known as the Sepoy Mutiny aganist the British in 1857. The mutineers occupied Delhi and besieged European residents and British strongholds. After defeating the rebellion, the British transfered the administration of India from the British East India Company to the British Crown.
BRITISH INDIA, 1848
As
a result of its victories, the East India Company had acquired
strategic political and territorial positions in Bengal, the most
populous province of India, and in important areas of the Deccan.
Consolidation and extension of these gains characterized the
subsequent policy of the company, which retained its status as a
private commercial firm until 1773. In that year the East India Company became,
under the provisions of parliamentary legislation, a semiofficial agency of
the British government. The application of British policy in India was facilitated
by the power vacuum that followed the Battle of Paněpat (1761), when neither
the Mughal Empire nor the Maratha confederacy was strong enough to exercise
authority.
Armed Resistance
In the pursuit of their objectives, the British relied primarily on superior military power, but bribery, extortion, and political manipulation of the native chieftains were frequently and successfully employed. Disunity among the various Indian kingdoms and principalities paved the way for eventual British subjugation of the entire subcontinent and contiguous regions, notably Burma (now known as Myanmar). At sporadic intervals, individual Indian states and groups of states fiercely, but vainly, resisted the exploitation, brutality, and territorial seizures by the company. The chief centers of armed resistance to British rule included, at various times, the Maratha confederacy, Mysore, Sind, and Punjab. In 1845 the Sikhs of Punjab attacked British positions, starting a war that proved costly to both sides. The Sikhs were defeated in 1846 but two years later they again engaged the British in sanguinary fighting. In one battle, fought at Chilianwala, the Sikhs inflicted nearly 2500 casualties on the British. The latter won a decisive victory on February 21, 1849, however, and the Sikhs capitulated.
Dalhousie's Impact
Annexation of Punjab by the East India Company followed. During the next few years James Andrew Broun Ramsay, 10th Earl of Dalhousie, then governor-general of the company in India, annexed, on the death of the native rulers, Satara, Jaipur, Sambalpur, Jhansi, and Nagpur. He was able to do this without war because of a British doctrine that declared Great Britain's right to govern any Indian state where there was no natural heir to the throne; the British government had to give Hindu princes special permission to adopt a male heir. Dalhousie's annexationist policy engendered profound hostility among the Indian nobility and peoples. In many material respects India benefited from various improvements and reforms introduced by Dalhousie's administration. Railroads, bridges, roads, and irrigation systems were constructed; telegraph and postal services were established; and restrictions were imposed on suttee, slave trading, and other ancient practices. These innovations and reforms, however, aroused little enthusiasm among the Indian people, many of whom regarded the modernization of their country with both fear and distrust. In 1856 Dalhousie annexed Oudh, an act that added immeasurably to the widespread discontent.
Sepoy Mutiny
As the unrest in India mounted, a large-scale conspiratorial movement spread among the sepoys, the native troops employed by the English East India Company. A general uprising, known as the Sepoy Mutiny, began at Meerut, a town near Delhi, on May 10, 1857. Rallying around the banner of Bahadur Shah II, titular emperor of the moribund Mughal Empire, the mutineers quickly occupied Delhi and other strategic centers, massacred hundreds of Europeans, and, on June 30, laid siege to the British residency at Lucknow. The city was relieved in November and reinforcements of British troops and loyal sepoys were rushed to the disaffected areas. Fighting continued throughout the remainder of 1857 and into 1859 but by June 1858 the chief rebel strongholds had fallen. In the same year, the judicial authorities of the East India Company convicted Bahadur Shah II on charges of rebellion and sentenced him to life imprisonment, thus closing the final chapter of Mughal history. As one major result of the Sepoy Mutiny, the British Parliament in 1858 enacted legislation, termed the Act for the Better Government of India, which transferred the administration of India from the East India Company to the British crown.
