Charles River Editors - The British Raj: The History and Legacy of Great Britain’s Imperialism in India and the Indian Subcontinent

By Charles River Editors

The British Rajs flag

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A depiction of the Queen's Own Madras Sappers and Miners, 1896

The British Raj

"A significant fact which stands out is that those parts of India which have been longest under British rule are the poorest today. Indeed some kind of chart might be drawn up to indicate the close connection between length of British rule and progressive growth of poverty." - Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India

The British East India Company served as one of the key players in the formation of the British Empire. From its origins as a trading company struggling to keep up with its superior Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish competitors to its tenure as the ruling authority of the Indian subcontinent to its eventual hubristic downfall, the East India Company serves as a lens through which to explore the much larger economic and social forces that shaped the formation of a global British Empire. As a private company that became a non-state global power in its own right, the East India Company also serves as a cautionary tale all too relevant to the modern worlds current political and economic situation.

On its most basic level, the East India Company played an essential part in the development of long-distance trade between Britain and Asia. The trade in textiles, ceramics, tea, and other goods brought a huge influx of capital into the British economy. This not only fueled the Industrial Revolution, but also created a demand for luxury items amongst the middle classes. The economic growth provided by the East India Company was one factor in Britains ascendancy from a middling regional power to the most powerful nation on the planet. The profits generated by the East India Company also created incentive for other European powers to follow its lead, which led to three centuries of competition for colonies around the world. This process went well beyond Asia to affect most of the planet, including Africa and the Middle East.

Beyond its obvious influence in areas like trade and commerce, the East India Company also served as a point of cultural contact between Western Europeans, South Asians, and East Asians. Quintessentially British practices such as tea drinking were made possible by East India Company trade. The products and cultural practices traveling back and forth on East India Company ships from one continent to another also reconfigured the way societies around the globe viewed sexuality, gender, class, and labor. On a much darker level, the East India Company fueled white supremacy and European concepts of Orientalism.

Ultimately, the companys activity across the Indian subcontinent led to further British involvement there, and the British Raj, a period of British dominance and rule over India that formally began in 1857 and lasted until 1947, remains a highly debated topic amongst historians, political scientists, the British people, and the people of modern India. In Martin Deming Lewiss British in India: Imperialism or Trusteeship , he attempts to settle the question, opening with opposing views of those closest to British India:

No romance can compare with the story of the handful of Englishmen... who, beginning as mere traders and merchant settlers, have in barely two centuries built up the majestic structure of an Imperial system under which peace, order and good government are secured for three hundred and fifty millions of human beings inhabiting what is in essence a continent of its own. - A 1942 Raj official

Those parts of India which have been longest under British rule are the poorest today... Nearly all our major problems today have grown up during British rule and as a direct result of British policy: the princes; the minority problem; various vested interests, foreign and Indian; the lack of industry and the neglect of agriculture; the extreme backwardness in the social services; and, above all, the tragic poverty of the people. -Jawaharal Nehru, imprisoned Indian reformer, 1944

How can it be that two contemporaries view the same phenomenon so differently? Without a full understanding of the Raj, simplifications and hastily-drawn conclusions are the only possible outcomes. Instead, its necessary to seek an understanding of the people, forces, and events shaping the history of British India to arrive at valid conclusions about the British-Indian experience and to understand the continued divide over its legacy. Perhaps then its possible to answer Lewiss question: Is it possible that British rule was both destructive and creative at the same time?

The British Raj: The History and Legacy of Great Britains Imperialism in India and the Indian Subcontinent looks at the importance of British colonialism in the region, and how it has affected the course of history to this day. Along with pictures and a bibliography, you will learn about the British Raj like never before.

Sir Charles Wood (18001885) was President of the Board of Control of the East India Company from 1852 to 1855; he shaped British education policy in India, and was Secretary of State for India 185966.

Europeans had been seeking Asian spices, silks, and other goods since at least the Middle Ages. Prior to the early modern period, most of these products had to be transported along the Silk Road connecting China to South Asia and Europe. While trade between these regions existed, it was at a smaller scale compared to the trade within and between the major Asian empires. This was largely due to the relatively poor nature of European goods; European civilizations simply did not produce anything of comparable value to Asian goods. In addition, transporting goods across land meant that each commodity changed hands several times between East Asia and its eventual European consumer; as a result, only the wealthiest members of European society could afford to purchase items like silk and pepper (Blaut, Colonizers Model ).

This imbalance in commodities and resources changed with the European colonization of North and South America. In South America, the Spanish found enormous quantities of silver in the Bolivian mines of Potosi. The silver bullion and other mineral wealth harvested from the conquest of the New World finally gave European nations a trading commodity that appealed to merchants and rulers in Asia. The introduction of Bolivian silver into the global economy followed quickly on the heels of expeditions such as Vasco da Gamas rounding of the Cape of Good Hope, which allowed for travel to Asia by sea instead of by land. These two factors together provided the catalyst for renewed European interest in Asian trade (See Stein, Silver, Trade, and War, 52). Despite increased mobility and access to resources, long-distance trade between Europe and Asia remained extremely dangerous and expensive in the 17th and 18th centuries. As it was rarely feasible for an individual merchant or small merchant company to undertake the journey, a new form of organization emerged, the joint stock company.