Transcript The British Take Over India

The British Take Over India
Chapter #9 - Section #4
East India Company and Rebellion
In the early 1600s, the
British East India Company
won trading rights on the fringe
of the Mughal Empire.
As Mughal power declined, the
company’s influence grew.
By the mid-1800s, the British
East India Company controlled
sixty percent of India.
Exploiting Indian Diversity
The British were able to conquer India by
exploiting its diversity.
India was home to many people and cultures,
as Indians with different traditions and
languages were not able to unite against the
British.
The British encouraged competition and
disunity among rival Indian princes.
When diplomacy didn’t work, the British used
their superior weapons over local rulers.
British Social Changes in India
By the early 1800s British officials introduced
Western education and legal procedures.
Missionaries tried to convert Indians to Christianity.
The British ended slavery and the caste system.
The position of Indian women within the family
improved under British reforms.
One law banned sati, a Hindu custom practiced
mainly by the upper classes; it called for a widow to
join her husband in death by throwing herself on his
funeral fire.
The Indian Caste System
Social Restrictions in India are defined by thousands
of hereditary groups, or castes.
Hindu Scriptures give Four “Varnas”
1.
2.
3.
4.
Brahmins (teachers, scholars, priests)
Kshyatriyas (kings and warriors)
Vaishyas (traders)
Sudras (agriculturists, service providers)
Dalits “untouchables” – people outside the caste
system who worked in unhealthy, unpleasant or
polluting jobs. They suffered from social segregation
and restrictions in addition to extreme poverty.
Hindus believe in reincarnation resulting in a cycle of
life called Samsra and justifying the caste system.
Growing Discontent
British laws conflict with Indian Hindu values.
- Sepoys, or Indian soldiers were required to serve
anywhere, either in India or overseas. For high-caste
Hindus, overseas travel was an offense to their religion.
- Next, the East India Company passed a law that allowed
Hindu widows to remarry.
Many Hindus viewed both laws as a Christian
conspiracy to undermine their beliefs.
Then in 1857, the British issued new rifles to
the sepoys, who were told to bite off the tips of
cartridges before loading them into the rifles.
The Sepoy Rebellion
The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857
The rifle cartridges were greased with animal fat – either from
cows, which Hindus consider sacred, or from pigs, which were
forbidden to Muslims.
When the troops refused to “load rifles” they were imprisoned.
Angry sepoys rose up against their British officers as several
regiments marched off to Delhi, the old Mughal capital.
There, they hailed the last Mughal ruler as their leader.
In some places, the sepoys brutally massacred British men,
women and children.
The British rallied and soon crushed the rebellion taking terrible
revenge for their earlier losses.
Indian villages were torched and thousands of unarmed Indians
were slaughtered.
The Sepoy Rebellion left a bitter legacy of fear, hatred, and
mistrust on both sides.
Quick-write
Half the class is for Sati
Half the class is against Sati
Make an argument for or against the
Hindu practice of Sati. Is it a a noble
act of a wife’s love, or a sexist violation
of women? Was the British government
right in banning this ancient Hindu
upper-class tradition?
Ram Mohun Roy
Ram Mohun Roy combined
Western ways with Indian culture.
He was founder of the Hindu College
in Calcutta, which provided an
English-style education to Indians.
Roy condemned some Indian
traditions such as the rigid caste
system, child marriage, sati, and
purdah, the isolation of women in
separate quarters.
He also set up educational societies
that helped revive pride in Indian
culture.
He is hailed as the founder of
Indian nationalism
Purdah
Assessment
What were the positive and negative effects
on the Impact of British Colonial Rule?
Pg. 305 – 306.
Positive
Negative
1.
2.
3.
4.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Indian Nationalism Grows
During the years of British rule, a class of Westerneducated Indians emerged.
The British hoped this elite Indian class would
bolster British power.
But exposure to Western ideas of democracy and
equality caused Indians to spearhead a nationalist
movement to end British imperialism.
In 1885, the Indian National Congress was
organized and its members believed in peaceful
protest to gain their ends.
The Indian National Congress looked to eventual
self-rule, but supported Western-style
modernization.