The Revolt of 1857 The British East Co 12 05 2011 Trading outpost Calcutta Bombay Madras o Cotton textiles important monopoly 1600 1750 Collaboration between Indian merchants and British traders After 1750 British traders dominate Indian Ocean trade Trade items tea silk spices cotton indigo dye opium New Empire in India After 1750s Plassey Buxar and Diwani Company Raj o Court of directors London o Governor Generals Calcutta Huge armies sepoys Indian soldiers o To fight for east India company 1830s Social Unrest Resistance by landlords Tribal resistance Peasant uprisings o Indigo revolt Benghal Urban resistance Whats missing o Scattered revolts not organized needed a massive revolt Revolt of 8157 Causes of revolt First war of Indian Independence Sepoy mutiny Dissatisfaction among the army o Sepoys peasants in uniform o General service Establishment Act 1856 Kala Pani dark waters Forces them to travel to foreign lands to fight This was a curse because they considered the oceans corrupted their religion defiled o Racism low pay Indian princes mad Peasants landlords angry o Exploitation Immediate cause o Doctrine of lapse policy of 1856 annexation Lee Enfield rifles greased with cow and pig fat o Had to bite to load bullet rumor spread and the sepoys felt corrupted from their religion Felt it was intended by British Main centers of revolt Meerut Delhi o Refused to perform the drill were tortured o Bahadur Shah Zafar o Rallied around the last Mughal emperor Loyal and neutral Lucknown Jhansi Central India Loyal to the British o Sikhs of Punjab Neutral o South India o Benghal o English educated elites Why did it fail Panic in British camp Localized No common plan No central leadership Effects Mughal Empire disappears British confidence shattered Restructuring of british Indian army o Indian british soldiers 2 1 Queen Victoria Proclamation 1858 o Switch from company to crown Gained First signs of patriotism Hindu Muslim unity A Nation in the Making 1857 1919 Changes in colonial bureaucracy 12 05 2011 Queen Victoria s Proclamation 1858 o Viceroy o Secretary of state o Indian civil service examination to be state official Travel to London to compete in a foreign language English Age limit reduced to 19yrs from 21yrs Not fair put British at advantage Indians resented this Changes in Economy Drain of wealth o Cost of wars purchase of weapons Deindustrialization o Existing Indian industries crushed o Buying cheap cotton selling costly cotton textiles o Indian textiles vs landcashire textiles o High tariff for Indian textiles entering London British Indian Railway Trade Troops A blessing in disguise o Feelings of nationalism Birth of Nationalism Lord Lytton s Viceroyalty o Vernacular Press Act 1878 Censorship of vernacular newspapers o Great Famine 1876 78 Man made disaster Defective food distribution Around 5 million died Delhi Durbar 1877 Huge party celebrating British rule over India During famine Political economy Don t interfere with the laws of supply and demand cartoon Indian National Congress 1885 Moderates 1885 1905 Prayers Petitions Protests Constitutional Means Drain of wealth Dadabhai Naoroji Extremists 1905 1919 Radical nationalism violent means demand for complete independence Lal Bal Pal Growth of Extremism Lord Curzon s decision to partition Bengal 1905 o Bengal too large and unwieldy o Partition of Bengal Administrative necessity Curzon s idea Divide and rule Bengal profile o West Bengal Hindu majority western educated intellectuals middle class o East Bengal Muslim majority Partition aimed at Breaking Hindu Muslim unity Partition meant Insult to Bengalis shared heritage had lived happily Swadeshi Movement Swa self Desh country Means consuming goods from own country Revolutionary terrorism Partition annulled in 1911 Bhagat Singh Body Medicine and Disease Under the Raj 12 05 2011 Role of Disease in World History Western Imperialism western medicine in the colonized lands beneficial o View was strengthened by major disease being cured World Health Organization Western colonists agents of health Germs and Disease as agents of history o European conquests in the Americas Native Americas No resistance immunity to Old World diseases Shows that imperialists are not agents of health British response towards Indian Diseases Disease pressing problems affecting British loss of revenue India white man s grave o High mortality among Europeans o European vulnerability to tropical disease Indians responsible for their own ill health British blamed the Indians for their own ill health could not handle the physical suffering believe they were dirty had poor diet religion ect Western Medicine Hindu Ayurveda Islamic Yunani Indian medical treatments How to Introduce Western Medicine Western Medicine o Superior high civilization reason science Indian Meds o Moral degeneration ignorance non scientific barbaric Using med to argue for European superiority How to introduce it Calcutta Medical College 1835 Smallpox The Scourge of India Indian remedy o Popular belief Smallpox divine presence sport play of goddess Sitala o Worshiping Sitala will get rid of it o Medical practitioners believed Variolation injecting a small portion of the virus to o Vaccination first use cowpox vaccine to treat small pox prevent attacks British Remedy o Edward Jenner Cowpox vaccine Indian resistance to arm to arm vaccination Violated Hindu castes White vaccinators strangers to the natives Humiliating to native women Vaccination irreligious act Indian resistance to Plague Plague hospital o Place of pollution o Interfered with caste religion purdah Alleged sexual assault on native women Colonizing the Body Projecting Western Medicine as superior to establish supremacy over Indian bodies Introducing Western Medicine a political enterprise Sex Family and Gender in Colonial India 12 05 2011 Sex Gender Race Relations Indian women and white men o Interracial families White women and Indian men Indian Hindu men and women o Sati Hindu custom 18th century Indo mania Fascination with Indian past Racism not strong Love of ancient India culture Translation of ancient India Sanskrit texts Men could be free from feminine constraints man s country o Called Christians names because they were converted Interracial families Numerous sexual liaisons Namelessness of Indian women Sources o Paintings o Autobiography o Personal memoirs diaries The Palmer Family painting o White children o Indians are in the back and share the same space she is