The Colonial Era in India

Class 08 Social Science

Colonialism is the practice where one country takes control of another region, establishing settlements there, and imposing its political, economic, and cultural systems.

The ‘Age of Colonialism’ refers to Europe’s expansion from the 15th century onward, which, within a few centuries, extended to large parts of the world. European powers - in particular, Spain, Portugal, Britain, France, and Netherlands - established colonies across Africa, Asia, the Americas, Australia and many Pacific islands, after conquering large parts of those regions of the world.

Political competition between European powers created a race for territorial expansion and global influence. Territorial expansion had obvious economic advantages: access to new natural resources, new markets and new trade routes. Converting indigenous populations to Christianity was another powerful motivation.

Europeans in India

Until the 16th century CE, when European powers began sailing to the Indian Subcontinent, India was a vibrant economic and cultural powerhouse. However, economic prosperity also made India an attractive target for European colonial ambitions.

Portuguese

The Portuguese explorer and navigator Vasco da Gama’s arrival at Kappad (near Kozhikode in Kerala) in May 1498 paved the way for the beginning of European colonisation in India.

Though he was well received, his aggressive ways failed to establish friendly relations with the local rulers. During his second voyage four years later, he seized, tortured and killed Indian merchants, and bombarded Calicut from the sea. The Portuguese captured strategic ports, including Goa (in 1510), which became the capital of their colony in India, as well as several trading posts along the Malabar and Coromandel coasts.

The Portuguese implemented a system known as cartaz (pass), requiring all ships in the Arabian Sea to purchase Portuguese permits for navigation. Ships without these permits were seized. This naval dominance allowed them to monopolise the spice trade between India and Europe for nearly a century.

Alongside commercial exploitation, the Portuguese presence in western India was characterised by religious persecution. In Goa, they established the Inquisition in 1560, which severely persecuted Hindus, Muslims, Jews, and Christian converts suspected of practising their original faith. Such persecution was accompanied by forced conversions and the destruction of many Hindu temples, among other forms of abuse of the native population.

Dutch

The Dutch arrived in India in the early 17th century and, unlike the Portuguese, focused primarily on commercial dominance, particularly in the spice trade. They established a Dutch East India Company, with trading posts in various parts of India, including, on the west coast, Surat, Bharuch, Cochin (Kochi), and on the east coast Nagapattinam and Masulipatnam (present-day Machilipatnam). Their most significant presence was in the Malabar region of Kerala, where they displaced the Portuguese from several trading centres.

The Dutch presence in India was ultimately limited. It declined significantly after their defeat at the Battle of Colachel in 1741, where the forces of Travancore under King Marthanda Varma decisively defeated the Dutch both on land and at sea.

French

The French entered India later, establishing their first trading post at Surat in 1668 and subsequently at Pondicherry (present-day Puducherry) in 1674, where they established their East India Company and developed ambitious plans to establish a French empire in India.

Dupleix, who served as Governor-General of French India from 1742 to 1754, pioneered several colonial strategies that would later be adopted by the British. In particular, he trained Indian soldiers in European military techniques, creating disciplined infantry soldiers known as sepoys. Dupleix also developed the strategy of indirect rule through puppet Indian rulers, who were installed through interventions in local succession disputes.

The French colonial ambitions in India were ultimately checked during the Carnatic Wars (1746–1763), a series of conflicts between Britain and France. Despite initial successes under Dupleix, who captured Madras (present-day Chennai) in 1746, the French ultimately lost ground to the British and their colony was reduced to Pondicherry and a few smaller enclaves.

British

Britain dominated the Indian subcontinent for nearly two centuries.

From Traders to Rulers

Unlike classic conquests, the British takeover of India was gradual, calculated, and often disguised as commercial enterprise rather than military invasion.

The English East India Company was established as a trading company and was granted a royal charter by Queen Elizabeth I, which gave it special powers - to raise a private army, for instance. Nevertheless, its agents initially kept up a pretence of being traders, which allowed them, in the 17th century, to establish footholds along India’s coast with minimal resistance: Surat, Madras, Bombay and Calcutta among the first. Local rulers did not mind these trading posts, as they generally welcomed foreign trade. These modest beginnings concealed the Company’s long-term ambitions.

The Strategy of ‘Divide and Rule’

While maintaining an appearance of traders, the Company’s agents cultivated political relationships with local rulers, offering military support to some against their rivals, thus inserting themselves into Indian political conflicts and emerging as power brokers rather than foreign invaders. They would also play on rivalries between regional rulers or succession disputes within ruling houses, so as to benefit from these conflicts. The British were equally skilled at exploiting existing divisions within Indian society: for example, they identified
and often encouraged tensions between religious communities.

The Battle of Plassey (1757) exemplifies this approach. When tensions arose between Siraj-ud-daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, and the East India Company officials led by Robert Clive, the latter identified disgruntled elements within the Nawab’s court. Clive hatched a conspiracy with Mir Jafar, the Nawab’s military commander, promising to install him as the new Nawab in exchange for his betrayal. The battle took place at Palashi (Plassey as the British spelt it), some 150 kilometres north of present-day Kolkata. Some French forces assisted the Nawab, but Mir Jafar’s forces - constituting the majority of the Nawab’s army - stood aside, ensuring a British victory despite their smaller number.

By positioning themselves as a kingmaker, the East India Company gradually established control over increasingly large territories. In the 19th century, it went a step further and introduced the infamous Doctrine of Lapse, according to which any princely state would be annexed if its ruler died without a natural male heir. This deliberately disregarded the Hindu tradition of adoption, which was a legitimate means of succession in Indian royal houses. The Doctrine of Lapse led to the annexation of numerous states, contributing to the expansion of the territorial control of the British. This created much resentment in sections of Indian society and contributed to the 1857 Rebellion.

Another stratagem known as ‘subsidiary alliance’ was to install a British ‘Resident’ in the courts of Indian rulers to protect them against internal or external threats. In exchange, they would have to maintain British troops at their own expense and conduct foreign relations only through the British. While appearing to preserve the sovereignty of princely states, the system effectively transferred real power to the British while burdening Indian rulers with the costs of their own subjugation. The ruler of Hyderabad was among the first to enter such an alliance in 1798. Several others soon followed.

Devastating Famines

A few years after its victory at Plassey, the East India Company secured the right to collect revenue in Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha - some of India’s richest regions.

In 1770-1772, coming on top of two years of crop failure, the harsh revenue collection targets imposed by the East India Company in Bengal - requiring farmers to pay a high rate of cash taxes on the produce of their lands, regardless of harvest conditions - caused a catastrophic famine which killed nearly one-third of its population or an estimated 10 million people. In fact, the Company maintained harsh revenue collection targets, even increasing the land tax during the famine.

Such tragic famines were going to recur throughout the British rule in India. During the Great Famine of 1876–1878, for instance, up to 8 million Indians perished, mostly in the Deccan plateau.

Disregarding the severity of the crisis, some Indian traders would hold on to their stocks in the hope of price rise, causing an artificial scarcity, and the British administration continued to export grain to Britain - about one million tonnes of rice alone per year during the three years of the famine.

The British economic policy of ‘free market’, which left prices of commodities free to fluctuate, contributed to the severity of the famines.

Drain of India’s Wealth

Economic exploitation of India formed the foundation of British colonial policy. The colonisers had extracted many billions of pounds from India. This was extracted not just through taxes, but by charging Indians for the colonial power’s expenditures on building the railways, the telegraph network, and even on wars.

Changing Landscapes

The expanding colonial rule impacted nearly every aspect of Indian life, as the rulers were convinced that India should be reshaped according to their ‘superior’ conceptions.

Decline of India’s Indigenous Industries

Before the 18th century, India was renowned for its manufacturing capabilities, particularly in textiles - cotton, silk, wool, jute, hemp and coir being the chief ones. Indian cotton textiles were in high demand in many parts of the world.

British policy imposed heavy duties on Indian textiles imported into Britain while forcing India to accept British manufactured goods with minimal tariffs. Moreover, Britain now controlled most of the sea trade as well as exchange rates, so Indian traders found it difficult to export as earlier. The result was the ruin of Indian textile industry. In the 19th century, India’s textile exports fell sharply, while Britain’s imports into India grew even more sharply. Communities of skilled artisans who had practised their craft for generations were reduced to poverty and forced to return to subsistence agriculture on increasingly overtaxed land.

Similar scenarios unfolded for India’s manufactures of iron, steel, paper and other goods.

Dismantling Traditional Governance Structures

Before British colonisation, India possessed well-organised systems of local self-governance. Village councils managed community affairs, resolved disputes, and organised public works such as irrigation, roads, etc. Regional kingdoms maintained complex administrative structures that had evolved over centuries to address local needs and conditions.

The British systematically dismantled these indigenous governance systems, replacing them with a centralised bureaucracy designed primarily to facilitate tax collection and maintain order, rather than promote public welfare. This transformation destroyed centuries-old mechanisms of community decision-making.

Transforming Indian Education

Education became a powerful tool for the creation of a class of Indians who would serve British interests. In earlier centuries, India had diverse educational traditions - pāṭhaśhālās, madrasās, vihāras, and many forms of apprenticeship learning. These institutions transmitted not only practical knowledge but also cultural values and traditions.

A sharp turning point in India’s educational history was marked by the notorious 1835 ‘Minute on Indian Education’ of British historian and politician, Thomas B. Macaulay.

Although a few prominent British Orientalists argued that Indian students should be left to study in their own languages, Macaulay’s policy gained the upper hand and India’s traditional schools slowly disappeared, while English became a language of prestige associated with the colonial masters, resulting in lasting divisions in Indian society between English-educated elites and the masses.

The new education system served multiple colonial objectives. It created a pool of Indian clerks and minor officials who could staff the lower ranks of the colonial administration at a fraction of the cost of British personnel. It also sidelined traditional sources of knowledge and authority, creating generations of Indians disconnected from their own cultural heritage.

Reshaping Economic Structures

The British transformed India’s economy from a self-sufficient agricultural system supplemented by craft and manufacture production into a supplier of raw materials for British industry and a market forced to buy British goods.

For example, the construction of India’s vast railway network. While the railways did bring people closer together and integrated India’s internal market, it was designed primarily to move raw materials from the interior to ports for export and to distribute British manufactured goods throughout India.

Early Resistance Movements

Sannyasi-Fakir Rebellion

One of the earliest organised resistance movements began in Bengal after the terrible famine of 1770. Groups of sannyasis (Hindu ascetics) and fakirs (Muslim ascetics), who traditionally travelled freely for pilgrimage and charity, found their movements restricted by the British East India Company policies, especially by the new land and taxation policies.

Over the next three decades they attacked British treasuries and tax collectors. The British called them ‘bandits’, executed some of them and used their superior forces to eventually defeat them.

Tribal Uprisings

India’s tribal communities faced unique threats as the British expanded into forests and hills, disrupting their traditional way of life. The British described tribals as ‘primitive’, restricted their access to forests and forest produce, sometimes acquiring tribal land or turning it into private property, imposing cash taxes, catching tribals in debt traps, replacing traditional tribal councils with the British legal system and encouraging missionaries to ‘civilise’ and convert tribals to Christianity.

Some of the above abuse led some tribes to rise in rebellion against the colonial power.

Among the first such events, the Kol Uprising (1831-1832) in Chota Nagpur (in present-day Jharkhand) started when the British introduced land policies that favoured outsiders over the original tribal inhabitants. The Kol tribes temporarily established their control over significant territory before being defeated by the British forces.

The Santhal Rebellion of 1855-1856, a widespread uprising of the Santhal people across parts of present-day Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal, was led by two brothers, Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu, and rebelled against moneylenders and landlords who were taking away their ancestral lands with British support. The Santhals declared their own government and vowed to ‘fight to the last drop of blood’. The British response was brutal; after some initial losses, they burned entire villages and killed thousands of Santhals, including, eventually, the rebel leaders. However, the daring Santhal rebellion inspired other tribal communities to resist colonial rule.

Peasant Uprisings against Economic Exploitation

Even without famines, peasants suffered under the unfair British revenue collections, often losing their lands to moneylenders or new landlords.

The Indigo Revolt (1859-1862) illustrates this exploitation. European planters forced peasants in the northern parts of Bengal to abandon food crops and, instead, grow indigo plants, as the indigo dye was then in great demand in Europe. From planters to traders, everyone earned huge profits - except the peasants, who were so poorly paid that they got trapped in debt slavery. When they refused to grow indigo, they faced imprisonment, torture, and destruction of their property. 

The Great Rebellion of 1857

The British called it the ‘Sepoy Mutiny’. ‘Sepoys’ were the Indian soldiers enrolled in the East India company’s British Army.

Even earlier, there were several signs of severe discontent among the sepoys, beginning with the so-called ‘Vellore Mutiny’ of 1806, which erupted when the British introduced new uniform regulations that violated the religious practices of both Hindu and Muslim sepoys. For example, they were forbidden from wearing religious marks on their foreheads and were required to shave their beards. The sepoys seized the Vellore fort (in present-day Tamil Nadu) and killed many British officers and troops. However, the British crushed the revolt, killing or executing hundreds of sepoys.

Most sepoys were from agricultural families, which had been suffering great hardship owing to the British policies on land revenue. After decades of increasing frustration, in 1857 rumours spread across northern and central India that rifle cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat, offending the Hindu and Muslim sepoys’ religious sensibilities.

At Barrackpore (in present-day West Bengal), the sepoy Mangal Pandey attacked British officers. His execution spread further discontent among the sepoys. In Meerut (in present-day Uttar Pradesh), some of them killed their British officers and marched to nearby Delhi, where they proclaimed the elderly but politically powerless Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar as their leader. The revolt quickly spread across northern and central India, with sepoys capturing key cities like Kanpur, Lucknow and Jhansi.

The British response was systematic and extremely brutal, beginning with the recapture of Delhi in September 1857, where the British forces conducted house-to-house massacres. At Kanpur, they conducted mass executions designed to strike terror in the population. In a long punitive campaign they burned villages and destroyed crops, causing countless deaths.

The uprising failed, but it marked a turning point, especially in sowing a seed for the idea that foreign domination was unacceptable. The seed would grow early in the 20th century into a full-fledged struggle for freedom, though with different methods.

Meantime, in 1858, the British Crown took direct control of India from the East India Company, initiating the period of the British Raj. British policies shifted from aggressive territorial expansion to consolidation of control. The Indian Army was reorganised so as to prevent unified resistance in the future.