The Colonial Era in India

The Colonial Era in India

Nearly two centuries ago the early Britons in Bengal and the sister Presidencies regarded the land and the people as fair game for plunder. ... Under the later Britons, as administrators ... the plunder is proceeding far more outrageously today than at any preceding period. ... Modern England has been made great by Indian wealth, ... wealth always taken by the might and skill of the stronger.

CHAPTER

Questions

One. What is colonialism?

Two. What drew European powers to India?

Three. What was India's economic and geopolitical standing before and during the colonial period?

Four. How did the British colonial domination of India impact the country?

In the previous chapter, we saw the Marathas considerably weaken the Mughal Empire, before they themselves succumbed to the British forces early in the nineteenth century. And yet, military campaigns were only one factor in India becoming the 'jewel in the Crown' of the British Empire - indeed, the empire's largest colony. de THE AGE OF COLONIALISM

Before we get there, we must step back a little in time and consider the phenomenon of colonialism. Its usual definition is the practice where one country takes control of another region, establishing settlements there, and imposing its political, economic, and cultural systems. This is not a recent occurrence: colonialism can be traced to the time of the great empires in the first millennium before common era; in the first millennium common era, the spread of Christianity and Islam also involved the colonisation of the territories converted to the new faiths.

But the 'Age of Colonialism' usually refers to Europe's expansion from the fifteenth century onward, which, within a few centuries, extended to large parts of the world. As you will discover in higher grades, 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. Often, the conquests were achieved through military campaigns that involved the massacre or enslavement of native populations.

What impelled those nations to undertake such campaigns? 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 - and, often, plunder, as we will see. Converting indigenous popu- lations to Christianity was another powerful motivation. A lesser one, but significant nonetheless, was scientific inquiry - the desire to explore unknown lands so as to accumulate knowledge of the planet's geography and natural history.

While colonisers often claimed they had the 'civilising mission' of bringing 'progress' to the colonised peoples, who were often demonised as 'savage', 'primitive' or 'barbaric', the reality was very different: loss of independence, exploitation of resources by the colonisers, the destruction of traditional ways of life, and the imposition of foreign cultural values. It is true that the colonial age brought the world together, saw a rapid growth of economies and technologies, but the benefits were mostly for the colonisers; many historical studies have documented the immense hardships that the colonised people had to endure.