Unit 9 Overview: India
(Chapter 12-4, 15-3,19-1, 21-3)
Assignment:
- Reading Journal - For this unit you are to complete a reading journal and bring it to class each day. You should complete an entry into your reading journal for each section.
§ Label the notes with the section number (example 10-5) and the section title “Russia Reform and Reaction”
§ Identify the essential question that this reading is going to help you answer by writing that entire essential question on the line below your section number and section title
§ Write the following title (Demonstrate Comprehension)
- Now summarize the main idea of the section (pre-read the section headings to get a sense for what this will be – That’s what they’re there for!)
- Now summarize the key supporting details of the section being careful to define any buildings blocks in that section. (this is really your notes)
§ Write the following title (Apply the reading)
- Now discuss how you will use what you read to help answer the essential question.
- You will make a concept map to answer each essential question for a total of 3 concept maps.
- You will be responsible to write an essay to address the following prompt:
What are the lasting effects of Imperialism on India? (You must include a completed house with your essay, you must use all of the documents and you must use complexity)
Source 1
Streets, H. (2001). The rebellion of 1857: Origins, consequences, and themes. Teaching
South Asia: An internet journal of pedagogy, 1, 85-104. Retrieved from
http://QL-VgQtecy4.pdf. p.97.
British General Sir Henry Lawrence stated in August of 1857, “we have killed and drowned
500 out of the 600…men of the regiment. Every native that appeared in sight was shot down without question, and in the morning Colonel Neill sent out parties of regiment…and burned all the villages near where the ruins of our bungalows stood, and hung every native that they could catch, on the trees that lined the road.”
Sergeant David McAusland of the 42nd regiment during the Rebellion noted that “three
scaffolds and six whipping posts stood outside of the town alongside of the jail and there
[took place] executions to the number of six every day.” A judge of the trials whose wife
had been killed in the revolt told Sergeant McAusland, “if ever I get the change of [judging]
these Black rebels I will hang a man for every hair that was in my wife’s head.”3
Source 2
Dadabhai Naoroji:
The Benefits of British Rule, 1871
The Benefits of British Rule for India:
In the Cause of Humanity: Abolition ofsutteeand infanticide. Destruction ofDacoits, Thugs, Pindarees, and other such pests of Indian society. Allowing remarriage of Hindu widows, and charitable aid in time of famine. Glorious work all this, of which any nation may well be proud, and such as has not fallen to the lot of any people in the history of mankind.
In the Cause of Civilization: Education, both male and female. Though yet only partial, an inestimable blessing as far as it has gone, and leading gradually to the destruction of superstition, and many moral and social evils. Resuscitation of India's own noble literature, modified and refined by the enlightenment of the West.
Politically: Peace and order. Freedom of speech and liberty of the press. Higher political knowledge and aspirations. Improvement of government in the native states. Security of life and property. Freedom from oppression caused by the caprice or greed of despotic rulers, and from devastation by war. Equal justice between man and man (sometimes vitiated by partiality to Europeans). Services of highly educated administrators, who have achieved the above-mentioned results.
Materially:Loans for railways and irrigation. Development of a few valuable products, such as indigo, tea, coffee, silk, etc. Increase of exports. Telegraphs.
Generally: A slowly growing desire of late to treat India equitably, and as a country held in trust. Good intentions. No nation on the face of the earth has ever had the opportunity of achieving such a glorious work as this. I hope in the credit side of the account I have done no injustice, and if I have omitted any item which anyone may think of importance, I shall have the greatest pleasure in inserting it. I appreciate, and so do my countrymen, what England has done for India, and I know that it is only in British hands that her regeneration can be accomplished. Now for the debit side.
The Detriments of British Rule:
In the Cause of Humanity: Nothing. Everything, therefore, is in your favor under this heading.
In the Cause of Civilization: As I have said already, there has been a failure to do as much as might have been done, but I put nothing to the debit. Much has been done, though.
Politically: Repeated breach of pledges to give the natives a fair and reasonable share in the higher administration of their own country, which has much shaken confidence in the good faith of the British word. Political aspirations and the legitimate claim to have a reasonable voice in the legislation and the imposition and disbursement of taxes, met to a very slight degree, thus treating the natives of India not as British subjects, in whom representation is a birthright. Consequent on the above, an utter disregard of the feelings and views of the natives. The great moral evil of the drain of wisdom and practical administration, leaving none to guide the rising generation.
Financially: All attention is engrossed in devising new modes of taxation, without any adequate effort to increase the means of the people to pay; and the consequent vexation and oppressiveness of the taxes imposed, imperial and local. Inequitable financial relations between England and India,i.e.,the political debt of ,100,000,000 clapped on India's shoulders, and all home charges also, though the British Exchequer contributes nearly ,3,000,000 to the expense of the colonies.
Materially: The political drain, up to this time, from India to England, of above ,500,000,000, at the lowest computation, in principal alone, which with interest would be some thousands of millions. The further continuation of this drain at the rate, at present, of above ,12,000,000 per annum, with a tendency to increase. The consequent continuous impoverishment and exhaustion of the country, except so far as it has been very partially relieved and replenished by the railway and irrigation loans, and the windfall of the consequences of the American war, since 1850. Even with this relief, the material condition of India is such that the great mass of the poor have hardly tuppence a day and a few rags, or a scanty subsistence. The famines that were in their power to prevent, if they had done their duty, as a good and intelligent government. The policy adopted during the last fifteen years of building railways, irrigation works, etc., is hopeful, has already resulted in much good to your credit, and if persevered in, gratitude and contentment will follow. An increase of exports without adequate compensation; loss of manufacturing industry and skill. Here I end the debit side.
Summary:To sum up the whole, the British rule has been: morally, a great blessing; politically, peace and order on one hand, blunders on the other; materially, impoverishment, relieved as far as the railway and other loans go. The natives call the British system "Sakar ki Churi," the knife of sugar. That is to say, there is no oppression, it is all smooth and sweet, but it is the knife, notwithstanding. I mention this that you should know these feelings. Our great misfortune is that you do not know our wants. When you will know our real wishes, I have not the least doubt that you would do justice. The genius and spirit of the British people is fair play and justice.
Source: From: Dadabhai Naoroji,Essays, Speeches, Addresses and Writings, (Bombay: Caxton Printing Works, 1887), pp. 131-136.
Source 3
Primary Source Document - Gandhi: "Non-Violence Is the First Article of My Faith"
After Gandhi is arrested for writing articles and speaking out against the British Government in India, he gives the following speech to a British judge at his hearing.
Non-violence is the first article of my faith. It is the last article of my faith and it is everything in between. I write because I had to make my choice. I had either to accept a system, which I think has done an irreparable [terrible] harm to my country or watch the mad fury of my people bursting forth in a violent way. I know that my people have sometimes gone mad. I am deeply sorry for it; and I am therefore, here, to submit not to a light penalty but to the highest penalty. I do not ask for mercy. I am here, therefore, to invite and submit to the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is a deliberate crime but appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen. The only course open to you, Mr. Judge, is, as I am just going to say in my statement, either to resign your post in protest of my free speech rights being violated or inflict on me the severest penalty if you believe that the system and law you are assisting to administer will allow. I do not expect that kind of conversion. But by the time I have finished with my statement you will, perhaps, have a glimpse of what is raging within my heart to run this maddest risk which a sane man can run.
Little do people know how the semi-starved masses of Indians are slowly sinking to lifelessness. Little do they know that their miserable lives represent the little rights that they get for the work they do for the foreign exploiter [the British], and that the profits are sucked away from the people. Little do they realize that the government established by law in British India is carried on for this exploitation of the people. Nothing can explain away the misery of the people. No one can explain away the evidence the skeletons in many villages present to the naked eye. I have no doubt whatsoever that both England and the people of India will have to answer, if there is a God above, for this crime against humanity is perhaps unequalled in world history. The law itself in this country has been used to serve the foreign exploiter [British]. My experience of political cases in India leads me to the conclusion that in nine out of every ten the condemned men were totally innocent. Their crime consisted in love of their country. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, justice has been denied to Indians as against Europeans in the courts of India. This is not an exaggerated picture. It is the experience of almost every Indian who has had anything to do with such cases. In my opinion the administration of the law is thus been prostituted, whether it be consciously or unconsciously for the benefit of the exploiter [British].
The greatest misfortune is that Englishmen and their Indian associates in the administration of the country do not know that they are engaged in the crime I have attempted to describe. I am satisfied that many English and Indian officials honestly believe that they are administering one of the best systems devised in the world and that India is making steady though slow progress. These men do not know that a subtle but effective system of terrorism and an organized display of force that is being used. Indians are deprived of all powers of retaliation or self-defence, which has emasculated [made them less of a man] the people. Section 124-A under which I am happily charged is perhaps the prince among the political sections of the Indian Penal Code designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen.
The section under which Mr. Banker [a volunteer who worked with Gandhi] and I are charged is one under which mere promotion of disaffection [disagreement] of British rule is a crime. I have studied some of the cases tried under it, and I know that some of the most loved of India's patriots have been convicted under it. I consider it a privilege, therefore, to be charged under it. I have no personal ill will against any single British administrator; much less can I have any disaffection towards the King's people. But I hold it to be a virtue to be disaffected [disagreeable] towards a government, which in its totality has done more harm to India than any previous system. India is less manly under the British rule than she ever was before. Holding such a belief, I consider it to be a sin to have affection [praise] for the system. And it has been a precious privilege for me to be able to write [against British rule] what I have in the various articles being used evidence against me.
In fact I believe that I have rendered a service to India and England by showing in non-cooperation the way out of the unnatural state in which both groups are living. In my humble opinion, non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good. But in the past, non-cooperation has been deliberately expressed in violence to the evildoer. I am attempting to show to my countrymen that violent non-cooperation only multiplies evil and that as evil can only be sustained by violence. Non-violence implies voluntary submission to the penalty for non-cooperation with evil. I am here, therefore, to invite and submit cheerfully to the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is deliberate crime and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen. The only course open to you, the Judge is either to resign your posts and thus dissociate yourselves from evil if you feel that the law you are called upon to administer is evil and that in reality I am innocent. If not, you should inflict on me the severest penalty if you believe that the system and the law you are assisting to administer are good for the people of this country and that my activity is therefore injurious to the public will.