The East India Company took 100 years (1757-1857) to effectively take the control of whole of India. Their administration started from their victory in the battle of Plassey and ended with the great Indian rebellion of 1857. After that the British Parliament assumed the sovereignty and administration of India through the Government of India Act 1858.
Background –
The East India Company had started expanding its influence on Indian kingdoms through ‘Ring Fence Policy’, under which they used to extend support the neighbouring states from external invasions. If their neighbours were safe, then they were also safe. This helped in expanding their influence in India and helped them to make many Indian kingdoms to depend on them. After considerably expanding its influence, the East India Company adopted the ‘Policy of Subsidiary Alliance’ under which the states were made to enter in a treaty with the Company to maintain Company’s troops as army and have a Resident in their court. The states were not allowed to have diplomatic relations with other foreign powers. In return of that the Company was under the obligation to protect the states from any external invasion. This policy made the Company to hire multi-fold local troops than their European counterparts. These troops were Hindus and Muslims both. Several evangelist European military officers used to encourage Indian soldiers in general and Hindus in particular, embrace Christianity. A few years before the great rebellion of 1857, the ‘Policy of Annexation’ was initiated by Lord Dalhousie on the pretext of ‘Doctrine of Lapse’. All these policies and practices of the East India Company were sowing the seeds of discord between the Company and Indians including the rulers. The flashpoint was reached when the East India Company introduced the European cartridges made of fat drawn beef and pork. That ignited the religious sentiments of Hindu and Muslim soldiers both.
Events –
The resentment among Indians made many among them to conspire against the Company. They started collaborating with Chapati / Roti along with a rose were being secretly distributed in several villages. But, before the fixed date of revolt, on 10th May 1857 a rebellious soldier Mangal Pande opened the fire and killed his officer at Barrackpore cantonment. This ignited the fire of rebellion among the soldiers.
When the news of rebellion in Barrackpore and surrounding areas reached to Meerut cantonment the soldiers started the march towards Delhi. After reaching Delhi, they announced Bahadur Shah Zafar, the old and symbolic heir of erstwhile Mughal empire as their leader. Many other rulers of various kingdoms, who were resenting with the policies of the company aligned with rebellious soldiers and pledged loyalty to Bahadur Shah Zafar as accepted leader. Rani Jhansi Laxmi Bai, Nana Saheb, Tatya Tope, Kunwar Sahib of Ara, Maharaja Tej Singh of Mainpuri and Begam Jeenat Mahal of Awadh etc; were the prominent rebellion figures.
A.O. Hume who was the Collector of Etawah, reached Mainpuri with his soldiers to reinforce the East India Company’s soldiers fighting against Maharaja Tej Singh in Mainpuri. There he was surrounded and cornered by the villagers, but he managed to escape in disguise. Same A.O. Hume with the support of Lord Dufferin, later founded Congress in India.
Some European women and children accompanied by the European soldiers of the East India Company escaped from Delhi / Agra and travelling to Prayag Raj (Allahabad) by boats in the Ganges. In Kanpur, they were slaughtered in by the army of Nana Sahib. It is said that the water of the river Ganges turned red due to this massacre.
Many major local rulers like Nizam of Hyderabad, Nawab of Bengal and Scindia of Gwalior and several Rajput states of Rajasthan did not participate in the rebellion. Thus, the rebellion was limited to a certain area of north India only. That helped the East India Company to suppress it with might.
Effects –
The rebellion of 1857 proved to be a turning point of Indian history with far reaching consequences. Following were the results and effects of 1857 rebellion.
- End of the East India Company rule – The rebellion of 1857 created a political storm in the British Parliamentary politics. The questions were raised that how a profit seeking company could push thousands of British nationals to safeguard its business interests. Pushed to the corner and unable to defend the bloodshed during rebellion of 1857 in India, the British government was forced to end company’s rule in India and assumed the reign on behalf of the British crown. That ended the rule of the East India Company, and the power was transferred to the British Parliament.
- British Paramountcy – Under the common law, the British Parliament could inherit only those rights of the East India Company that the latter had acquired from Indian rulers through treaties. But the East India Company was not any sovereign entity and was acting in the capacity of ‘Diwan’ (administrator) of most of the rulers where the sovereignty still symbolically lying with Indian rulers. Thus, by merely inheriting the rights of the East India Company would have reduced the British crown as a ‘Diwan’ of those Indian states. A sovereign acting as ‘Diwan’ of another sovereign was not legally possible. Thus, the British Parliament compensated the rebellious rulers with pension and made other rulers to accept the sovereignty of the British crown. This way, the British Parliament established its paramountcy all over India.
- Bahadurshah Zafar sent to exile – The last Mughal Bahadur Shah Zafar was also given pension and exiled to Rangoon in Burma (Myanmar). This ended the Mughal dynasty which was reduced to symbolic ruler of Mughal dynasty as Mughals had already lost the sovereignty to Marathas long back.
- Consolidation of Governance – The Government of India Act 1858 brought the governors of Madras and Bombay Presidencies under the governor general of Bengal who was redesignated as the Viceroy. It was further decided that the any new Viceroy must have served in India earlier for minimum 10 years.
- No interference in religious matters of Indians – Since greased cartridges hurt the religious sentiments of Indians and became a major reason for 1857 rebellion, thus the British government formulated a policy of non-intervention in the religious matters of Indians. Later the same policy was exploited by the nationalists and secessionists type leaders during the national movement.
- Despaired Muslim Community – Though the Mughal rulers had lost the sovereignty to Marathas and Muslim elites had lost the political clout long back, yet the symbolic dethroning of last Mughal Bahadur Shah Zafar made the Indian Muslims uncertain about their future and despaired. They found it very difficult to adapt emerging socio-political environment, western world view and economic advancement.
