Study Material

Expansion of British power in India

Class 8
• The English East India Company, which had started out as a trading company in 1600, had
become by 1773, one of the major contenders for supreme power in India.
• The British devised strategic policies that would help them eliminate all their rivals one by one
and established an all India empire.
• The British policy of expanding power in India was based on a two- pronged strategy of peaceful
annexation and military conquests.
• The British also annexed some territories under the pretext of maladministration or
misgovernment.
1) What do you mean by subsidiary alliance?
• Any Indian ruler whose security was threatened was encouraged to seek help from
and enter into an alliance with the British, who promised to protect the ruler from
external attacks and internal revolts.
• The Indian ruler had to accept certain terms and conditions.
• This arrangement was known as the subsidiary alliance.

2) Who perfected the policy of subsidiary alliance?

• The subsidiary alliance was a method perfected by Lord Wellesley, the Governor
General of India from 1797-1805.

3) Why did Lord Wellesley introduce the subsidiary alliance system?

 • The subsidiary alliance system was introduced to subjugate Indian powers without the
cost and bother or trouble of war.
4) What were the terms and conditions that the Indian ruler had to accept under the subsidiary
alliance?
• British troops for the protection of Indian ruler would be permanently placed in the
territory of the subsidiary state.
• The Indian ruler would have to pay either in cash or kind for the maintenance of the
British troops.
• He had to keep a British official (resident) at his court.
• He could not employ any Europeans except the British in his service or dismiss those
who were already there.
• He could not form an alliance with any power or declare war against any power
without the permission of the British.

The ruler would acknowledge the British company as the paramount power.

5) How subsidiary alliance do proved advantageous for the British?

• The British maintained large armies at the expense of the Indian rulers
• The British acquired valuable territories as subsidiary payment. This led to the
expansion of the British Empire in India and an increase in its resources.
• The influence of European rivals, especially the French, was excluded from the courts
of the Indian rulers.
• The British controlled the foreign policy of the subsidiary states.
6) Discuss the disastrous effects of the subsidiary alliance on the Indian states.
• The Indian rulers of subsidiary states lost their independence.
• The payment of huge subsidies leads to a heavy drain on their resources and the
impoverishment and decay of the states. The administration collapsed.
• When the administration collapsed, the British used it as an excuse for an annexing
the kingdoms on grounds of misgovernment.
• The Indian rulers lost interest in the welfare of the people and neglected them as they
were no longer afraid of revolts. The people suffered a lot.
• The subsidiary alliance aided the British in subjugating the powerful kingdom of the
Marathas.
7) Mention the various methods adopted by Lord Dalhousie and the territories annexed on the
basis of these methods.
• War – Punjab
• Doctrine of lapse-Satara,Jhansi and Nagpur
• Annexation on the grounds of maladministration – Awadh.
8) What was the method adopted by Lord Dalhousie to subjugate the Indian territories?
• The policy of doctrine of lapse was formulated by Dalhousie as a peaceful way of
annexing subordinate Indian states and bringing them under the direct rule of the
Company.
9) Mention the terms and conditions under the doctrine of lapse.
• According to doctrine of lapse, all subordinate states (subsidiary states and states
created by the British) where the rulers died without a natural male heir would
automatically ‘lapse’ that is pass into the hands of the British. Rulers without heirs
could not adopt sons, according to the age old Hindu and Islamic traditions, without
the permission of the company.
• This policy was also applied to titles and pensions of subordinate rulers without heirs.
This was a great blow to their pride and dignity.

10) Why did Nana Saheb become one of the important leaders of the revolt of 1857?
• Since Nana Saheb was the adopted son of Peshwa Baji Rao II. He inherited his father’s
personal property but was not given the pension that had been paid to his father.
Nana Saheb became one of the important leaders of the Revolt of 1857.
11) Name the state annexed by Dalhousie under the pretext of maladministration
• Awadh.
12) Discuss the effects of subsidiary alliance on the administration in Awadh.
• The subsidiary alliance which the nawab of Awadh had signed with Wellesley had
protected the Nawab from external invasions and internal rebellions. It made the
nawab unconcerned about the affairs of the state.
• The payment of annual subsidies to the company exhausted the state treasury.
• When the administration was on the verge of collapse, Lord Dalhousie struck. He
brought charges of misgovernment or maladministration against the nawab. On those
grounds he deposed the Nawab and annexed Awadh in 1856.
13) Why did Awadh become one of the main centres of the revolt of 1857?
• After the annexation of Awadh by Lord Dalhousie on the grounds of misgovernment
or maladministration, many changes were introduced in the administration.
• This was greatly resented by the people who preferred to be ruled by their own
nawabs, than by foreigners. Awadh became one of the main centres of the Revolt of
1857.