THE

BRITISH
EMPIRE
in

India
HISTORICAL TIMELINE OF
EVENTS
Date Event
1600 British East India Company Established
1701 Mughal Empire Collapsing: Indian states beginning breaking away from Mughal control
1757 Robert Clive leads victory at Battle of Plassey; begins East India Company (British) leading power in India.
1800s Many Indians begin thinking more modern, changing traditional ideas. Some take ideas to govern
themselves.
May 10, 1857 Indian Rebellion of 1857 (Sepoy Mutiny) starts. Challenges East India Company as fierce fighting breaks
out.
1858 British government takes direct command of India from East India Company.
Late 1800s Nationalism surfaces in India
1885 Indian National Congress is formed
1906 Muslim League forms

1930s First proposed idea of partition by philosopher Allama Iqbal

Late 1930s Muslims begin exiting Congress
1943 Muslim League proposes “Divide and Quit” plan
July 18, 1947 Mountbatten Partition Plan is finalised
August 14-15, 1947 Independence is gained from Britain. Pakistan is formed immediate next day.
 WHAT POSITIVE EFFECTS DID
THE EMPIRE HAVE ON INDIA?

Economic:
Indian Railways were constructed by the British.
The British improved the Infrastructure, including roads,
palaces, hospitals, universities were built to help India.
Social:
In 1829 Suttee – burning of live Hindu widows on the funeral
pyres of their dead husbands, was banned by the East Indian
Company.
Political/government:
The British Empire brought political ideology of democracy
and introduced courts and legal system across India.
 WHAT NEGATIVE EFFECTS DID
THE EMPIRE HAVE ON INDIA?
Economic:

Indian share of world economy was 23% pre-British Raj, whereas

in 1947 it had dropped to 3% - Inglorious Empire by Dr Shashi
Tharoor.

Social:

The ‘divide and conquer’ policy led to divisions within Hindu

caste-based society and religious tensions between Hindu and
Muslims – as evident in tense Indo-Pak relations today.

The British policy diverting food supplies to Britain, especially

during war times, lead to food shortages and famine. For
example, the Bengal famine of 1943 which affected around 6
million people, and between 1 and 2 million dying as a result.

Occasions of excessive force were used on local Indians, for

example in 1919 the Jallianwala Bagh massacre whereby
hundreds of Sikhs were shot dead, on the orders of General Dyer,
during the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi.
 WHAT EFFECT HAS INDIA
HAD ON BRITAIN?
Indian dialects have influenced the English language in many ways.
The BBC culture website says “Cashmere is what we associate with
wool and its origins are in Kashmir and the wool produced by Kashmir
goats. It was closely associated with shawl, a word which originates in
Persian, and travels into India via Urdu and Hindi and then enters
English.”
There are words that have become part of everyday English. Loot,
nirvana, pyjamas, shampoo and shawl; bungalow, jungle, pundit and
thug. These all derived from south Asia, more specifically India.
South Asian words from languages such as Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam
and Tamil had crept onto foreign tongues.
Many first- and second-generation Indians moved from India to Great
Britain in the 1950s and 60s and have made a significant contribution
to the UK economy.
 CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the British empire have caused millions of deaths in just 89 years of rule in India. From the
Independent “Between 12 and 29 million Indians died of starvation while it was under the control of the
British Empire, as millions of tons of wheat were exported to Britain as famine raged in India.”

This just is just the tip of the iceberg as over 1 million people were killed due to the partition in India in 1947
and it is estimated 10 million people were dispersed in India.

The British empire are responsible for too many deaths over the years in India. Although improvements in
infrastructure occurred this was likely to happen anyway in India over the years and the British empire cannot
be fully responsible for this.

This statistic that the Indian share of the world economy was 23% pre-British Raj, whereas in 1947 it had
dropped to 3% - Inglorious Empire by Dr Shashi Tharoor. This tells us that the British Empire extracted a lot of
economic wealth out of India to fuel its own empire and people, while leaving India with very little.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Indian Summer by Alex von Tunzelmann (2007)

Inglorious Empire by Shashi Tharoor (2017)
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20150619-how-india-
changed-english
 Hope you enjoyed my
presentation and learnt some
new facts