Discuss the british colonial intervention in indias polity in the early 19th century? In 600 words
Answers
This system of governance was instituted on 28 June 1858, when, after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the rule of the British East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria[13] (who, in 1876, was proclaimed Empress of India). It lasted until 1947, when it was partitioned into two sovereign dominion states: the Dominion of India (later the Republic of India) and the Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the eastern part of which, still later, became the People's Republic of Bangladesh). At the inception of the Raj in 1858, Lower Burma was already a part of British India; Upper Burma was added in 1886, and the resulting union, Burma (Myanmar), was administered as an autonomous province until 1937, when it became a separate British colony, gaining its own independence in 1948
Answer:
Colonialism means the integration of the economy of the colony (like India) with the economy of the metropolis (like Britain) through trade and industry. The integration is geared to serve the interests of the metropolitan economy and to that extent, it completely subordinates the economy of the colony to the economy of the metropolis.
British Colonialism intervened in India's polity and also sought to transform the existing polity. The main objectives behind the intervention of this factor were to increase the profitability of the Indian possessions and to maintain and strengthen the British hold over India.
Indian were excluded from higher grades of services and that was a deliberate policy of the British Government. The British Government introduced the Civil Service in India. The special feature of the Indian Civil Services since the days of Lord Cornwallis was the rigid and complete exclusion of Indians from it. The Indian civil services gradually developed into one of the most efficient and powerful civil services in the world.
The British also established a new system of laws through the process of enactment codification of the old laws. The traditional system of justice in India had been largely based on customary law which arose from long tradition and practice, though many laws were based on 'Shashtras' and 'Shariat' as well as on imperial authority. They introduced regulations, codified the existing laws and often systematized and modernized them through judicial interpretations. Their Charter Act of 1833 conferred all law making power on the Governor-General-In-Council. All this meant that Indians now to live under man-made laws.
The Indian legal system under British rule was based on the concept of equality. As a result of British intervention in India's polity, India was transformed by the end of the 19th century into a classic colony