Explain the policy of `Divide and Rule' adopted by the British. what was its impact on the indian princes?
Answers
The divide and rule policy was adopted by the Britishers during their rule over India.
Britishers when found it difficult to get their way inside the Indian land, they decided to play the dirty game of divide and rule.
They divided the kings based on caste and religion and divided them.
This led to the downfall of India and allowed the Britishers to rule us for 200 years
Impact on Indian princes :
- The prince started hating the other communities .
- They lost unity .
- They spread more hatred for other communities .
- They could not win against the British .
Divide and Rule policy was a policy of the British in which they sowed the seeds of hatred among communities of Hindus and Muslims so that we could not be united and strong enough to fight with the British .
Why did they adopt the policy ?
They adopted the policy so that they can easily administer our country .
They can easily extract resources and exploit us .
The Muslim and Hindu unity was their strongest enemy.
Their unity brought about the First War of Independence .
Hence they resorted to this policy.
How did they implement the Divide and Rule Policy ?
They implemented the Divide and Rule Policy by the following ways :
- The British Government portrayed the Muslims as plunderers to the Hindus.
- They portrayed Hindu rulers as cruel kings to the Muslim subjects .
- They tried to justify that Bengal was partitioned for creating Muslim majority.
- They gave special aid to Muslim madarsas .
- They tried to spread communal hatred through literature.
- They spread communal hatred through the press .
- They tried to take advantage of the caste system.