Explain the population distribution of India on the basis of occupation during the British period.
Answers
Explanation:
This article is about the rule of India by the British Crown from 1858 to 1947. For the rule of the East India Company from 1757 to 1858, see Company rule in India.
The British Raj (/rɑːdʒ/; from rāj, literally, "rule" in Sanskrit and Hindustani)[2] was the rule by the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent from 1858 to 1947.[3][4][5][6] The rule is also called Crown rule in India,[7] or direct rule in India.[8] The region under British control was commonly called India in contemporaneous usage, and included areas directly administered by the United Kingdom, which were collectively called British India, and those ruled by indigenous rulers, but under British tutelage or paramountcy, and called the princely states. The whole was also more formally called the Indian Empire.[9][10] As India, it was a founding member of the League of Nations, a participating nation in the Summer Olympics in 1900, 1920, 1928, 1932, and 1936, and a founding member of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945.[11]
Indian Empire
1858–1947
Flag of India Flag of the Governor-General of India (1885–1947).svg
Civil Ensign and Flag of the Governor-General
Anthem: God Save the Queen
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1909 Map of the British Indian Empire, showing British India in two shades of pink and the princely states in yellow.
1909 Map of the British Indian Empire, showing British India in two shades of pink and the princely states in yellow.
Status
Imperial political structure (comprising British India, a quasi-federation of presidencies and provinces directly governed by The British Crown through the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, Princely States, governed by Indian rulers, under the suzerainty of The British Crown exercised through the Viceroy of India)[1]
Capital
Calcutta
(1858–1911)
New Delhi
(1911–1947)
Common languages
EnglishUrduHindiBengaliVarious South Asian languages
Religion
Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Tribal Folk Religions
Government
British Colonial Government
Monarch of the United Kingdom and Emperor/Empressa
• 1858–1901
Victoria
• 1901–1910
Edward VII
• 1910–1936
George V
• 1936
Edward VIII
• 1936–1947
George VI
Viceroyb
• 1858–1862 (first)
Charles Canning
• 1947 (last)
Louis Mountbatten
Secretary of State
• 1858–1859 (first)
Edward Stanley
• 1947 (last)
William Hare
Legislature
Imperial Legislative Council
History
• Battle of Plassey & Indian Rebellion
23 June 1757 & 10 May 1857
• Government of India Act
2 August 1858
• Indian Independence Act
18 July 1947
• Partition of India
14 and 15 August 1947
Currency
Indian rupee
ISO 3166 code
IN
Preceded by Succeeded by
Company rule in India
Mughal Empire
Dominion of India
Dominion of Pakistan
Title of Emperor/Empress of India existed 1876–1948
Full title was "Viceroy and Governor-General of India"
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[12] (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:
Explanation:
A major defect of British rule was the growing imbalance between population and resources. The former grew from 150-200 million at the end of the eighteenth century to 420 million in 1947 (Pakistan included). Until 1921 India was primarily exporting cereals. From that year on imports began, and would eventually reach 3 million in 1950, versus 54 million of food grains output. Imports further rose to 5 million t in 1951 due to a very severe drought, consequently avoiding casualties as had been the case during famines in the nineteenth century and during the severe Bengal famine in 1943.
In spite of totally insufficient efforts to promote agriculture, the British created wide networks of irrigation canals in the Indus and Upper Ganges Basins, as well as in the Southeastern deltas in the latter part of the nineteenth century and in the beginning of the twentieth century. In those areas, production and double cropping increased along with a growing amount of agricultural commodities entering market centres and cities, the latter being facilitated by the construction of the main roads. Landowners, of course, benefited from these developments, but small farmers and landless agricultural workers also improved their living conditions.
Such trends confirm what happened in Asia, as well as in parts of Europe, wherever rainfed crops were replaced by irrigated ones. In the Archives of Catalonia (Spain) one reads, “Water makes you free, water makes you rich” (1243), a comment more true nowadays than ever before.
The British introduced jute in Bengal, tea in Assam and the Nilgiris, and coffee and rubber in Kerala. They also encouraged the expansion of cotton and sugarcane in other provinces. While well-received, these changes remained far behind population growth in the country. In wide rainfed tracts, crop yields were more or less stagnant. Land holdings became fragmented and the number of landless peasants increased. The percentage of cultivators and casual agricultural workers grew from 62% of the working population in 1881 to 71% in 1951 (Census). Acute misery was prevalent in a number of villages, and many people owned only the shabby dresses they were wearing. In some cases, only one member of the family could go out of their hut, for lack of clothes for all the family members, as had been observed by Mahatma Gandhi’s wife in Bihar in the 1920s.
The per capita availability of food declined between 1891 and 1947. “Even the population growth rate of 0.67% was higher than the increase in food grain output” (Dantwala 1973, 24). The rate of urbanization, in spite of growing, was still very low in 1951 at 16%. At the time, India figured as the tenth largest industrial power in the world (in absolute figures) and important industrial, trading and banking centres were created by both British and Indians. However, such trends were much too limited to absorb a large number of peasants as had happened, by contrast, in the Industrial Revolution in Europe.
A major change did, however, occur. During Mughal days, the vast plains stretching from Benares to Bengal, not too heavily populated at the time, were feeding the imperial cities of Agra, Delhi and Lahore, mostly through transport along the Ganges. They were also exporting rice and cotton textiles to Southeast Asia, sugar to the Middle East, and textiles of various types to Europe.
As for Punjab and present day Western UP, they were quite poor with limited irrigation, only a few wells, and rainfall that was much lower than in the Eastern plains. A major shift took place from the latter part of the nineteenth century onwards: thanks to the irrigation canals, Punjab and Western UP became the granaries of India.
Rural infrastructure was hardly developed at the all India level. Out of 565,000 villages, only 5,000–10,000 were electrified. While the British built a substantial network of railways and highways, most villages remained isolated with poor tracks that were often cut off during the monsoon. Motor vehicles were hardly visible and most local transport depended on bullock carts. Like trade, money was limited in villages.
Caste factors are important in the overall assessment. Usually you would have a dominant caste in a village or an area. This is often the largest community, if not the majority, and often owns a sizeable part of the land. Members of the dominant caste play an important role in the local affairs (M. N. Srinivas 1976). When the dominant caste was agriculture oriented by tradition – like the Jats, Patidars, Kammas – the tillage and care of land was much more prominent than under castes such as the Rajputs or Thakurs; Bhumihars; and certain sub-castes of Brahmins. This did not escape the attention of British officers. In 1920, the famous Sir Malcolm Darling, who was posted in Punjab, mentioned the major differences between a Jat and a Rajput village (Darling 1947, 31).