THE DOCTRINE OF LAPSE
The Doctrine of Lapse' policy of Lord Dalhousie (1848–56) annexed in
states in eight years. Hindu law recognized that an adopted son could success
to the throne but Dalhousie's policy was that if a Hindu ruler died without a
natural her, the state would be taken over by the British. The Hindu staren
of Satara, Udaipur, Jhansi, and Nagpur, and the Muslim state of Awadh were
taken over by the British causing resentment and anguish among the rulers,
The titles and pensions of the Peshwa's adopted heir, Nana Sahib, the Raiga
of Tanjore, and the Nawab of Karnataka were abolished. Bahadur Shah Il vezes
told that on his death, his son would be given the title of prince and not kung
Under two governor-generals, Lord William Bentinck and Lord Dalhousie.
social and administrative reforms were introduced in India. Customs like sou
thuggi, and purdah were discouraged. Telegraph lines and railway tracks made
communications quicker and easier for the British. According to Lord
3.5: Lord Dalhousie
Dalhousie, he had laboured hard to give India's backward, tradition-based
civilization three great engines of social improvement, which the sagacity and
science of recent times had previously given to the western nations mean
railways, uniform postage, and the electric telegraph. (Minute by Dalhousie in
February 1856)
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Doctrine of lapse, in Indian history, formula devised by Lord Dalhousie, governor-general of India (1848–56), to deal with questions of succession to Hindu Indian states. It was a corollary to the doctrine of paramountcy, by which Great Britain, as the ruling power of the Indian subcontinent, claimed the superintendence of the subordinate Indian states and so also the regulation of their succession.
Doctrine of lapse
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James Andrew Broun Ramsay, marquess and 10th earl of Dalhousie
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According to Hindu law, an individual or a ruler without natural heirs could adopt a person who would then have all the personal and political rights of a son. Dalhousie asserted the paramount power’s right of approving such adoptions and of acting at discretion in their absence in the case of dependent states. In practice this meant the rejection of last-minute adoptions and British annexation of states without a direct natural or adopted heir, because Dalhousie believed that Western rule was preferable to Eastern and to be enforced where possible. Annexation in the absence of a natural or adopted heir was enforced in the cases of Satara (1848), Jaitpur and Sambalpur (1849), Baghat (1850), Chota Udaipur (1852), Jhansi (1853), and Nagpur (1854). Though the scope of the doctrine was limited to dependent Hindu states, these annexations aroused much alarm and resentment among the Indian princes and the old aristocracy who served them. They have generally been regarded as having contributed to the discontent that was a factor in the outbreak (1857) of the Indian Mutiny and the widespread revolt that followed.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Maren Goldberg, Assistant Editor.
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