A Long View of South Asian History, from the Mughals to Partition &

Independence

Prof. Ned BertzDepartment of History, UHM

Infusing South Asian Studies into the Undergraduate CurriculumAsian Studies Development Program, East-West Center

July 19, 2010

Eras in South Asian HistoryFriday• Indus Valley Civilizations, ~2600-1750 BCE• The Coming of the Aryans and the Age of the Epics, ~1500-400

BCE• India’s First Imperial Unification: The Mauryan Empire, 4th-2nd c.

BCE• Dark Age, or Age of Empires?: Mauryas to Guptas, 2nd c. BCE-5th

c. CE• Integration and Regionalization, North and South: 5th–10th c. CE• The Arrival of Islam and the Delhi Sultanate, 10th-16th c.

Today• The Mughal Empire and Collapse, 16th-18th c.• Europeans in India, 16th-18th c. • Company Raj and the ‘Mutiny’, 17th c. – 1857/8• High Colonialism and Reform & Revival Movements, 1858-late

19th c.• The Rise of Nationalism, late 19th c. – 1947• The Tragedy of Partition & the Achievement of Independence,

1947

•Daulatabad (1327) of Muhammad Tughluq

Vijayanagar, 1346-1565•Harihara (died 1357) & Bukka (died 1377)

•Shaivite monk Vidyaranya

The Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire (1526-1858)(1526-1858)

Babur, born 1483,ruled 1526-1530

(top right: portrait, top left: memoirs)

•Humayun (below), r. 1530-1556

•1539 forced into

exile

•1555 returns to

Delhi

The Great The Great MughalsMughals

•Akbar, r. 1556-1605

•Jahangir, r. 1605-1627

•Shah Jahan, r. 1627-1658

•Aurangzeb, r. 1658-1707

Akbar, r. 1556-1605

Jahangir, r. 1605-27

Shah Jahan, r. 1627-58

Red Fort,

Shahjahanab

ad, Delhi

Aurangzeb, r. 1658-

1707

Eras in South Asian HistoryFriday• Indus Valley Civilizations, ~2600-1750 BCE• The Coming of the Aryans and the Age of the Epics, ~1500-400

BCE• India’s First Imperial Unification: The Mauryan Empire, 4th-2nd c.

BCE• Dark Age, or Age of Empires?: Mauryas to Guptas, 2nd c. BCE-5th

c. CE• Integration and Regionalization, North and South: 5th–10th c. CE• The Arrival of Islam and the Delhi Sultanate, 10th-16th c.

Today• The Mughal Empire and Collapse, 16th-18th c.• Europeans in India, 16th-18th c. • Company Raj and the ‘Mutiny’, 17th c. – 1857/8• High Colonialism and Reform & Revival Movements, 1858-late

19th c.• The Rise of Nationalism, late 19th c. – 1947• The Tragedy of Partition & the Achievement of Independence,

1947

Voyages of Vasco da Gama

The East Offering its Riches to Britannia (1778)

Collapse of the Portuguese

Maritime Empire in the 17th Century•Overextended in distance and

finances•Brutal methods •Religious interference•Rise of Dutch & English

–Better ships and credit–Less attention to religion–Uninterested in territorial control

The British East India CompanyFounded 1600

English Factories

1617 Surat

1640 Madras*

1661 Bombay*

1690 Calcutta*

*Presidencies

The “Battle” of Plassey, 1757

French East India Co. (1664)

Bengal

Nawab Siraj-ud-daula

Black Hole of Calcutta

Robert Clive

Mir Jafar

Eras in South Asian HistoryFriday• Indus Valley Civilizations, ~2600-1750 BCE• The Coming of the Aryans and the Age of the Epics, ~1500-400

BCE• India’s First Imperial Unification: The Mauryan Empire, 4th-2nd c.

BCE• Dark Age, or Age of Empires?: Mauryas to Guptas, 2nd c. BCE-5th

c. CE• Integration and Regionalization, North and South: 5th–10th c. CE• The Arrival of Islam and the Delhi Sultanate, 10th-16th c.

Today• The Mughal Empire and Collapse, 16th-18th c.• Europeans in India, 16th-18th c. • Company Raj and the ‘Mutiny’, 17th c. – 1857/8• High Colonialism and Reform & Revival Movements, 1858-late

19th c.• The Rise of Nationalism, late 19th c. – 1947• The Tragedy of Partition & the Achievement of Independence,

1947

• 1768: 25,000 Sepoys in Bengal

• 1790: 115,000 total soldiers

• 1805: 155,000

E. I. Company’s Military

• Delhi/Mughals,

1803

• Marathas, 1818

• Sindh, 1842

• Punjab/Sikhs,

1849

• Subsidiary

alliances

• Princely states

• Indirect rule

Interior & Exterior of the

East India House, London

The British East India Company*Profits: ₤3 million to ₤22

million between 1765-1818

*Charter of 1813 ends Company monopoly

*Charter of 1833 ends Company trade entirely

•Lord Bentinck (Gov.-Gen., 1828-35)

•The Abolition of Sati Act, 1829

•Orientalists

•Anglicists

•Thomas Macaulay

•‘Macaulay’s Minute’

• The Sepoy Mutiny

• The Indian Mutiny

• The Revolt of 1857

• The Rebellion of 1857

• The Anglo-Indian War of 1857-58

• The Indian Mutiny & Civil Rebellion

of 1857

• The Indian Civil War of 1857-58

• The First War of Indian Independence

The What-cha-ma-call-it of 1857The What-cha-ma-call-it of 1857

(Some of) The (Some of) The Grievances of Grievances of

18571857• British cultural policies of intervention

• British insolence and contempt for Indians,

borne from a belief in European supremacy

• Severity of revenue assessment practices

• Degradation of landed and princely elites

• Sepoy complaints: pay, deployment, promotion

• Fears of forced conversion to Christianity

Meerut

Delhi

Bahadur Shah II

Mughal Emperor

Loyalists*Bombay & Madras Armies

*Many Punjabi Sikh Sepoys

*Large landowners

*Western-educated upper classes

*Most princely states

Capture of the Last Mughal: Capture of the Last Mughal: Humayun’s Tomb, DelhiHumayun’s Tomb, Delhi

Eras in South Asian HistoryFriday• Indus Valley Civilizations, ~2600-1750 BCE• The Coming of the Aryans and the Age of the Epics, ~1500-400

BCE• India’s First Imperial Unification: The Mauryan Empire, 4th-2nd c.

BCE• Dark Age, or Age of Empires?: Mauryas to Guptas, 2nd c. BCE-5th

c. CE• Integration and Regionalization, North and South: 5th–10th c. CE• The Arrival of Islam and the Delhi Sultanate, 10th-16th c.

Today• The Mughal Empire and Collapse, 16th-18th c.• Europeans in India, 16th-18th c. • Company Raj and the ‘Mutiny’, 17th c. – 1857/8• High Colonialism and Reform & Revival Movements, 1858-late

19th c.• The Rise of Nationalism, late 19th c. – 1947• The Tragedy of Partition & the Achievement of Independence,

1947

18571857:: 40,000 British, 240,000 Sepoys

18631863:: 65,000 British, 140,000 Sepoys

Ratio GoalRatio Goal:: 1:2 or 1:3 (British: Sepoys)

Martial races: Punjabi Muslims, Sikhs, Rajputs, Gurkhas, Pathans

Non-martial races: Bengalis, Tamils, Maharashtrian Brahmins

(Selected) Famines:(Selected) Famines:1866-18671866-18673 m. affected, 800,000 dead1868-18701868-187021 m. affected, 400,000 dead1876-18781876-187836 m. affected, 3.5 million dead1896-18971896-189796 m. affected, 5+ million dead1899-19001899-190060 m. affected, 5 million dead

Indian RailIndian Rail1853: Construction begins1859: 432 miles1869: 5000 miles1900: 25,000 miles1910: 4th largest in world

Hill StationsHill Stations

Shimla, from Shimla, from 1865 Summer 1865 Summer Capital Capital (Viceregal Lodge below, (Viceregal Lodge below, ‘Mall’ right)‘Mall’ right) Civil Lines & Civil Lines &

Military Military CantonmentsCantonments

• Hindu & Hindu & Muslim civil Muslim civil law codes law codes (1860s)(1860s)

• The Peoples of The Peoples of IndiaIndia (1868) (1868)

• Census of Census of India (1871)India (1871)

• Survey of Survey of India (1878)India (1878)

1877: Queen Victoria declared 1877: Queen Victoria declared Empress of IndiaEmpress of India

M. G. Ranade

SOCIAL REFORMERS

Reform and Revival in Reform and Revival in Late Nineteenth-Late Nineteenth-

Century IndiaCentury India

[W]hat shall we revive? Shall we revive the old habits of our people?... With too many of us, a thing is true or

false, righteous or sinful, simply because somebody in the past has said that it is so. Now the new idea

which should take up the place of this helplessness and dependence is not the idea of a rebellious overthrow of

authority, but that of freedom responsible to the voice of God in us.

-M. G. Ranade (reformer), 1897

Cannot a revivalist…ask the reformers into what they wish to

reform us?... Whether they want to make men of our women by putting them into those avocations for which

nature never meant them?... Whether they want to reform us into

Sunday drinkers of brandy and promiscuous eaters of beef? In

short, whether they want to revolutionize our society by an

outlandish imitation of European customs…and an undiminished

adoption of European vice?

-Lala Lajpat Rai (revivalist), 1904

B. G. Tilak

Ganapati (Ganesh) Festival,1893

Shivaji Festival,1895

Officials Assassinated,1897

Eras in South Asian HistoryFriday• Indus Valley Civilizations, ~2600-1750 BCE• The Coming of the Aryans and the Age of the Epics, ~1500-400

BCE• India’s First Imperial Unification: The Mauryan Empire, 4th-2nd c.

BCE• Dark Age, or Age of Empires?: Mauryas to Guptas, 2nd c. BCE-5th

c. CE• Integration and Regionalization, North and South: 5th–10th c. CE• The Arrival of Islam and the Delhi Sultanate, 10th-16th c.

Today• The Mughal Empire and Collapse, 16th-18th c.• Europeans in India, 16th-18th c. • Company Raj and the ‘Mutiny’, 17th c. – 1857/8• High Colonialism and Reform & Revival Movements, 1858-late

19th c.• The Rise of Nationalism, late 19th c. – 1947• The Tragedy of Partition & the Achievement of Independence,

1947

Indian National Indian National Congress (1885)Congress (1885)

Agitation: Partition of Bengal, 1905-8

Viceroy Curzon, 1899-1905

Bande Mataram (Hail the Motherland!)

Swadeshi (national self-reliance)

Muslim League, 1906

Enter the Mahatma (Great Soul), 1915:

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

•Rowlatt Acts, 1919•Ahimsa (non-violence) &

Satyagraha•Jallianwalla Bagh, Amritsar, 1919•General Dyer

“I can no longer retain affection for a Government so evilly manned as it is nowadays.” – Gandhi, 1920

Mass Nationalism is Launched• August 1, 1920:

Tilak dies, non-cooperation movement launched

Jawaharlal Nehru, INC (son of Motilal Nehru) & Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Muslim League

Eras in South Asian HistoryFriday• Indus Valley Civilizations, ~2600-1750 BCE• The Coming of the Aryans and the Age of the Epics, ~1500-400

BCE• India’s First Imperial Unification: The Mauryan Empire, 4th-2nd c.

BCE• Dark Age, or Age of Empires?: Mauryas to Guptas, 2nd c. BCE-5th

c. CE• Integration and Regionalization, North and South: 5th–10th c. CE• The Arrival of Islam and the Delhi Sultanate, 10th-16th c.

Today• The Mughal Empire and Collapse, 16th-18th c.• Europeans in India, 16th-18th c. • Company Raj and the ‘Mutiny’, 17th c. – 1857/8• High Colonialism and Reform & Revival Movements, 1858-late

19th c.• The Rise of Nationalism, late 19th c. – 1947• The Tragedy of Partition & the Achievement of Independence,

1947

A Devastating VictoryA Devastating Victory:: Independence and Partition in Independence and Partition in

South AsiaSouth Asia

• 1940 Lahore Resolution

• 1942 Quit India Movement

End of a United India, End of a United India, 1939-19471939-1947

1939 India forced into WWII

1940 Lahore Resolution

1942 Quit India movement

1945/6 Elections• Congress: 90% open seats• Muslim League: 30/30 seats in central legislature, 442/500 in provincial assemblies

1946 Bombay naval mutiny

1946 Last British proposal

1946 Great Calcutta Killing

1947 Mountbatten arrives

Partition of India, Partition of India, August 1947August 1947

Boundary Commission, Sir Radcliffe

Pakistan: August 14th, 1947 (Jinnah)

India: August 15th, 1947 (Nehru)