BRITISH RAJ IN INDIA

SWBAT: identify the positive and negative effects in India due to British imperialism.

Homework: None

Do Now: Begin reading about the Sepoy Rebellion and answer the questions.

Let’s think back…

•The British East India Company set up trading posts at Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta.

•At first, India's ruling Mughal Dynasty kept European traders under control. By 1707, however, the Mughal Empire was collapsing.

•Dozens of small states, each headed by a ruler or maharajah, broke away from Mughal control.

•During the 1700’s and 1800’s the East India Company slowly took control of India.

Keeping Control

•As the Mughal Empire grew weak, the East India Company grew in economic and political strength and began to build its own military force.

•The military force mainly consisted of sepoys, Indian soldiers, led by British commanders.

Problems

• Ninety-six percent of the company's army of 300,000 men in India were native to India.

• Despite being a majority, they faced discrimination:• British believed they were superior and looked down upon their dark-skinned compatriots. • Sepoys could not be promoted to high ranks and the pay was miserable.• British did not respect Indian cultural or religious traditions and beliefs.

• This tension along with other problems led to the Sepoy Rebellion and the British Raj.

Sepoy Rebellion Questions

•What does the breech-loading Enfield rifle have to do with the Sepoy Rebellion?

•What did the British do in response to the siege at Cawnpore?

What is the British Raj?

•The British Raj ("reign" in Hindi) was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947.

•The Sepoy Rebellion marks the beginning and 1947 marks the end of British rule in India.

•Included areas directly governed by the British as well as the princely states ruled by individual rulers that acted as protectorates of the British Crown.

Why is India so Important?

•Great Britain considered India its most precious jewel in its Imperial crown

•The Industrial Revolution turned India into a major supplier of raw materials to Great Britain

•300 million Indians was a large market for British products.

•Britain relied more on raw materials from India as wars around the world cut off British supplies from other place.• Example: American Civil War (1861-1865) made Indian cotton more

important to Great Britain because cotton supply from America was cut off.

Raw Materials

• Tea

• Indigo

• Coffee

• Cotton

• Opium

Problem?

•British forbade India from trading on its own with other countries.

• India was forced to produce raw materials for Britain only.

•Could only buy finished products from Britain.•Example: India's own handloom textile industry was almost put out of business by British textiles.

•Cheap cloth and ready-made clothes from England flooded the Indian market and drove out local producers.

• Indian competition with British finished products was forbidden.

•To pay for British imports, Indians had to raise cash crops such as tea, pepper, coffee, and cotton. As Indian farmers grew less food, famines became frequent and widespread.

What are the other effects on India?• On the sheet provided, you will see there are 5 quotes relating to

the effects of imperialism on India. Read each quote, decide if it’s a positive or negative effect, and explain what that effect is.

• At the bottom, explain whether the effects were more positive, or more negative using the quotes as evidence.

Other changes- the Ritual of Sati

• Sati is the traditional Hindu practice of a widow throwing herself on her husband's funeral pyre.

• Sati was prevalent among certain sects of the society in ancient India, who either took the vow or deemed it a great honor to die on the funeral pyres of their husbands.

Further changes- Child Marriages

• In India during the 1860s, marriage meant girls getting married below 8 or 9 years old.

• It wasn’t until 1880 that child marriage as a problem became a public issue in India and examples of young wives being killed and or raped by their “husbands” brought the tradition to an end.