The British presence in India dates back to the early part of the seventeenth century. On 31 December 1600 !

li"abeth then the monarch of the #nited $in%dom acceded to the demand of a lar%e body of merchants that a royal charter be %iven to a ne& tradin% company 'The (overnor and )ompany of *erchants of +ondon Tradin% into the !ast,Indies.' Bet&een 1601,13 merchants of the !ast India )ompany took t&elve voya%es to India and in 160- .illiam /a&kins arrived at the court of 0ahan%ir to seek permission to establish a British presence in India. /a&kins &as rebuffed by 0ahan%ir but 1ir Thomas 2oe &ho presented himself before the *u%hal !mperor in 1613 &as rather more successful. T&o years later 2oe %ained 0ahan%ir4s permission to build a British factory in 1urat and in 163- this &as follo&ed by the foundin% of 5ort 1t. (eor%e 6*adras7. Despite some setbacks such as the )ompany4s utter humiliation at the hands of the *u%hal !mperor 8uran%"eb &ith &hom the )ompany &ent to &ar bet&een 1699,-1 the )ompany never really looked back.

(ate&ay of India Bombay In 13:3 on account of the British victory at ;lassey &here a military force led by 2obert )live defeated the forces of the <a&ab of Ben%al 1ira=,ud, daulah the !ast India )ompany found itself transformed from an association of traders to rulers e>ercisin% political soverei%nty over a lar%ely unkno&n land and people. +ess than ten years later in 136: the )ompany ac?uired the Di&ani of Ben%al or the ri%ht to collect revenues on behalf of the *u%hal !mperor in Ben%al Bihar and Orissa. The consolidation of British rule after the initial military victories fell to .arren /astin%s &ho did much to dispense &ith the fiction that the *u%hal !mperor &as still the soverei%n to &hom the )ompany &as responsible. /astin%s also set about to make the British more ac?uainted &ith Indian history culture and social customs@ but upon his return to !n%land he &ould be impeached for hi%h crimes and misdemeanors. /is numerous successors thou%h fired by the ambition to e>pand British territories in India &ere also faced &ith the task of %overnance. British rule &as =ustified in part by the claims that the Indians re?uired to be civili"ed and that British rule &ould introduce in place of Oriental despotism and anarchy a reliable system of =ustice the rule of la& and the notion of 4fair play4. )ertain Indian social or reli%ious practices that the British found to be abhorrent &ere outla&ed such as sati in 19A- and an ethic of 4improvement4 &as said to dictate British social policies. In the

19B0s and 19:0s under the %overnal,%eneralship of Dalhousie and then )annin% more territories &ere absorbed into British India either on the %rounds that the native rulers &ere corrupt inept and notoriously indifferent about the &elfare of their sub=ects or that since the native ruler had failed to produce a biolo%ical male heir to the throne the territory &as bound to 'lapse' into British India upon the death of the ruler. 1uch &as the fate of 1ambalpur 619B-7 Ba%hat 619:07 0hansi 619:37 <a%pur 619:B7 and ,, most tra%ically ,, 8&adh 61-:67. The <a&ab of 8&adh Calso spelled as OudhD .a=id 8li 1hah &as especially reviled by the British as the &orst specimen of the Oriental Despot more interested in nautch %irls frivolous amusements ,, kite,flyin% cock,fi%htin% and the like ,, and sheer indolence than in the difficult task of %overnance. The British anne>ation of 8&adh and the character of the <a&ab &ere made the sub=ects of an e>traordinary film by 1atya=it 2ay entitled The )hess ;layers 6'1hatran= ke $hilari'7. 8n !n%lish baby %irl bein% carried on a palan?uin by Indian bearers on the road fo <ainital. ;hoto%raph dated 1-0B. 1hortly after the anne>ation of 8&adh the 1epoy *utiny more appropriately described as the Indian 2ebellion of 19:3,:9 broke out. This &as by far the %reatest threat posed to the British since the be%innin%s of their ac?uisition of an empire in India in 13:3 and &ithin the space of a fe& &eeks in *ay lar%e s&athes of territory in the (an%etic plains had fallen to the rebels. 8trocities &ere committed on both sides and conventionally the rebellion is vie&ed as markin% the moment &hen the British &ould al&ays understand themselves as besie%ed by hostile natives =ust as the Indians understood that they could not forever be held in submission. If in the early days of the )ompany4s rule a le%end &as constructed around the Black /ole of )alcutta so si%nifyin% the villainy of Indians the 2ebellion of 19:3,:9 %ave rise to an elaborate mytho%raphy on both sides. Delhi &as recaptured by British troops in late 19:3 the !mperor Bahadur 1hah last of the *u%hals &as put on trial for sedition and predictably convicted and by mid,19:9 the 2ebellion had been entirely crushed. The !ast India )ompany &as abolished thou%h 0ohn 1tuart *ill the )ommissioner of )orrespondence at India /ouse +ondon and the unackno&led%ed formulator of British policy &ith respect to the native states furnished an elaborate but ultimately unsuccessful plea on behalf of the )ompany. India became a )ro&n colony to be %overned directly by ;arliament and henceforth responsibility for Indian affairs &ould fall upon a member of the

British cabinet the 1ecretary of 1tate for India &hile in India itself the man at the helm of affairs &ould continue to be the (overnor,(eneral kno&n other&ise in his capacity as the representative of the monarch as the Eiceroy of India. The proclamation of Fueen Eictoria in &hich she promised that she and her officers &ould &ork for the &elfare of their Indian sub=ects ushered in the final phase of the British 2a=. 8mon% Indians there &ere debates surroundin% female education &ido& remarria%e the a%e of consent for marria%e and more %enerally the status of &omen@ and in the mean&hile &ith increasin% emphasis on !n%lish education and the e>pansion of the %overnment lar%er numbers of Indians =oined %overnment service. There &as similarly a considerable increase in both !n%lish,lan%ua%e and vernacular =ournalism and in 199: the Indian <ational )on%ress at first an association comprised lar%ely of la&yers and some other professionals &as founded in order that educated Indians mi%ht %ain somethin% of a voice in the %overnance of their o&n country. /o&ever nationalist sentiments could not be confined &ithin the parameters set by a %entlemanly or%ani"ation such as the )on%ress and both in *aharashtra &here the radicals &ere led by Bal (an%adhar Tilak and in Ben%al armed revolutionaries attempted to carry out a campai%n of terror and assassination directed at British officials and institutions. In 1-0: on the %rounds that the %overnance of Ben%al had become impossible o&in% to the lar%e si"e of the presidency the British partitioned Ben%al and so provoked the first ma=or resistance to British rule and administrative policies in the aftermath of the 2ebellion of 19:3,:9. It is durin% the 1&adeshi movement that Indians deployed various strate%ies of non,violent resistance boycott strike and non,cooperation and eventually the British had to a%ree to revoke the partition of Ben%al. The partition itself had been attempted partly &ith a vie& to dividin% the lar%ely *uslim area of !ast Ben%al from the &estern part of Ben%al &hich &as predominantly /indu and the communalist desi%ns of the British &ere clearly demonstrated as &ell in their encoura%ement of the *uslim +ea%ue a political formation that came into e>istence in 1-03 on the supposition that the interests of the *uslims could not be served by the Indian <ational )on%ress. The capital of the country &as shifted as &ell from )alcutta to Delhi &here a ne& set of official buildin%s desi%ned to reflect imperial splendor led to the creation of <e& Delhi. Durin% .orld .ar I &hen Britain declared that India &as at &ar &ith (ermany as &ell lar%e number of Indian troops served overseas and the

declaration by the 1ecretary of 1tate *onta%u in 1-13 to the effect that it &ould be the intent of the (overnment of India to increase %radually Indian participation in the administration of the country &as seen as an encoura%ement of Indian ambitions of eventual self,rule. But follo&in% the conclusion of the &ar the British sou%ht to introduce draconian le%islation to contain the activity of people presumed to be political e>tremists and the ;un=ab disturbances of 1-1- includin% the notorious massacre by (eneral Dyer of nearly B00 unarmed Indians at the 0allian&ala Ba%h in 8mritsar in 8pril marked the emer%ence of a nation,&ide movement a%ainst British rule. The events of 1-1- also brou%ht to the fore *ahatma (andhi &ho &ould henceforth be the uncro&ned kin% of the Indian nationalist movement. (andhi led the non,cooperation movement a%ainst the British in 1-A0,AA as &ell as a campai%n of civil disobedience in 1-30,31 and in 1-BA he issued the call to the British to 4Fuit India4. <e%otiations for some de%ree of Indian independence led by (andhi first took place in 1-30 at the 2ound Table )onferences in +ondon but shortly thereafter the )on%ress decided to adopt a resolution callin% for purna s&ara= or complete independence from British rule. *ean&hile relations bet&een the /indus and *uslims had deteriorated and durin% the latter years of .orld .ar II &hen the leaders of the )on%ress includin% (andhi 0a&aharlal <ehru and 1ardar ;atel &ere incarcerated the *uslim +ea%ue &hich declared itself in support of the British &ar effort had a free hand to spread the messa%e of *uslim separatism. .hen in the aftermath of the &ar and the triumph of the +abor party the British ;rime *inister )lement 8tlee declared that the British &ould %rant India its independence ne%otiations &ere commenced &ith all the ma=or political parties and communities includin% the 1ikhs the )on%ress and the *uslim +ea%ue. In launchin% Direct 8ction Day in 1-B6 &hich led to immense communal killin%s in )alcutta the *uslim +ea%ue sou%ht to convey the idea that an undivided India &as no lon%er a possibility@ and the eventual attainment of independence from British rule on 1: 8u%ust 1-B3 &as accompanied not only by the creation of the ne& state of ;akistan comprised of *uslim,ma=ority areas in both the eastern and &estern parts of India but by the unprecedented horrors of partition. 8t least :00 000 people are estimated to have been killed and many &omen &ere abducted or raped@ and it is estimated that no fe&er than 11 million /indus *uslims and 1ikhs crossed borders &hich to this day remains the sin%le lar%est episode of mi%ration in history. Thou%h the political narrative dominates in accounts of the history of British India as in the precedin% pa%es the social and cultural histories of the

British 2a= are no less interestin%. There are doubtless endurin% thou%h not necessarily desirable influences of British rule in contemporary India. The elites of the country &rite and converse lar%ely in !n%lish and are connected amon%st themselves and to the lar%er &orld outside throu%h the !n%lish lan%ua%e. The )onstitution of India ho&soever noble a document has been decisively shaped by the (overnment of India 8ct of 1-3: &hich &as scarcely desi%ned to alleviate the distress of the predominantly underprivile%ed population of India and not much thou%ht seems to have been %iven to considerin% ho& appropriate a parliamentary system &ith rou%hly the same number of seats in the lo&er 6elected7 house the +ok 1abha as in the /ouse of )ommons mi%ht be for India &hen it is infinitely lar%er than Britain. The political and administrative institutions of independent India operate on the assumption that the country is still under colonial rule and that the sub=ects are to have no voice in %overnance unless they make an e>treme fuss. The le%al structure &as handed do&n by the British and the presumption remains that it does not e>ist to serve the common person any more than does the vast apparatus of 4la& and order4G it is no accident that the police al&ays arrive late in the popular /indi film &hen communities have already successfully taken the la& into their o&n hands. The only innovations &hich have of been use in meetin% forms of e>treme oppression and in=ustice such as ;ublic Interest +iti%ation are those &hich have effected a departure from the colonial model of =ustice. India inherited from the British its present university system and the ori%ins of the summer mi%ration of the middle class and elites to hill stations date back to the early nineteenth century. 1ocial institutions such as clubs and %ymkhanas &hich persist do&n to the present day &ere a critical part of British life as !. *. 5orster4s 8 ;assa%e to India Or&ell4s Burmese Days and the novels of 0ohn *asters and ;aul 1cott so amply su%%est. Thou%h the Indian lan%ua%es &ere &ell developed before the arrival of the British in India the standardi"ation of these lan%ua%es and the creation of the first %rammars and dictionaries &as achieved under British rule. The influential school of $ali%hat paintin% emer%ed in late nineteenth century and can scarcely be understood &ithout a reference to the creation of a modern market and similarly the printin% press &hich arrived in India in the si>teenth century heralded the a%e of mechanical reproduction in India. In sports the abidin% passion remains cricket 6once a preeminently colonial %ame7 and the favorite drink of the Indian middle class male remains scotch and soda. One could point to a thousand different manifestations of the British presence in India and slo&ly one hopes our histories &ill also alert

us to the transformations &rou%ht in British institutions and practices in post,independent India.