India

British Raj (from 1858)

Late Modern Era / 19th Century · ~1800 – 1914

The British Raj was the period of direct British Crown rule over most of the Indian subcontinent, from 1858 until independence and partition in 1947. It began after the Rebellion of 1857 ended the rule of the East India Company, which had gradually taken control of large parts of India over the previous century. Alongside provinces ruled directly by British officials, several hundred princely states kept their own rulers under British oversight.

Under the Raj, India was governed by a Viceroy responsible to the Secretary of State for India in London. Railways, telegraphs, canals and a modern civil service were built, and India became central to British trade and military power. The period also brought repeated famines, heavy taxation and the drain of resources, and it saw the rise of Indian nationalism, including the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885. Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India in 1877.

Things happened, and the rest is history

Plassey and the rise of Company rule
Event
What happened
In June 1757 Robert Clive's forces of the East India Company defeat the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, at Plassey, helped by the defection of his commander Mir Jafar. In 1764 the Company wins again at Buxar, and in 1765 the Mughal emperor grants it the diwani, the right to collect revenue in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.
The rest is history
The Company, a trading firm, now ruled and taxed a large territory with its own army. Over the next century it expanded through wars with Mysore, the Marathas and the Sikhs, and through annexation. This Company state was the one the Crown would take over in 1858. The Bengal famine of 1770 occurred under early Company rule.
Sources
1. BookDalrymple, William. The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire. London: Bloomsbury, 2019.
2. BookBayly, C. A. Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire. The New Cambridge History of India II.1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Annexations and the Doctrine of Lapse
Event
What happened
In the 1840s and 1850s the Company annexes Sindh (1843), Punjab after the Second Anglo-Sikh War (1849), and several states under the Doctrine of Lapse, which denied adopted heirs the right to succeed. In 1856 it annexes Awadh, claiming misgovernment, and deposes its nawab.
The rest is history
Lord Dalhousie, Governor-General from 1848 to 1856, drove this policy. The annexations angered rulers, nobles and many soldiers, especially in Awadh, from which many sepoys of the Bengal Army were recruited. Historians see them as one of several grievances behind the rebellion of 1857.
Sources
1. BookMetcalf, Barbara D., and Thomas R. Metcalf. A Concise History of Modern India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
The Rebellion of 1857
Event
What happened
In May 1857 sepoys of the Bengal Army rise at Meerut and march on Delhi, where they proclaim the elderly Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar their leader. The revolt spreads across north and central India, with major fighting at Kanpur, Lucknow and Jhansi. Civilians on both sides are killed, and British forces retake Delhi in September 1857.
The rest is history
The fighting lasted into 1858 and ended in British victory, with heavy reprisals. Bahadur Shah was tried and exiled to Rangoon. Indian historians often call it a first war of independence, while others stress that it was uneven and regional. Either way, it convinced Britain that the Company's rule had to end.
Sources
1. BookDalrymple, William. The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857. London: Bloomsbury, 2006.
2. BookStokes, Eric. The Peasant Armed: The Indian Revolt of 1857. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986.
The Government of India Act, 1858
Event
What happened
In August 1858 Parliament passes the Government of India Act, which abolishes the East India Company's governing role and transfers its territories and army to the Crown. A Secretary of State for India and a council in London take over, and the Governor-General becomes also a Viceroy. On 1 November 1858 Queen Victoria's proclamation is read in India.
The rest is history
The proclamation promised respect for the rights of princes and for religious freedom, and equal treatment of subjects in public service. These promises were only partly kept, but the proclamation was later cited by Indian reformers. The act marks the formal start of the Raj. Lord Canning was the first Viceroy.
Sources
1. PrimaryGovernment of India Act 1858 (21 & 22 Vict. c. 106). Act of the United Kingdom Parliament, 2 August 1858.
2. PrimaryQueen Victoria's Proclamation to the Princes, Chiefs and People of India. Proclamation, 1 November 1858.
3. BookMetcalf, Thomas R. The Aftermath of Revolt: India, 1857-1870. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965.
Railways, telegraphs and canals
Event
What happened
The first passenger railway in India opens between Bombay and Thane in 1853. After 1858 the network grows quickly, reaching tens of thousands of kilometres by 1900, alongside telegraph lines and large irrigation canals, especially in Punjab.
The rest is history
These works moved troops, raw cotton and grain, and tied India to world markets. They also carried millions of Indian passengers. Historians debate who gained most, since many lines were financed on guarantees paid from Indian revenues. Irrigation made the Punjab canal colonies a major wheat region.
Sources
1. BookHeadrick, Daniel R. The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
2. BookTomlinson, B. R. The Economy of Modern India, 1860-1970. The New Cambridge History of India III.3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Famines of the later nineteenth century
Event
What happened
Severe famines strike India in 1876 to 1878 and 1896 to 1902, among others, killing millions in total. Grain continues to be exported in some regions during these years. The government sets up a Famine Commission in 1880 and issues a Famine Code.
The rest is history
Historians agree that drought was the trigger but argue over how far policy, markets and relief limits worsened the toll. Relief was often grudging and tied to hard labour. Famine became a major theme in Indian nationalist criticism of British rule.
Sources
1. BookDavis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World. London: Verso, 2001.
2. BookSen, Amartya. Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981.
Victoria becomes Empress of India
Event
What happened
On 1 January 1877 the Viceroy, Lord Lytton, proclaims Queen Victoria Empress of India at a grand assembly, the Delhi Durbar, attended by princes and officials. The title follows the Royal Titles Act passed by Parliament in 1876. Later durbars are held in 1903 and 1911.
The rest is history
The title tied the princely states to the Crown in a formal hierarchy of loyalty. It was held by British monarchs until 1948. The 1911 durbar announced that the capital would move from Calcutta to Delhi, and New Delhi was inaugurated in 1931.
Sources
1. BookCannadine, David. Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire. London: Allen Lane, 2001.
2. BookMetcalf, Thomas R. Ideologies of the Raj. The New Cambridge History of India III.4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
The Indian National Congress is founded
Event
What happened
In December 1885 the Indian National Congress holds its first meeting in Bombay, with about seventy delegates. A retired Scottish official, Allan Octavian Hume, helps organise it, and W. C. Bonnerjee presides. It asks for more Indian voice in government, not independence.
The rest is history
Congress began as a moderate body of educated Indians. The partition of Bengal in 1905 radicalised many members and led to the swadeshi boycott movement. The Muslim League was founded in 1906. Congress later led the independence movement.
Sources
1. BookSarkar, Sumit. Modern India, 1885-1947. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989.
2. BookBayly, C. A. Recovering Liberties: Indian Thought in the Age of Liberalism and Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
The greased cartridges
Popular belief
The legend
The 1857 rebellion is said to have begun because the new Enfield rifle cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat. Hindu and Muslim sepoys had to bite them open, so they believed the British meant to defile their religions.
The rest is history
The rumour was real and spread widely in early 1857, and the Company did withdraw the cartridges at some stations. But the story alone does not explain the revolt. Pay, promotion, service overseas, annexations such as Awadh, land revenue demands and fear of religious interference all mattered. Mangal Pandey, a sepoy who attacked officers at Barrackpore in March 1857, was hanged in April.
Sources
1. BookDalrymple, William. The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857. London: Bloomsbury, 2006.
2. BookChaudhuri, Sashi Bhusan. Civil Rebellion in the Indian Mutinies, 1857-1859. Calcutta: World Press, 1957.
The Rani of Jhansi rides into battle
Heroic tale
The legend
Lakshmibai, Rani of Jhansi, is told that her adopted son cannot inherit her state. In 1858, dressed as a warrior with her child tied to her back, she rides out against British troops and dies fighting.
The rest is history
Lakshmibai was real. Jhansi was annexed under the Doctrine of Lapse in 1854, and she joined the rebels in 1857. She fought British forces under Hugh Rose, left Jhansi when it fell in April 1858, and was killed near Gwalior in June 1858. Much of the vivid detail comes from later songs, poems and nationalist writing, such as Subhadra Kumari Chauhan's famous poem, and from British officers' admiring remarks.
Sources
1. BookLebra-Chapman, Joyce. The Rani of Jhansi: A Study in Female Heroism in India. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986.
2. BookDalrymple, William. The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857. London: Bloomsbury, 2006.
The Black Hole of Calcutta
Popular belief
The legend
In 1756 the Nawab of Bengal is said to have locked 146 British prisoners overnight in a tiny cell in Fort William, where 123 died of suffocation. The tale was long used in Britain to justify conquest of India.
The rest is history
A confinement of prisoners after the fall of Fort William in June 1756 did happen, and many died. The account comes mainly from John Zephaniah Holwell, a survivor, and later historians think his numbers were exaggerated, with fewer prisoners and deaths. There is no evidence the nawab ordered it. The story was widely retold in Victorian Britain, and a monument stood in Calcutta until it was removed in 1940.
Sources
1. PrimaryHolwell, J. Z. A Genuine Narrative of the Deplorable Deaths of the English Gentlemen... Suffocated in the Black Hole. London, 1758.
2. ArticleLittle, J. H. "The Black Hole: The Question of Evidence." Bengal Past and Present 11 (1915): 75-144.
The Mutiny as a plot of the Mughal court or Russia
Popular belief
The legend
Some Victorian commentators said the 1857 revolt was a carefully planned conspiracy, hatched by the Mughal court, by Persia, or by Russian agents, with chapatis passed between villages as secret signals.
The rest is history
Investigations at the time found no central plot. The circulation of chapatis in early 1857 was real and puzzled British officials, but no one could show its meaning, and historians now read it as a rumour or a response to fear, not a signal. The revolt grew out of local grievances and mutinies, and leaders such as Bahadur Shah joined after it began. Kim Wagner and others have studied the chapati story in detail.
Sources
1. BookWagner, Kim A. The Great Fear of 1857: Rumours, Conspiracies and the Making of the Indian Uprising. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2010.
2. BookStokes, Eric. The Peasant Armed: The Indian Revolt of 1857. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986.

← Back to the outline

Things happened, and the rest is history

Plassey and the rise of Company rule

Annexations and the Doctrine of Lapse

The Rebellion of 1857

The Government of India Act, 1858

Railways, telegraphs and canals

Famines of the later nineteenth century

Victoria becomes Empress of India

The Indian National Congress is founded

The greased cartridges

The Rani of Jhansi rides into battle

The Black Hole of Calcutta

The Mutiny as a plot of the Mughal court or Russia