Jump to content

Draft:Legacy of British India

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

British colonialism left a significant impact on the Indian subcontinent, and through the region's role in the British Empire, on the world.

History

[edit]
See also: Britons in India

The Indians will, I hope, soon stand in the same position towards us in which we once stood towards the Romans. [...] From being obstinate enemies, the Britons soon became attached and confiding friends; and they made more strenuous efforts to retain the Romans, than their ancestors had done to resist their invasion.

Colonial officials in British India, faced with an unprecedented task in governing an unfamiliar and vast land, often referred back to their own European history to adjudge how to leave a positive legacy behind in India. In deciding and justifying policy, they often made references to the impact of the Roman Empire in ancient Britain.[2]

Upon India's 1947 independence, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee dubbed India the "Light of Asia", implying that it would act as a model of liberal democracy.[3]

Economic impact

[edit]
Main article: Economy of India under the British Raj § Aftermath
See also: History of tea in India

The English language serves as a distinguishing feature in India's modern economic life.

[4]

Science and technology

[edit]
The Indian railways in 1882 (left) and 2005

Revenues from British trade with India played a significant role in funding the Industrial Revolution.[5]

The British-built railways transformed Indian society in a number of ways, allowing for new forms of transregional and international commerce to emerge. However, the British banned Indians from manufacturing their own locomotive technology in 1912; this meant that Indians had to go to the British to re-learn this craft after independence in 1947.[6] Indian Railways, a state company in postcolonial India, is now one of the world's biggest employers.[7]

Ideological impact

[edit]
See also: Partition of India § Perspectives, and Colonial history of education in the Indian subcontinent

[8][9]

The Indian Penal Code (IPC), instituted in the colonial era, went on to serve as the foundation for legal codes passed by the British in several of their other colonies.[10]

[11][12]

Religion

[edit]
See also: Modern Hinduism and Sikh Rehat Maryada

Christianity began to be perceived negatively by many Indians during British rule, as it was seen as part of the imperialist project.[13] Islamic legacies in India also came to be perceived more negatively, as the British, influenced by their European Christian history of conflict with Muslims and also seeking to justify their control of India, portrayed the Indo-Muslim period in a more negative light and made themselves out to be the saviours of the Hindu community.[14] In the aftermath of Partition, independent India's historians sought to downplay atrocities in the Indo-Muslim period to maintain communal harmony, though with the rise of Hindu nationalism in the 21st century, the negative aspects of the Indo-Muslim period came to be focused on to a disproportionate extent.[15][16]

Zinkin argues that certain British political ideologies took root even among Hindu nationalists in the Bharatiya Janata Party, which specifically emphasises Hindu traditions.[17][18]

Geopolitical impact

[edit]
See also: Myanmar's relations with Northeast India
Mughal India (left), British India (centre - including princely states), and present-day India (right)

One major change in India was the rejection of its former separate princely states; British India, which became the modern nations of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, encompassed more territory than its pan-Indian predecessor, Mughal India.[19] The formation of British India and its frontiers was accompanied by a conscious policy of creating buffer states that could shield against rivals such as the Russian Empire; this elevated the concept of buffer states to international vogue in the 1880s.[20]

Military

[edit]
See also: Repugnant battle honours of the Indian Army

The British introduced the idea of separating the political and military spheres of government into South Asia; however, this did not remain in effect in the post-independent Pakistan.[21]

Throughout history, India had mainly faced threats of land-based invasion, which meant that it did not have a naval focus until the colonial era, when the British took steps to guard the maritime routes to India.[22] The Royal Indian Navy's size was restricted during that time to reduce the chance of a mutiny; in the first few decades of India's independence, the Indian Navy was still dependent on the United Kingdom for training and support. However, lack of Western support during the Cold War then pushed India toward the Soviet Union for help in building its navy.[23][24] Only in the aftermath of the Cold War, during which India had been concentrated on land-based threats from its neighbours Pakistan and China and had been maintaining its nonalignment policy in the Indian Ocean, did the Indian Navy become more important to the country's military planning.[22]

Demographic impact

[edit]
See also: Commonwealth diaspora
The Indian diaspora is substantially based in former British colonies; this influenced India to maintain ties to them through Commonwealth membership[25]

Much of the roots of the modern South Asian diaspora can be traced to British India, as the British relied on merchants, indentured labourers, and other groups of Indians to expand the British Empire.[26]

Communal relations

[edit]
See also: Hindi–Urdu controversy

The introduction of census-based demography and electoral politics in the colonial era, along with the increase in reservation quotas for lower castes after independence, played a substantial role in defining religious and caste-based identities in modern India.[27][28] Ideas around race, which were used in the colonial era to explain the vast European empires and the apparent long-term downfall of India, factored into the martial race theory and further social categorisations.[29]

The 1947 Partition of India, cleaving the Muslim- and non-Muslim-majority regions of British India, resulted in 15 million people migrating between the newly independent nations of India and Pakistan, which is the largest mass migration in human history.[30]

Cultural impact

[edit]
Main articles: Anglicisation § South Asia, and India-United Kingdom cultural relations
See also: Clothing in British India
A supporter of the Indian cricket team at a match. Cricket, a British-origin sport, has been described as a major unifying force in South Asia.[31]

The British colonisation of India influenced South Asian culture noticeably. The most noticeable influence is the English language which emerged as the administrative and lingua franca of India and Pakistan (and which also greatly influenced the native South Asian languages; see also: South Asian English)[32] followed by the blend of native and gothic/sarcenic architecture. Similarly, the influence of the South Asian languages and culture can be seen on Britain, too; for example, many Indian words entering the English language,[33] and also the adoption of South Asian cuisine.[34]

Modern Indian attitudes around sexuality have become more rigid since the colonial era due to the absorption of Victorian-era British Christian ideas around the modesty of the body.[35]

British sports (particularly hockey early on, but then largely replaced by cricket in recent decades, with football also popular in certain regions of the subcontinent)[36][37] were cemented as part of South Asian culture during the British Raj, with the local games having been overtaken in popularity but also standardised by British influences (see also: Sport in British India).[38] Elements of Indian physical culture, such as Indian clubs, also made their way to the United Kingdom.[39]

British archaeologists and cultural enthusiasts played a significant role during the colonial era in rediscovering and publicising some of India's pre-Islamic heritage, which had begun to disappear during the Indo-Muslim period, as well as preserving some of the Mughal monuments.[40][41]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Robinson, David (2017-08-10). "The gift of civilisation: how imperial Britons saw their mission in India". The Conversation. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  2. ^ "In India, the British empire saw a future for the Greco-Roman civilisation". Quartz. 2017-08-14. Retrieved 2025-02-18.
  3. ^ Misra, Maria (2003). "Lessons of Empire: Britain and India". SAIS Review. 23 (2): 133–153. ISSN 1945-4724.
  4. ^ Timalsina, Tarun (2021-03-18). "Redefining Colonial Legacies: India and the English Language". Harvard Political Review. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
  5. ^ "British colonialism in India - The British Empire - KS3 History - homework help for year 7, 8 and 9". BBC Bitesize. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
  6. ^ JC, Anand (2023-08-14). "The truth about colonial railways: Did the British infrastructure really benefit India?". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
  7. ^ "Twenty million Indians apply for 100,000 railway jobs". 2018-03-27. Retrieved 2025-02-18.
  8. ^ "Prevalence of Colonial Influence in India's Bureaucracy: Unraveling the Legacy". The Times of India. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
  9. ^ "Britain in India, Ideology and Economics to 1900". Fsmitha. F. Smith. Archived from the original on 7 October 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  10. ^ "377: The British colonial law that left an anti-LGBTQ legacy in Asia". 2021-06-28. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
  11. ^ "Ideology and Empire in Eighteenth-Century India: the British in Bengal". History.ac.uk. History. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  12. ^ Thomas R. Metcalf, The New Cambridge History of India: Ideologies of the Raj (1995), pp. 10–12, 34–35
  13. ^ Copland, Ian (2006). "CHRISTIANITY AS AN ARM OF EMPIRE: THE AMBIGUOUS CASE OF INDIA UNDER THE COMPANY, c. 1813–1858". The Historical Journal. 49 (4): 1025–1054. doi:10.1017/S0018246X06005723. ISSN 1469-5103.
  14. ^ Banerjee, Prathama (2020-03-03). "Are communal riots a new thing in India? Yes, and it started with the British". ThePrint. Retrieved 2024-12-19.
  15. ^ "Did Islam Become More Syncretic in India? An Interview With William Dalrymple". The Wire. Retrieved 2025-02-19.
  16. ^ Dalrymple, William (2004-03-20). "Trapped in the ruins". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-02-19.
  17. ^ Zinkin, Maurice (October 1995). "Legacies of the Raj". Asian Affairs (Book Review). 26 (3): 314–16. doi:10.1080/714041289. ISSN 0306-8374.
  18. ^ Y. K. Malik and V. B. Singh, Hindu Nationalists in India: the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (Westview Press, 1994), p. 14
  19. ^ Tully, Mark (1998-07-01). "India: the British legacy fifty years on". Asian Affairs. 29 (2): 131–140. doi:10.1080/714041349.
  20. ^ Malone, David M.; Mohan, C. Raja; Raghavan, Srinath (2015-07-23). The Oxford Handbook of Indian Foreign Policy. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-106118-9.
  21. ^ "The British Roots Of Pakistan's Dysfunctional And Authoritarian Politics". The Friday Times. 2023-08-09. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
  22. ^ a b Sen, Anirban (2023-06-01). "India's Role in the Indian Ocean Region and Its Links to the Indo-Pacific". Jadavpur Journal of International Relations. 27 (1): 105–127. doi:10.1177/09735984231164457. ISSN 0973-5984.
  23. ^ "Indian Navy Stands at a Crossroads". U.S. Naval Institute. 1998-03-01. Retrieved 2025-02-18.
  24. ^ gateway (2016-08-11). "Partition 1947: the navy we didn't see". Gateway House. Retrieved 2025-02-18.
  25. ^ Banerji, Arun Kumar (1981-10-01). "The Nehru‐Menon legacy that still survives". The Round Table. doi:10.1080/00358538108453543.
  26. ^ Haitao, Jia (2020-01-01). "British colonial expansion with Indian diaspora: the pattern of Indian overseas migration". Cappadocia Journal of Area Studies (CJAS), Cappadocia University. 2 (1): 56–81. doi:10.38154/cjas.27. ISSN 2717-7254.
  27. ^ "Viewpoint: How the British reshaped India's caste system". 2019-06-19. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
  28. ^ "British Colonialism and Imperialism". obo. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
  29. ^ Mohan, Jyoti (2024), Vemsani, Lavanya (ed.), "Legacies of Colonial Rule in India: How Race and Caste Continue to Divide Modern India", Handbook of Indian History, Singapore: Springer Nature, pp. 363–383, doi:10.1007/978-981-97-6207-1_16, ISBN 978-981-97-6207-1, retrieved 2025-02-19
  30. ^ "Partition of 1947 continues to haunt India, Pakistan". news.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
  31. ^ "The unifying power of South Asian cricket". Nikkei Asia. Retrieved 2024-05-07.
  32. ^ Hodges, Amy; Seawright, Leslie (2014-09-26). Going Global: Transnational Perspectives on Globalization, Language, and Education. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-6761-0.
  33. ^ "How India changed the English language". www.bbc.com. 22 June 2015. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
  34. ^ "Cricket, curry and cups of tea: India's influence on Victorian Britain". HistoryExtra. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
  35. ^ "A Point of View: The sacred and sensuous in Indian art". BBC News. 2014-04-04. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
  36. ^ "What India was crazy about: Hockey first, Cricket later, Football, Kabaddi now?". India Today. 14 August 2017. Archived from the original on 4 January 2023. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
  37. ^ "World Cup 2022: How football fever is gripping cricket-crazy India". BBC News. 19 November 2022. Archived from the original on 4 January 2023. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
  38. ^ Love, Adam; Dzikus, Lars (26 February 2020). "How India came to love cricket, favored sport of its colonial British rulers". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 31 December 2022. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
  39. ^ Heffernan, Connor (2022). "State of the Field: Physical Culture". History. 107 (374): 143–162. doi:10.1111/1468-229X.13258. ISSN 0018-2648.
  40. ^ Dalrymple, William (2002-09-27). "When Buddha was sacked". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
  41. ^ Masani, Zareer (2023-01-29). "How the British saved India's classical history". The Spectator. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
This page will be placed in the following categories if it is moved to the article namespace.
Categories:
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Draft:Legacy_of_British_India&oldid=1276515946"