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The British 'Indian Empire', informally, the 'British Raj' (''rāj'', lit. "rule" in Hindi) or simply 'British India', internationally and contemporaneously, 'India', was the term used synonymously for the region, the rule, and the period, from 1858 to 1947, of the British Empire on the Indian subcontinent. The region included areas of British India directly administered by the United Kingdom (contemporaneously, "British India") as well as the princely states ruled by individual rulers under the paramountcy of the British Crown. The princely states, which had all entered into treaty arrangements with the British Crown, were allowed a degree of local autonomy in exchange for protection and representation in international affairs by Great Britain. The British Indian Empire included the regions of present-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and, in addition, at various times, Aden (from 1839 to 1937), Upper Burma (from 1852) and Lower Burma (from 1886) until 1937, British Somaliland (briefly from 1884 to 1898), and Singapore (briefly from 1819 to 1867). The British Indian Empire had some ties with British possessions in the Middle East; the Indian rupee served as the currency in many parts of that region. What is now Iraq was, immediately after World War I, administered by the India Office of the British government.
The Indian Empire, which issued its own passports, was commonly referred to as India both in the region and internationally. As India, it was a of the League of Nations, and a member nation of the Summer Olympics in 1900, 1920, 1928, 1932 and 1936.
Among other countries in the region, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), which was ceded to the United Kingdom in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens, was a British Crown Colony, but not part of the British Indian Empire. The kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan, having both signed treaties with Great Britain, were recognized as independent states and not part of India. The Kingdom of Sikkim was established as a princely state after the ''Anglo-Sikkimese Treaty'' of 1861, however, the issue of sovereignty was left undefined.^[1] The Maldive Islands were a British protectorate from 1867 to 1965, but not part of India.
The system of governance lasted from 1858, when the rule of the British East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria (and who, in 1877, was proclaimed Empress of India), until 1947, when the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two sovereign states, the Union of India (later the Republic of India) and the Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh).

Contents

History

Government

Morley-Minto Reforms

Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms

Politics

Subdivisions

Provinces

Princely states

Notes

See also

History

Main articles: British India

Government

The British Indian Empire is said to have begun in May 1858 when the British exiled Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II to Rangoon in then independent Konbaung Burma after executing most of his family, thus formally liquidating the Mughal Empire. At the same time, the British abolished the British East India Company and replaced it with direct rule under the British Crown. In proclaiming the new direct-rule policy to "the Princes, Chiefs, and Peoples of India", Queen Victoria (upon whom the British Parliament conferred the graciously accepted title "Empress of India" in 1877) promised equal treatment under British law, which never materialized.
The Viceroy of India announced in 1858 that the government would honour former treaties with princely states and renounced the "Doctrine of Lapse", whereby the East India Company had annexed territories of rulers who died without male heirs. About 40 percent of Indian territory and 20–25 percent of the population remained under the control of 562 princes.
The Indian Councils Act of 1861 granted legislative powers to the Presidencies (elite provinces), which had been given exclusively to the governor-general by the Charter Act of 1833.
The first steps were taken toward self-government in British India in the late 19th century with the appointment of Indian counsellors to advise the British viceroy and the establishment of provincial councils with Indian members; the British subsequently widened participation in legislative councils with the Indian Councils Act of 1892. Municipal Corporations and District Boards were created for local administration; they included elected Indian members.

Morley-Minto Reforms

Main articles: Government of India Act of 1909

The Government of India Act of 1909 — also known as the Morley-Minto Reforms (John Morley was the secretary of state for India, and Gilbert Elliot, fourth earl of Minto, was viceroy) — gave Indians limited roles in the central and provincial legislatures, known as legislative councils. Indians had previously been appointed to legislative councils, but after the reforms some were elected to them. At the centre, the majority of council members continued to be government-appointed officials, and the viceroy was in no way responsible to the legislature. At the provincial level, the elected members, together with unofficial appointees, outnumbered the appointed officials, but responsibility of the governor to the legislature was not contemplated. Morley made it clear in introducing the legislation to the British Parliament that parliamentary self-government was not the goal of the British government.

Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms

Main articles: Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms

However, in August 1917 the British government formally announced a policy of "increasing association of Indians in every branch of the administration and the gradual development of self-governing institutions with a view to the progressive realization of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire." Constitutional reforms were embodied in the Government of India Act 1919, also known as the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms (Edwin Samuel Montagu was the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for India; the Viscount Chelmsford was viceroy). These reforms represented the maximum concessions the British were prepared to make at that time. The franchise was extended, and increased authority was given to central and provincial legislative councils, but the viceroy remained responsible only to London.
The changes at the provincial level were significant, as the provincial legislative councils contained a considerable majority of elected members. In a system called "dyarchy", based on an approach developed by Lionel Curtis, the nation-building departments of government — agriculture, education, public works, and the like — were placed under ministers who were individually responsible to the legislature. The departments that made up the "steel frame" of British rule — finance, revenue, and home affairs — were retained by executive councillors who were often (but not always) British, and who were responsible to the governor. The act indirectly increased the number of elected Indian members in district boards and municipal corporations, since the authority to regulate local government bodies was placed in the hands of the popularly elected ministers, whose constituients naturally wanted more democracy. Later, tariff protection was finally given to Indian industry.

Politics

Main articles: British India

Subdivisions

Main articles: Subdivisions of British India

Areas of the Indian Empire directly ruled by the British were divided into administrative provinces. Areas ruled indirectly included several hundred princely states, under British protection but ruled by native rulers. These princely states were grouped into residencies or agencies

Provinces

Main articles: Provinces of British India

At the time of independence, British India consisted of the following provinces:

★ Ajmer-Merwara-Kekri

★ Andaman and Nicobar Islands

★ Assam

★ Baluchistan

★ Bengal

★ Bihar

★ Bombay Province - Bombay

★ Central Provinces and Berar

★ Delhi Province - Delhi

★ Madras Province - Madras

★ North-West Frontier Province

★ Panth-Piploda

★ Orissa

★ Punjab

★ Sindh

★ United Provinces (Agra and Oudh)
Eleven provinces (Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Bombay, Central Provinces, Madras, North-West Frontier, Orissa, Punjab, and Sindh) were headed by a governor. The remaining six (Ajmer Merwara, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Baluchistan, Coorg, Delhi, and Panth-Piploda) were governed by a chief commissioner.

Princely states

Most of the indirectly ruled princely states were either grouped together into regional agencies attached to the provinces of British India or governed individually, with vassals of states in direct report with the Indian viceroy. But, by the beginning of the 20th century, the four largest princely states (Hyderabad, Mysore, Jammu and Kashmir, and Baroda) were directly under the authority of the Governor-General of India, in the person of a resident. In the early 1930s, most of the princely states under the authority of India's provinces were organised into new agencies, answerable to the Governor-general, on the model of the previously established Central India and Rajputana Agencies.

Notes

1. "Sikkim." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 5 Aug. 2007 .

See also

★ British India

★ Colonial India

★ India Office

★ Governor-General of India

★ Commander-in-Chief of India

★ Indian Civil Service