Survey of British Policies in India

The 1857 revolt was a turning point not just in India's resistance to colonialism but in Britain's approach to governing India. Before 1857, the British had — however imperfectly — pursued a policy of partial modernisation. After 1857, they abandoned even this hesitant progressivism. Reactionary administrative policies, social conservatism, alliance with feudal elites, suppression of press and nationalism, and a carefully cultivated racial hierarchy became the defining features of the Raj. This chapter surveys these policies systematically across administrative, social, cultural, princely-state and foreign policy dimensions.

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1. Divide and Rule

The British adopted a naked policy of divide and rule — putting princes against states' people, region against region, province against province, caste against caste, and Hindus against Muslims.

After an initial spell of repression against Muslims following 1857, British policy reversed after 1870: the educated Muslim middle and upper classes were cultivated against the rising tide of nationalism. Conflicts over scarce resources in education, administrative jobs and political spoils — inherent in colonial underdevelopment — were deliberately used as tools to split educated Indians along religious lines.

Hamilton (Secretary of State, 1897) laid bare the cynical calculus: "Unity of ideas and action could be very dangerous politically; divergence of ideas and collision are administratively troublesome. Of the two, the latter is least risky."

2. Hostility Towards Educated Indians

The emerging middle-class nationalist leadership was analysing the exploitative character of British rule and demanding Indian participation in administration. When the Indian National Congress was founded in 1885, the British interpreted this as a direct challenge to their authority and adopted an openly hostile attitude — opposing all who stood for modern education and representative governance.

Anil Seal observed: "Systems of nomination, representation and election were all means of enlisting Indians to work for imperial ends."

3. Alliance with Zamindars

Seeking to expand their social base through reactionary alliances, the British cultivated princes and zamindars as counterweights against nationalist-minded intelligentsia. Zamindars and landlords were hailed as the 'natural' and 'traditional' leaders of the people.

• Lands of most Awadh taluqdars (confiscated before 1857) were restored to them
• Zamindar and landlord interests were protected against peasants
• In return, zamindars became firm supporters of British rule, seeing the British as guarantors of their own existence

4. Reversal on Social Reform

Having allied with reactionary elements, the British withdrew support for social reforms — which they believed had aroused orthodox anger against them before 1857. By encouraging caste and communal consciousness, they actively helped reactionary forces.

5. Underdeveloped Social Services

Disproportionate expenditure on the army, civil administration and wars left very little for social services — education, health, sanitation, physical infrastructure. Whatever facilities existed catered to elite and urban sections. This colonial neglect remains a defining legacy.

Charles Wood (Secretary of State): "All experience teaches us that where a dominant race rules another, the mildest form of government is despotism."

6. Labour Legislation — Half-Hearted and Inadequate

Working conditions in 19th-century Indian factories and plantations were appalling: long hours for men, women and children; low wages; overcrowded and unventilated workplaces; and almost no safety measures.

The first demand for factory regulation did not come from workers. It came from the Lancashire textile capitalist lobby, which feared competition from Indian industry operating with cheap, unregulated labour. The first commission was appointed in 1875, but the first Factory Act came only in 1881.

Indian Factory Act, 1881

• Dealt primarily with child labour between 7 and 12 years
• Employment of children under 7 years prohibited
• Children: maximum 9 hours per day
• Children: 4 holidays per month
• Hazardous machinery to be properly fenced

Indian Factory Act, 1891

• Minimum age for children raised from 7 to 9 years
• Maximum age for children raised from 12 to 14 years
• Children: maximum hours reduced to 7 hours per day
• Women: maximum 11 hours per day with 1.5-hour interval
• Men's working hours: left unregulated
• Weekly holiday for all workers

These laws did not apply to British-owned tea and coffee plantations, where labour was exploited ruthlessly. Breach of contract by labourers was treated as a criminal offence, and planters could have defaulting labourers arrested.

7. Restrictions on the Press

• 1835: Metcalfe lifted restrictions on the Indian press
• 1878: Lytton imposed the Vernacular Press Act to restrict Indian-language press
• 1882: Act repealed under public protest
• 1908 and 1910: Fresh restrictions imposed during the Swadeshi and anti-partition movements

8. White Racism

Racial superiority was maintained systematically: Indians were excluded from higher civil and military service grades, barred from railway compartments, parks, hotels and clubs, and subjected to public racial arrogance through beatings, blows and murders often reported as accidents.

Elgin: "We could only govern by maintaining the fact that we were the dominant race — though Indians in services should be encouraged, there is a point at which we must reserve the control to ourselves, if we are to remain at all."

Nehru: "The English were an imperial race, we were told, with God-given right to govern us and keep us in subjection; if we protested, we were reminded of the tiger qualities of an imperial race."

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Pre-1813: Non-Interference

Before 1813, the British followed a policy of non-interference in Indian social, religious and cultural life.

After 1813: Push for Transformation

Three major European developments drove a new interventionist impulse:

1. Industrial Revolution: industrial capitalism needed India as a market and therefore required partial modernisation
2. Intellectual Revolution: new attitudes of reason, liberalism and humanism
3. French Revolution: liberty, equality and fraternity encouraged democracy and nationalism

Key figures included Bacon, Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant, Adam Smith, Bentham, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley and Dickens.

Characteristics of the New Thought

1. Rationalism: faith in reason and scientific attitude
2. Humanism: every individual as an end in himself, giving rise to liberalism, socialism and individualism
3. Doctrine of Progress: societies are not static and can be remade on rational and just lines

Three Schools of Thought Among British Administrators

Regardless of school, the ruling administration remained exploitative. Modernisation was allowed only when it made India more efficiently exploitable. Even Radicals prioritised the safety and perpetuation of British rule.

Colonial Modernisation — The Dilemma

The British feared that too much modernisation would generate hostile forces. They therefore opted for colonial modernisation: introducing change in some areas while blocking it in others. Indians embraced modern ideas and demanded their logical extension — liberty, equality and justice — but the British refused to extend these rights.

Role of Christian Missionaries

Missionaries regarded Christianity as superior and sought to spread it through westernisation. They supported Radicals because scientific thought would undermine native culture, Imperialists because order and supremacy aided missionary work, and business interests because converts were expected to become better consumers.

British Retreat after 1858

After 1858, even hesitant modernisation was abandoned. As Indians asserted modern values and demanded rights, the British aligned with socially orthodox and conservative elements and actively encouraged casteism and communalism.

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Two-Point Framework: Subordinate Union

1. Using and perpetuating princely states as a bulwark of the empire
2. Subordinating them completely to British authority

Post-1857 Change: From Annexation to Depose-but-not-Annex

Before 1857, Dalhousie's Doctrine of Lapse represented annexation. After 1857, annexation was abandoned to reward princely loyalty and cultivate states as buffers against unrest. The new policy was depose or punish but not annex. Territorial integrity was guaranteed and the right to adopt an heir was respected.

Subordination Through Paramountcy

In 1876, Queen Victoria adopted the title Kaiser-i-Hind or Queen Empress of India, ending the fiction that Indian states were independent sovereign entities equal to the Crown. Lord Curzon made clear that princes ruled merely as agents of the British Crown. Under paramountcy, the British interfered in internal affairs through Residents, appointments and dismissals. Modern communications such as railways, roads, telegraph, canals and post offices deepened British encroachment. Suppression of nationalist and democratic sentiments in princely states was seen as essential for British survival.

F.G. Hutchins: "The British and the princes needed one another; India's need for either was highly doubtful."

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Driving Imperatives

British foreign policy in Asia and Africa was guided by three aims:

1. Protection of the Indian empire
2. Expansion of British commercial and economic interests
3. Keeping other European imperial powers such as Russia and France at arm's length in Asia and Africa

Why India Was Drawn into Conflicts

India was drawn into conflicts because the British sought natural geographical frontiers after administrative consolidation and modern communications, and because British imperial interests clashed with Russian and French interests in Asia and Africa. The fundamental asymmetry was clear: the interests served were British, but the money spent and blood shed were Indian.

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• GS Paper I — Modern India: Divide and rule was not just a political tactic but part of colonial social and economic governance.
• GS Paper II — Social Justice: The Factory Acts of 1881 and 1891 are historical precursors to labour rights legislation.
• GS Paper I — Society: The three schools of British thought map onto debates about cultural relativism, liberal universalism and intervention.
• Communalism: The post-1870 cultivation of Muslim elites links administrative policy to communalism and the two-nation trajectory.
• Press Freedom: The Vernacular Press Act connects nationalist press history to modern questions on freedom of the press.
• Princely States: Subordinate union was the precursor to the integration challenge Patel faced in 1947.
• Foreign Policy: British frontier policy shaped later strategic concerns in India's North-West and North-East.

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• The first demand for factory regulation came from the Lancashire textile capitalist lobby, not Indian workers or nationalists.
• First commission on factory conditions: 1875; first Factory Act: 1881.
• Factory Act 1881 covered children 7-12 years; under 7 employment prohibited; 9 hours per day; 4 holidays per month.
• Factory Act 1891 raised child age limits to 9-14, reduced child hours to 7, fixed women's hours at 11 with a 1.5-hour interval, and introduced weekly holiday. Men's hours remained unregulated.
• Tea and coffee plantations were excluded from Factory Acts; breach of contract by labourers was criminalised.
• Vernacular Press Act: 1878, under Lytton; repealed in 1882.
• Press sequence: 1835 Metcalfe frees press; 1878 Vernacular Press Act; 1882 repeal; 1908 and 1910 restrictions.
• After 1857 Muslims were initially repressed; after 1870 Muslim elites were cultivated against nationalists.
• Kaiser-i-Hind: adopted by Queen Victoria in 1876, not 1858 or 1877.
• Post-1857 princely-state policy: depose but not annex; guarantee territorial integrity and adoption rights.
• Conservatives were the majority among British officials; Radicals were a minority.
• Cornwallis's exclusionary view of Indians should not be confused with Kimberley's later quote about European dominance in civil services.

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Administrative policies: Divide and rule; hostility to educated Indians and Congress; alliance with zamindars; reversal on social reform; underfunded social services; half-hearted labour laws; press restrictions; white racism.

Labour: Lancashire lobby -> commission 1875 -> Factory Act 1881 -> Factory Act 1891; plantations excluded; men's hours unregulated.

Press: Metcalfe 1835 -> Lytton's Vernacular Press Act 1878 -> repeal 1882 -> restrictions 1908 and 1910.

Social and cultural policy: Pre-1813 non-interference; post-1813 intervention driven by Industrial, Intellectual and French Revolutions; Conservatives, Paternalistic Imperialists and Radicals; colonial modernisation; retreat after 1858.

Princely states: Subordinate union; depose not annex; adoption rights respected; 1876 Kaiser-i-Hind; Curzon's princes-as-agents position; paramountcy through Residents.

Foreign policy: Protect empire, expand commerce, keep Russia and France away; India's money and blood served British interests.