British Paramountcy and Indian Renaissance: The History and Culture of the Indian People (Volume IX, Part - 1)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

This volume deals with the political history and economic condition of India from 1818 to 1905. It describes the nature of British rule in India for nearly a century after the British had become dominant political power. It is not a mere chronicle of events nor a kind of Gazetteer giving meticulous details of administration. It is a broad review of the British rule, bringing out its two main characteristics, namely the establishment of paramount authority all over India and the creation of a framework of all-India administration such as India probably never knew before. It also seeks to draw in true colour the colonial imperialism and the economic exploitation which formed the real background of British rule in India in the nineteenth century. In these respects this volume breaks an altogether new ground, as will be evident from a comparison with VA. Smith's Oxford History of India or the Cambridge History of India, Volumes V and VI, which are now regarded as standard authorities on the subject. These two books were written mainly with a view to defend British Imperialism in India and look at India purely from the standpoint of British officials and statesmen. The comprehensive Cambridge History of India is the last great historical work on India written by Englishmen. Differing in spirit even from the old English historians of British India, it has put forth only the official or imperial view of British transactions in India. without any attempt to discuss the dissentient views. It suppresses truth in many cases where the preservation of good name for the British rulers requires it; worse still, it repents the official calumny against Indian rulers concocted by the British Government of the day in order to justify their unjust action against them, though a little inquiry would have sufficed, to demonstrate the totally unreliable character of the evidence on which the statements of the Government of India were based. Typical instances of the former are supplied by the accounts given of the annexation of Burma, Awadh, Nagpur, Jhansi. Sindh and the Panjab, as well as dealings of Ellenborough with Sindhia. As regards the latter, it is only necessary to refer to the grounds on which the rulers of Mysore, Coorg, Cachar, and Satara were dethroned, and an armed expedition was sent against Manipur and its Commander-in-chief, Tikendrajit, was hangled..

An effort has been made to reconstruct the true history in respect of these and other episodes, as well as to counteract the view, generally held by the British historians, that the growth and expansion of British Empire in India was due to wars which were forced upon the British. The wars in the Panjab, Sindh and Burma have been dealt in order to show that they were prompted by the deliberate policy of expansion, and the two wars against Afghanistan, whose cost was borne by India, were the direct consequences of British imperialism.

The Mutiny and Revolt of 1857, which is regarded by many as the first national war of independence, has been dealt in great details, and short accounts have also been given of the various violent risings that preceded it and may be said to have culminated in it. A detailed account has also been given of the Wahabi movement which may be regarded as the national rising of the Muslims in order to reestablish their political supremacy in ladia. Reference has also been made to the Passive Resistance launched by the indigo coltivators of Bengal half a century before Mahatma Gandhi, and the first terrorist movement organized by Wasudeo Balwant Phadke - topics which have not yet found palace in any history of India. The miserable economic condition of India and its causes have been.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages