State formation in India

Abstract

The emergence of the British colonial state in India was the result of a long-lasting historical process. Since the seventeenth century it had been shaped by European trading companies’ competition in Asian markets. Its form was also influenced by the political transformations within the Mughal Empire during the eighteenth century. Finally, it was shaped by a gradual yet determined political and territorial expansion starting from Bengal in 1757. Until the demise of the colonial state in 1947, the British governed their Indian possessions with paternalistic benevolence, establishing an autocratic regime partly based on the invention of an Indian tradition. This included the idea of Muslims and Hindus as separate communities, which ultimately led to the Partition of the South Asian subcontinent at the end of colonial rule. Its legacy still determines politics in South Asia.