British Government In India Research Articles

A Matter of Taste: Tea, Opium, and Trade Monopolies in Tibet

Abstract This article chronicles the British Indian state’s attempt, and eventual failure, to break the Chinese monopoly on trading tea in Tibet at the very time Britain replaced Qing China as the largest exporter of tea on the global stage. I explore this short history by analysing the trade marts established in Tibet and the eastern Himalayas between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, not simply as centres of imperial trade between two powerful empires, but as occupied territories meant to form key nodes on land networks throughout the Tibetan plateau and highlands. Following its failure to push Indian tea into Tibetan markets, the British government in India experimented with the sale of opium in British-controlled marts in Tibet, thus marking important continuities in commodity trade competition with China across market spheres. The competition between Chinese and Indian tea has been richly documented as a narrative of ascendancy and industrial modernisation that rapidly reshaped global imperial hierarchies as well as local socio-cultural relationships (including those of labour accumulation). By contrast, the British failure in Tibet highlights how militarised frontier-making alone advanced market capitalism throughout the trans-Himalayan theatre. This article demonstrates how the exigencies of war propaganda and imperial frontier-making shaped not only the spatial and cultural frames of tea consumption in Tibet, but the territorial entities of the Himalayan “borderlands”, and indeed, “Tibet” itself.

INDIAN FOREST ACT AND POLICIES: BE AT VARIANCE WITH SOCIAL LEGITIMACY

Indian woodland is a rich source of natural phenomenon, which maintains a gracious eco-balance and environmental potentiality. Ancient time scale to the present era Boscage is fulfilling needful action/desire, sourcing and supplying an enormous quantity of natural objects. So, the symbiotic relationship with the Copse area becomes a necessity for all life forms based on Indian woodland. There were many foreign invasions over the Indian Woodlands, of which The British invasion was remarkable, they were alluring India in the early 18th Century and permanently took charge of India as British India in 1760, ushering in monopolizing absolute supremacy over the Indian Boscage, they initiated a rule and finally an Act as Indian Forest Act 1865. The Indian Forest Act was amended in 1878 and finally enacted in 1927. Post independence India declared itself a Sovereign Democratic Republic State, but the Act remains the same. The Indian Forest Act is a piece of legislation enacted by the British Indian government in 1927. Its primary purpose was to consolidate and amend the laws related to forests, the transit of forest produce, and the duty levied on timber and other forest produce. The act aimed to regulate and manage forests in India, addressing issues such as forest conservation, protection, and revenue generation. The Forest policies were based on Scientific Management of the Forest, incepted since the 18th Century. The Policy guidelines were formulated to keep in view all aspects of the Forest that were practiced and emphasized factors like socio-economic, rural development, and environmental development as prime factors. Concessions were comprehended and extruded for the forest dwellers especially the Tribes in connection with livelihood sustenance. In this context, the 1894 policy of pre-independence, 1952, 1988 and 2018 policies of postindependence are mentionable for the same. The present sequel has been emphasized on the entire ambit of the tribal communities basically who are the forest dwellers since time immemorial. Collection of minor forest produces and uses thereof to maintain livelihood sustenance as offertory which executes a degree of dependence on the forest at the present day. Inclusion and exclusion determine the positivity of policy guidelines and practices that encourage the sustainable development of forest dwellers.

A Historical Approach towards Baloch-British Contact: An analysis of Baloch Wars with the Colonial forces (1839-41)

Balochistan, due to its strategic position, has faced a myriad of invaders such as Persians, Mughals and finally the British. British contact with Kalat was initially established in the late eighteenth century by British travelers, who were sent by the British Indian Government to gather ample information about Balochistan. By1830’s the British in India were eager to expand their borders into central Asia. Therefore, the British embarked on a strategy to install friendly governments in their northwest frontier that would provide a buffer zone to protect their Indian Empire from foreign enemies. Balochistan, lying at the frontier of British India, came under British consideration. In 1838; British Empire in India anticipated establishing relation with the state of Kalat in Balochistan. Finally, British concluded a treaty with Mehrab Khan subsequently, the ruler of Balochistan during the first Anglo-Afghan war for safe passage through its territory. In contrary, British army faced much resistance and trouble while advancing towards Afghanistan. This created anger among the British policy makers resultantly, Kalat was assaulted. Throughout Balochistan occupation of Kalat created civil resistance on an unpredicted and unprecedented scale. They revolted against British interference and fought against them, which resulted in their submission to the rule of Nasir Khan II. This paper is an attempt to continue the history of the British contact with Baloch and the events of the war which occurred betwixt 1839 to 1841.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Politics of Non-violence: A Perspective of Passive Resilience, 1920-1930

This article examines the emergence of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) among rural middle and lower middle-class Sikhs with the objectives of reforms in gurdwaras management along with to preserve separate Sikh identity, stop Sikhs conversion and popular representation of Sikhs through non-violent means during 1920-1930. SAD avoided to merge into national level Non-Cooperation movement and remained successful to achieve its initial goals. This article, based on revealing the fresh sources drawn from the Punjab Archives Lahore and Lahore Museum Library argues that initially a pure religious reformist movement emerged with popular support continued the strategy of nonviolence even after the acceptance of major demands in the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925. SAD’s nonviolence strategy was also influenced by other Sikh organizations like Khalsa Diwan, Central Sikh League and external forces, like Indian National Congress (INC), All India Muslim League (AIML), the Unionist Party, Non-Cooperation movement and Khilafat movement at different scale. The British Indian government initially tried to handle the Sikh resistance through Sikh elites, gurdwara mahatns and colonial Punjab administration but SAD’s nonviolent response forced the government to mend their ways and finally introduced the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925.

‘A man on a watchtower’: Malleson and the British military mission to Turkistan, 1918–20

It is not often that one comes across a former British intelligence chief venting his spleen in public about past injuries done to him by his government and, in doing so, revealing recent intelligence operations. One such instructive example is that of Major-General Sir Wilfrid Malleson who, on 24 January 1922, in a lecture to the Central Asian Society, castigated the British government of India for failing to recognise the admittedly impressive services of the personnel of the British military mission to Turkestan from 1918-20, which had been under his command. In his righteous fury, Malleson revealed to a large extent British military and intelligence operations in the region, particularly as they affected Afghanistan in the critical years of 1919-20, covering as they did the Third Afghan War and its aftermath. It is proposed in this article to concentrate on an examination of this subject since it has been comparatively neglected and has much to tell us about the nature of British intelligence in this period and place.

Agriculture as knowledge: delegitimising ‘informal’ knowledge through colonial pedagogy in Bihar, 1880–1930

ABSTRACT Agricultural improvement was a vital aspect of the ‘development scheme’ of the British Government in India as agriculture was the most revenue-generating industry in Bihar. From the first Famine Commission Report of 1880, there was a set agenda to improve agriculture through education. This was to be achieved through importing western science and technology by establishing premium institutes and a range of experiment stations. In this process, the British tried to juxtapose western lab-based knowledge over the time-tested local knowledge based on observation. This article attempts to locate agriculture as knowledge and how informal knowledge was proscribed by the British. It tries to unfurl the hitherto unquestioned links between agriculture, knowledge and the rural people. As knowledge encompasses power configurations, this article also aims to unravel the intellectual power and moral hegemony promoted by colonial pedagogy to subjugate the Indian people because they were employing a different knowledge system.

Colonizing the Wild Elephant of Cachar (1850-1950)

Elephants have always played a significant role in Cachar's history. Elephant hunting was a monopoly of the British government in India during colonial rule as of its strategic importance. Elephants were given special attention by colonial officials because of their ability to navigate forests, their Tusks, and their role in hunting. The elephant capturing and management procedure was under British authority because it was one of the most important sources of revenue for the British government. Due to the poor transit system, the colonial rulers kept number of elephants on hand to perform various tasks. The purpose of this paper is to study how elephants were colonized in Cachar. Elephants provide both access and revenue to the government. The capture of elephants (Kheddah), access, and elephant revenue are all explored in this paper. The function of elephants in the Cachar's economic existence is also investigated and analyzed in this study. The research looks on the use of elephants to carry government officials during military operations in Cachar, as well as their role in forest management.

The Dynamics of Canal Colonies; Agricultural Development and Socio-Political Change in British Multan

Punjab was the last province which annexed with British India in 1949.British implemented many reforms in sub-continent, but Canal Colonies were excellent irrigation system introduced by the British, especially in the south west part of the Punjab province. These canal colonies proved very useful for the agriculture sector which boost up the not only the economic condition of the native people of the colonies areas but also increase revenue collection of the British government in India. Canal Colonies changed the arid/ barren land of the southern district of the province into a fertile land. British government also achieved their objectives through canal colonies. Therefore, government allotted the land of the canal colonies in different categories and rewarded some specific classes in native communities of the canal colonies. In canal colonies government reserved huge piece of land for their military objective because Indian Military was necessary for the strong law and order in British India and their strong influence in Middle East and other parts of the world. These canal colonies bring an agriculture revolution in the province which change the socio-economic condition of the people of the native districts. In Multan three major canal colonies were introduced, Sidhnai, Lower Bari Doab and Nili Bar canal colony. In these canal colonies British government also implemented same polices like the previous canal colonies of the province. Therefore, the in Multan district landed elites were loyal and cooperative with government with their wealth and men. These landed elites played important role at political canvas of the province during British rule in Multan.

DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAMS AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION - ASTUDY ON SCHEDULED CASTES IN GUNTUR DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH

The Scheduled Castes, according to the 2011 census, are 20.13 crores and constitute 16.6 per cent of the total population of the country and have long suffered from extreme social and economic backwardness. The Scheduled Castes category comprises many castes which share certain common handicaps in relation to the rest of the castes in society. They are quite distinct in caste hierarchy. They are economically dependent, educationally backward, politically suppressed, and socially the worst sufferers. Further they were classed as untouchables. The term scheduled castes refers to a list of castes prepared in 1935 by the British Government in India. But during the ancient period and medieval period they were known as Panchamas (fifth group), Chandalas (heathens or outeastes) and Antyajas (lowest class), and during the British period they came to be called first as Depressed Classes (dalitjatis) or Exterior Castes (avarnas), later as Harijans (children of God), and finally as Scheduled Castes (castes listed in the Government Schedule Article 341).

Expedition turned Invasion: The 1888 Sikkim Expedition through British, Indian and Chinese eyes

AbstractA fresh look at the 1888 Sikkim Expedition using both Chinese and English language sources yields very different conclusions from that of previous research on the subject. During the course of policymaking, the British Foreign Office and the British Government of India did not collaborate to devise a plan to invade Tibet; conversely, their aims differed and clashed frequently. During the years leading to war, the largest newspapers in British India gave plenty of coverage to the benefits of trade with Tibet, thus influencing British foreign policy and contributing indirectly to the outbreak of war. The Tibetan army was soundly defeated in the war, while the British troops suffered only light casualties. Although the Tibetan elites remained committed to the war, the lower classes of Tibetan society quickly grew weary of it. During the war, the British made much use of local spies and enjoyed an advantage in intelligence gathering, which contributed greatly to their victory. Finally, although the war was initially fought over trade issues, the demarcation of the Tibetan-Sikkim border replaced trade issues as the main point of contention during the subsequent peace negotiations. During the negotiations, Sheng Tai, the newly appointed Amban of Tibet, tried his best to defend China's interests.

Child marriage debates during British India

The social reformers continuously attacked the custom of child marriage in the mid-nineteenth century, but they could not start an organized campaign for various reasons. Apart from individual feminism, the female voice was also quiet. In the late Nineteenth Century, the reformer’s campaign did not attack the religious aspect of child marriage rather focused on its moral and physical elements. Consequently, they restricted their efforts to the sphere of Age of Consent for sexual Consummation of girls only. The Revivalist leaders' massive opposition compelled the British Indian Government not to interfere with its domestic sphere. The various changes in the first half of the twentieth century supplied a favourable environment to reopen child marriage. In this paper, the author will examine those changes and delineate the shift from “Age of Consent to the age of marriage”.

Conservation or Implicit Destruction

The Czarist Empire during the nineteenth century emerged on the scene as a Eurasian colonial power challenging British supremacy, especially in Central Asia. The trans-continental Russian expansion and the ensuing influence were on the march as a result of the increase in the territory controlled by Imperial Russia. Inevitably, the Russian advances in the Caucasus and Central Asia were increasingly perceived by the British as a strategic threat to the interests of the British Indian Empire. These geo-political and geo-strategic developments enhanced the importance of Afghanistan in the British perception as a first line of defense against the advancing Russians and the threat of presumed invasion of British India. Moreover, a mix of these developments also had an impact on the British strategic perception that now viewed the defense of the North-West Frontier as a vital interest for the security of British India. The strategic imperative was to deter the Czarist Empire from having any direct contact with the conquered subjects, especially the North Indian Muslims. An operational expression of this policy gradually unfolded when the Princely State of Dir was loosely incorporated, but quite not settled, into the formal framework of the imperial structure of British India. The elements of this bilateral arrangement included the supply of arms and ammunition, subsidies and formal agreements regarding governance of the state. These agreements created enough time and space for the British to pursue colonial interests in the Great Game, in rivalry with the rapidly-expanding Czarist Empire. British strategic pursuits in the north-west of British India finally emerged as a strategy that historians refer to as the three-fold Frontier Policy. The greater context of the interaction between British India and the Princely State of Dir was the Frontier Policy. Despite the academic awareness of it, there is a lack of comprehensive and coherent research on the subject. This paper is an attempt to bring to the fore an important aspect of the agreements reached and executed between the British Indian government and the Nawab of the Princely State of Dir with regard to the rich forest resources located within the geographic limits of the state. It argues that the British government initially intended to have greater control over the forests under the pretext of preventing deforestation. However, in reality the British turned a blind eye to the threat and practice of widespread deforestation in order to secure a stable frontier for its strategic and commercial interests. No research-based inductive work exists on the theme, and a systematic study analyzing the agreement and its impact is not available. This study is an effort to fill the gap in this area of research. The paper has an additional academic value since the deforestation in the Princely State of Dir has been explored from the point of view of the British imperial strategy in the north-west of British India, which is very much relevant even today. It is all about establishing linkages and connections. 

NAGA IDENTITY POETICS IN CONTEMPORARY NAGA ENGLISH LITERATURE (A KALEIDOSCOPIC VIEW)

The Nagas originally a Sino-Mongoloid tribe are substantiated to have originated around 10th century B.C. in the plains between Huang Ho and Yangtze Ho in North Central China. As migration is a process which is reported to have been going on since time immemorial, the Nagas too could not have isolated themselves from being a part of the mass odyssey from their homeland with the anticipation of exploring and settling in naturally upgraded habitats. Hence today, the Nagas have been found to inhabit the banks of Chindwin and Irawaddy Rivers in Myanmar, and Nagaland in India. As far as their language is concerned, it is said to be an affiliate of the greater branch of Sino-Tibetan besides sharing certain similarities with Tibeto-Burman languages. As for the etymology of the word Naga is concerned, it is said to have been derived from either of the Sanskrit word namely Nagna or Nag with respective meanings ‘naked’ or ‘mountain. Frankly speaking both the etymons in question validate the universally recognized conception of Naga identity. Nagaland itself is dotted with multiple number of hills and a faction of people among all the Naga Tribes are said to have been still embracing primitivism. But what is most conspicuous about the Nagas is that though today we know Nagaland as a self-Governing state, the fact can never be contradicted that Nagas have never considered themselves part of India despite the state being taken over by India in 1952. Right from their partially being colonized by the British in the middle of the 19th century, to their strict resistance to both the British-Indian Government and then to the post-Independence Indian Government, the Nagas have shown that their assimilation to Indian mainstream is a daunting and cumbersome exercise. The origin of the Naga National Council, preceded by the armed resistance movement of Rani Gyindulu and that of the genesis of National Socialist Council of Nagaland simply bespeak that this prospect of wholesale assimilation into Indian Sense of Nationality will await the elapse of an elongated stretch of historical time. This very aspect has been enjoying international attention and the literary activists of Nagaland such as Dr Temsula Ao and Dr Easterine Kire have contributed a lot through their literary output in harnessing this aspect, throwing new critical insights into the same. This avouched denial cum resistance to be assimilated into the greater Indian National Fabric is one of the many facets of Naga Identity which also encompasses other cultural traits such as patriarchal ideology, Naga Heraka Practices, Animism, Mythogenesis and Head-Hunting Practices.
 Objective of this write-up: This write-up endeavours its best to foreground the very traits of Naga Identity Poetics by taking into consideration selective but relevant literary fabrications, the brainchilds of one of the two internationally recognized Naga Writers, Dr Easterine Kire with the other being Dr Temsula Ao.
 Methodology: This write-up is built upon the selective reading of the summary of the novels and poems of both the writers with selective perusal of secondary anecdotage in the form of critical essays, the Naga History of Independence and Naga Anthropology.

The Evolution in Recognition of Land Rights in India: A Study of Legislations Pertaining to Acquisition of Land

The land is one of the most coveted assets in India, which also makes it the most disputed. And fragmented laws and lack of awareness of existing regulations do not help in any way. In the context of land law, the states have their own unique set of laws pertaining to the acquisition, possession, and sale of land. The land has an interesting history in India. Beginning with purely commercial interests, India’s land laws have evolved over time, albeit slowly, to include the interests of individual owners. But we still have a ways to go. It was in 1894, that the first Land Acquisition Act enacted by the British Government of India, which forms the basis for all land laws today came into being. It applied to all states in India except for Mysore, Hyderabad, and Travancore, the princely states that had the right to exercise their own land laws. In 1947, India adopted the Land Acquisition Act and enforced it across “all the provinces of India” without exception. After languishing in the Parliament for many years, passing through multiple referrals and calls for amendments, the Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, (LARR) 2011 was introduced again by the UPA government. In 2013, it was passed and became effective from 2014. The bill focused on bringing in more transparency by underlining the rights of the people who stood to lose land during the process of acquisition.

Professional Victimization Among Police Officials inTrivandrum District, Kerala

Police is a force where a team of people work to prevent crimes and enforce law in the society. The word "POLICE" is deriving from Greek word "polis" meaning state. The full form of police is public officer for legal investigations and criminal emergencies. They are uniformed individuals who are responsible for keeping law and order intact. Police works all over, the world they had their own divisions and work as a team to protect people and prevent from crime. The professional police force in the world was first established in September 29, 1829 in London. After, In British Indian government introduces Indian council's act 1861. Under this act new police force named, superior police service (sps) was formed. In 1905, it is termed as Indian imperial police. In 1948, after independent the police force termed as Indian police service (IPS). In Indian history one can discern two distinct police system: a rural village-based system and system emanating from the dominant section of the society.

Infrastructural Contingencies and Contingent Sovereignties on the Indo–Afghan Frontier

AbstractThe Khyber Pass Railway is a defunct 42-kilometre-long railway line that connects the western reaches of Peshawar to the Afghan border. Completed in 1925 mainly to carry British troops, the railway line failed to attract decent passenger or commodity traffic. Instead, it made an impact on a more primal register. Negotiations carried out between the British Government of India and populations from around the Khyber to allow its construction reproduced and rearranged lines of authority among the latter. They also embedded colonial administrators in tribal hierarchies. Efforts to acquire land and labour opened up spaces of collaboration between the colonial administration and members of frontier tribes, effectively contributing towards a reconfiguration of sovereign power in the area. This article weaves questions of customary law and colonial legal cultures into a retelling of the history of the Khyber Pass Railway. Examining transactions across three domains of sovereign power—the economic right to use land, extension of juridical regimes, and territorial control—it argues that the operation of sovereignty in the late-colonial Indo–Afghan frontier did not adhere to conventional ideas about its concentration and monopoly. The colonial government as well as members of frontier tribes deployed the inconclusive nature of their transactions strategically and, often, sovereign power lay with the stakeholder who could determine which domains fell within the bounds of the sovereignty question and which domains fell without.

From Documents to Data Points: Marriage Registration and the Politics of Record-Keeping in British India (1880-1950)

AbstractIn 1880, the British Government of India passed an act for appointing individuals to the office of qazi to perform and record Muslim marriages. The act, a product of legislative collaboration, framed marriage registration as a solution to countless problems related to marriage. As a result, qazis and their assistants (nāʾibs) in places like Meerut recorded thousands of marriages using enumerative categories mirroring those found in colonial records. Yet rather than solving the problems surrounding Muslim marriages, as the act intended, these registers turned marital events into administrative facts and invited further management of Muslim marriages in the twentieth century.

To Flower and Fructify: Rational Religion and the Seeds of Islam in Nazir Ahmad’s (1830–1912) Late-career Religious Non-fiction

Abstract Known primarily for his popular and moralizing novels, Nazir Ahmad’s (1830–1912) accomplishments as a scholar of Islam are often omitted from his biography. Yet in addition to working for the British Government of India, participating in Muslim social, political, and educational initiatives on the subcontinent, and demonstrating his linguistic and legal acumen by translating the law codes of British India into vernacular Urdu, Nazir Ahmad also translated religious texts and penned his own original compositions on themes of religion, society, and ethics. Reviewing the ideas presented in his comprehensive three-volume al-Ḥuqūq va-l-farāʾiż (1905–6) and his shorter catechism Ijtihād (1906), this article outlines Nazir Ahmad’s theory of worldly religion and introduces his concept of Islamic humanism in response to ulema-centric approaches to Islamic revival and reform in British India.

The Madness of Jodh Singh: Patriotism and Paranoia in the Ghadar Archives

My paper focuses on Jodh Singh, a marginal figure in the archives of the Ghadar Party, who was arrested for High Treason against the United States for his role in the “Hindu Conspiracy” plots aimed at the British government of India. Incarcerated in a California prison, Singh was moved to a sanatarium on displaying symptoms of insanity. Through a close reading of a web of archival documents and scholarly reflections—at the center of which lies the report of a commission appointed to inquire into his mental condition—I examine the account of the madness of Jodh Singh as a statement about patriotism and paranoia. In engagement with the work of Foucault, Guha, and scholars of the Ghadar movement, I describe how the record of Singh’s experiences indicts the juridical-legal-medical framework of American society as operating on a distinction between legtimate and illegitimate madness. I also examine how Jodh Singh points to the glimmers of a critique of the self-image of the Ghadar Party as a revolutionary movement committed to egalitarian principles. I conclude with a reflection on what Jodh Singh might tell us about the relationship between madness, political aspiration, and the yearning for solidarity.

In Good Company

This article is part of Darakhshan Khan’s larger body of work on womenin the Tablīghī Jamā‘at, who, as she argues persuasively, have not been giventhe scholarly attention they deserve (barring a few notable exceptions,among them Metcalf 2000). Khan observes that the reasons for this rangefrom the fact that the public image of the Tablīghī Jamā‘at is that of itinerantmales, not females, and that gender segregation in South Asian Muslimcommunities makes women invisible to male scholars. Moreover, in today’spost-9/11 world the Tablīghī Jamā‘at is often viewed through the lens ofcounter-terrorist concerns.Khan’s article revolves around several key themes: the geographicalmobility of Muslim bureaucrats in late nineteenth-century British India;changes in the structure of the family; changing patterns of religious leadershipin British India, resulting in part from the creation of seminaries suchas the Dār al-‘Ulūm, Deoband; and the incorporation of Muslim womenin religious leadership roles in Tablīghī networks from the mid-twentiethcentury onward. The article seems to fall into two distinct parts. The firsthalf deals with Muslim men from ashraf families working in British Indiangovernment jobs in the late nineteenth century who moved constantly(with their wives and children) in response to bureaucratic postings, livingwesternized lives at the margins of highly stratified British Indian socialnetworks. Drawing on sources ranging from Urdu literature to biographies,Khan shows how isolating this was for the wives and sometimes professionallydisappointing for the husbands. The second half of the article dealswith Muslim religious elites and their more limited geographical travelsin British India in pursuit of religious knowledge, often coinciding with ...