Modern History (British Conquest of India) by Shivlal Gupta

Model Answer

Question #1. Examine the policies of Lord Wellesley with special emphasis on the essential principles of the Subsidiary Alliance system. How did it contribute in making the British Company the supreme sovereign authority in India?

Approach

• The question focuses on policies launched by Lord Wellesley and their impact on making British the claimant power in India
• The perspective of the question is evolutionary and tone is positive
• Introduction (briefly tell who was lord Wellesley and authority associated with him, policies launched by him with his intent in mind)
• Body ( describe about the subsidiary alliance policy with its key terms and how it helped British to get the sovereign control over India)
• Conclusion by summing up the gist of the answer.

Hints:

Lord Wellesley was a governor of Madras and became 4th governor-general of Bengal (1797–1805), and helped in expansion of the British Empire in India through his various policies.

The policies of Lord Wellesley:

• He founded Fort William College, a training centre intended for those who would be involved in governing India. In connection with this college, he established the governor-general's office, to which civilians who had shown talent at the college were transferred, in order that they might learn something of the highest statesmanship in the immediate service of their chief.
• He endeavoured to remove some of the restrictions on the trade between Europe and Asia.
• The result of the wars waged by Lord Wellesley in India and of the treaties which followed them was that French influence in India was reduced to Pondicherry, and helped east India Company to increase it’s in the capturing more power in India.

Subsidiary Alliance

•   Terms of subsidiary alliance:
  • The Indian state was prohibited to keep any external relations, unless approved by the British.
  • The state had to refrain from waging any war without the permission of British.
  • The ruler of the state had to maintain an army commanded by British officers, to maintain public peace. In fact, the ruler had to grant territory and to pay the salary requirement for this army from its own exchequer (this rule was applicable to larger states).
  • The smaller states had to pay tribute in cash to the East India Company
  • The state had to accept an English resident to stay at its court, who would monitor the administrative activities and the maintenance of the army.
  • The state was not allowed to hire any other European workers without prior permission of the Britishers.
  • In return British promised that they will interfere in the internal matters of the state.

The policies of Lord Wellesley contributed in making the British Company the supreme sovereign authority in India:

• The British acquired valuable territories as subsidiary payment.
• The Indian rulers maintained large armies for the British from their own exchequer.
• The British indirectly controlled the defence and foreign affairs of the protected ally which gave them strategic advantage over their adversaries and this ultimately weakened the Indian states.
• If Indian states were unable to keep up with the terms then the British could also overthrow the Indian ruler and annex their territories.
• Other European powers had little access to the courts of the Indian rulers and could not influence them.

Disadvantages for the Indian rulers:

• Indian rulers lost their independence and were completely controlled by the British.
• Indian states became poor as the payment of the subsidies drained their resources. When the administration collapsed, the British annexed the states. (Example: Awadh)
• The high cost of maintaining the British army, and the constant demands of the residents, drained the treasury.
• With British patronage and protection, the Indian rulers lost interest in the welfare of their own people, who suffered great misery and oppression.

Conclusion:

So, by the late 18th century, the power of the Maratha Empire had weakened and the Indian subcontinent was left with a great number of states, most of them small and weak. Many rulers accepted the offer of protection by Wellesley, as it gave them security against attack by their neighbours. This contributed in making the British the supreme sovereign authority in India.

Question #2. Briefly explain the state of the Pre-colonial Indian agriculture economy. Also, discuss how did new land settlements and commercialization of agriculture introduced by the colonial British government affected Indian agriculture? 

Approach 

• Briefly introduce with the exploitative agricultural policy of British.
• Explain the state of the Indian agricultural economy in pre-colonial days such as self-sufficient economic unit and its business.
• Explain the impact of British economic policies. Explain how the New Land Settlement and  Commercialization of Agriculture on Indian brought unparalleled human misery 
• Conclude with the gist of your answer

Hints:

India was a direct colony of the British and the impact of this colonial rule over the Indian agriculture was quite deep as it brought about some fundamental deep changes and consequently transformed the Indian economy.

The state of the Indian agricultural economy in pre-colonial days

• India in the pre-colonial days had self-sufficient agriculture which ensured stability. Agricultural operations were carried on in India by subsistence farmers, organized in small village communities. 
• The village was more or less a self-sufficient economic unit and its business contacts with the outside world were limited to the payment of land revenue (generally in-kind) and the purchase of a few necessary things from the town nearby. 
• The farmers raised only those crops which they needed for their own use and shared the same with the village artisan who supplied them with simple manufacture that they needed for their domestic consumption.
• Also means of communication were of primitive type which caused limited trade in agricultural produce.

The impact of British economic policies on Indian agriculture

• As the colonial economic pressure imparted new dynamism to the Indian rural economy the above pattern of agriculture witnessed some major changes.
• The British agrarian policies in India destroyed the prosperous agricultural economy and brought unparalleled human misery on the people living in the countryside.

The new agrarian policies by the British colonial government were:

• The New Land Settlement- The perennial desire of the British to extract maximum land revenue in cash made the British to evolve a land system in India which would ensure payment of land revenue and also establish a collaborating class in rural India.
• Irrespective of the specificities of the various land revenue settlements landlordism became the system and norm under the British. It brought about a revolution in property relations. It dispossessed the cultivators, moneylenders entered rural India, the tenants were unprotected and the majority of real cultivators became landless labourers.
• Commercialization of Agriculture- It meant that the agricultural produce was oriented towards a market, i.e., agriculture became a marketable commodity. It phenomenally increased the export of agricultural goods from India. Paradoxically, the increase in foreign demand for Indian agricultural produce did not lead to the

Development of Indian agriculture because:

• The backward agricultural organization in the country.
• Lack of resources with the farmer for technological improvement,
• The unpreparedness of peasants for the commercialization and therefore inability to take the advantage of the opportunities offered.

• It was because of colonialism that the commercialization of agriculture a top-down emerged as an artificial and forced process which could not lead to genuine growth in agriculture. The objective conditions for such growth had already been destroyed by colonialism using various land settlement process.
• Commercialization led to scarcity of food because the increasing demand for cash crops like raw cotton, jute, indigo, opium, etc. was met by substitution of commercial crops for traditional food crops. This was done by the farmers to increase their profits, as the commercial crops were more paying. But its impact on the food supply of the country was disastrous. It was reported that one major cause of the famine in 1866 in Bengal and Orissa was that the best land was cultivating indigo instead of rice.
• As the village got linked to the global agriculture market it increased the volatility in the income of poor peasants and consequently caused instability. 

Conclusion:

The impoverishment of the peasantry was a glaring fact during the British rule over India. The agrarian policies pursued by the British increased the number of landless laborers, the pressure of population on backward village economy and the profitable plantation economy filled the pockets of the Britishers.