JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Solutions History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

JAC Class 8th History From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power InText Questions and Answers

Page 15

Question 1 .
Imagine that you are a young Company official who has been in India for a few months. Write a letter home to your mother telling her about your luxurious life and contrasting it with your earlier life in Britain.
Answer:
Do it yourself.
Hint. students can use these points in letter – Well-furnished and embellished house has been allotted to you. House maids, gardener and servants are there to do the daily household works. Local landlords are supportive and helpful.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

Page 18
Question 2.
Imagine that you have come across two old newspapers reporting on the Battle of Seringapatam and the death of Tipu Sultan. One is a British paper and the other is from Mysore. Write the headline for each of the two newspapers.
Answer:
Headline for the British newspaper “The East India Company gets another victory and crushes Tipu Sultan”. Headline for the local newspaper – “Tipu Sultan, the tiger of Mysore sacrifices his life for the country”.

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Question 3.
Imagine that you are a nawab’s nephew and have been brought up thinking that you will one day be king. Now you find that this will not be allowed by the British because of the new Doctrine of Lapse. What will be your feelings? What will you plan to do so that you can inherit the crown?
Answer:
My feelings would be of disappointment, aggression and anger. I would try to make an army and train them and fight with the British and get victory in the war. I would join with other Indian kings and withdraw the Doctrine of Lapse and inherit the crown of my uncle as he is no more.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

Page 24
Question 4.
You are living in England in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. How would you have reacted to the stories of British conquests? Remember that you would have read about the immense fortunes that many of the officials were making.
Answer:
Students need to do it on their own.The following points may help you.

  1. As a lay person who is not associated with East India company, nor part of the government I would have surely resented British conquest and its policies of colonialism.
  2. As it amounted to subjugation and oppression of the colonial people.
  3. It resulted in the massive drain of wealth, exploitation of the colonial people.
  4. I would have also criticized British policy of divide and rule, of pitting one group against another.
  5. The British conquest reveals it dual face, which on one hand talks of freedom, liberty, in its own country and at the same time denies such values to colonial people.
  6. The British were only motivated by their economic interests, with the prospects of getting cheap labour, raw material, and market, they did nothing to improve the condition of the people.
  7. Whatever administrative changes they introduced served their own interest.
  8. The Company officials made huge money at the expense of innocent population.
  9. It in fact, brought about massive deprivation of the people in the colonies.

JAC Class 8th History From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power Textbook Questions and Answers

Let’s Recall

Question 1.
Match the following.

DiwaniTipu Sultan
“Tiger of Mysore”right to collect land revenue
faujdari adalatSepoy
Rani Channammacriminal court led an anti-British movement in Kitoor
sipahiTipu Sultan

Answer:

Diwaniright to collect land revenue
“Tiger of Mysore”Tipu Sultan
faujdari adalatcriminal court
Rani Channammaled an anti-British movement in Kitoor
sipahiSepoy

 

Question 2.
Fill in the blanks.
(a) The British conquest of Bengal began with the Battle of
(b) Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan were the rulers of .
(c) Dalhousie implemented the Doctrine of .
(d) Maratha kingdoms were located mainly in the part of India.
Answer:
(a) Plassey
(b) Mysore
(c) Lapse
(d) western

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

Question 3.
State whether true or false.
(a) The Mughal empire became stronger in the eighteenth century.
(b) The English East India Company was the only European company that traded with India.
(c) Maharaja Ranjit Singh was the ruler of Punjab.
(d) The British did not introduce administrative changes in the territories they conquered.
Answer:
(a) False
(b) False
(c) True
(d) False

Let’s Discuss

Question 4.
What attracted European trading companies to India?
Answer:
European trading companies were attracted to India because of the following reasons. The fine qualities of cotton and silk roduced in India had a big market in Europe. Spices such as pepper, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon too were in great demand. These things were easily available in India at very low price.

Question 5.
What were the areas of conflict between the Bengal nawabs and the East India Company?
Answer:
The areas of conflict between the Bengal nawabs and the East India Company were.

  1. The nawabs refused to grant the Company concessions.
  2. They demanded large tributes for the Company’s right to trade.
  3. They denied it any right to mint coins.
  4. They also stopped it from extending its fortifications.
  5. They claimed that the Company was depriving the Bengal government of huge amounts of revenue and undermining the authority of the nawab by refusing to pay taxes, writing disrespectful letters, and trying to humiliate the nawab and his officials.
  6. The Company on its part declared that the unjust demands of the local officials were ruining the trade of the Company and trade could flourish only if the duties were removed.

Question 6.
How did the assumption of Diwani benefit the East India Company?
Answer:
The assumption of Diwani benefitted the East India Company in many ways.

  1. The Diwani allowed the Company to use the vast revenue resources of Bengal.
  2. The major problem was solved by Diwani which the east India Company had earlier faced.
  3. Though the trade has expanded and grown, a lot of items they had to buy with gold and silver which was imported from Britain.
  4. This overflow stopped after the assumption of Diwani. Now revenue from India could capitalise the Company expenses.
  5. These were used to purchase goods in India, maintain Company troops and meet the expenses to build forts and offices at Calcutta.

Question 7.
Explain the system of “subsidiary alliance”.
Answer:
According to the system of subsidiary alliance, Indian rulers were not allowed to have their independent armed forces. They were to be protected by the East India Company but also had to pay for the “subsidiary forces” that the Company was supposed to maintain for the purpose of this protection. If the Indian rulers failed to make the payment, then part of their territory was taken away as penalty. The states which had to lose their territories on this ground were Awadh and Hyderabad.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

Question 8.
In what way was the administration of the Company different from that of Indian rulers?
Answer:

^Administration of the CompanyAdministration ^ of Indian Ruler
The administrative units of the company was known as Presidencies. They were divided into 3 units – Bengal, Bombay and Madras.The main administrative units in India were the districts.
Each Presidency were governed by a Governor.Each districts were governed by the Collector.
Governor- General was the supreme head of the company.The king was the supreme head of India.
The main job of the Governor- General was to introduce different administrative policies and make amendments and bring reform in work. VThe main job of the Collector in India was to collect revenue and taxes and properly maintain law and order in the assigned district with the help of judges, police officers and darogas.

Question 9.
Describe the changes that occurred in the composition of the Company’s army.
Answer:
The changes that occurred in the composition of the Company’s army are.

  1. The East India Company started recruiting peasants into their armies and trained them as professional soldiers and were known as the sepoy army.
  2. As technology of warfare changed from the 1820s, the cavalry requirements of the East India Company’s army declined.
  3. The soldiers of the Company’s army had to keep pace with changing military requirements and its infantry regiments which now became more important.
  4. In the early nineteenth century the British began to develop a uniform military culture. Soldiers were increasingly subjected to European- style training, drill and discipline that regulated their life far more than before.

Let’s Do
Question 10.
After the British conquest of Bengal, Calcutta grew from a small village to a big city. Find out about the culture, architecture and the life of Europeans and Indians of the city during the colonial period.
Answer:
Calcutta was the capital of the British Indian rule until 1911 and after that it was relocated to Delhi. In 1772, Warren Hastings made Calcutta, the capital. It went through rapid industrial growth from 1850s. Many famous architectural buildings and monuments were built. It became the ‘cultural capital of India’ The contribution of Bengal Renaissance on the independence of India was immense.

Question 11.
Collect pictures, stories, poems and information about any of the following – the Rani of Jhansi, Mahadji Sindhia, Haidar Ali, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Lord Dalhousie or any other contemporary ruler of your region.
Answer:
Students need to do it their own.

JAC Class 8th History From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power Important Questions and Answers

Multiple Choice Questions

Question 1.
The last powerful Mughal Emperor was………..
a. Aurangzeb
b. Bahadur Shah Zafar
c. Akbar
d. Babur
Answer:
a. Aurangzeb

Question 2.
Mercantile trading companies in those days made profit by.
a. buying at high prices and selling at low.
b. educating people about sea travel.
c. excluding competition.
d. none of these
Answer:
c. excluding competition.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

Question 3.
The items that all European countries wanted to buy from India were
a. cotton, silk, pepper, steel, cardamom.
b. cotton, pepper, cloves, cardamom, silk, cinnamon.
c. cotton, cloves, electronic, silk, cinnamon.
d. cotton, cardamom, rubber, pepper, cloves.
Answer:
b. cotton, pepper, cloves, cardamom, silk, cinnamon.

Question 4.
Robert Clive led the Company’s army against Sirajuddaulah at Plassey in…………
a. 1756
b. 1758
c. 1757
d.1759
Answer:
c. 1757

Question 5.
The Battle of Buxar was fought in the year………..
a. 1763
b. 1764
c. 1765
d. 1766
Answer:
b. 1764

Question 6.
Under ‘subsidiary alliance’, when Richard Wellesley was Governor- General, the Nawab of ………..was forced to give over half of his territory to the Company in 1801 as he failed to pay for the ‘subsidiary forces’.
a. Bengal
b. Mysore
c. Hyderabad
d. Awadh
Answer:

Question 7.
The third battle of Panipat was fought in the year…… .
a. 1761
b. 1861
c. 1791
d. 1891
Answer:
d. 1891

Question 8.
The ‘Doctrine of Lapse’ was introduced by the Governor-General
a. Warren Hastings
c. Dalhousie
b. Clive Lloyd
d. Mountbatten
Answer:
c. Dalhousie

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

Question 9.
Sadar Nizamat Adalat was set up in………..
a. Madras
b. Mysore
c. Bombay
d. Calcutta
Answer:
d. Calcutta

Question 10.
The three Presidencies in British India were………
a. Bengal, Mysore and Bombay
b. Bengal, Madras and Bombay
c. Bengal, Bombay and Delhi
d. Bengal, Madras and Awadh
Answer:
b. Bengal, Madras and Bombay

Very Short Answer Type Question

Question 1.
What was the earliest name of the present day Kolkata?
Answer:
The earliest name of the present day Kolkata was Kalikata.

Question 2.
What do you mean by farmanl
Answer:
Farman means a royal order.

Question 3.
When did the East India Company take over Awadh?
Answer:
The East India Company took over Awadh in 1856.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

Question 4.
What was the main goal of East India Company?
Answer:
The main goal of East India Company was the expansion of trade.

Question 5.
Who was made the Nawab of Bengal after the Battle of Plassey?
Answer:
Mir Jafar was made the Nawab of Bengal after the Battle of Plassey.

Question 6.
Who led the Company’s army against Sirajuddaulah at Plassey?
Answer:
Robert Clive led the Company’s army against Sirajuddaulah at Plassey.

Question 7.
Who arrested Bahadur Shah Zafar and his sons?
Answer:
Bahadur Shah Zafar and his sons were arrested by Captain Hudson.

Question 8.
Whom did the Company install in place of Mir Jafar and why?
Answer:
When Mir Jafar protested, the Company deposed him and installed Mir Question asim in his place.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

Question 9.
Who commenced the policy of paramountcy?
Answer:
Lord Hastings (Governor- General from 1813 to 1823) commenced the new policy of “paramountcy”.

Question 10.
Why did Tipu Sultan develop a close relationship with the French in India?
Answer:
Tipu Sultan established a close relationship with the French in India in order to modernise his army with their help.

Short Answer Type Question

Question 1.
What do you mean by puppet?
Answer:
Puppet means a toy that you can move with strings. The term is used disapprovingly to refer to a person who is controlled by someone else. The East India Company also wanted someone who can rule but on their orders.

Question 2.
Why did the East India Company wanted a puppet ruler?
Answer:
The East India Company wanted a puppet ruler because he would willingly give trade concessions and other privileges to them.

Question 3.
What do you understand by “Mercantile”.
Answer:
Mercantile means a business enterprise that makes profit primarily through trade, buying goods cheap and selling them at higher prices.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

Question 4.
What do you understand by ‘nabobs’?
Answer:
East India Company officials who managed to return Britain with enormous wealth, led flashy and very comfortable lives and flaunted their riches. These officials were called “nabobs” , an anglicised version of the Indian word nawab.

Question 5.
How Plassey got its name?
Answer:
Plassey is an anglicised pronunciation of Palashi and the place derived its name from the palash tree known for its beautiful red flowers that yield colour or gulal, the powder used in the festival of Holi.

Question 6.
What has happened in second Anglo- Maratha war?
Answer:
The Second Anglo-Maratha war happened in 1803-05 and was fought on different fronts, resulting in favour of the British gaining Orissa and the territories north of the Yamuna river including Agra and Delhi.

Question 7.
Why the East India Company had to buy most of the goods in India with gold and silver imported from Britain?
Answer:
The East India Company had to buy most of the goods in India with gold and silver imported from Britain because at that time Britain had no other goods to sell in India.

Question 8.
The appointment of residents in Indian states help the East India Company. How?
Answer:
The appointment of residents in Indian states helped the East India Company in many ways. Through the Residents, the East India Company officials began interfering in the internal affairs of Indian states. They tried to decide who was to be the successor to the throne, and who was to be appointed in administrative posts.

Question 9.
Who led an anti-British movement in Kitoor? What was the end result?
Answer:
When the British tried to annex the small state of Kitoor (in Karnataka today), Rani Channamma took to arms and led an anti-British resistance movement. The new policy of ‘paramountcy’ was challenged by her. She was arrested in 1824 and died in prison in 1829.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

Question 10.
What happened in the Battle of Seringapatam?
Answer:
Four wars were fought between the East India Company and Mysore in 1767-69, 1780-84, 1790-92 and 1799. Only in the last war known as the Battle of Seringapatam did the East India Company finally gets a victory over Mysore. Tipu Sultan was killed defending his capital Seringapatam. Under the former ruling dynasty of the Wodeyars, Mysore was placed and a subsidiary alliance was imposed on the state.

Long Answer Type Question

Question 1.
In which manner the East India Company begin trade in Bengal? Discuss.
Answer:
East India Company begin trade in Bengal in the following manner.

  1. In the year 1651, the first English factory was set up on the banks of the river Hugh. This was the base from which the East India Company’s traders known at that time as factors, operated. The factory had a warehouse where goods for export were stored and it had offices where Company officials sat.
  2. The Company persuaded merchants and traders to come and settle near the factory as trade expanded.
  3. The Company began to build a fort around the settlement by 1696.
  4. Two years later it bribed Mughal officials into giving the Company zamindari rights over three villages. One of these was Kalikata, which later grew into the city of Calcutta or Kolkata as it is known today.
  5. It also persuaded and induced the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb to issue a farman granting the East India Company the right to trade duty free.

Question 2.
Explain in brief about Tipu Sultan.
Answer:
Tipu Sultan Under the leadership of powerful rulers like Haidar Ali (ruled from 1761 to 1782) and his famous son Tipu Sultan, Mysore had grown in strength. Tipu Sultan ruled from 1782 to 1799 was known as ‘Tiger of Mysore’ as he fought bravely with the tiger. Mysore controlled the profitable trade of the Malabar coast where the Company purchased pepper and cardamom.
Tipu Sultan was a scholar and great soldier. Tipu Sultan stopped the export of sandalwood, pepper and cardamom through the ports of his kingdom, and disallowed local merchants from trading with the Company in 1785.

He also established a close relationship with the French in India and modernized his army with their help. The British were angry and furious. They saw Haidar and Tipu as ambitious, arrogant and dangerous for them. Four battles were fought with Mysore in the years 1767-69, 1780-84, 1790-92 and 1799. In the last, the Battle of Seringapatam, the East India Company ultimately gets a victory. Tipu Sultan was killed defending his capital Seringapatam.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

→ Aurangzeb was the last of the powerful Mughal rulers. He established control over a very large part of the territory that is now known as India.

  • After his death in 1707, many Mughal subadars (governors) and big zamindars began asserting their authority and establishing regional kingdoms.
  • By the second half of the eighteenth century, however, a new power was emerging on the political horizon – the British.

→ East India Company Comes East

  • The East India Company in 1600, acquired a charter from the ruler of England, Queen Elizabeth I, granting it the sole right to trade with the East.
  • Mercantile trading companies in those days made profit primarily by excluding competition, so that they could buy cheap and sell dear.
  • The royal charter, however, could not prevent other European powers from entering the Eastern markets.
  • The Portuguese had already established their presence in the western coast of India and had their base in Goa. It was Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese explorer, who had discovered this sea route to India in 1498.
  • In the early, seventeenth century, the Dutch arrived and soon after them the French came.
  • The problem was that all the companies were interested in buying the same things. The fine qualities of cotton and silk produced in India had a big market in Europe. Pepper, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon too were in great demand.
  • The only way the trading companies could flourish was by eliminating rival competitors. The urge to secure markets led to fierce battles between the trading companies.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

→ East India Company begins trade in Bengal

  • The first English factory was set up on the banks of the river Hugh in 1651.
  • This was the base from which the Company’s traders known at that time as “factors” operated.
  • By 1696 it began building a fort around the settlement. Two years later it bribed Mughal officials into giving the Company zamindari rights over three villages.
  • It also persuaded the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb to issue a farman granting the Company the right to trade duty free.
  • One of the cities were Kalikata, presently known as Kolkata or Calcutta)earlier).

→ How trade led to battles

  • Through the early eighteenth century the conflict between the Company and the nawabs of Bengal intensified.
  • Murshid Quli Khan was followed by Alivardi Khan and then Sirajuddaulah as the Nawab of Bengal. Each one of them was a strong ruler. They refused to grant the Company concessions, demanded large tributes for the Company’s right to trade, denied it any right to mint coins and stopped it from extending its fortifications.
  • The Company on its part declared that the unjust demands of the local officials were ruining the trade of the Company, and trade could flourish only if the duties were removed.
  • The conflicts led to confrontations and finally culminated in the famous Battle of Plassey.

→ The Battle of Plassey

  • The Company was worried about the power of Sirajuddaulah became the nawab of Bengal and keen on a puppet ruler who would willingly give trade concessions and other privileges.
  • After negotiations failed, the Nawab marched with 30,000 soldiers to the English factory at Kassimbazar, captured the Company officials, locked the warehouse, disarmed all Englishmen, and blockaded English ships. Then he marched to Calcutta to establish control over the Company’s fort there.
  • In 1757, Robert Clive led the Company’s army against Sirajuddaulah at Plassey.
  • One of the main reasons for the defeat of the Nawab was that the forces led by Mir
    Jafar who was one of Sirajuddaulah’s commanders, never fought the battle.
  • Clive had managed to secure his support by promising to make him nawab after crushing Sirajuddaulah.
  • The Battle of Plassey became famous because it was the first major victory the Company won in India.
  • After the defeat at Plassey, Sirajuddaulah was assassinated and Mir Jafar made the nawab. The Company was still unwilling to take over the responsibility of administration. Its prime objective was the expansion of trade.
  • When Mir Jafar protested, the Company deposed him and installed Mir Qasim in his place. When Mir Qasim complained, he in turn was defeated in a battle fought at Buxar in 1764 and driven out of Bengal, and Mir Jafar was reinstalled.
  • They wanted more territories and more revenue. By the time Mir Jafar died in 1765, the mood of the Company had changed. Having failed to work with puppet nawabs, Clive declared: “We must indeed become nawabs ourselves.”
  • Finally, in 1765 the Mughal emperor appointed the Company as the Diwan of the provinces of Bengal.
  • From the early eighteenth century its trade with India had expanded. But it had to buy most of the goods in India with gold and silver imported from Britain.
  • Revenues from India could finance Company expenses. These revenues could be used to purchase cotton and silk textiles in India, maintain Company troops, and meet the cost of building the Company fort and offices at Calcutta.

→ Company officials become ‘nabobs’

  • Each company servant began to have visions of living like nawabs.
  • After the Battle of Plassey the actual nawabs of Bengal were forced to give land and vast sums of money as personal gifts to Company officials.
  • Robert Clive was appointed Governor of Bengal in 1764, he was asked to remove corruption in Company administration but he was himself cross-examined in 1772 by the British Parliament.
  • The Company officials who managed to return with wealth led flashy lives and flaunted their riches. They were called “nabobs” means an anglicised version of the Indian word nawab.

→ Company Rule Expands

  • The Company used a variety of political, economic and diplomatic methods to extend its influence before annexing an Indian kingdom.
  • After the Battle of Buxar in 1764, the Company appointed Residents in Indian states. They were political or commercial agents and their job was to serve and Anther the interests of the Company.
  • When Richard Wellesley was Governor-General (1798-1805), the Nawab of Awadh was forced to give over half of his territory to the Company in 1801 as he failed to pay for the “subsidiary forces”.
  • Hyderabad was also forced to cede territories on similar grounds.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

→ Tipu Sultan – ‘The Tiger of Mysore’

  • Mysore had grown in strength under the leadership of powerful rulers like Haidar Ali (ruled from 1761 to 1782) and his famous son Tipu Sultan (ruled from 1782 to 1799).
  • In 1785, Tipu Sultan stopped the export of sandalwood, pepper and cardamom through the ports of his kingdom, and disallowed local merchants from trading with the Company.
  • He also established a close relationship with the French in India, and modernized his army with their help.
  • Four wars were fought with Mysore (1767¬69, 1780-84, 1790-92 and 1799). Only in the last, the Battle of Seringapatam did the Company ultimately win a victory.

→ War with the Marathas

  • With the defeat in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761, the Marathas’ dream of ruling from Delhi was shattered.
  • They were divided into many states under different chiefs (sardars) belonging to dynasties such as Sindhia, Holkar, Gaikwad and Bhonsle.
  • These chiefs were held together in a confederacy under a Peshwa (Principal Minister) who became its effective military and administrative head based in Pune.
  • Mahadji Sindhia and Nana Phadnis were two famous Maratha soldiers and statesmen of the late eighteenth century.
  • In the first war that ended in 1782 with the Treaty of Salbai, there was no clear victor. The Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803-05) was fought on different fronts, resulting in the British gaining Orissa and the territories north of the Yamuna river including Agra and Delhi. Finally, the Third Anglo-Maratha War of 1817-19 crushed Maratha power.

→ The claim to paramountcy

  • Under Lord Hastings (Governor-General from 1813 to 1823), a new policy of “paramountcy” was initiated. Now the Company claimed that its authority was paramount or supreme, hence its power was greater than that of Indian states.
  • When the British tried to annex the small state of Kitoor (in Karnataka today), Rani Channamma took to arms and led an anti- British resistance movement. She was arrested in 1824 and died in prison in 1829.
  • But Rayanna, a poor chowkidar of Sangoli in Kitoor, carried on the resistance. With popular support he destroyed many British camps and records. He was caught and hanged by the British in 1830.
  • British fought a prolonged war with Afghanistan between 1838 and 1842 and established indirect Company rule there. Sind was taken over in 1843.
  • But the presence of Maharaja Ranjit Singh held back the Company. After his death in 1839, two prolonged wars were fought with the Sikh kingdom. Ultimately, in 1849, Punjab was annexed.

→ The Doctrine of Lapse

  • Lord Dalhousie was the Governor-General from 1848 to 1856. He devised a policy that came to be known as the Doctrine of Lapse.
  • The doctrine declared that if an Indian ruler died without a male heir his kingdom would “lapse”, and become part of Company territory. One kingdom after another was annexed simply by applying this doctrine – Satara (1848), Sambalpur (1850), Udaipur (1852), Nagpur (1853) and Jhansi (1854).
  • Enraged by the humiliating way in which the Nawab of Awadh was deposed, the people of Awadh joined the great revolt that broke out in 1857.

→ Setting up a New Administration

  • Warren Hastings (Governor-General from 1773 to 1785) was one of the many important figures who played a significant role in the expansion of Company power.
  • British territories were broadly divided into administrative units called Presidencies. There were three Presidencies: Bengal, Madras and Bombay.
  • Each was ruled by a Governor. The supreme head of the administration was the Governor-General.
  • Each district was to have two courts – a criminal court (faujdari adalat) and a civil court (diwani adalat).
  • The criminal courts were still under a qazi and a mufti but under the supervision of the collectors.
  • A major problem was that the Brahman pandits gave different interpretations of local laws based on different schools of the dharmashastra.
  • In 1775, eleven pandits were asked to compile a digest of Hindu laws. N.B. Halhed translated this digest into English.
  • By 1778, a code of Muslim laws was also compiled for the benefit of European judges.
  • The principal figure in an Indian district was the Collector. As the title suggests, his main job was to collect revenue and taxes and maintain law and order in his district with the help of judges, police officers and darogas.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

→ The Company army

  • The Mughal army was mainly composed of cavalry (sawars – trained soldiers on horseback) and infantry, paidal (foot) soldiers. They were given training in archery (teer-andazi) and the use of the sword.
  • The East India Company adopted the method of recruiting peasants when it began recruitment for its own army, which came to be known as the sepoy army.
  • As warfare technology changed from the 1820s, the cavalry requirements of the Company’s army declined because the British empire was fighting in Burma, Afghanistan and Egypt where soldiers were armed with muskets and matchlocks.
  • In the early nineteenth century the British began to develop a uniform military culture.

→ Conclusion

  • Thus, the East India Company was transformed from a trading company to a territorial colonial power.
  • Steamships reduced the journey time to three weeks enabling more Britishers and their families to come to a far-off country like India.
  • By 1857, the Company came to exercise direct rule over about 63 per cent of the territory and 78 per cent of the population of the Indian subcontinent.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes