British Raj Totally Explained

Everything about British Raj totally explained

British Raj (rāj, lit. "reign" in Hindustani) primarily refers to the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the region of the rule, or the period of dominion. The region, commonly called India in contemporary usage, included areas directly administered by the United Kingdom (contemporaneously, "British India") as well as the princely states ruled by individual rulers under the paramountcy of the British Crown. After 1876, the resulting political union was officially called the Indian Empire and issued passports under that name. As India, it was a of the League of Nations, and a member nation of the Summer Olympics in 1900, 1920, 1928, 1932, and 1936.
The system of governance was instituted in 1858, when the rule of the British East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria (and who, in 1876, was proclaimed Empress of India), and lasted until 1947, when the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two sovereign dominion states, the Union of India (later the Republic of India) and the Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh).

Geographical extent of the Raj

The British Indian Empire included the regions of present-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and, in addition, at various times, Aden (from 1858 to 1937), Lower Burma (from 1858 to 1937), Upper Burma (from 1886 to 1937), British Somaliland (briefly from 1884 to 1898), and Singapore (briefly from 1858 to 1867). Burma was directly administered by the British Crown from 1937 until its independence in 1948. Among other countries in the region, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), which was ceded to the United Kingdom in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens, was a British Crown Colony, but not part of British India. The kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan, both having fought wars with the British and subsequently signed treaties with them, were recognized by the British as independent states. The Kingdom of Sikkim was established as a princely state after the Anglo-Sikkimese Treaty of 1861, however, the issue of sovereignty was left undefined. The Maldive Islands were a British protectorate from 1867 to 1965, but not part of British India.

British India and the Native States

The British Indian Empire (contemporaneously India) consisted of two divisions: British India and the Native States or Princely States. In its Interpretation Act of 1889, the British Parliament adopted the following definitions:

The expression British India shall mean all territories and places within [[BritishCrown

Suzerainty over 175 Princely States, including some of the largest and most important, was exercised (in the name of the British Crown) by central government of British India under the Viceroy; the remaining, approximately 500, states were dependents of the provincial governments of British India under a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, or Chief Commissioner (as the case might have been). A clear distinction between "dominion" and "suzerainty" was supplied by the jurisdiction of the courts of law: the law of British India rested upon the laws passed by the British Parliament and the legislative powers those laws vested in the various governments of British India, both central and local; in contrast, the courts of the Princely States existed under the authority of the respective rulers of those states.

Province of British India

Minor Province

Under suzerainty of the Central Government

Five Large States

Five large Princely States in direct political relations with the Central Government in India
Name of Princely State	Area in Square Miles	Population in 1901	Approximate Revenue of the State (in hundred thousand Rupees)	Title, ethnicity, and religion of ruler	Gun-Salute for Ruler	Designation of local political officer
Gwalior	25,041	2.93 million (Chiefly Hindus)	163	Maharaja, Maratha, Hindu	19 (21 within Gwalior)	Resident at Gwalior
Indore	9,500	0.85 million (Chiefly Hindu)	72	Maharaja, Maratha, Hindu	19 (21 within Indore)	Resident at Indore
Bhopal	6,859	0.66 million (mostly Hindu)	29	Nawab(m)/Begum(f), Afghan, Muslim	19 (21 within Bhopal)	Political Agent in Bhopal
Rewah	13,000	1.33 million (chiefly Hindu)	29	Maharaja, Baghel Rajput, Hindu	17	Political agent in Baghelkhand
144 smaller and minor states	22,995	2.74 million (Chiefly Hindu)	129
Total	77,395	8.51 million	421

Rajputana Agency

20 Princely States forming the Rajputana Agency
Name of Princely State	Area in Square Miles	Population in 1901	Approximate Revenue of the State (in hundred thousand Rupees)	Title, ethnicity, and religion of ruler	Gun-Salute for Ruler	Designation of local political officer
Udaipur (Mewar)	12,691	1.02 million (Chiefly Hindus and Bhils)	24	Maharana, Sisodia Rajput, Hindu	21 (including two guns personal to the then ruler)	Resident in Mewar
Jaipur	15,579	2.66 million (Chiefly Hindu)	62	Maharaja, Kachwaha Rajput, Hindu	21 (including two guns personal to the then ruler)	Resident at Jaipur
Jodhpur (Marwar)	34,963	1.94 million (mostly Hindu)	56	Maharaja, Rathor Rajput, Hindu	17	Resident in the Western States of Rajputana
Bikaner	23,311	0.58 million (chiefly Hindu)	23	Maharaja, Rathor Rajput, Hindu	17	Political agent in Bikaner
16 other states	42,374	3.64 million (Chiefly Hindu)	155
Total	128,918	9.84 million	320

Baluchistan Agency

2 Princely States forming the Baluchistan Agency
Name of Princely State	Area in Square Miles	Population in 1901	Approximate Revenue of the State (in hundred thousand Rupees)	Title, ethnicity, and religion of ruler	Gun-Salute for Ruler	Designation of local political officer
Kalat	71,593	0.37 million (Chiefly Sunni Muslims)	8	Khan or Wali, Brahui, Sunni Muslim	19	Political Agent in Kalat
Las Bela	6,441	56 thousand (Chiefly Sunni Muslim)	2	Jam, Kureshi Arab, Sunni Muslim		Political Agent in Kalat
Total	78,034	0.43 million	10

Under suzerainty of a Provincial Government

Burma (52 States)

52 States in Burma: all except the Karen States were included in British India
Name of Princely State	Area in Square Miles	Population in 1901	Approximate Revenue of the State (in hundred thousand Rupees)	Title, ethnicity, and religion of ruler	Gun-Salute for Ruler	Designation of local political officer
Hsipaw (Thibaw)	5,086	105,000 (Buddhist)	3	Sawbwa, Shan, Buddhist	9	Superintendent, Northern Shan States
Kengtung	12,000	190,000 (Buddhist)	1	Sawbwa, Shan, Buddhist	9	Superintendent Southern Shan States
Mongnai	2,717	44,000 (Buddhist)	0.5	Sawbwa, Shan, Buddhist	9	Superintendent Southern Shan States
5 Karen States	4,830	45,795 (Buddhist and Animists)	0.5			Superintendent Southern Shan States
44 Other States	42,198	792,152 (Buddhist and Animist)	8.5
Total	67,011	1,177,987	13.5

Bengal (30 States)

30 States under the suzerainty of the Provincial Government of Bengal
Name of Princely State	Area in Square Miles	Population in 1901	Approximate Revenue of the State (in hundred thousand Rupees)	Title, ethnicity, and religion of ruler	Gun-Salute for Ruler	Designation of local political officer
Sikkim	2,818	59,014 (chiefly Buddhist and Hindu)	1	Maharaja, Tibetan, Buddhist	15	Political Officer, Sikkim
Cooch Behar	1,307	566,974 (chiefly Hindu and Muslim)	24	Maharaja, Kshattriya, Brahmo	13	Commissioner of Rajshahi (ex officio Political Agent)
Hill Tippera	4,086	173,325 (chiefly Hindu)	7	Raja, Kshattriya, Hindu	13	Commissioner of Chittagong (ex officio Political Agent)
Bhutan	20,000	250,000 (Buddhist)	2	Deb Raja, Bhotia, Buddhist		Commissioner of Rajshahi (ex officio Political Agent)
26 Other States	30,441	2,949,231	44
Total	58,652	3,998,544	78

Madras (5 States)

5 States under the suzerainty of the Provincial Government of Madras
Name of Princely State	Area in Square Miles	Population in 1901	Approximate Revenue of the State (in hundred thousand Rupees)	Title, ethnicity, and religion of ruler	Gun-Salute for Ruler	Designation of local political officer
Travancore	7,091	2,952,157 (chiefly Hindu and Christian)	100	Maharaja, Kshattriya, Hindu	21 (including two guns personal to the then ruler)	Resident in Travancore and Cochin
Cochin	1,362	812,025 (chiefly Hindu and Christian)	27	Raja, Kshattriya, Hindu	17	Resident in Travancore and Cochin
Padukkottai	1,100	380,440 (Hindu)	11	Raja, Kallar, Hindu	11	Collector of Trichinopoly (ex officio Political Agent)
2 minor states	416	43,464	3
Total	9,969	4,188,086	141

Bombay (354 States)

354 states under the suzerainty of the Provincial Government of Bombay
Name of Princely State	Area in Square Miles	Population in 1901	Approximate Revenue of the State (in hundred thousand Rupees)	Title, ethnicity, and religion of ruler	Gun-Salute for Ruler	Designation of local political officer
Kolhapur	2,855	910,011 (chiefly Hindus)	48	Maharaja, Kshatriya, Hindu	19	Political Agent for Kolhapur
Cutch	7,616	488,022 (chiefly Hindus)	20	Maharao, Jadeja Rajput, Hindu	17	Political Agent in Cutch
Khairpur	6,050	199,313 (chiefly Muslims)	13	Mir, Talpur Baloch, Muslim	15	Political Agent for Khairpur
Junagarh	3,284	395,428 (chiefly Hindus)	27	Nawab, Pathan, Muslim	11	Agent to the Governor in Kathiawar
Navanagar	3,791	336,779 (chiefly Hindus)	31	Jam Sahib, Jadeja Rajput, Hindu	11	Agent to the Governor in Kathiawar
349 other states	42,165	4,579,095	281
Total	65,761	6,908,648	420

United Provinces (2 States)

Two states under the suzerainty of the Provincial Government of the United Provinces
Name of Princely State	Area in Square Miles	Population in 1901	Approximate Revenue of the State (in hundred thousand Rupees)	Title, ethnicity, and religion of ruler	Gun-Salute for Ruler	Designation of local political officer
Rampur	899	533,212 (chiefly Hindus and Muslims)	33	Nawab, Pathan, Muslim	13	Commissioner for Bareilly (ex officio Political Agent)
Tehri (Garhwal)	4,180	268,885 (chiefly Hindus)	3	Raja, Kshatriya Hindu	11	Commissioner of Kumaun (ex officio Political Agent)
Total	5,079	802,097	36

Central Provinces (15 States)

15 States under the suzerainty of the Provincial Government of the Central Provinces
Name of Princely State	Area in Square Miles	Population in 1901	Approximate Revenue of the State (in hundred thousand Rupees)	Title, ethnicity, and religion of ruler	Gun-Salute for Ruler	Designation of local political officer
Kalahandi	3,745	284,465 (chiefly Hindus)	4	Raja, Kshatriya, Hindu	9	Political Agent for the Chattisgarh Feudatories
Bastar	13,062	306,501 (chiefly Animists)	3	Raja, Kshatriya, Hindu		Political Agent for the Chattisgarh Feudatories
13 other states	12,628	1,339,353 (chiefly Hindus)	16		11
Total	29,435	1,996,383	21

Punjab (34 States)

34 states under the suzerainty of the Provincial Government of the Punjab
Name of Princely State	Area in Square Miles	Population in 1901	Approximate Revenue of the State (in hundred thousand Rupees)	Title, ethnicity, and religion of ruler	Gun-Salute for Ruler	Designation of local political officer
Bahawalpur	15,000	720,877 (chiefly Muslims)	24	Nawab, Daudputra, Muslim	17	Political Agent for Phulkian States and Bahawalpur
Patiala	5,412	1,596,692 (chiefly Hindus and Sikhs)	57	Maharaja, Sidhu Jat, Sikh	17	Political Agent for Phulkian States and Bahawalpur
Nabha	928	297,949 (chiefly Hindus and Sikhs)	12	Raja, Sidhu Jat, Sikh	15 (including 4 guns personal to the then ruler	Political Agent for Phulkian States and Bahawalpur
Jind	1,259	282,003 (chiefly Hindus and Sikhs)	15	Raja, Sidhu Jat, Sikh	11	Political Agent for Phulkian States and Bahawalpur
Kapurthala	630	314,351 (chiefly Muslims and Hindus)	13	Raja, Ahluwalia, Sikh	11	Commissioner of the Jullundur Division (ex-officio Political Agent)
Faridkot	642	124,912 (Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims)	4	Raja, Barar Jat, Sikh	11	Commissioner of the Jullundur Division (ex-officio Political Agent)
28 other states	12,661	1,087,614	30
Total	36,532	4,424,398	155

Assam (26 States)

26 States under the suzerainty of the Provincial Government of Assam
Name of Princely State	Area in Square Miles	Population in 1901	Approximate Revenue of the State (in hundred thousand Rupees)	Title, ethnicity, and religion of ruler	Gun-Salute for Ruler	Designation of local political officer
Manipur	8,456	284,465 (chiefly Hindus and Animists)	4	Raja, Kshatriya, Hindu	11	Political Agent in Manipur
25 Khasi States	3,900	110,519 (Khasis and Christians)	0.5			Deputy Commissioner, Khasi and Jaintia Hills
Total	12,356	394,984	4.5

Organization of the British Raj

Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Act for the Better Government of India (1858) made changes in the governance of India at three levels: in the imperial government in London, in the central government in Calcutta, and in the provincial governments in the presidencies (and later in the provinces).
   In London, it provided for a cabinet-level Secretary of State for India and a fifteen-member Council of India, whose members were required, as one prerequisite of membership, to have spent at least ten years in India and to have done so no more than ten years before. Although the Secretary of State formulated the policy instructions to be communicated to India, he was required in most instances to consult the Council, but especially so in matters relating to spending of Indian revenues. From 1858 until 1947, twenty seven individuals would serve as Secretary of State for India and direct the India Office; these included: Sir Charles Wood (1859 - 1866), Marquess of Salisbury (1874 - 1878) (later three-time Prime Minister of Britain), John Morley (1905 - 1910) (initiator of the Minto-Morley Reforms), E. S. Montagu (1917 - 1922) (an architect of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms), and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence (1945 - 1947) (head of the 1946 Cabinet Mission to India). The size of the advisory Council would be reduced over the next half-century, but its powers would remain unchanged; in 1907, for the first time, two Indians would be appointed to the Council.
   In Calcutta, the Governor-General remained head of the Government of India and now was more commonly called the Viceroy on account of his secondary role as the Crown's representative to the nominally sovereign princely states; he was, however, now responsible to the Secretary of State in London and through him to British Parliament. A system of "double government" had already been in place in the East India Company rule in India from the time of Pitt's India Act of 1784. All laws enacted by Legislative Councils in India, whether by the Imperial Legislative Council in Calcutta or by the provincial ones in Madras and Bombay, required the final assent of the Secretary of State in London; this prompted Sir Charles Wood, the second Secretary of State, to describe the Government of India as "a despotism controlled from home." Moreover, although the appointment of Indians to the Legislative Council was a response to calls after the 1857 rebellion, most notably by Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, for more consultation with Indians, the Indians so appointed were from the landed aristocracy, often chosen for their loyalty, and far from representative. Even so, the "tiny advances in the practise of representative government were intended to provide safety valves for the expression of public opinion which had been so badly misjudged before the rebellion." . Indian affairs now also came to be more closely examined in the British parliament and more widely discussed in the British press.
   Although the Great Uprising of 1857 had shaken the British enterprise in India, it hadn't derailed it. After the rebellion, the British became more circumspect. Much thought was devoted to the causes of the rebellion, and from it three main lessons were drawn. At a more practical level, it was felt that there needed to be more communication and camaraderie between the British and Indians; not just between British army officers and their Indian staff, but in civilian life as well. The Indian army was completely reorganised: units composed of the Muslims and Brahmins of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, who had formed the core of the rebellion, were disbanded. New regiments, like the Sikhs and Baluchis, composed of Indians who, in British estimation, had demonstrated steadfastness, were formed. From then on, the Indian army was to remain unchanged in its organization until 1947.
   It was also felt that both the princes and the large land-holders, by not joining the rebellion, had proved to be, in Lord Canning's words, "breakwaters in a storm." In 1784, the British Parliament passed Pitt's India Act which created a Board of Control for overseeing the administration of East India Company. Hastings was succeeded in 1784 by Cornwallis, who promulgated the Permanent Settlement with the zamindars. Image:India british expansion 1805a.jpg|Map of India showing British Expansion between 1805 and 1910. Image:Cornwallis.nationalgallery.jpg|Lord Cornwallis, the Governor-General who established the Permanent Settlement in Bengal. Image:Richard Colley Wellesley.jpg|Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, who rapidly expanded the Company's territories with victories in the Anglo-Maratha Wars and Anglo-Mysore Wars Image:Company rule paddy fields madras2.jpg|Paddy fields in the Madras Presidency, ca. 1880. Two-thirds of the presidency fell under the Ryotwari land revenue system. At the turn of the 19th century, Governor-General Wellesley began what became two decades of accelerated expansion of Company territories. This was achieved either by subsidiary alliances between the Company and local rulers or by direct military annexation. The subsidiary alliances created the Princely States (or Native States) of the Hindu Maharajas and the Muslim Nawabs, prominent among which were: Cochin (1791), Jaipur (1794), Travancore (1795), Hyderabad (1798), Mysore (1799), Cis-Sutlej Hill States (1815), Central India Agency (1819), Kutch and Gujarat Gaikwad territories (1819), Rajputana (1818), and Bahawalpur (1833).
   In the Charter Act of 1813, the British parliament renewed the Company's charter but terminated its monopoly, opening India to both private investment and missionary work.
   Starting in 1772, the Company began a series of land revenue "settlements," which would create major changes in landed rights and rural economy in India. In 1793, the Governor-General Lord Cornwallis promulgated the permanent settlement in the Bengal Presidency, the first socio-economic regulation in colonial India. It was named permanent because it fixed the land tax in perpetuity in return for landed property rights for a class of intermediaries called zamindars, who thereafter became owners of the land. However, the zamindars themselves were often unable to meet the increased demands that the Company had placed on them; consequently, many defaulted, and by one estimate, up to one-third of their lands were auctioned during the first three decades following the permanent settlement. In southern India, Thomas Munro, who would later become Governor of Madras, promoted the ryotwari system, in which the government settled land-revenue directly with the peasant farmers, or ryots. Based on the utilitarian ideas of James Mill, who supervised the Company's land revenue policy during 1819-1830, and David Ricardo's Law of Rent, it was considered by its supporters to be both closer to traditional practice and more progressive, allowing the benefits of Company rule to reach the lowest levels of rural society.
   Land revenue settlements constituted a major administrative activity of the various governments in India under Company rule. In all areas other than the Bengal Presidency, land settlement work involved a continually repetitive process of surveying and measuring plots, assessing their quality, and recording landed rights, and constituted a large proportion of the work of Indian Civil Service officers working for the government.

Indian Rebellion of 1857

The rebellion began with mutinies by sepoys of the Bengal Presidency army; in 1857 the presidency consisted of present-day Bangladesh, and the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar and UP. However, most rebel soldiers were from the UP region, and, in particular, from Northwest Provinces (especially, Ganga-Jumna Doab) and Oudh, and many came from landowning families. Within weeks of the initial mutinies—as the rebel soldiers wrested control of many urban garrisons from the British—the rebellion was joined by various discontented groups in the hinterlands, in both farmed areas and the backwoods. The latter group, forming the civilian rebellion, consisted of feudal nobility, landlords, peasants, rural merchants, and some tribal groups. Image:Dalhousie.jpg|Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General of India from 1848 to 1856, who devised the Doctrine of Lapse. Image:1857 rebellion map.jpg|A 1912 map of the Great Uprising of 1857 showing the centres of rebellion including: Meerut, Delhi, Cawnpore (Kanpur), Lucknow, Jhansi, and Gwalior. Image:Rani of jhansi.jpeg|Lakshmibai, The Rani of Jhansi, one of the principal leaders of the rebellion who earlier had lost her kingdom as a result of the Doctrine of Lapse. Image:1857 cashmeri gate delhi2.jpg|Mortar damage to Kashmiri Gate, Delhi, 1858 After the annexation of Oudh by the East India Company in 1856, many sepoys were disquieted both from losing their perquisites as landed gentry in the Oudh courts and from the anticipation of any increased land-revenue payments that the annexation might augur. Some Indian soldiers, misreading the presence of missionaries as a sign of official intent, were persuaded that the East India Company was masterminding mass conversions of Hindus and Muslims to Christianity. Changes in the terms of their professional service may also have created resentment. As the extent of British jurisdiction expanded with British victories in wars and with annexation of territory, the soldiers were now not only expected to serve in less familiar regions (such as Lower Burma after the Second Burmese War in 1852-53), but also make do without the "foreign service," remuneration that had previously been their due.
The civilian rebellion was more multifarious in origin. The rebels consisted of three groups: feudal nobility, rural landlords called taluqdars, and the peasants. The nobility, many of whom had lost titles and domains under the Doctrine of Lapse, which derecognised adopted children of princes as legal heirs, felt that the British had interfered with a traditional system of inheritance. Rebel leaders such as Nana Sahib and the Rani of Jhansi belonged to this group; the latter, for example, was prepared to accept British paramountcy if her adopted son was recognized as the heir. The second group, the taluqdars had lost half their landed estates to peasant farmers as a result of the land reforms that came in the wake of annexation of Oudh. As the rebellion gained ground, the taluqdars quickly reoccupied the lands they'd lost, and paradoxically, in part due to ties of kinship and feudal loyalty, didn't experience significant opposition from the peasant farmers, many of whom too now joined the rebellion to the great dismay of the British. Heavy land-revenue assessment in some areas by the British may have resulted in many landowning families either losing their land or going into great debt with money lenders, and providing ultimately a reason to rebel; money lenders, in addition to the British, were particular objects of the rebels' animosity. The civilian rebellion was also highly uneven in its geographic distribution, even in areas of north-central India that were no longer under British control. For example, the relatively prosperous Muzaffarnagar district, a beneficiary of a British irrigation scheme, and next door to Meerut where the upheaval began, stayed mostly calm throughout.

Effects on economy

In the second half of the 19th century, both the direct administration of India by the British crown and the technological change ushered in by the industrial revolution, had the effect of closely intertwining the economies of India and Great Britain. In fact many of the major changes in transport and communications (that are typically associated with Crown Rule of India) had already begun before the Mutiny. Since Dalhousie had embraced the technological change then rampant in Great Britain, India too saw rapid development of all those technologies. Railways, roads, canals, and bridges were rapidly built in India and telegraph links equally rapidly established in order that raw materials, such as cotton, from India's hinterland could be transported more efficiently to ports, such as Bombay, for subsequent export to England. Likewise, finished goods from England were transported back just as efficiently, for sale in the burgeoning Indian markets. However, unlike Britain itself, where the market risks for the infrastructure development were borne by private investors, in India, it was the taxpayers—primarily farmers and farm-labourers—who endured the risks, which, in the end, amounted to £50 million. In spite of these costs, very little skilled employment was created for Indians. By 1920, with the fourth largest railway network in the world and a history of 60 years of its construction, only ten per cent of the "superior posts" in the Indian Railways were held by Indians. The rush of technology was also changing the agricultural economy in India: by the last decade of the 19th century, a large fraction of some raw materials—not only cotton, but also some food-grains—were being exported to faraway markets. Consequently, many small farmers, dependent on the whims of those markets, lost land, animals, and equipment to money-lenders. and with many critics, both British and Indian, laying the blame at the doorsteps of the lumbering colonial administrations. India’s international profile would thereby rise and would continue to rise during the 1920s. Back in India, especially among the leaders of the Indian National Congress, it would lead to calls for greater self-government for Indians. Now, as constitutional reform began to be discussed in earnest, the British began to consider how new moderate Indians could be brought into the fold of constitutional politics and simultaneously, how the hand of established constitutionalists could be strengthened. with the unstated goal of extending the government's war-time powers. The Rowlatt committee presented its report in July 1918 and identified three regions of conspiratorial insurgency: Bengal, the Bombay presidency, and the Punjab. To combat subversive acts in these regions, the committee recommended that the government use emergency powers akin to its war-time authority, which included the ability to try cases of sedition by a panel of three judges and without juries, exaction of securities from suspects, governmental overseeing of residences of suspects, The increased taxes coupled with disruptions in both domestic and international trade had the effect of approximately doubling the index of overall prices in India between 1914 and 1920. and post-war inflation led to food riots in Bombay, Madras, and Bengal provinces,
To combat what it saw as a coming crisis, the government now drafted the Rowlatt committee's recommendations into two Rowlatt Bills. Although the bills were authorised for legislative consideration by Edwin Montagu, they were done so unwillingly, with the accompanying declaration, “I loathe the suggestion at first sight of preserving the Defence of India Act in peace time to such an extent as Rowlatt and his friends think necessary.” After more discussion by the government and parliament in Britain, and another tour by the Franchise and Functions Committee for the purpose of identifying who among the Indian population could vote in future elections, the Government of India Act of 1919 (also known as the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms) was passed in December 1919. The act also provided for a bicameral national parliament and an executive branch under the purview of the British government. Although the national federation was never realised, nationwide elections for provincial assemblies were held in 1937. Despite initial hesitation, the Congress took part in the elections and won victories in seven of the eleven provinces of British India, and Congress governments, with wide powers, were formed in these provinces. In Great Britain, these victories were to later turn the tide for the idea of Indian independence. nonetheless, a portion of the movement formed for a time an underground provisional government on the border with Nepal.
With Congress leaders in jail, attention also turned to Subhas Bose, who had been ousted from the Congress in 1939 following differences with the more conservative high command; Bose now turned to the Axis powers for help with liberating India by force. With Japanese support, he organised the Indian National Army, composed largely of Indian soldiers of the British Indian army who had been captured at Singapore by the Japanese. From the onset of the war, the Japanese secret service had promoted unrest in South east Asia to destabilise the British War effort, and came to support a number of puppet and provisional governments in the captured regions, including those in Burma, the Philippines and Vietnam, the Provisional Government of Azad Hind (Free India), presided by Bose. Bose's effort, however, was short lived; after the reverses of 1944, the reinforced British Indian Army in 1945 first halted and then reversed the Japanese U Go offensive, beginning the successful part of the Burma Campaign. Bose's Indian National Army surrendered with the recapture of Singapore, and Bose died in a plane crash soon thereafter. The trials of the INA soldiers at Red Fort in late 1945 however caused widespread public unrest and nationalist violence in India.

Post-war developments: Transfer of Power

In January 1946, a number of mutinies broke out in the armed services, starting with that of RAF servicemen frustrated with their slow repatriation to Britain. The mutinies came to a head with mutiny of the Royal Indian Navy in Bombay in February 1946, followed by others in Calcutta, Madras, and Karachi. Although the mutinies were rapidly suppressed, they found much public support in India and had the effect of spurring the new Labour government in Britain to action, and leading to the Cabinet Mission to India led by the Secretary of State for India, Lord Pethick Lawrence, and including Sir Stafford Cripps, who had visited four years before. The negotiations between the Congress and the Muslim League, however, stumbled over the issue of the partition. Jinnah proclaimed August 16, 1946, Direct Action Day, with the stated goal of highlighting, peacefully, the demand for a Muslim homeland in British India. The following day Hindu-Muslim riots broke out in Calcutta and quickly spread throughout India. Although the Government of India and the Congress were both shaken by the course of events, in September, a Congress-led interim government was installed, with Jawaharlal Nehru as united India’s prime minister.
   Later that year, the Labor government in Britain, its exchequer exhausted by the recently concluded World War II, decided to end British rule of India, and in early 1947 Britain announced its intention of transferring power no later than June 1948.
   As independence approached, the violence between Hindus and Muslims in the provinces of Punjab and Bengal continued unabated. With the British army unprepared for the potential for increased violence, the new viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, advanced the date for the transfer of power, allowing less than six months for a mutually agreed plan for independence. In June 1947, the nationalist leaders, including Nehru and Abul Kalam Azad on behalf of the Congress, Jinnah representing the Muslim League, B. R. Ambedkar representing the Untouchable community, and Master Tara Singh representing the Sikhs, agreed to a partition of the country along religious lines. The predominantly Hindu and Sikh areas were assigned to the new India and predominantly Muslim areas to the new nation of Pakistan; the plan included a partition of the Muslim-majority provinces of Punjab and Bengal.
   Many millions of Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu refugees trekked across the newly drawn borders. In Punjab, where the new border lines divided the Sikh regions in half, massive bloodshed followed; in Bengal and Bihar, where Gandhi's presence assuaged communal tempers, the violence was more limited. In all, anywhere between 250,000 and 500,000 people on both sides of the new borders died in the violence. On August 14, 1947, the new Dominion of Pakistan came into being, with Muhammad Ali Jinnah sworn in as its first Governor General in Karachi. The following day, August 15, 1947, India, now a smaller Union of India, became an independent country with official ceremonies taking place in New Delhi, and with Jawaharlal Nehru assuming the office of the prime minister, and the viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, staying on as its first Governor General.

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