Administrative Policies After Revolt Of 1857

Following the revolt of 1857, the British attitude toward India and, as a result, their policies in India deteriorated; they consciously began to follow reactionary policies. The idea that the Indians were unfit to rule themselves was now openly promoted, and that they needed to be ruled by Britain indefinitely. This reactionary policy manifested itself in a variety of ways.

 

•    The British had conquered India by exploiting the Indian powers' divisions and pitting them against one another. Following 1858, the British continued to divide and rule by pitting princes against people, provinces against provinces, castes against castes, groups against groups, and, most importantly, Hindus against Muslims.

 

•    The foreign rulers were disturbed by the unity displayed by Hindus and Muslims during the Revolt of 1857. They were hell-bent on severing this bond in order to weaken the growing nationalist movement.

 

•    Following the Revolt, the British repressed Muslims, confiscated their lands and property, and declared Hindus to be their favourites. After 1870, however, this policy was reversed, with an attempt to turn upper and middle class Muslims against the nationalist movement.

 

•    The educated Indians were almost entirely reliant on government service due to industrial and commercial backwardness, as well as a lack of social services. As a result, fierce competition arose among them for available government positions. 

 

•    The government used this competition to incite rivalry and hatred between provinces and communities. It offered official favours on a communal basis in exchange for loyalty, pitting educated Muslims against educated Hindus.

 

•    After 1833, the Indian government actively promoted modern education. In 1857, the Universities of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras were established, and higher education quickly spread.

 

•    Many British officials praised educated Indians for refusing to join the Revolt of 1857. But, as some educated Indians began to use their newly acquired modern knowledge to analyse the imperialist nature of British rule and make demands for Indian participation in administration, the official attitude toward educated Indians shifted.

 

•    When the later began to organise a nationalist movement among the people and founded the Indian National Congress in 1885, the officials became actively hostile to higher education and educated Indians.

 

•    Officials took proactive measures to limit higher education. They sneered at the educated Indians, who were referred to as 'babus.'

 

•    As a result, the British turned against a group of Indians who had assimilated modern Western knowledge and advocated for modern progress. However, such progress ran counter to British imperialism's core interests and policies in India.

 

•    The government's opposition to educated Indians and higher education demonstrates that British rule in India had already exhausted any potential for progress.

 

The British abandoned their previous policy of assisting social reformers as part of their policy of alliance with the conservative classes.

 

•    The British believed that their social reforms, such as the abolishment of the Sati custom and the right of widows to remarry, were a major cause of the 1857 Revolt.

 

•    In his book "The Discovery of India," Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru writes, "Because of the British power's natural alliance with the reactionaries in India, it became the guardian and upholder of many an evil custom and practise, which it otherwise condemned."

 

•    It should be noted, however, that the British were not always neutral on social issues. They indirectly protected existing social evils by supporting the status quo.

 

•    The British actively encouraged the social reaction by encouraging casteism and communalism for political reasons.

 

•    The Indian government spent the majority of its revenue on the army, wars, and administrative services while starving social services.

 

•    In 1886, the Government of India spent nearly 19.41 crores on the army and 17 crores on civil administration, but less than 2 crores on education, medicine, and public health, and only 65 lakhs on irrigation, out of a total net revenue of nearly Rs. 47 crores

 

•    The few halting steps taken in the direction of providing services such as sanitation, water supply, and public health were usually limited to urban areas, and even then to the so-called civil lines of British or modern parts of cities.

 

•    Working conditions in modern factories and plantations were deplorable in the nineteenth century. They were required to work between 12 and 16 hours per day, with no weekly day off. Both men and women worked the same long hours. The pay was pitiful, ranging from Rs. 4 to Rs. 20 per month.

 

•    The factories were overcrowded, poorly lit and ventilated, and unsanitary. Working on machines was dangerous, and mishaps were common. 

 

•    India's pro-capitalist government took some half-hearted and "totally inadequate" steps to alleviate the sorry state of affairs in modern factories; many of the factories were owned by Indians. 

 

•    Britain's manufacturers put constant pressure on the government to pass factory laws. They were concerned that Indian manufacturers would be able to outsell them in the Indian market due to low labour costs.

 

1st factory act: In 1881, the first Indian Factory Act was passed. The Act was primarily concerned with the issue of child labour. The Factory Act of 1881 stated that children under the age of seven could not work in factories, and that children aged seven to twelve could not work for more than nine hours per day. In addition, children would have four vacation days per month. The Act also stipulated that the dangerous machinery be surrounded by proper fencing. 

 

2nd factory act: In 1891, the second Indian Factory Act was passed, granting all workers a weekly holiday. Women's working hours were set at 11 per day, while children's working hours were reduced to 7. Men's working hours were still unregulated.

 

•    Neither Act applied to tea and coffee plantations owned by British companies. On the contrary, the government aided foreign planters in exploiting their workers in the most ruthless manner possible. 

 

•    A labourer could not refuse to work on a plantation once he had signed a contract to do so. A labourer’s breach of contract was a criminal offence, and the planter had the authority to arrest him. 

 

•    Better labour laws, on the other hand, were enacted in the twentieth century as a result of the growing trade union movement. Despite this, the Indian working class's situation remained extremely depressed and deplorable.

 

•    The British introduced the printing press to India, kicking off the modern press's development. The press could play a significant role in educating public opinion and influencing government policies through criticism and censure, as educated Indians quickly realised.

 

•    Indian leaders such as Ram Mohan Roy, Vidyasagar, Dadabhai Naoroji, Justice Ranade, Surendranath Banerjea, Lokmanya Tilak, G. Subramaniya Iyer, C. Karhnakara Menon, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal, and others were instrumental in establishing newspapers and turning them into powerful political forces. 

 

•    In 1835, Charles Metcalfe removed all restrictions on the Indian press. The educated Indians had enthusiastically welcomed this step. It was one of the reasons they had supported British rule in India for a long time.

 

•    Nationalists gradually began to use the press to arouse people's national consciousness and sharply criticise the government's reactionary policies. Officials became hostile to the Indian press as a result, and they decided to restrict its freedom. In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed in an attempt to achieve this.

 

•    The Press Act restricted the freedom of Indian language newspapers significantly. The Indian public was now fully enraged, and they protested vehemently against the Act's passage.

 

•    The Act was repealed in 1882 as a result of the protest. After that, the Indian press had nearly 25 years of relative freedom. Following the rise of the militant Swadeshi and Boycott movement after 1905, repressive press laws were enacted in 1908 and 1910.

 

•    The British in India had always kept their distance from the Indians, believing that they were racially superior. The Revolt of 1857, as well as the atrocities committed by both sides, widened the chasm between the Indians and the British, who now openly asserted racial supremacy and practised racial arrogance.

 

•    This racialism was manifested in railway compartments, waiting rooms at railway stations, parks, hotels, swimming pools, clubs, and other places designated for "Europeans only."