Long-Term Causes of the War of Independence 1857–58

By the middle of the eighteenth century, the British had started establishing themselves as a military force in India. The British were engaged in a long series of battles, in which most of them British gained an upper hand. These successes gave British a reputation of a ruling elite who were now starting to bring their own policies to 'westernise' the subcontinent and enforced them on the local Indians.

Female Infanticide & Purdah

The Indians were forced to abandon purdha which had been an Indian custom for centuries. In 1795, the killing of baby daughters was declared to be murder by the East India Company. However, the British found difficulty in enforcing this as it was again a tradition practised in many parts of India. One hundred years later, it was still important to check that daughters were still alive several years after their birth.

Suttee

Suttee was a Hindu tradition. It was the ritual burning of widows on the funeral pyre of husbands. A, British tended to ignore the practice because of the fear of offending high-caste Hindus serving in the British army and civil service. In 1813, the British stated it was voluntary and would only be banned if Hindu religion opposed it, the widow was under 16 or intoxicated or pregnant. The practice was outlawed by East India Company in Bengal in 1829 and later in rest of India by Governor General Lord Bentinck. Suttee remained legal in some princely states.

Thuggee

The thuggee were armed robbers, involved in ritual murder, who terrified people. The term Thuggee means concealment or a secret society. They were present in central and upper India. They claimed that they were serving a goddess, named Kali. They used a ritual way of murdering their victims and people were terrified of them. During the 1830s, the thugs were targeted for eradication by the Governor-General of India, Lord William Bentinck, and his chief captain, William Henry Sleeman. East India Company used force to destroy them in 1830 and stamped out the practice.

Language

In 1834, English was made an official language replacing native languages in India. Persian was the official language of the Muslims and Sanskrit was the official language of the Hindus. English became the language of administration and of the higher law courts. In 1835, English Education Act was passed. Under this act, it was decided that education should be in the English language. Western curriculum was established with English in Indian schools and colleges. This deeply upset both the Muslims and Hindus. This had the potential to threaten their languages.

Educational Reforms

Thomas Macaulay believed that European ideas of education were vastly superior to anything coming out of India. As a result, the British imposed a system of education that promoted western values on a people who resented this interference. He aimed to educate a group of people or class of Indians who would take on western values and help the British to govern the millions of other Indians effectively. Indians had to send their children to co-educational schools which was hated since it appeared to impose the British system on the Indians without due regard to their religious and cultural feelings.

Christian Missionaries

Christian Missionaries came to India to convert the local population as well as to set up schools. In these schools, the Missionaries taught Christianity and expected locals, who worked for them, to give up their religion and follow the Christian teachings. This was resented by Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs alike as they feared the Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism were under threat from this.

British Agrarian Policy

The Agrarian Policy was a British agricultural policy introduced by Lord Dalhousie. Under this policy, if the landowner did not have the documents of his land, the land would be confiscated by the British. The East India Company checked the validity of the land documents. If the land documents were found invalid, then the land was confiscated right then. Many of the landowners were deprived of their land possessions as they failed to prove the ownership of the property documentarily.

Doctrine of Lapse

The Doctrine of Lapse was a British expansion policy which stated that when a ruler died without a natural heir, the British would annex his lands. Governor General Dalhousie extended British control applying this policy. The Company took over the princely states of Satara (1848), Jaipur and Sambalpur (1849), Bhagat (1850), Udaipur (1852), Jhansi (1853), Nagpur (1854), Tore and Arcot (1855) under the terms of this policy. Oudh (1856) is widely believed to have been annexed under the Doctrine of Lapse. However, it was annexed by Lord Dalhousie under the pretext of misgovernance. Mostly claiming that the ruler was not ruling properly, the Company added about four million pounds sterling to its annual revenue by virtue of this doctrine.