India Midterm 1

Thomas Macaulay

British Statesman and Historian, he was an Anglicist who wrote the Influential "Minute on Indian Education" in 1835 which helped change the administrative language of India from Persian into English for what he though of as essentially cultural reasons.

Cornwallis

Governor/General of British holdings in India after the Impeachment of Warren Hastings in the years after 1792, Cornwallis established numerous Administrative and Judicial reforms with the most important probably being the Permenant Settlement which created a system of hereditary landlords in which the Zamindars had heriditary control over the land and paid taxes to the British.

Eaton, "India's Islamic Traditions"

Indo-Islamic communities were ever changing, with singular stereotypes failing to capture true nature of Orthodox vs. Liberal. They were both embedded locally as well as a part of the greater ummah.

Ali, "Perception of India in Akbar and Abu'l Fazl"

Mughal perceptions of Hindustan went beyond that Muslim vs. Hindu as they were interested in the cultural and secular acheivements that the cultures of India had made as well.

"Hindus and Muslims of Hindustan"

?

Eknath

A 16th Century Maharti Poet, who was important for his theological discussions (Bharud) with Muslim scholars at the time which are significant because they show that a wide range of beliefs were all in contact (not always violently) in the Indian Subcontinent and that both Muslim and Hindu scholars had at least some knowledge of each others philosophies.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy

A Bengali Reformer most famous for his attempts to assist in the end of the Sati Ritual for which he argued against on Vedic grounds which was repealed by the British in 1829.

Sarkar, "Modern India 1845-1947"

A discussion of the land relations following the rise of the free-trader, capitalist, agrarian system of India and the land relations that came with it.

Subaltern Studies

A group of researchers of South Asia who in around 1979 postulated and studied the effect that those "subaltern" or peasant/lower-castes had on the Indian Colonial and Post-Colonial Period. They were significant in terms of Historiography because they led to an interpretation of Indian History from below instead of from the top.

Queen Victoria's Proclamation of 1858

After the defeat of the Rebellion of 1857, the proclamation stipulated that all treaties/rule of law would be upheld, the British would cease to intervene in local law, and Indian troops in India would never outnumber British troops 2:1.

Ghazi Miyan

Assisted in leading the forces of the 1026 raid on in Gujarat that destroyed the temple of Somnath, it was seen as one of the first acts of Muslim on Hindu violence although it's likely that the act was out of economic interest rather than a jihad as is implied by contemporary sources. He is also seen as a protector of cows by some in Hindustan though so his image is mixed.

Doctrine of Lapse

Between 1848 and 1857, princely states that were considered to be "mismanaged" were essentially annexed by the British because they believed the the Princely Rulers were incompetent. The prime example of this was Awadh in 1856 by Lord Dalhousie.

Pandita Ramabai

Born in 1858, she was an important social reform who argued against the mistreatment of women and oppression of women in India around the turn of the 20th century. One could consider her writings as the roots of feminism in the sub-continent.

Edmund Burke

British Politician who led the impeachment of Warren Hastings for corruption which incidentally led in a shift of British Policy in India away from one of establishment of administration, law, and shared customs, to domination in the years following 1788.

Alam, "The Crisis of Empire in Mughal North India"

By the early 1700's, Mughal Power in North India had largely been degraded by Zamindar Revolts, the Sikh Movement, and unrest among the Rajput Chiefs.

Zelliot, "A Medieval Encounter between Hindu and Muslim"

Debate between Eknath and members of Ulema show that Islam and Hindu society were interacting at the highest levels by the 16th century.

Battle of Plassey

Fought in 1757, in Bengal, Robert Clive and the traitor Mir Jafar, defeat Siraj al-daulah the Nawab of Bengal after he resisted the construction of forts in Bengal by the British. This battle resulted in the British occupation of Bengal and from there, India.

Battle of Buxar

Fought in 1764, the British Hector Munro defeated the last real Mughal Emperor with any power Shah Alam II and a coalition of allies in Bihar. This led to the Diwani of Bengal being given to British and the collapse of Mughal power in India.

Home Charges

Funds extorted from India to support the British in the administration of India (and anywhere else they needed money) which succeeded in removing much of the wealth that India had developed in the centuries preceding the 18th.

Amin, "On Retelling the Muslim Conquest of North India"

Ghazni Miyan as the "Sword of Islam" and as the protector of cows. Islamic Conquest of North India may not have been as intolerant and distructive as is portrayed by modern Hindu Nationalists.

Warren Hastings

Governer of Bengal in 1787, he was impeached for corruption, by Edmund Burke. His fall from power was signifcant because it showed a shift in British Policy from one of an attempt to understand and integrate with Indian society, to a policy of cultural domination under Cornwallis.

Diwani

In 1765, after the Battle of Buxar, Muhammed Shah, Mughal Emperor, transfers this (the rights to collect the revenues of Bengal), resulting in allowing the British to essentially pay for all of their military operations in India.

Horses

In context could refer to the Treaty of Amritsar, in 1846, by which Maharaja Gulab Singh would pay the British a tribute including nothing but a horse and several other small items. In another manner, the Aryans arrived on horses in 1500 BCE. Indian civil servants were also trained in the art of horsemanship up until the 1980's.

British Resident

In the 1800's, Princely States under the indirect control of British Rule were administered by those known as Residents. These could be powerful and act almost like a governor or take a much more decentralized role in more distant provinces.

Tea

In the early 1800's, Chinese Tea became the primary souce of wealth for the British East India company which they financed with a large monopoly on Opium grown in plantations in India.

Cotton

In the years following 1850, the Indian agricultural industry shifted from the production of cotton textiles in a manufacturing style economy to one as a raw exporter of cotton due to international events. This had numerous effects like absentee landlord-ism among the Zamindars, higher rates of indentured servitude, and a general de-industrialization in the subcontinent.

Baylay, "Indian Society and the making of the British Empire"

Indian Society was largely fractured in the early 1800's and the British were hungry for new lands to exploit, with aggressive Governor's like Wellesly making the conquest of India far easier.

Indigo

Indigo, much like opium, was forced upon India in the early 1800's as a cash crop for cheap laborers to grow to keep up with European Demand. This wealth was then scraped off the top by British Administrators. This signified a shift in their system from one of Industry(Textiles) to one of plantations (Opium/Indigo).

Asher, "Mapping Hindu-Muslim Identities through Architecture"

Locations and construction of Temples of Mosques in North India during the Mughal period was not one of submission but of long-standing tradition.

1528

On the site of the temple of the birthplace of Ram, in modern-day UP, the mosque Babri Masjid is constructed by Babur, the first emperor of the Mughal Empire. This is significant because it has become a site of contention among Hindu and Muslim society into the modern day and a symbol of such conflict.

Princely India

Princely India were the parts of India ruled through subsdiary alliances like the Nizam of Hyderbad and the Prince of Kashmir Kashmir where each Prince vied for power under the British system. These states largely lasted until 1950 when they simply were integerated into the new Nation

Abul Faz

Should be Abu'l Fazl ibn Mubarak, a courtier of Akbar's who was largely persecuted by the Ulema (Islamic Intelligentsia) but was protected due to his free thought and ideas, died in 1602 in the Deccan.

Swadeshi

Swadeshi is an Indian Nationalist Strategy developed in 1905 after Lord Curzon's Partition of Bengal. It largely consisted of an economic boycott of British textiles and created significant riots between the poorer Muslim Bengalis who needed cheap textiles to survive and the richer Bengalis who were attempting to enforce their boycott.

Ray, "The Mentality of the Mutiny"

The 1857 Rebellion, was a revolt against British oppression on both Political and Religous lines but lacked the intensive administration and unity to be called a War for Indpendence.

Akbar

The 3rd Mughal Emperor until 1605, he was significant because he conquered most of the Indian Subcontinent and was particularly religously tolerant to go so far as to create Din-i-ilahi.

Metcalf, "Idealogies of the Raj"

The British justified their right to rule over India through the idea of "Just-Governance" over the submissive Indian.

Cohn, "The Census, Social Structure, and Objectification in South India"

The census was used by the British to classify and understand the Indian Peoples but was eventually used by the Indian Peoples to attain status.

Persian

The court language and poetic language of India from the time of the Muslim Governorship of the late 16th century until 1835. The success of English over Persian came through the success of the so called Anglicists over the Orientalists who won a large scale debate over the culture of British India itself.

Siraj-ad-Daulah

The last Nawab of independent Bengal, he lost the Battle of Plassey in 1757 which resulted in the occupation of Bengal by Britain and with it the rest of India.

1026

The raid by Mahmud of Ghazni on the Temple of Somnath in Gujarat in 1026, was an important image of Muslim on Hindu violence although it is likely that this was an expression of economic assault rather than through raw hatred.

Thapur, "Somnatha, the many voices of History"

The raid on Somnatha is seen by modern Hindu's and other Hindu nationalists as symbolic of crimes against Hindus by Muslims, although at the time differing Historiographies make such a clear picture likely too simple for what actually may have happened.

Anglicists

The school of thought in India that European language (English) and subtly their culture should remain dominant over Persian in the courts, administration, and education system in India in the mid-19th century. This was influenced James Mill's 1818 History of India.

Subsidiary Alliances

These were essentially vassalizations that began with Mir Jafar after the battle of Plassey in 1757 that led to the subjugation of Princely States for Protection and led to the Doctrine of Lapse.

Din-e-Ilahi

This was a 19 member religon founded by Akbar and his closest circle in the late 16th century which was essentially a combination of Islam and Hinduism. It was significant because it was indicative of the level of religous freedom experienced under Akbar and the Mughals.

Sati

This was a Hindu Brahmin practice where widows killed themselves in their husbands pyres, banned in 1829 due to activism from reformers like Ram Mohan Roy. It was significant because it was indicative of the reform movements occurring at the time and the oncoming resistance to the British in the 1857 rebellion.