Social Science Section II: The British in India, 1707-1857: A Fatal Friendship?
Rammohum Roy
1772-1833. Among the most revered participants of the Bengali Renaissance; adopted an accommodative strategy toward the major political changes taking place.
1813
As the EIC became more successful, its monopoly on the Indian trade was resented by other London commercial interests who also wanted in. In this year, the EIC monopoly ended, resulting in a shift from a trade corporation to a state that would preside over and adjucate competing commercial interests.
Rammohum Roy
Bengali thinker who corresponded with Unitarians [Christians who assert the unity of God and reject the Trinity] in both America and England. He was well aware of revolutionary & constitutional developments around the world.
Princely states
By 1848, these states are nominally in Indian hands, & English Residents are cautious not to make too many changes in the states under their supervision, but the whole thing still reeks of paramountcy.
15%
By the 1830s, opium provides this amount of the total EIC revenue. Great opium deposits are built in eastern India.
Lord Wellesley
By the time of the arrival of the third Governor-General in Bengal (r. 1798-1805), military, revenue streams, and trade had also drastically expanded. This Governor-Generalship launched the next phase of colonial expansion
19th century
By this point, English shipping has surpassed that of the Dutch to dominate the SE Asia trade
1820s
By this time, sati came to symbolize Indian men's barbarity and lack of self-restraint.
Sati
Came to gain an outsized significance as the marker of a clash b/tw English and Indian society. Leading historians of South Asia, Professors Sugata Bose & Ayesha Jalal, point out: the colonial critique of Indian society occasionally catered to moral concerns, but only when doing so would not threaten its economic & political bases in the subcontinent.
Battle of Plassey
2 weeks following the June 1757 deal, British troops meet Siraj-ud-Daula at inland Plassey. The Nawab's troops had already been bought off by Jagat Seth, and for the most part fled. Siraj was caught and executed, and Mir Jafar, grandee of the financier Jagat Seth and the EIC, claimed the Nawab's throne at Murshidabad.
District Collector
A European would supervise the work of manifold Indian petty revenue collectors.
EIC state
A closely run & expensive enterprise which held the advantage but never by much or for long, whether its chief rivals were other European powers or the powerful post-Mughal Indian states.
1800s-1830s
A drastic increase in India-British trade occurred over this time period. Historians debate to what extent Bengal trade influenced the domestic English economy, but the EIC power's forced conditions definitely caused economic benefit.
Permanent Settlement
A new class of landowners was created by the rapid transformation in the property market occasioned by the forced sales after this policy took place.
Hugli
After the Portuguese are expelled in 1632, the EIC and the Dutch EIC are allowed to set up shop, but the Dutch spice trade dominates. EIC officials resent what they see as Mughal officials' interference in their trade.
Calcutta
After the enaction of the Permanent Settlement, many of the new landholding elite decamped to live among the splendors of this city, leaving their rural estates to the care of others to live off the profits.
Seven Years' War
Also known as the French-Indian War; lasted from 1756-1761. In South Indian skirmishes, Britain can turn to Bengal for a supply of resources, soldiers, cash reserves, credit networks, and naval power. The British have developed networks in Calcutta, Madras, & Bombay, so are never entirely reliant on one base while struggling for control with the French or the Indians.
Governor-General Dalhousie
Arrives in India in 1848 at the age of 39 as a "convinced westernizer". His administration is marked by further expansion.
Tea
As the value of tea on the English domestic market grew, the Indian revenue & opium base became more & more important to Britain as a crucial guarantor of tea: trading one addictive substance for another
Steam power
Beginning in the 1840s, another innovation that reduced the amount of time it took to travel or communicate b/tw India & England.
Delhi College
Founded in 1825; an embodiment of the ways in which English & Indian forms of knowledge had come to coexist: had both an English & an Oriental branch.
Strait of Malacca
In 1819, the British take Singapore at the crucial chokepoint of the China trade. This would also give them a strengthened position to the west when they advanced into Burma from the east.
Subsidiary alliance
In which the ruler of a state retained nominal sovereignty, but was required to disband his army: a potent symbol of the new order introduced by the EIC and its Resident.
adibasi
Resistance of these marginalized groups to the state's attempt to uproot their traditional, forest & land-based lifestyles, has continued into post-colonial India
1848-1849
The EIC army finally completely annexes the formerly great kingdom of Rajit Singh
1812
The EIC expressly forbade missionaries from entering its territories. It was this year that the first American missionary in India was imprisoned upon arrival at Madras
1616
The English diplomat Thomas Roe obtains permission from the Mughal Empire to build a factory at Surat
Seringapatnam
Tipu Sultan's flourishing capital nearby Mysore
Joint stock
this arrangement spread both the start-up costs and the risk of an uncertain endeavor (in the EIC's case, the long-distance luxury trade)
Doctrine of lapse
Created by Dalhousie working from the principle of paramountcy
Christianity
Critiques of Hinduism influenced by this religion in the burgeoning public sphere prompted spirited debates, defenses, and self-reflection by a new class of Hindus residing in the colonial cities who were increasingly part of the colonial system.
Sati
Despite the rarity of this practice, many reform-minded members of the educated Bengali upper-class in Calcutta such as Rammohum Roy criticized the practice, urging the colonial state to ban it.
Tipu Sultan
Died fighting off the English at his capital, "preferring to live a day like a tiger than a lifetime as a lamb cowering before the British"
East India Company
Joint stock company financed by English merchants
1766 & 1795-1796
Not only Indian loyalties were suspect in the latter 18th century: The European officers mutinied twice,
Bhils
Once labeled a criminal tribe, adibasi groups such as this western Indian group were subject to harsh surveillance that paid no mind to either their traditional way or life or to English common law rights such as habeas corpus [unlawful imprisonment]
Radha Kant Deb
Opposed the colonial ban on sati. Some influences on his thinking were his own position as an upper-caste male in a patriarchal society, combined with a defensive reaction prompted by stringent critiques of Indian religions & masculinity in a colonial context.
Battle of Plassey
Perhaps neither the British nor the "Indian actors... [saw] the extent of what they had done".
1857
The EIC would mint coins in the name of the Mughal emperor until this year.
Doctrine of lapse
Used to annex the large states of Satara, Jhansi, & Nagpur b/tw 1848 and 1854. In taking these states, which together added £5 million to Dalhousie's yearly revenue, he also sought to replenish the coffers of the EIC state, which had been run down by the expansionist wars in Punjab & Afghanistan.
factory
a depot to store goods before shipment
Jallianwala Bagh
the infamous 1919 unfettered firing on peacefully protesting Indians in the holy Sikh city of Amritsar
Siraj al-Daula
(1733-1757, r. 1756-1757) 19yo successor to Alivardi Khan; attempted to continue his predecessor's revenue project in which he increased tribute demands from: zamindars, Indian merchant-bankers, and the European companies in his province.
Farruhksiyar
(r. 1713-1719) Gives EIC: an annual fee instead of piece-by-piece duties in Calcutta, the right to settle inland in Bengal, favorable terms for customs at Surat and Madras, & the right to mint its own coins at Bombay. These rights were used by EIC officials in both official and personal/private trade.
Sir Warren Hastings
(r. 1772-1785) In 1772, the EIC "stood forth" to take over collecting revenue under the first Governor-General of India. This guy developed a plan to regulate India following Indian models as closely as possible for 2 reasons: 1) to minimize EIC expense 2) believed that an English gvt would not work well with Indian culture
Tipu Sultan
(r. 1782-1799) Haider Ali's son
Shah Walliullah
1703-1762. A Muslim reformer in Delhi who sought to encourage India Muslims to adhere to stricter norms of Islamic practice & criticized the worship of Sufi saints at Shrines.
Robert Clive
1725-1774. A man who "had no doubts and no fears". Arrived in Bengal following the Black Hole of Calcutta with 10 ships of soldiers from Madras.
Seven Years' War
1756-1761. In which Europeans played Indian rulers off each other to advance distant interests.
William Carey
1761-1834. A famous Baptist missionary who worked at the Danish settlement of Serampore nearby Calcutta.
Rammohum Roy
1772-1833. A Hindu who worked for the EIC; fluent in several languages such as Persian, Sanskrit, Arabic, & English. Used his knowledge of Christianity & English culture to turn a reforming eye on Hinduism.
James Mill
1773-1836. Never came to India, yet he and his son John Stuart Mill worked for the EIC all their lives. A utilitarian follower of Jeremy Bentham with far less respect for Indian achievements than Jones. Wrote the History of British India (1818).
Shariat Allah
1781-1840. Among the Bengali peasantry, this activist advocated for a reformed Islam & built up a very substantial following of peasant cultivators, mostly those working on indigo plantations. Protest took the form of refusing to pay a tribute to landowners to support Hindu religious activities.
Radha Kanta Deb
1784-1867. Founded the Dharma Sabha as a response to accommodative positions towards the major political changes taking place such as Rammohum Roy's
Battle of Poligur
1784: Tipu Sultan fought Lord Wellesley's EIC troops to a draw.
Battle of Seringapatnam
1799. The third and final war between Tipu Sultan and Lord Wellesley, in which Tipu was fully defeated; his overtures to the French had drawn Wellesley's especial ire b/c of how Tipu used French Revolutionary idioms to mark his actions, even planting a liberty tree.
Thomas Babington Macaulay
1800-1859. A utilitarian who advocated for educating Indians in English & promoted Anglicism.
Herny Derozio
1809-1831. A teacher at Hindu college who adopted English norms wholeheartedly: ate beef, converted to Christianity, & led the Young Bengal student group. His vision called for total reform, replacing Indian norms with English ones.
Treaty of Amritsar
1846; EIC grants Gulaab Singh, the Hindu king of the Dogra line in Jammu, the predominantly Muslim valley kingdom of Kashmir, as well as 12 pairs of goats (for their silky cashmere wool), and 3 pairs of Kashmir shawls. This grant is the root of the enduring Kashmir conflict.
War of Austrian Succession
A European war lasting from 1744-1748, which draws the French and English in India to opposite sides. The French take Madras. In 1748, the British are able to retake Madras, but not Pondicherry. Upon the conclusion of the war in Europe, the English give France Cape Breton Island in exchange for the return of Madras.
Doctrine of lapse
A major change: Indian kingdoms did not usually follow any strict rule of primogeniture: rather, successors upon the death or abdication of a king were chosen via a variety of methods. Often a king without a son would adopt a son who would also be his chosen successor.
the Punjab school
A paternalistic(affecting people's individual lives as well)/illiberal mode of governance which some historians consider the roots of particularly violent episodes in the state, such as at the infamous Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
Mir Kasim
After the EIC made him Nawab, he now faced serious pressures from several sides and thus made a variety of reforms.
Adibasi
British called them "tribals"; large numbers resided within & near India's vast forest tracts. Some groups were labeled "criminals" by the colonial state b/c they supplemented forest or nomadic livelihoods with raids on more settled populations.
1800s-1820s
British colonial officials criticize Awadh for its misgovernment/decadence: seems proof positive of the James Mill/Thomas Macaulay view, that India's supposedly decaying culture could only be recognized by Anglicized rule
1830s
By about this time, India has assumed a "classically colonial" position relative to Britain: it exports raw materials, consumes those materials in manufactured form, & the profits go to the British rather than to Indian industries.
Lord Wellesley
By the time the 3rd Governor-General (r. 1798-1805) arrived in Bengal, the EIC was acting as a state, administering the Permanent Settlement and its attendant administrative, executive, and judicial structures.
1801
By this time, the kingdom of Awadh is in such debt that it is forced to cede the eastern half of its territory to the EIC, further decreasing the revenue base available to the remnants of the Court.
Ganges Canal
Dalhousie laid 500 miles of canal [Samuel Bourne] along the Ganges River in Haridwar as part of his irrigation of agrarian land project. This improved livelihoods in the short term, but had long-term negative environmental consequences, causing the salinization of the soil over the decades.
early 17th century
England, Holland, Portugal, & France all sent opportunistic traders to take their share of the great Indian Ocean trade in luxury commodities
Indigo
European planters provided cash advances to peasants to grow indigo; the peasants would become heavily indebted for a crop they could not eat.
Punjab
Following its failure in Afghanistan, the EIC turns to the power vacuum in this region created by the 1839 death of its great Sikh ruler, Ranjit Singh
early 19th century
From here on, Indians will play important roles as merchants, soldiers, police, and especially laborers in other British territories, producing large Indian communities across the world, from British Guiana (S America) to Fiji (E of Australia)
Peasants
Further disempowered under the Permanent Settlement, as the colonial state strengthened its hold on both 1) supply chains and 2) the conditions of small-scale cultivators labor. In a sense they were twice wronged by their Bengali landlords and the EIC.
Anglicism
Idea that Indians could only engage in efficient governance through a complete rejection of Indian norms/practices/languages
Doctrine of lapse
If a ruler did not bear a son, then his line could be said to have "lapsed", and the EIC could take direct control of the state.
19th century
Important commodities at this time included: jute, sugar, rice, grains, timber, textiles, indigo, opium
Madras
In 1640, the EIC purchases this city from an Indian ruler. It is an open port from which both Indian ships & the English can trade. New residents are drawn in by the demand for textiles in Europe & Southeast Asia, so by 1700, the population has grown to 100,000.
ryotwari system
In Madras and Bombay in the 1820s a different revenue system took hold, spurred by: the Permanent Settlement's failures, the loss of comparable classes of "reliable" local notables after the expansionist wars there, & the realization that more revenue could be extracted at a variable revenue rate.
Battle of Buxar
In October 1764, the EIC defeated Mir Kasim and friends and his army. The EIC restored Mir Jafar to the throne as a puppet. From now on, the court of Bengal would retain only nominal independence.
Opium
In eastern India, this took hold as a staple crop & was used by the EIC to pay for Chinese tea in lieu of silver or gold bullion.
Subsidiary alliance
In which the EIC received an annual fee from the state in exchange for the protection of EIC troops. EIC residents would live at the court and manage the state's relationship with the EIC; were often drawn into further missions to guide the development of the state.
Permanent Settlement
In which the rate of land revenue taxation was set at a perpetually fixed rate. This policy was adopted by the EIC in Bengal and lasted until Independence in 1947.
late 18th & early 19th century
Indians of a variety of classes respond to the EIC state with creativity & vigor, drawing on both their own idioms of political expression & adopting English ones as well, esp. in the EIC capital at Calcutta
1850s Indian railways
Leading historians Professors Barbara & Thomas Metcalf conclude: "a major public works project that might have served as a 'leading sector' to generate 'multiplier effects' for India's industrialization had no such effect."
Mapilla rebellions (Moplah)
Like the Faraizi movement, these rebellions on the Malabar Coast also made economic/social demands on their Hindu landlords in 1802, the late 1830s, and 1849-1852.
Firangi Mahal
Literally "foreigner's palace". Showed that educational innovation was not the preserve of the colonial state alone.
Brahmo Samaj (Brahmo Sabha)
Many elite Bengali families joined this organization. It would serve as an important forum for thinking through the encounter b/tw Hinduism & Christianity throughout the 20th century.
1917
Mohandas Gandhi returns from South Africa and comes to the aid of the impoverished/oppressed workers on indigo plantations after receiving a plea from an unknown young man in Champaran District, Bihar.
Weavers
Never emperors or priests in India, but historically could amass great wealth by virtue of their skill/creativity. Gave the British their first toehold in the Indian Ocean trade.
EIC state
Never so hard-pressed that it could not eventually mobilize the material and men to put down challenges to its authority: Afghan failure was expensive yet barely fazed its extractive efficiency within India; the Santhal Rebellion was suppressed in 1856; Awadh was formally annexed.
Manufactured textiles
No match for the beauty/delicacy of hand-woven Indian textiles, but their orders-of-magnitude larger volume swamped what remained of India's traditionally vibrant and sophisticated textile industry in the 19th century.
Blue Mutiny
Occurs 1859-1860 in Bengal; prompts reforms to the coercive system of indigo cultivation. H/e, no mutiny occurs in Bihar, so indigo "Planter Raj" [Planter Rule] lasts there until 1917.
Sir William Jones
Partly sought to understand Hindu law himself and record its code so that the EIC would not need to trust Hindu & Muslim legal advisors, who were deemed inefficient and untrustworthy. The many changes introduced by the process of "preserving" the law were glossed over.
Governor-General Dalhousie
Priorities: 1) to consolidate Britain's holdings in India both legally & territorially; 2) to dramatically expand communication & transport infrastructure in India, taking advantage of new technologies to better secure/reduce the expense of EIC rule
Newspapers
Proved a crucial conduit for public engagement
Rammohum Roy
Provided an extensive scriptural explanation of why sati was not endorsed by Hinduism. Mounted a creative critique of sati using Hindu sources rather than rely on Western sources of political thought.
Opium
Putting an end to any claim that the motivations of the early EIC state were moral or religious, the EIC declares itself the monopolistic holder of the rights to cultivate this crop, then smuggles it into China for great profits.
Late 1700s
Regular generous payments and guaranteed pensions were required to ensure the loyalty of diverse military men in India during this time period. As the Indian army grew rapidly, the EIC drew on its strength to expand its territorial rule in India.
Treaty of Bassein
Signed in 1802; forced the Marathas to submit to a subsidiary alliance, marking the end of 1 1/2 centuries of military dominance.
long-distance communications
Such as via the press & the post; helped forge bonds b/tw Indians in distant parts of the British Empire
Ryot
Tenant
The Chess Players
The 1977 fictionalization of the entire Awadh saga by the great filmaker Satyajit Ray, based on the 1924 short story by Premchand, one of India's greatest writers in Hindi & Urdu.
1827 & 1847
The boom/bust nature of the global indigo market left many peasants hard-pressed during market failures, such as in these years.
1850
The very first deep-sea telegraph cable in the world was laid at Calcutta to cross the Hooghly River. This illustrates that India was not just a recipient of European innovations, but a crucial site for experimentation.
18th century
The wife's devotion to her husband unto death such as in the practice of sati was valorized rather than critiqued.
Industrial Revolution
Their position steadily declined as this development took hold in England over the course of the 19th century.
Bombay
~1668 Maratha attacks prompt the EIC to fortify its Surat factory and drive merchants/craftspeople to the city of seven sandbars. This unlikely location would become one of the world's most populous/dense cities, and the cultural/financial capital of India.
Bengal
Directly prior to the Battle of Plassey, India consists of several zones, the political boundaries of which are unclear. In this territory nominal sovereignty rests with the Delhi Mughal but the Nawabs exercise all the power except for their yearly tribute to the Mughal.
Western India
Directly prior to the Battle of Plassey, India consists of several zones, the political boundaries of which are unclear. In this zone, the Marathas are a steady threat to English interests, prompting the growth of Bombay.
Asiatic Society of Bengal
Founded by Sir William Jones in 1784.
History of British India
James Mill's 1818 book did not view Indian languages/law as a sophisticated system fallen on hard times, as did Jones, but rather as a stagnant, superstitious, & irregular system that should be fully replaced.
Deccan Plateau
Location of the great state of Mysore founded by Haider Ali (r. 1761-1782)
1803
The 2 remaining Maratha outposts in the Deccan and nearby Delhi following the Treaty of Bassein are taken.
Sati
The ritual burning of a widow upon her husband's funeral pyre
1848
When Dalhousie arrives, the Punjab is on the verge of being won, but British holdings retain a checker-board character due to the large number of princely states indirectly ruled by EIC residents at their courts.
Private trade
While EIC officers could not trade on the India-England route bc of the EIC monopoly, they could participate in other sectors of the Indian Ocean trade. EIC private trader-backed fleets replaced wealthy Gujarati ship-owners. Private traders also entered the domestic sector, with the EIC even granting tax-free status to favored Indian merchants.
early 19th century
While it was not the tight territorial control of a land-based modern nation state, it was sufficient to ensure that British commercial interests were well-served through: 1) favorable trade terms; 2) a seemingly inexhaustible supply of diverse natural resources; 3) increasingly, consumer markets in the colonies as well as at home
diwani
With the attainment of this right to collect revenue and govern, the EIC became at least the nominal deputy of the Mughal Emperor, a position it would hold until 1858. Clive's original plan to leave the Nawab's administration in place was toppled by the ever-growing revenue demands of the EIC.
District Collector
Would become an enduring figure: combined executive/judicial functions; served as the final authority of the EIC State in each district.
Sir William Jones
1746-1794. A polymath who worked closely with Indian scholars, discovering that Sanskrit, Greek, Persian, & Latin all shared common roots. As a result of this discovery, a historical vision arose in which ancient Hindu India shared a common ancient glory with Greek and Rome that had declined over the centuries
French-Indian War
1756-1761. In which Europeans played Indian rulers off each other to advance distant interests.
Radha Kanta Deb
1784-1867. Rather than trying to change Hinduism, he and others adopted a conservative approach: to preserve/defend Hinduism in the face of criticism from Englishmen & other Indians.
Faraizi movement
18th century Muslim rights/Islamic purification movement in Bengal started by Islamic reformer Shariat Allah who died in 1840. Following this, his son Mohsin-u-din continued the movement but was later captured/killed by the British.
Young Bengal
A group of students at Calcutta's Hindu College led by Henry Derozio in critiques of Indian society & enthusiasm for English mores.
1799
A regulation was enacted to the Permanent Settlement allowing a zamindar to seize a tenant's property directly if the tenant fell in arrears (owed money that should have been paid earlier) to the zamindar.
Urdu
A vernacular language that had developed under the Mughals as a blend of Persian script & vocabulary with Hindi grammar
Rammohum Roy
Adopted some aspects of the colonial historical narrative: India's great Hindu civilization had declined due to superstition; h/e, in Roy's narrative, it was Indians like him NOT the colonial state which would restore Hinduism to its past glory.
Arcot
After a complex series of machinations and assassinations, the French install their puppet as the Nawab of this city, 70 miles inland from Madras, in 1750.
1818
After the total annexation of Maratha territory by the EIC, various Maratha state rulers are pensioned off and resettled; military, political, and economic control now lying with the EIC
Penny post
Allowed wide/relatively speedy mailing of pamphlets
Indigo
Along with textiles, another important cash crop in the 19th century. In demand in Europe to dye clothing a rich blue.
French-Indian War
Also known as the Seven Years' War; lasted from 1756-1761. In which the French lose their remaining possessions to Britain at a steady rate: the French position in Bengal is weak, and the rapid expansion of French trade has left the French heavily in debt to the bank of Jagat Seth.
Awadh
Although the 1800s-1820s British saw this state as an example of how Anglicism was necessary, any modern-day visitor to Lucknow or Faizabad will see that as in Delhi about a century prior, aesthetic expression & development was a crucial human resource in times of political & economic hardship
Sayyid Ahmed Barelvi
Among Shah Waliullah's followers; led a campaign in the name of jihad NOT against the colonial state but rather against the perceived violations of Muslims' religious practice by Ranjit Singh in the Sikh kingdom in the Punjab-- after all, British India was still nominally under Muslim jurisdiction in the hands of the Mughal Emperor, while the Punjab was clearly not.
Battle of Plassey
Among the most important battles in India's history. Motivated by the conservative ambitions of the EIC: to guarantee/increase trade profits. The EIC did not seek political dominion but a return to or slight improvement on their privileged commercial status.
Santhal Uprising (hool)
An 1855-1856 major uprising against the colonial state, led by 4 brothers in Bengal, in the modern-day state of Jharkand.
Indian Railways
An enduring legacy of colonial rule; today runs on 100,000km of tracks, and is among the largest employers in the world with 1.3 million employees.
the Punjab school
Approach to ruling which emphasized strict rule and a large scope for British officials' intimate knowledge of their Indian subjects' "virtues and vices"; allowed wide-ranging powers based on the officer's "personal touch", which was most often a strong arm.
Colonial critics
Argue that 1840s/1850s infrastructure projects were designed around British political/economic interests: the interests of the mills in Manchester & the PM in London, instead of the interests of the majority of Indian peasants, tradesmen, small-scale capitalists, & professionals
Colonial apologists
Argue that the technological advancements of the 1840s/1850s [railways, telegraph, steam power, irrigation, postal service] brought necessary development to the Indian countryside and integrated it into global networks of commerce
Anglicism
At first, these proposals were considered radical, by Macaulay's criminal code and many other measures were adopted in favor of Orientalism by the mid-19th century.
Rammohum Roy
Both Islam and Christianity claimed scriptural bases. Roy sought to create a renewed/unified identity for Hinduism along similar lines rather than adopting Christianity wholesale.
late 18th century
Colonial officers of this time sought to better understand Indian social life so that they could administer Indian society along Indian lines, leading to an intense period of language study/translations among a small group of scholars such as Sir William Jones, who worked closely with Indian scholars at the Asiatic Society of Bengal
early 19th century
Debates about women's position (often the point of conflict/tension b/tw colonial & Indian views) focused on the Hindu practice of sati.
Religion & gender
Debates regarding these subjects took place not only in face-to-face meetings, but also in the burgeoning English & "native" press
North India
Directly prior to the Battle of Plassey, India consists of several zones, the political boundaries of which are unclear. Here the Delhi/Agra area suffers first from Persian, then Maratha raids. The Rajput kingdoms (ex: Raja Jai Singh) in the Mughal heartland enjoy relative stability/independence. Independent polities effectively create conditions for agrarian stability/trade.
Awadh
Directly prior to the Battle of Plassey, India consists of several zones, the political boundaries of which are unclear. This region is a tempting halfway point b/tw the de facto English capital (Calcutta) and the Mughal capital (Delhi). Its wealth is a credit to the Nawab's commitment to the welfare of his subjects. It is an agrarian heartland with easy access to markets via its well-worn river and roads. It is the site of a vibrant cultural efflorescence among elite classes.
South India & the Deccan
Directly prior to the Battle of Plassey, in this zone regional powers include: the Nawab of Arcot, the Nizam of Hyderabad, and the Maratha at Tanjore. The diffuse power structure leads to French/English displays of military might causing a gradual increase in European influence in these courts & shifting alliances
17th century
Discouraged by Dutch dominance of the spice trade, the EIC instead imported Indian textiles throughout this century
17th and 18th centuries
During this time period, European political & territorial rule was not a predetermined outcome, nor a motivation for any Europeans
first Anglo-Sikh war
EIC plays rival chieftains off each other yet again and wins handily in 1845. EIC puts Maharaja Dalip Singh in charge of Punjab & installs a resident at the court in Lahore. Its Treaty of Amritsar also gives away Kashmir.
1770 & 1783
Early experimentation in the land revenue systems led to a famine in Bengal in which 25% of the population died. Another famine followed only 13 years later.
1772
Even after Sir Warren Hastings and the EIC "stood forth" to take over collecting revenue, the EIC would largely continue to use the symbols/systems of Mughal sovereignty, just like other Mughal successor states.
China-India trade
Famous fortunes are made by the likes of Elihu Yale & the Sassoon family
Siraj-ud-Daula
Figured that the British defeat of the French implied British military superiority, which the British would clearly use to extract better trade terms. H/e, Siraj was more interested in protecting his kingdom's interests than helping the EIC position. He was happy to extract large quantities in customs/fees from the French & Dutch.
January 1757
Following Robert Clive's arrival with 10 ships of soldiers from Madras, Siraj-ud-Daula decided to return Calcutta to the English, briefly forestalling further hostilities. In the following peace, Siraj restored EIC privileges.
Nawab of Awadh
Following the Battle of Buxar and the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765, this ruler also agrees to pay a tribute to the EIC in exchange for military protection in a classic subsidiary alliance
1765 Treaty of Allahabad
Following the Battle of Buxar, Clive said, "We must indeed become the Nabobs ourselves". The price of absolute government/revenue power in Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa was an annual tribute of 2,600,000 rupees to the Mughal Emperor in Delhi.
1765 Treaty of Allahabad
Following the Battle of Buxar, the Mughal Empire gives the EIC the right to "diwani" of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa: the right to collect revenue and govern the entire former territory of the Bengal Nawabs.
1818
Following the defeat of the Marathas, the EIC controlled much of the central corridor in India: Calcutta to Madras; Gujarat & Rajasthan to Bombay to the Malabar coast (exception of Portuguese Goa); much of the Deccan, & the fertile agrarian heartland strecthing out from Delhi through Awadh into Bengal and Bihar
Battle of Seringapatnam
Following this battle the British restored the pre-Tipu/Haider rulers, as with the Nawabs in Bengal, & created a treaty in which their military protection was the reward for de facto control of the formerly great state & heavy tribute.
Lord Wellesley
Formalized and used the subsidiary alliance widely to secure the reins of the many independent polities of the subcontinent
Dharma Sabha
Founded by Radha Kanta Deb; took a far more defensive line than groups like the Brahmo Sabha.
Hindu College
Founded in 1818 in Calcutta by Indian elites & colonial officers. Educational institutions such as this one provided a path for those seeking employment with the colonial state, esp. after the language of governance shifted from Persian to English [1835].
Bombay Samachar
Founded in 1822 & published in Gujarati; Asia's longest-running newspaper
Delhi College
Founded in 1825 by Indian elites & colonial administrators. Aimed to educate "respectable people so that they might find suitable work" [in colonial rather than traditional sectors of the economy]
Brahmo Samaj (Brahmo Sabha)
Founded in 1828 by Rammohum Roy; expressed the colonial idea that India's great Hindu civilization had declined due to superstition; BUT Indians and NOT the colonial state would restore Hinduism to its formal glory.
Brahmo Samaj (Brahmo Sabha)
Founded in 1828 by Rammohum Roy; representative of the founding of other new civil society organizations that sought to bring like-minded Indians together in social & political endeavors.
Pondicherry
French prospects in South India diminish in the latter half of the 18th century, except for this one city which remains under French control over 1950.
Queen Elizabeth's charter of 1600
Gave the EIC monopoly privileges for any trade with India until 1813
Persian
Had long been the administrative language of the Indian state, so those who sought work in its service classes needed to know it-- even Hindus such as Rammohum Roy!
Mir Kasim
He set out to make what remained of Bengal a stable & strong kingdom, restored those who had been ousted under EIC influence, moved his capital to higher inland ground near Monghyr (in today's Bihar), reformed his army along European infantry lines, began manufacturing weapons, hired Armenian mercenaries as commanders, banned the Jagat Seths from his court, and attempted to ensure the steady flow of maximum revenue into his central coffers.
Siraj-ud-Daula
Headstrong, inexperienced, overeager. Bulldozed rather than cultivated his enemies, even the banking house of the Jagat Seths that he relied on for credit. His reforms to his grandfather's administration tossed out the old office holders, and his drastic measures prompted dissent/fractiousness at his court just when unity was needed.
Delhi College
Here, Urdu received pride of place: many Western scientific tracts were translated into Urdu, causing a regularizing effect on Urdu both for translators & readers.
Konbaung Dynasty
Highly valued military fearlessness; used this to good effect in incursions into British-controlled NE India in Manipur & Assam.
Rammohum Roy
His education had been along Indian lines (Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic); yet he was, like many other Indians of his day, remarkably well-versed in international developments.
Sayyid Ahmed Barelvi
His jihad was "one of the genuinely utopian movements of modern India... seeking not to withdraw but... to destroy society itself & built it anew on a just & egalitarian basis". But it failed, showing that Muslims would need to find new ways to accommodate the major political changes taking place.
Counter-factual questions
Historians' term for questions about what would have/might have happened (ex: what would have happened to the Indian economy in the absence of British colonialism?)
1686-1690 war
In 1686, 10 armed ships from England try to blockade ports at Surat, Gujarat, and Chittagong, Bangladesh. The Mughal state responds by blockading Bombay, and in 1690 the EIC concedes, & pays a large indemnity to the Mughal emperor.
Black Hole of Calcutta
In 1756, Siraj-ud-Daula attacked English Calcutta purely b/c it was well fortified, to make a point that he would not accept challenges to his authority. He imprisoned the English residents of Fort St. William, and 40 of these prisoners suffocated under his soldiers' care, providing additional "evidence for the British of Indian cruelty and barbarism".
Chittagong, Mindnapur, & Burdwan
In 1760, Clive demands that the revenue rights over these 3 districts be made permanent, largely because the revenue they were producing could not meet the British demand.
Sepoys
In 1782, the EIC army consists of 115,000 men, 90% of whom are Indian. These troops are used to subdue rebellions in Bengal's neighboring Bihar (1781) and Orissa (1817). Soldier loyalty was ensured through regular & generous pay.
London
In many ways, the EIC differed little from the prior Mughal or Nawab regimes: it sought to take revenue from the land and use that revenue to further its interests in other places. The major difference was that the EIC was less restrained in its use of coercion, & the profits of the economic extraction were sent here instead of Delhi or Murshidabad.
1757-1857
In one century, the EIC state: 1) brought almost all of India under its control; 2) extracted great profits; 3) handily controlled Indian Ocean trade & markets from Aden to Bombay to Canton
ryotwari system
In the 1820s in Madras and Bombay, behind this system lay the cherished & Romantic image of a noble, smallholding peasant-farmer who deserved to retain his independence.
Battle of Plassey
In the aftermath of this battle, Robert Clive was drawn into Bengali politics over and over b/c he wanted to protect the EIC trade interests.
Battle of Plassey
In the aftermath of this battle, the EIC was allowed to mint coins, a right previously held by the monopoly of Jagat Seth, and gained a neighboring area called Twenty-Four Paraganas, part of metropolitan Calcutta. The new Nawab (Jafar) and the EIC would remain independent allies with diplomatic relations, & the EIC would use troops to protect the Nawab if he needed it.
1857
Indian society was at a breaking point, and though grievances were diverse, the feeling was no longer temporary or confined to only one region.
1813
It was in this year that the colonial state finally felt secure enough to relax its ban on missionaries; h/e, missionaries were not always reliable colonial allies & as often excoriated colonialism as encouraged it.
Firangi Mahal
Located in Lucknow; housed in the palace of a former French adventurer who once lived in Awadh. Sunni religious scholars resided there, who were patronized by the Shia Nawabs of Awadh
Battle of Plassey
Mir Jafar and the Jagat Seths had promised expensive rewards to the EIC both as a corporation and as individuals. The Jagat Seths arranged to pay half upfront and the rest over 3 years, but Clive was impatient and untrusting, and demanded the revenue rights to 3 important Bengal districts: Chittagong, Mindnapur, & Burdwan. Thus, the EIC became a territorial ruler at first temporarily and only to service a debt.
Indian railways
Often seen as a positive outcome/justification of British colonial rule, but were originally built for 2 purposes only: 1) to move raw materials to ports & manufacturing centers, enhancing imperial coffers; 2) to quickly move troops & materiel in the event of any uprising against British rule in India
1826
On the eastern flank of the rapidly growing British Empire, the British take the lower portion of the Konbaung Kingdom in modern-day Myanmar [Burma]. As with the other conquered kingdoms, Myanmar kings had to accept a subsidiary alliance, & offered as tribute a lucrative supply of timber for the world market.
Compagnie des Indes Orientales (CIO)
Operated similarly to the EIC, but was primarily controlled by the French crown rather than men with commercial interests.
1835
Persian remained the language of law in India until this year.
Coercion
Persuasion via force or threats. Used by the colonial state to force peasants to cultivate indigo, leading to the Blue Mutiny
Burma
Remains part of British India until 1937; after which it remains under British rule but is governed by its own administrative structure until independence in 1948
Bhil & Santhal Rebellions
Resistances such as these show that resistance to colonial rule was not only found in cities or even just among the rural gentry/well-educated. Throughout the first century of colonial rule [1757-1857], diverse social groups resisted the changes to society & economy introduced by the foreign power.
June 1757
Robert Clive struck a deal with the Nawab's enemies: Jagat Seth, backed by Mir Jafar, would work together with the EIC to dethrone Siraj-ud-Daula. In exchange for EIC support, Mir Jafar and Jagat Seth would cover all expenses, grant additional trading privileges, and pay about £1,250,000.
Marathas
Ruled a collection of sub-kingdoms under the nominal head at Poona; by 1800, were constructing arms factories in north India
Newspaper culture
So firmly implanted in India today that it is difficult to find a literate Indian who does not read at least one newspaper daily, often more & in multiple languages
Afghanistan
Some claim this territory is ungovernable; all can agree that it is difficult to conquer
Orientalism
Sought to capture/preserve India as it was at its height. Jones & friends sought to understand/preserve Indian culture, yet in doing so, they irrevocably altered it, rigidifying a formerly flexible system by introducing precedent-based common law and privileging certain interpretations/texts over others.
July 1763
Tensions came to a head, and Mir Kasim and his troops were pushed into neighboring Awadh by the EIC army. Mir Kasim then returned to Bengal with the support of the Nawab of Awadh and the Mughal Emperor, Shah Alam (r. 1759-1806)
1710
The Bengal textile trade has grown rapidly, and by this year provides 50% of all textiles exported by the EIC, marking a shift in the locus of EIC power from Surat to Calcutta.
1839
The British by this point have also taken the port city of Aden (in present day Yemen) on the Arabian Sea
42%
The British hold on India was still limited and heavily contested, so a large military was required to guard EIC privileges/territory/revenue from the real threats of other Indian polities. This much of EIC revenues went to its military expenses under Hastings; the greatest EIC expense was troop payments.
1668
The British obtain Bombay from the Portuguese as part of Princess Catherine's dowry when she marries King Charles
1856
The British, under the Governor-Generalship of Dalhousie, annexes Oudh [Awadh] completely-- no longer will it maintain even nominal independence. This action is among the sparks that lit the fire of the 1857-1858 Indian Rebellion.
the land revenue system
The EIC had little interest in intervening in Indian social mores (essential/characteristic societal customs), but were drawn in by the effort to extract revenue from Indian land.
1842
The EIC launches a disastrous war in Afghanistan & hits the stark reality that while it can control much territory, it cannot take all. 16,000 soldiers are besieged at Kabul; only one returns to British India, but Sindh is successfully annexed
1717
The EIC obtains freedom from duties on exports from Calcutta for a small yearly flat fee thanks to Aurangzeb's successor, Farrukhsiyar (r. 1713-1719). EIC now has a crucial competitive advantage over the Dutch and an economic incentive to fully develop internal trade.
1700
The EIC reaches a détente (easing of hostility) with the Mughal Empire: EIC is autonomous in Madras & is at an uneasy and expensive peace in Calcutta and Bombay. The EIC could threaten the Mughal Empire, but could be threatened by both the Mughals & Marathas as evidenced by the 1686-1690 war and Maratha raids on Surat.
1617-1660s
The EIC resides in India over this time period as a guest of the Mughal emperor. While its trade funds Mughal soldiers & its textile demand gives employment to weavers, the EIC is NOT an important economic or political force.
Bihar & Awadh
The EIC was reluctant to re-employ the former military elites of the Nawab era as their loyalty would be suspect, so they drew instead on the Hindu peasant groups of these two states. EIC respected caste and religious preferences, and allowed soldiers to follow their caste's dietary norms with separate cooks/kitchens, and patronized Hindu religious festivals.
1886
The EIC's 3rd campaign results in total annexation of the Konbaung Kingdom
1800s-1830s
The Eastern Indian economy fundamentally changed: European inputs and coercion shifted the balance in favor of commodity rather than sustenance crops. (Example: the indigo dye used in many European fashions was lucrative to planters, but its status as a global commodity exposed its cultivators to global booms & busts.)
mushroom growth
The French Compagnie des Indes Orientales (CIO) grew much more rapidly than its British counterpart, the EIC, after its founding in 1664 and its acquiring of Pondicherry in 1674.
~1700
The French enter India. No one power controls South Asia. The Mughal Empire lives on in the Nizamate of Hyderabad; a Maratha nominally under Poona's sovereignty rules Tanjore; the Nawab of the Carnatic sits at Arcot, 70 miles inland of Madras.
Compagnie des Indes Orientales (CIO)
The French trading company which was founded in 1664 and secured Pondicherry in 1674. Acquired outposts at Chandernagore (near Calcutta), Masulipatnam (Coromandel Coast), and Malabar.
1830s
The Indian merchant capitalists, exemplified by Jagat Seth, were now largely irrelevant to trade in India.
1818
The Maratha polities' final stand: as the British established power in neighboring regions, the Maratha court mobilized against it, and were defeated and Maratha territory totally annexed by the EIC.
Nawab Alivardi Khan
The Mughal successor in Bengal (1671-1756, r. 1740-1756). Suffered from Maratha onslaughts on his territory (allowed by the decline of the Mughal imperium[absolute power] at Delhi), and thus sought to bolster his army by increasing tribute demands from: zamindars, Indian merchant-bankers, & European companies in his province.
Nawab Alivardi Khan
The Mughal successor in Bengal (1671-1756, r. 1740-1756). Tension with the EIC arose due to predecessor Farrukhsiyar's extensions of English power and EIC assumption of some government powers, esp. with English intervention in basic domestic/inland commodity trades like salt/grain.
1632
The Mughals expel the Portuguese from the port city of Hugli, lying north of Calcutta on the Hugli River, partly due to Shah Jahan's expansionist aims.
1818
The Nawab of Awadh declares himself king, formally ending the tie b/tw Awadh and the Mughal Empire; h/e, this declaration does little to re-establish the independence of the kingdom
Permanent Settlement
The advantages of this policy to the EIC were that it was both cheap & manageable. The EIC would deal only with the zamindars (large landholders), & under a strict interpretation of the law, the EIC should have no concern with the relations between the zamindar & the ryot.
Zamindars
The colonial government abdicated peasant welfare to these guys, reasoning that a well-managed estate with healthy cultivators would maximize profits for the landlord while ensuring a steady revenue supply to the EIC state.
1828
The colonial state bans the practice of sati
1852
The commercial incursions of British traders lead to a second war with the Konbaung Kingdom and the direct annexation of inland Burmese territory up to Pegu
1850s Indian railways
The design/layout of the railway served British commercial interests, & the raw materials used to build it came from outside of India.
District Magistrate
The district level system of courts endures in India today; the District Collector having been replaced with his post-colonial counterpart.
early 19th century
The dramatic territorial expansion/unification of the EIC state caused drastic changes to the Indian rural economy in both agriculture & technology.
Bengali Renaissance
The efflorescence of cultural/political/religious debate in early 19th century Calcutta.
Classic Economic Debate
The extent to which Britain profited from its holdings in India; the extent to which the Indian economy benefitted from the technological advancements/infrastructural developments of the 1840s/1850s
England
The fate of traditional artisans in this country was similarly depressed to Indian weavers in the 19th century, but here working-class political pressures eventually prodded the state into investing in welfare/education (meager returns for losses, but existed)
1777
The first Indian-owned English newspaper is printed
Governor-General Dalhousie
The government postal service with a very cheap penny post, established under this governor-general, allowed increasing numbers of politically aware Indian individuals & associations to communicate with each other & share their struggles.
adibasi
The heart of India's revolutionary Maoist resistance movement lies among these groups in India's central forested core.
ryotwari system
The idea behind this was to create a direct relationship b/tw the Company state and individual peasants. Historians have called the EIC's idea that they would empower the least well-off peasants "an exercise in self-delusion"
Permanent Settlement
The idea of this policy was to encourage enterprising landowners/zamindars to extract the most revenue via improvements/innovations.
Pindaris
The mobility of traditionally nomadic or traveling adibasi groups such as this one unsettled the colonial state, which implemented forced sedentarization campaigns in the 1810s.
Lord Cornwallis
The moving force behind the Permanent Settlement. Arrived in India immediately after his surrender at Yorktown (1781) in the Revolutionary War.
Permanent Settlement
The policy introduced major changes in 1) eastern Indian social structures, 2) land use patterns, & 3) legal practices
Marathas
The power of these kings was more diffuse than that of Tipu Sultan, and thus less simple to dismember. However, this lack of unity gave the EIC an "in" which they could exploit.
19th century
The press and the post facilitate the development of national bonds & action
Paramountcy
The principle that the EIC is the paramount[supreme] power in India
ryotwari system
The process of determining the revenue rates/property rights guided by those who were often dominant in their villages. Therefore the final determination of property rights favored those who were already well-off.
£3,000,000
The revenue rate for Bengal under the Permanent Settlement-- a higher value than had been expected for the province under either the Mughals or the Nawabs
Mysore
The rule of Haider Ali & Tipu Sultan was characterized by prosperity, stability, & reform: they eliminated revenue farming & intermediary zamindars, collecting revenue directly from peasants; created favorable conditions for trade; created a formidable/skilled army of 60,000.
1791
The second war between the EIC under Lord Wellesley and Tipu Sultan, in which Tipu suffered minor losses.
1818
The territories which remained not under EIC control were: tracts in central India (ex: Satara, Nagpur); the northwest frontier zone (west front Delhi & Rajasthan into the Punjabi plains & towards Afghanistan)
1818 Maratha settlement
The territory brought into EIC control with this settlement left only a few completely independent states in India surrounded by EIC directly- or indirectly- controlled territory.
Shariat Allah
This Bengali activist's son continued his work, such as in the Blue Mutiny, organizing Bengali peasants on indigo plantations against zamindar and colonial abuses.
Britain
This European power's interest in public and private trades in the later 17th century was what led them to move inland geographically and down the scale of production.
Mir Kasim
This Nawab sought to restore the independence of Bengal, and so contested the EIC's private trade in staple commodities, such as salt & grain. His view was that this trade redounded to the benefit of individual English wallets while cutting into his desperately needed revenue. The EIC saw that they had been guaranteed inland freedom of movement & trade in 1757 which the Nawab now sought to renege on.
ryotwari system
This administrative maneuver of first assigning revenue rights and rates, then collecting them, led to an expansion in the administrative structure of the colonial state: many new officials were employed for these jobs.
Sir William Jones
This dude's ideology consisted of simultaneous deep respect for what had been and patronizing pity for what had been lost. The English would administer Indian society in a more Indian way than the Indians!!
Firangi Mahal
This institution's Sunni scholars developed a curriculum for Muslim students that was firmly embedded in Islam. The idea was that proper Islamic learning might spread in a manner appropriate to the changing political circumstances.
Firangi Mahal
This institution's curriculum combined: language, rational sciences, logic, rhetoric, & theology in a systematic form that could then be replicated as students across India returned home, carrying their learning & the curriculum with them.
Firangi Mahal
This institution's curriculum has been enduring & still forms the basis for much of Muslim religious education in South Asia today.
41%
This percent of estates in Bengal changed hands within the first 15 years of the new regime under the Permanent Settlement.
English colonial rule in India
This phenomenon is often explained by a reliance on military innovation/strength; however, other factors are also important: the successful employment of Indian intermediaries; the chronology of the entrance of European powers into India; the development of commercial contract law; chance; etc.
Permanent Settlement
This policy's underlying forces were the Whig "belief in the importance of a hereditary landed aristocracy" and the creation of "an Indian version of the English gentleman-farmer"
India
Weavers here in the 19th century could have no expectations of welfare/education investment by the government bc the state's willingness to use coercion against its subjects made political pressure ineffectual.
Utilitarianism
[Benthamites] The belief that the purpose of government was the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Favored precise legal codes that would scientifically improve society. Idea that social reform should be approached clinically with no scope for pre-British Indian practices or ideas.
Mir Jafar
This ruler refused to accede to the "amputation of his provinces" following 1757 end of the bullion trade, and made overtures to other European powers. Clive then promoted Mir Kasim as the de facto Nawab with powers so that Kasim could then cede the 3 wealthy provinces to the EIC. Of course this Nawab refused to abdicate, so the EIC used force to compel him to do so.
1765 Treaty of Allahabad
This treaty flipped the terms of the revenue agreement: previously, the Nawabs had collected revenue and given the EIC its assigned share. Now, Clive insisted the EIC would collect revenue and issue a stipend of that to the Nawabs, the amount of which would be determined by the EIC.
1757
This year marked the end of the bullion trade: the EIC trade in textiles, saltpeter, opium, and other goods was so successful that London declined to send any further bullion to fund it. From now on, the EIC would need to purchase its goods for sale from its own trade/land revenues.
Minute on Indian Education
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1835. Denigrated Indian literature; sought to create Indians educated in English who were "English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect"
Missionaries
Though the numbers of conversions they made were small, their influence extended to schools which educated many students, an area in which the colonial state often fell short.
1814
To India's east, the British take the important French outpost at Ile de France, at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars. They rename it Mauritius. British naval power by this point has enabled the command/control of the entire Indian Ocean, from Mauritius to Canton.
Nawab of Awadh
To help pay his tribute, turns to Indian & English merchant capital for credit, just as the Nawabs before him turned to the house of Jagat Seth & others. Legitimacy/support breaks down as Awadh falls deeper into debt, & the court draws into itself, avoiding the seemingly intractable material problems of debt/dissent by emphasizing cultural expression & aesthetic achievement.
1850s Indian railways
To raise capital, the colonial state turned to private investors. Backed by the Crown, all these investors were guaranteed a 5+% return on investment, no matter what. T/f, all the profits from this project were ploughed straight back into Britain.
EIC
Took a different approach to ruling in each accession, depending on the date of acquisition and the local context.
Zamindar
Under the Permanent Settlement, the landlord gained incentive to maximize his outputs in order to keep the remainder of his increasing profits. If a landlord failed to meet his revenue burden under the Permanent Settlement, his estate could be confiscated/auctioned.
Permanent Settlement
Under this policy, the layered property rights that had existed around land use in the pre-colonial period-- ownership, cultivation, tenancy, commons, traditional labor exchanges, custom, etc-- were boiled down to the simplistic notion of property rights in which the landowner had absolute rights over his land to the exclusion of all others.
