British India

Homework # 1 - British India

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 Azimullah became the secretary and adviser to Nana Sihib, an Indian noble who family had surrendered its territory to the British East India Company in return for an annual payment.  At the time Azimullah went to work for Nana Sihib, he was involved in a dispute with the British East India Company because the Company had decided to stop making the annual payment to his family.  In 1853, Nana Sihib sent Azimullah to England to appeal directly to the officers of the British East India Company to start making the payments again.  Azimullah’s trip to England had deep and lasting impact on him.  He saw the dirty and polluted industrial cities full of poor British workers.  He realized that, in contrast to the British who lived in India in large houses with servants, most people in Britain did not live much better than people in India.  While he was in England he met John Stuart Mill, the famous British thinker, who was an official in the British East India Company.  Azimullah was upset and offended when the Company refused to change its decision about paying Nana Sihib.  On his return to India, Azimullah traveled to see the fighting in the Crimean War between England and Russia.  In Crimea he saw the sick British soldiers suffering under poor leadership.  While he failed in the purpose of his trip to England, he returned to India realizing that the British had no special ability that the Indians lacked and that it was possible to militarily defeat the British.

When he returned to India, Azimullah encouraged Nana Sihib to turn against the British.  He also began to produce anti-British writings with a printing press he had brought back from Europe and distributed these.  In 1857, when the Sepoy soldiers (Indian soldiers working for British East India Company) rebelled against the British, Azimullah convinced Nana Sihib to support the rebellion.  Nana Sihib became a leader in the rebellion – including ordering the massacre of British women and children when the British surrendered at Cawnpore.  While it is unknown what happened to Azimullah after the British crushed the rebellion, he most likely died of a fever in 1859 on the run from the British in the north of India.

Classwork # 1 - British India

Source # 5 - Except from the Report of the Indian Famine Commission in 1880

A main cause of the disastrous consequences of Indian famines is to be found in the fact that the great mass of the population directly depends on agriculture and that there is no other industry from which any considerable part of the community derives its support.  The complete remedy for this condition of thing will be found only in the development of industries other than agriculture and independent of the fluctuations of the seasons.