Building Background

The children behind Britannia and under her protection represent the British East India Company. The stream of water at the bottom of the painting is the Indian river Ganges. Calcutta (the main settlement of the Company in Bengal) presents a basket with pearls and other jewels. China is represented by jars of porcelain and a box of tea, and Bengal by an elephant and a camel. In the background a ship is taking the treasures of the east back to Britain. Questions:

1. Identify the various features of the painting that are outlined in the useful notes. 2. Explain which aspects of the painting show Britain as strong. 

3. Which parts of the painting show Britain as kind?

4. Does this source provide any clues as to why the British became empire builders in India? Explain.

Activity 2: 

Indian British Encounters 

Choices offers some concise and appropriate readings that help to build student's foundation of knowledge about the region of the Indian subcontinent and how the British came to govern the region. I like the scaffolding that I created for these reading because I have found that without it, students simply skim the text for the answers to the questions, but don't consider what they are reading or writing. The sections on the primary source analysis are critical for student understanding as well. 

Vocabulary: Empire, Mutiny, Caste, Exile, Superior, Descendants -

The British East India Company

Questions:

1. When and how was the British East India Company formed?

2. Who was Robert Clive? What did he do?

3. Why was India important to England?

4. What methods did the British use to conquer much of India?

Primary Source Analysis: 

“War and traffic [trade] are incompatible…Let this be received as a rule, that, if you will profit, seek it at sea, and in quiet trade; for without controversy iyt is an error to affect garrisons and land wars in India.” – Sir Thomas Roe, the first royal envoy to India 

1. Who is Roe addressing? 

2. What is his advice?

3. What is the significance of this idea? 

“No greater blessing can be conferred on the native inhabitants of India than the extension of British authority. ” – Lord Wellesley 

1. Explain what Lord Wellesley is saying here. 

2. What is the tone of this statement? 

“Without that empire [India] and the naval power that cemented it she [Great Britain] was but a medium sized European country. With it, she was great among the greatest, boasting a worldwide Pax Britannca. Without India, the subordinate empire would be scarcely more that a string of colonial beads.” – A.V. Hodson, advisor to the viceroy of India 

1. Why according to Hodson, is India so important to England? 

2. What is his tone in this statement? 

The “Mutiny” of 1857

Questions:

1. What new policies did the British put into place between 1813-1829?

2. What caused the rebellion of 1857?

3. How did the British respond to the rebellion?

4. What was the reaction of other sectors of the Indian population to the mutiny?

Primary source analysis:

“A single shelf of a good European library is worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.” – English scholar T.B. Macaulay 

What is the message behind this statement?

“May all the enemies of the Faith be killed today, and the [foreigners] be destroyed root and branch.” – Badur Shah 

1. Who was Badur Shah? 

2. Why is it significant that he says “enemies of the Faith?” 

3. What does he want? 

“I wish I were Commander and Chief in India…I should do my utmost to exterminate the Race upon whom the stain of the late cruelties rested…to blot it out of humankind and raze it off the face of the earth.” – Charles Dickens, English author

How did Charles Dickens feel about the Sepoy Mutiny? 

Two People – Two Standards

Questions:

1. Why did the British regard themselves as superior to the native people of India?

2. How did the British treat the Indians?

Primary Source Analysis:

“You forget that you are dealing with a Briton – one of that band who never brooks an insult even from an equal, much less from a native of this land…. A Briton, even though alone amongst a though of your kind shall be respected, though it brought about his death. That’s how we hold the world.” – General John Nicholson 

1. Who is Nicholson addressing? 

2. What is he saying in your own words? 

3. What is the tone of this statement? 

Activity 3: 

Video of Interview about British Raj

Students should watch this short video about the British Raj from PBS about the British Raj, its seems simple enough, but it begins to reveal some critical concepts about the ways in which the British gained and maintained control in India. 

Questions: 

1. Why was it important for the British to keep systematic accounts of their colonies?

2. Why does the narrator say that “Imperialism is never benign”?

3. What was the first question of the British census in 1880….?

4. What implication did this census have on people living in the region?

Activity 4: 

Crown Rule 

The vocabulary and questions below align with the Choices reading on Crown Rule. Again, the questions that require students to explain primary source texts are important and students can use these excerpts in future papers. 

Central Question: What impact did the British Raj have on India?

Vocabulary:Industrialization, British Raj, Urban, Census, Elites, Caste system, Indentured servant, Cash crop

Questions: 

1. What was the stated purpose of the Act for the Better Government of India Act?

2. List three ways the British tried to strengthen their authority following the Great revolt of 1857?

3. What did the British emphasize in the all India census and what affect did it have on Indians?

4. Explain in your own words the three different theories of how the caste system originated.

5. How did the British use the caste system to organize Indian society?

6. What were two reasons the British wanted to expand the transportation and communication networks in India?

7. What we're some of the effects the railway development had on Indian society?

8. What did it mean to be an indentured servant? Who became an indentured servant and what did they do?

9. On June 11, 1887, Bangabasi, a Bengali newspaper reported the following: "Railway lines have been constructed in all directions for the benefit of Europeans and of their trade. The interests of the natives of India have been sacrificed to the interests of the Europeans." What evidence from the reading do you have that supports this claim? What evidence do you have that contradicts it?