Political causes

SUBSIDIARY ALLIANCE

• Introduced by Lord Wellesly.
• The two main objectives kept in mind while introducing the policy were-

1. British Empire in India should be protected from the external forces of state alliances or independent princely states. To undertake this objective, the British aimed to directly control all the individual princely states. This would prevent them from forming alliances with other foreign powers or be influenced by foreign powers in taking decisions.

2. The Empire should expand to be made as big as possible so that all the neighbouring countries would also be in the fore of the jurisdiction and in the alliances,eventually leading to the entire population and the state of India becoming a British possession

The main characteristics of this policy were:

a. Indian rulers had to accept the Subsidiary Alliance which ordered them to agree to not fight against any foreign power without the permission of the British. They were also not allowed to keep any direct contact with outside powers.

b. Armies should be formed in each of the states that accepted the Subsidiary Alliance policy and that army should remain under the control of the English generals.

c. For the small princely states, this policy meant that they had to maintain armies but instead of giving a part of their land to the British in order to meet the army costs, had to pay an annual amount to compensate for the payment.

DOCTRINE OF LAPSE

• Introduced by Lord Dalhousie
• According to Hindu law, an individual or a ruler without natural heirs could adopt a person who would then have all the personal and political rights of a son.
• Lord Dalhousie asserted the paramount power’s right of acting at discretion in the absence a male heir in any kingdom.
• This allowed the British to take direct control of any state that did have any male heir to claim the succession to the throne.
• This policy was most strongly enforced in the cases of Satara (1848), Jaitpur and Sambalpur (1849), Baghat (1850), Chota Udaipur (1852), Jhansi (1853), and Nagpur (1854).