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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Pakistan
Index
The uprising of 1857-58 became the great divide in
nineteenth-century South Asian history. Understated by
British
historians as the Indian Mutiny or Sepoy Rebellion and
referred
to with some exaggeration by later Indian nationalists as
the
First War of Independence, the uprising nevertheless
heralded the
formal end of the Mughal Empire and marked the end of
company
rule in India as well. In general, the uprising was a
reaction to
British expansionism and the outcome of the policies of
modernization and annexation of Governor General Lord
Dalhousie
(1848-56), especially in Oudh (Avadh, now part of the
Indian
state of Uttar Pradesh) in 1856. The immediate spark for
mutiny
by the sepoys (Indian soldiers employed by the East India
Company) was the introduction of the new Enfield rifle,
which had
to be cartridges, allegedly greased with cow or pig fat,
the tips
of which had to be bitten off before loading. Both Muslim
and
Hindu soldiers were outraged at this offense to their
religious
scruples and refused to comply. British officers responded
by
summarily dismissing regiment after regiment from the
Bengal Army
for refusing to load their weapons. The mutiny ignited at
the
cantonment at Meerut, north of Delhi, when all three of
the sepoy
regiments rose in revolt against the British, killing some
British officers before heading for Delhi to restore
Bahadur Shah
II to imperial glory. Although the area of fighting was
limited
to northern and central India and participation to sepoys
of the
Bengal army and some princely states, the uprisings lasted
a year
and were a severe blow to British confidence. In putting
down the
rebellion, British troops were aided substantially by
their
recently recruited troops from Punjab.
The uprising of 1857-58 heralded the formal end of the
Mughal
Empire and marked as well the end of company rule in
India. The
British Parliament passed the Government of India Act of
1858,
which transferred authority to the British crown,
represented in
India by the governor general, who thereafter also had the
title
of viceroy. Queen Victoria was proclaimed empress of India
in
1877.
The Victorian model of administration in British India
became
the standard reference point for law, order, and probity
in
contemporary Pakistan. At the apex of the administration
stood
the governor general, almost always a British peer. The
governor
general held supreme legislative and executive powers and
was
responsible directly to the secretary of state for India,
a
member of the British cabinet. British India was divided
into
provinces (suba) for administrative purposes, each
headed,
depending on size and importance, by a governor or
lieutenant
governor. Provinces were divided into divisions, and these
in
turn were divided into districts (zilla), the basic
administrative units, encompassing substantial territory
and
population. In many cases, the provinces and districts
followed
the lines of those created by the Mughals.
The district officer was the linchpin of the system.
The
officer was revenue collector as well as dispenser of
justice and
was called district collector, district magistrate, and,
in some
areas, deputy commissioner (the DC) with equal validity.
District
officers were usually drawn from the prestigious
meritocracy, the
Indian Civil Service. Recruitment to the Indian Civil
Service was
competitive, based on examination of young men with a
British
classical education. Exclusively British at its beginning,
the
Indian Civil Service was forced to open its doors slightly
to
successful Indian candidates. After 1871 district boards
and
municipal committees were established to assist the
district
officers in their administrative functions. Thus elective
politics, in however limited a form, was introduced to the
subcontinent. The governor general was also known as the
viceroy
and crown representative when dealing with Indian princes.
Relations between the British crown and Indian princes
were set
out in an elusive doctrine of "paramountcy." The princes
promised
loyalty and surrendered all rights to conduct foreign or
defense
policy; the crown promised noninterference in internal
affairs
(except in cases of gross maladministration or injustice)
and
protection from external and internal enemies.
The British Raj was socially and politically
conservative,
but it brought profound economic change to the
subcontinent. For
strategic, administrative, and commercial reasons, the
British
improved transportation and communications and kept them
in good
repair. Coal mines were opened in Bihar and Bengal, and
irrigation canals were laid out in the Yamuna (also seen
as
Jumna), Ganges, and Indus valleys; the Indus Valley became
the
largest irrigated area in the world. The expansion of
irrigation
in Punjab led to the development of canal colonies,
settled
mainly by Sikhs and Muslims, and the designation of Punjab
as the
granary of India. Law and order guaranteed a high rate of
return
on British, and later Indian, investment in these
enterprises.
Racial criteria were also used in a dramatic overhaul
of the
British Indian Army. The number of British soldiers was
increased
relative to the Indians, and Indians were excluded from
artillery
and technical services. A theory of "martial races" was
used to
accelerate recruitment from among "loyal" Sikhs, Punjabi
Muslims, Dogras, Gurkas, and Pakhtuns
(Pathans--see Glossary)
and to
discourage enlistment of "disloyal" Bengalis and
high-caste
Hindus.
Data as of April 1994
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