History - - Posted on July, 19 at 11:11 pm
The reputation of the East India Company had been of ever increasing conquest and commercial exploitation. The cumulative effect of British expansionist policies, economic exploitation and administrative abuse over the years had adversely affected the position of local rulers, Sepoys, Zamindars, peasants, traders, Pandits, Moulvies and so on.
The resentment of the Indians found expression in a number of mutinies and insurrections from time to time in different parts of the country. The simmering discontent burst out into a violent storm in 1857, which shook the British stronghold in India to its very foundations. The control of the Indian administration was transferred from the East India Company to the Crown by ‘The Government of India Act, 1858′.
The revolt of 1857 opened a new era. The nineteenth and twentieth century saw social political and economic awakening. Introduction of western education and western ideas generated certain forces -some accepting it as positive trends and others as a reaction to it. For the British, the danger from the feudal India ended forever; the new challenge of British Imperialism came from progressive India fed on the philosophy of John Stuart Mill and British liberals of the nineteenth century.
Gradually, the local political activities united and the idea of a nation started taking shape. Nationalism was expressed by various means due to the wide exposure to outside world and political thoughts. This churned out leftist organisations, extremists, revolutionary terrorist movements as well as the Indian National Congress.
In addition to the nationalist movements, Indians experienced social and cultural movements like Theosophical movement, Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj, Prarthana Samaj and so on. Movements against social oppression initiated by Rammohun Roy, Dhondo Keshav Karve, Jyotiba Phule and the likes flourished. This period of socio-cultural and political upheaval gave birth to eminent leaders on all fronts like Balgangadhar Tilak, Gopalakrishna Gokhale, Agarkar, Dadabhai Naoroji, Lala Lajapat Rai, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Bhimrao Ambedkar.
This section compiles the epochs and influences -human and circumstantial, that moulded the nation and its people forming today’s India.
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