The British Empire &

IndiaBy Brigid Lee

Ken Chi

Reshanga Goonetilleke

Elinor Stokes

Why did the British Want to Get More Influence and Control Over

India?

CONTROL!!!

British East India Company

Before we start, we have to introduce the British East India Company:

• The British East India Company was formed by a group of English businessmen who banded together to make money from trading and importing spices from South Asia.

So Why did the British Want to Get More Influence and Control Over

India?The British wanted more control over India

because they wanted to become more rich, and trading could help them do that.

They could trade more easily without:

• Paying for new taxes

• Wars stopping them from going to different places

• Pirates and robbers robbing them

Gandhi’s efforts to make India independent from

British rule

• Gandhi believed that nonviolence could solve all problems.

• Gandhi wanted the British people to know that they were no longer welcome in India.

• Gandhi want Muslims and Hindu to be united.

Gandhi’s prospective

• Gandhi believed that Indians were entitled to make their own salt.

• Gandhi marched 400 kilometers from his village to the sea where he made his own salt.

• Half of the tax in India was from salt.

• The purpose of the salt march was to show the world how unfair the British were to the Indians and to show the British that they cannot rule India without India’s consent.

• There were thousands of people following Gandhi on the Salt March including many reporters.

The salt march

What did British rule achieve for India and what were its

failures?

Humanity

Benefits

• The British killed a lot of unwanted children. They also destroyed criminal gangs. Charitable aids in times of famine.

Failures

• The British treated the some of the Indian workers almost as if they were slaves. However, the British didn’t treat them any worse than the Indians treated their own workers.

Civilisation Benefits

• Education, yet only partial. It also leads to the destruction of superstition and a lot of evil.

Failures

• There were not really any failures under this section. Although the British could have done more.

Government Benefits

• The British enforced peace, order, freedom of speech, liberty of the press. There was also equal justice but it sometimes favored the Europeans.

Failures

• The British repeatedly promised to give the Indians a fair share in running their own country. However, they did not follow through with their promises.

Wealth

Benefits• The British developed a few valuable products such as; indigo, tea,

coffee, silk, etc. They also Increased the trade around India.

Failures• They devised new taxes without considering to improve the people’s

ability to pay. The poor were treated very badly. There was a loss in the manufacturing industry and a loss in skill.

What is the legacy left by the British in India?

After the British left India, what remained?

What did the British leave behind?

• The English language- it is now widely spoken in India and is a great advantage over other countries.

• Democracy- India is now the largest democracy in the whole world.

• Cricket- this is one of the most popular sports in India

• Education- this led to erasing most of the superstition.

• A united country – before the English arrived, India was divided into separate states.

• Roads and Railways- before the English arrived, there were no railways and only simple dirt roads.

• Communication- the English brought in telegraphs and communication systems.

Was England’s Rule Over India Successful?

Hmmmm...

• Looking through all the evidence; our group think that England’s rule over India was a mixed basket. There were some successful aspects and other less successful aspects during British rule.