Wahabi Movement in India Syed Ahmed of Rai Bareilly, influenced by Saudi Arabia’s Abdul Wahab (1703-87) and Delhi’s Shah Waliullah, launched the Wahabi Movement, which was primarily an Islamic revivalist movement. Syed Ahmed denounced western influences on Islam and argued for a restoration to genuine Islam and society as it existed in the Arabia of … Read more
Introduction The British government, unwilling to give or even share power with the Indians, reverted to the ‘carrot and stick’ method. The small Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms were the carrot, while legislation like the Rowlatt Act was the stick. In July 1918, the administration proposed additional constitutional reforms, known as the Montagu-Chelmsford or Montford Reforms, in conformity … Read more
Champaran Satyagraha (1917)—First Civil Disobedience Gandhi was asked by Rajkumar Shukla, a local man, to look into the difficulties of farmers in Champaran, Bihar, who were indigo planters. The villagers had been forced to cultivate indigo on 3/20 of the total land area by European colonists (called tinkathia system). When German synthetic dyes supplanted indigo … Read more
Lucknow Session of the Indian National Congress (1916) The History of the Lucknow Pact The Muslim League was a reasonably moderate organization with a pro-British stance when it was founded in 1906. Following World War I, Viceroy Lord Chelmsford sought reform proposals from Indians in exchange for Indian assistance for the British war effort. Through … Read more
Importance of Home Rule Movement The Home Rule Movement was India’s less heated but more successful response to the First World War than Indians living overseas, which took the shape of the romantic Ghadr experience. Two Indian Home Rule Leagues were formed in the style of the Irish Home Rule Leagues, signaling the beginning of … Read more
Morley-Minto Reforms—1909 In October 1906, the Simla Deputation, led by the Agha Khan, met Lord Minto and demanded distinct electorates for Muslims, as well as representation in excess of their numerical strength, in recognition of “the worth of the contribution” Muslims were making “to the defense of the empire.” The Muslim League, which was founded … Read more
Ranjit Singh and the British The English were concerned about the possibility of a joint Franco-Russian invasion of India via the land route. Lord Minto dispatched Charles Metcalfe to Lahore in 1807. Ranjit Singh agreed to accept Metcalfe’s offensive and defensive alliance proposal on the condition that the English would remain neutral … Read more
What is subsidiary alliance policy? The subsidiary alliance system was utilized by Lord Wellesley, who served as Governor-General of India from 1798 to 1805, to construct an empire in India. Under the arrangement, the monarch of an allying Indian state was required to accept the permanent stationing of a British military unit within his … Read more
British Conquest of Bengal On the eve of the conquest of Bengal by the British Bengal, the richest province of the Mughal Empire, included present-day Bangladesh, and its Nawab ruled over what would later become the states of Bihar and Odisha. Bengal exported raw goods to Europe, including saltpetre, rice, indigo, pepper, sugar, silk, cotton … Read more
Decline of Mughal Empire Historians argue over why the Mughal Empire declined in power. Scholars are divided into two camps: those who believe the advancements are largely imperial in nature, and those who believe they are regional in origin. The Mughal-centric or empire-related view identifies the causes of the empire’s demise in the structure and … Read more