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British rule in India and the formation of state
Zoya AnsariFebruary 28, 2024
The British colonial rule in the subcontinent witnessed formation of a state that was quite novel in its orientation and was the result of centuries of socio-political evolution of the European continent.
It is imperative to point out that the power to define the nature of the past and establish priorities in the creation of a monumental record of a civilization, and to propound canons of taste, are among the most significant instrumentalities of rulership that are also the main characteristics of formation of state.
Right at the outset it must be kept in view that the British domination of India was not just the result of the power of superior arms, military organization, political power or economic wealth but was also the result of socio-cultural modes that were the outcome of modernised perceptions about existence of people in a geographical territory. The current tendency is to ignore the cultural effects of colonialism and emphasis is instead placed on modernization that is usually assumed to be the result of other factors. It was in fact the colonial knowledge pattern that enabled dominance of the British in India and it was quite natural that the colonists would shape the colonial state in their own perception.
The consequence was that the cultural forms in newly subjugated social entities societies were reconstructed and transformed by and through the knowledge acquired by the British. The colonial British imperialism set in motion transformation that proved too powerful to be resisted and became the norm of state formation that is still in existence.
To begin with the British imperial project in India was mostly based upon the pretext of delineating the archaeological memories and religious texts of the subcontinent and changing them according to their own experiences of evolution. One of the most credible manifestations of British orientation was exhibited in the Indian civil service model that soon became all-pervasive.
The essential ingredients of state building in India were documentation, legitimation, classification and bounding. The beginning was made by metropolitan documentation projects that started with the establishment of Fort William college followed by may such institutions.
The idea was taken from universities and public schools that evolved in Britain that were mostly associated with the old aristocracy that was observed intermingling with the trading and professional cadres giving rise to the middle class that subsequently formed the new colonial governing classes in the subcontinent.
These cadres were oriented to remain loyal to the governing classes dedicated to creating a colonial national identity. This identity was underwritten by the growing assumption that the metropole and the colony operate on a similar axis and are required to exist together as a credible unit. In such a unit the British tried to create a society based upon a series of facts derived through comprehending the mutual forms of knowledge and thought-process.
In this context, the British believed that their administrative power stemmed from the efficient use of these facts comprising of observation of the existing world. The British came to India completely ignorant of territorial and socio-cultural contours of this vast subcontinent that held widespread belief in divine supremacy and ruled by the laws of nature. There was hardly any semblance of the realisation that the debate in the west has changed from unquestionable acceptance of divinity the reasonable and stronger presence of human spirit.
After this principle was accepted then a long debate followed on the nature of human being as it was gradually accepted that the world is to be run by the human beings. Actually, the facts on ground in India did not correspond to those of the British as they were exactly the opposite to each other. Nevertheless, the British believed they could explore and conquer this space through employing methods aimed at understanding the environment in India and resorting to enter into detailed correspondence with Indian factions. In this context the British acquired sizeable knowledge of the languages used in India including Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit as well as all the vernaculars. It was quite obvious that the knowledge of languages was necessary to issue commands, collect taxes, maintain law and order and to create other forms of knowledge about the people they were ruling.
The British used the knowledge accrued to classify, categorise and bound the vast social world that was India so that it could be controlled. These imperatives, elements in the larger colonial project, shaped the investigative methods devised by the British to collect the facts and through their sincere efforts they were soon able to master situation in the land. They initiated an exhausted investigation of the facts around them and slowly developed them into an archive of information comprising reports, statistics, historical facts, gazetteers and legal codes. They strengthened this process through carrying out surveys and census that were later on taken to deeper levels that were considered part of scientific investigation. It was obvious that right after acquiring vast territories of the subcontinent the British aimed at devising a ruling formula based upon codifying and reinstituting the ruling practices that had been developed by previous states and rulers.
They sought to incorporate, as much as possible, the administrative personnel employed by previous regimes and this knowledge proved to the most valuable aspect of state formation.
The British rulers started their rule from 1770 in Bengal and their enquiries continued throughout their rule. This process became the basis of the most extensive and continuous administrative activity of the British that initially dealt with the land-settlement process that revolutionised the contours of British rule as they granted land entitlement to the people practically tilling the land.
They also formulated and insisted upon adhering to the laid down boundaries gradually ruling out the practice of raiding that was rampant. In addition, the British also made use of determining the monetary value of goods and objects throughout their domains and no breach was accepted in this respect.
The state formation requirements included systematic survey of the territories under control and the British initiated this process in 1765 and this practice later on came to cover any systematic and official investigation of the natural and social features of the British Indian empire. The result was the vast official documentation process through which the British Indian state was ultimately formed and administered.
The British in India ruled with a clear understanding that they must form a credible state in India according to the requirements of the modern notions of the state. The large physical scale of the subcontinent required a scheme by which a multitude of multiple identities could be welded into a functional state and throughout their rule in India they never lost track of their original aim.
The British are considered in the annals of history as much more than mere colonisers in the tradition of the colonisation process as they consistently ventured to form a state in India that was geographically contiguous and politically viable. It was certainly a tall order to accomplish but the British succeeded in the end due to their dexterity and disinterested pursuance of their goal. The state formation practices devised by the British became the standard practice for not only the subcontinent but also for many decolonised countries.
