British Rule And Colonial Interest Case Study

British Rule and Colonial Interest

The arrival of the British in India was marked by the spice trade during the period of the European exploration in the 1600s. Through trade and export, European powers found their way to India. The British, particularly, were drawn to India’s wealth, it’s markets and growing population. Their eventual involvement led to the establishment of the East India Company in 1757. The company introduced measures towards western education, modern transportation, goods and healthcare. However, this benign streak was merely a singular aspect to their policy as it also led to an increased tyrannical control over India, it’s government and economy. This resulted in a large scale discrimination perpetuated against Indians
This was of course, developed along the lines of a constructive critique, rather than the attitude of zero tolerance that was adopted by their adversaries, the extremists.
The extremists who advocated “Swaraj” or complete self rule of the Indians, were extremely wary of the loyalty that the moderates showed towards the British. “How can loyalty exist in the face of injustice and misgovernment which we confront everyday?”, Bipin Chandra Pal had claimed, a nationalist who has been famously associated with the extremist triumvirate of Lal Bal Pal. In contrast, the Moderates seemed to be complacent under the British may be because of their conviction that Indians were incapable of self-rule.
The Moderates followed the method of prayer, petition, persuation, representation and deputation in order to convince the government about the justness of their demands. They practiced constitutional agitation and held meetings. They criticised the government through the press. They also worked to influence the British Parliament and British public opinion and a lot of money was spent for years for that purpose. This method was dubbed by the Extremists as the 'method of mendicancy’ and was described by Aurobindo Ghosh as “licking the dust of the feet that
However the official attitude hardly lasted for three to four years eventually giving place to an attitude of suspicion and intolerance. As a result, in 1887, the congress started a campaign of agitation against the various acts, omissions and commissions of the government by means of public meetings, pamphlets and leaflets.

Dufferin had suggested to Mr. Hume that the Congress should devote itself to social rather than political affairs. But the Congress leader did not accept it. The Government became gradually hostile to the development of the nationalist forces among the moderates and began to criticise and condemn the National Congress publicly by branding the nationalists as 'disloyal babus'. Dufferin himself attacked the National Congress in 1887 by calling it an organization representing only "a microscopic minority of the