British Impact on India

Introduction: The struggle for Indian independence was more than just an effort to break free of British colonial rule. It was part of a broader conflict that took place, and is in many ways ongoing, within Indian society. In order to organize resistance, upper-caste Indian activists needed to frame Indian identity as united against British colonialism. This was not in of itself difficult, but they wanted to maintain an upper-caste dominance over Indian society. This required upholding "classical" structures of caste identity for all Indians in their vision of what post-colonial India would look like and how it would function politically and socially. These structures of caste provided upper-caste Hindus with a privileged social and political position backed by religious dogma. The presence of the British, under the British East India Company from 1600-1857 , and the British Crown from 1858 until 1947, had been a major influence in defining India's political and social structures. This British influence shaped Indian caste based politics by strengthening caste identity, playing different caste groups off of each other, and governing in such a way that encouraged groups to embrace caste identity to seek political gain. It is not a question of the British "creating" Indian identity; rather it is a process by which they emphasized certain institutions, namely Brahmanism and ancient Hindu texts like the Manu Dharma Sastras, in order to organize and better control India for generating resources and keeping order. Centuries of British rule helped to create a distorted Indian society based on a romanticized version of ancient Brahman order, superior to any political developments that had arisen after it. This Orientalist view was utilized by Hindu activists who sought to maintain Hindu primacy and privilege. The British race-based view of "Aryan" Brahmans as the natural rulers for India, under their watch, was informed by the body of literature that made up the