Legitimacy of British concessions
Do you agree with the view that in the period 1900-19 the British only made concessions to India in order to strengthen their hold on the sub-continent?
India, throughout history, has been subject to numerous cases of persecution, subjugation, conquest and oppression. Successful conquest of India is a difficult yet lucrative investment and can easily help supplement and revitalise an economy through the trade of its bountiful natural resources. Despite India’s monetary value, the Official British policy stated there were ulterior motives for its conquest of India, such as the fulfilment of the British policy of ‘White Man’s Burden’; with the eventual aim of establishing an Indian self-government. It can however be suggested, that such seemingly sincere claims were merely fabricated as a means of providing a stable source of trade for the British economy or as a means of further imposing British imperialist dominance across Europe.
The Morley Minto-reforms of 1909 are an example of a plethora of reforms initiated by the British government. The aims of the reforms were to secure a better informed and more effective system of Government for India, secure Muslim representation in the councils and to isolate radicals and placate the moderates in congress. With regards to the official British policy such seemingly sincere reforms were a commitment to eventual Indian self-government within the Empire which meant that the British goal was to institute a new and more civilized government system, to allow India to thrive and self- govern independently from the British. However there was no sense that independence would ever be a goal of British policy and even self- government was seen publicly as a lengthy project of many decades. Empires were costly to run but they provided easy colonial markets for goods manufactured in the European home countries to benefit the British economy. Source 13 agrees that ‘these concessions can be seen as a way of strengthening the Raj and
India, throughout history, has been subject to numerous cases of persecution, subjugation, conquest and oppression. Successful conquest of India is a difficult yet lucrative investment and can easily help supplement and revitalise an economy through the trade of its bountiful natural resources. Despite India’s monetary value, the Official British policy stated there were ulterior motives for its conquest of India, such as the fulfilment of the British policy of ‘White Man’s Burden’; with the eventual aim of establishing an Indian self-government. It can however be suggested, that such seemingly sincere claims were merely fabricated as a means of providing a stable source of trade for the British economy or as a means of further imposing British imperialist dominance across Europe.
The Morley Minto-reforms of 1909 are an example of a plethora of reforms initiated by the British government. The aims of the reforms were to secure a better informed and more effective system of Government for India, secure Muslim representation in the councils and to isolate radicals and placate the moderates in congress. With regards to the official British policy such seemingly sincere reforms were a commitment to eventual Indian self-government within the Empire which meant that the British goal was to institute a new and more civilized government system, to allow India to thrive and self- govern independently from the British. However there was no sense that independence would ever be a goal of British policy and even self- government was seen publicly as a lengthy project of many decades. Empires were costly to run but they provided easy colonial markets for goods manufactured in the European home countries to benefit the British economy. Source 13 agrees that ‘these concessions can be seen as a way of strengthening the Raj and