Impact of Policies of East India Company

Introduction

The East India Company was one of the main reasons why the Nawabs lost their power over the Indian subcontinent. The company came to India and established itself during the early phase of the Battle of Plassey. The company ruled in India from the year 1757 to 1858. The company came to establish a business, but it basically made a way to British rule in India. In this article, we will be talking about the Impact of the Policies of the East India Company in India.

The case of Awadh 

Awadh is located in the middle of the Indo-Gangetic Plain and has been an essential part of the history of the East India company. The place was first invaded in the 12th century by the Muslim Invaders. The kingdom remained under the Mughals for a long time and became an integral part of the Mughal Empire in the 16th century.

If we talk of the Britishers and the east India company, they showed interest in the place in the early 1760s. The Britishers eventually got a hold on the power and captured Awadh. However, this invasion had a different impact than all others. Awadh was captured entirely by the year 1856, and this had a significant impact on the Indian mentality. This action was one of the leading causes of the Indian Mutiny that took place in 1858.

 End of Mughal dynasty

 The Mughal dynasty ended on a very tragic note. The dynasty was the last one before the Britishers invaded India. The last Mughal, Bahadur Shah Zafar, died when he was captured by the Britishers. There were a number of reasons why Britishers were able to capture India so quickly, and one of the main reasons was the weak hold of the Mughals over India.

 Due to their greed and loss of their territories to the company, the Mughals eventually ended up losing everything to the East India Company and this ultimately made the transfer of the power from the Mughals to the Britishers. But if one talks about the policies of East India companies that were introduced after the Mughal dynasty, people always had issues and compared them with the easy and favourable policies framed by Mughals.

 Crossing sea Issue

 Indians were always affected when Britishers made them go against their traditions. Indians were very resistant to the fact that one could cross water bodies. However, most of the trade of the East India Company from India to Britain was based on sea voyages. Even the Britishers forced Indians to travel and cross the sea, which was more than a sin for them.

 However, many historians believe that crossing the sea was not a significant issue for many religions, but if we talk of Hindus during the early times, one can easily say that these people were affected by the sea journey.

Abolition of the practice of Sati.

 Sati was a process followed in India which was basically very inhumane. According to this ritual, if the husband dies, the wife has to sit on the burning body of his husband and die along with him.

Britishers found the concept very cruel and inappropriate. Even there were many great freedom fighters, such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy, who were against the concept of sati and made it stop. But a considerable part of India who agreed with following the traditional concept found the stopping of the practice of Sati very offensive to their culture.

 Impact of Policies of East India Company

 Different parts of the society, including the Indian kings, the queens, landlords, and even the ordinary people, were affected by British rule in numerous ways. Ever since the 18th century, all the different policies of East India companies made the kings lose their power.

Many prominent ruling families, such as the Rani of Jhansi, tried to negotiate with the British company, but their policies were always something that affected India and their peoples and was always there to make things better for them and worse for the Indians.

Some measures taken by the company to destroy the Mughal dynasty were:

•  They literally removed the Mughal King names from the coins. This tradition was something particular to the Mughal Era
• After the death of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the royal family was shifted out of the Red Fort, and this eventually made them lose control over the Indian subcontinent
•  The governor-general also declared that after the death of the last Mughal King, Bahadur Shah Zafar none of the Mughal descendants would be called kings. Instead, they were termed princes

Policies that affected the other ordinary people

•  When we talk of the tradition of zamindars, the company made them pay higher taxes that even increased the revenue collection, which affected ordinary farmers
• All the sepoys that were a part of the company’s army paid lower salaries and allowances than the British sepoys. They were also made to work in Harsh conditions, which were unacceptable to these people
• Even Indian sepoys were made to sign special agreements that made them work overseas. Such policies were very discouraged by the Indians, and they also violated the traditional and religious sentiments of Indians

Responses to the policies

There were numerous policies introduced by the British government. Most of them were against Indians, but some of them were actually something that ancient India needed.

However, basically, all the reforms introduced by the Britishers were never welcomed by Indians. Some responses to their policies are-

• The stoppage of sati or burning of the widowed women was basically to encourage the remarriage of these girls to help them grow and enjoy their life. But the concept of remarriage was one of the most hated concepts in ancient India during the eighties
•  Britishers also came up with the policy to start the conversion to Christianity. They encouraged people to get converted to Christians, but Indians never liked the concept of changing their religion
• Indians were ready to change unhealthy and harmful social practises, but to eradicate such practises, they needed to accept the change. Hence, most of the policies to bring up the change caused difficulties to the Indians and made them angrier at the company

Conclusion

We tried to mention all the impacts of the policies of the East India company above in the article. Most of the policies made by the East India Company were established and acted to make things comfortable for the Britishers and the company to rule India, but on the other hand, these policies had a significant impact on the Indian mentality. Due to the impact of these policies, events such as the Indian Mutiny of 1857 took place.