Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India

Front Cover
Macmillan, Aug 12, 2000 - History - 722 pages

In less that one hundred years, the British made themselves the masters of India. They ruled for another hundred, leaving behind the independent nations of India and Pakistan when they finally withdrew in 1947. Both nations would owe much to the British Raj: under its rule, Indians learned to see themselves as Indians; its benefits included railways, roads, canals, schools, universities, hospitals, universal language and common law.

None of this, however, was planned. After a series of emergencies in the eighteenth century transformed a business partnership-the East India Company-into the most formidable war machine in Asia, conquest gathered its own momentum. Fortunes grew, but, alongside them, Britons grew troubled by the despotism that had been created in their name. The result was the formation of a government that balanced firmness with benevolence, and had as its goal the advancement of India.

But the Raj, outwardly so monolithic and magnificent, always rested precariously on the goodwill of Indians. In this remarkable exploration of British rule in India, Lawrence James chronicles the astonishing heroism that created it, the mixture of compromise and firmness that characterized it, and the twists and turns of the independence struggle that ended it.

" ... James presents a consistently intriguing take on a deeply complicated history." - Publishers Weekly

From inside the book

Contents

List of Maps
Acknowledgements
THE COMPANY ASCENDANT 174084
1
Prologue Mughal Twilight
3
Glorious Prospect Robert Clives Wars 174055
13
New Strength from Conquest Bengal 175565
30
An Empire Within an Empire British Reactions to Indian Conquests
45
No Retreat Grand Strategy and Small Wars 17841826
63
Not as Relics but as Rulers Indias Princes
322
We are British Subjects Loyalty and Dissent 18601905
341
Not Worth the Candle Wars Real and Imaginary 18541914
364
Never at Peace Indias Frontiers and Armies
392
Conciliatory Sugar Plums Compromise and Coercion 190614
415
True to Our Salt India and the First World War 191418
437
Strong Passion Amritsar and After 191922
462
This Wonderful Land AngloIndian Perspectives
489

The Cossack and the Sepoy Misadventures of an Asian Power 182642
79
The cast of a Die The Sind and the Sikhs 184349
99
Robust Bodies and Obstinate Minds An Anatomy of Conquest
119
European Gentlemen Indias New Ruling Class
151
Utility and Beneficence British Visions and Indian Realities
173
Gradual and Mild Correction Taxing and Policing India
187
A Hearty Desire Sex Religion and the Raj
207
The Sahib Paid No Attention The Raj Imperilled JanuaryJuly 1857
233
Very Harrowing Work The Raj Resurgent August 1857 January 1859
254
Like Elephants on Heat AngloIndian Reactions to the Mutiny
278
Low and Steady Pressure The Exercise of Absolute Power
301
A Great Trial of Strength Power Struggles 192242
517
Bad Knock India at War JanuaryJuly 1942
543
An Occupied and Hostile Country India at War August 1942August 1945
562
What Are We Here For? September 1945February 1947
584
Was It Too Quick? Dividing and Departing MarchSeptember 1947
606
Epilogue
638
Bibliography
646
Notes
667
Index
707
Copyright

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About the author (2000)

Lawrence James studied History and English at York University and subsequently undertook a research degree at Merton College, Oxford. Following a career as a teacher, he became a full-time writer in 1985, and is the author of The Golden Warrior: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia, Imperial Warrior: The Life and Times of Field Marshal Viscount Allenby, and the acclaimed Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India. He now lives in St. Andrews.

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