Chapter 08 · 1858 to 1947
Crown and the freedom struggle
ब्रिटिश राज और स्वतंत्रता संग्राम
In 1858 the Crown took over the Company's territories and army and promised the princes their thrones. For nearly ninety years India was governed from Calcutta and, after 1911, from Delhi, by a Viceroy answerable to a Secretary of State in London. A census every ten years from 1881, the famine codes and the Survey of India made it a state that counted and mapped its subjects in detail, and railways tied its provinces together.
Opposition grew from petitions into mass movements: the Congress of 1885, Swadeshi after the partition of Bengal, revolutionaries in Bengal, Maharashtra and the Punjab, Gandhi's satyagrahas from Champaran to Dandi, peasant and tribal risings, and the Quit India rising of 1942. Alongside ran the politics of separate electorates and the demand for Pakistan, which ended in partition in 1947.
The outline is the Indian Empire around 1909, after the Imperial Gazetteer atlas. British provinces and princely states are drawn as one shape, since a single ring cannot show the several hundred states inside it. It includes Burma, then a province of British India, and leaves out Aden (part of British India until 1937), Ceylon, Nepal, Bhutan and the island groups.
Events in this chapter
1858 · Minto Park, Allahabad
The Crown takes over
On 1 November 1858 Canning reads the Queen's Proclamation at Allahabad; the Company's rule ends and India passes to the Crown.
1876 – 1878 · Bellary, Madras Presidency
The Great Famine of 1876 to 1878
Drought across the Deccan and the south kills an estimated 5 to 10 million people; the 1880 Famine Commission leads to India's first famine codes.
1879 – 1899 · Ganeshkhind Road, Pune
Phadke's rising and the Chapekar brothers
Vasudev Balwant Phadke's armed band raids the country around Pune in 1879; in 1897 the Chapekar brothers shoot plague commissioner Rand.
1883 – 1885 · Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College, Gowalia Tank, Bombay
The Ilbert Bill and the first Congress
After the European outcry against the Ilbert Bill, 72 delegates meet in Bombay on 28 December 1885 as the first Indian National Congress.
1899 – 1900 · Ulihatu, Khunti
Birsa Munda's ulgulan
Birsa Munda leads the Munda rising of 1899 to 1900 against landlords, missions and the Raj; he dies in Ranchi jail aged about 25.
1905 – 1911 · Town Hall, Calcutta
The partition of Bengal and Swadeshi
Curzon splits Bengal in 1905; a Calcutta Town Hall meeting answers with a boycott of British goods, and the partition is reversed in 1911.
1906 – 1909 · Dhaka
The Muslim League and separate electorates
The All-India Muslim League is founded at Dacca on 30 December 1906; the Morley–Minto reforms of 1909 give Muslims separate electorates.
1908 · Muzaffarpur, Bihar
Khudiram Bose and Tilak's trial
A bomb meant for a magistrate kills two Englishwomen at Muzaffarpur; Khudiram Bose is hanged, and Tilak is sent to Mandalay for his articles on it.
1911 – 1921 · Cellular Jail, Port Blair
Savarkar and the Cellular Jail
V. D. Savarkar reaches Port Blair's Cellular Jail in 1911 with two life sentences; he and his brother are moved to mainland jails in 1921.
1911 – 1931 · Coronation Park, Delhi
The Delhi Durbar and a new capital
At the 1911 Durbar George V announces that the capital will move from Calcutta to Delhi and Bengal will be reunited; New Delhi opens in 1931.
1914 – 1915 · Budge Budge, Bengal
The Komagata Maru and the Ghadar rising
Turned away from Vancouver, the Komagata Maru's passengers are fired on at Budge Budge in 1914; a planned Ghadar mutiny in the Punjab fails in 1915.
1916 – 1917 · Lucknow
Home Rule and the Lucknow Pact
Tilak and Annie Besant launch Home Rule leagues in 1916; at Lucknow that December the Congress and the Muslim League agree a joint scheme.
1917 – 1918 · Motihari, Champaran
Champaran and Kheda
Gandhi defies an order to leave Champaran in April 1917 and takes up the indigo tenants' case; in 1918 he leads Kheda's farmers against revenue.
1919 · Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar
The Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh
On 13 April 1919 troops under General Dyer fire on a crowd in Jallianwala Bagh; the official toll is 379 dead, Indian estimates about 1,000.
1920 – 1922 · Chauri Chaura, Gorakhpur
Non-cooperation, Khilafat and Chauri Chaura
Congress and the Khilafat committees launch non-cooperation in 1920; after a crowd burns Chauri Chaura police station in 1922, Gandhi calls it off.
1922 – 1924 · Krishnadevipeta, Visakhapatnam Agency
Alluri Sitarama Raju and the Rampa rising
Alluri Sitarama Raju leads the hill peoples of the Godavari agency against forest laws, raiding police stations in 1922; he is killed in May 1924.
1924 – 1925 · Vaikom Mahadeva temple, Travancore
The Vaikom satyagraha
From March 1924 volunteers court arrest on the roads around Vaikom temple, barred to Ezhavas and Dalits; three of the four roads open in 1925.
1925 – 1927 · Kakori, near Lucknow
The Kakori train action
On 9 August 1925 Hindustan Republican Association members stop a train at Kakori and seize government cash; four of them are hanged in December 1927.
1927 · Chavdar Tale, Mahad
The Mahad satyagraha
On 20 March 1927 Ambedkar leads Dalits to drink from Mahad's Chavdar tank, open to all by law; that December the Manusmriti is burned there.
1928 · Bardoli, Surat district
The Bardoli satyagraha
Bardoli's farmers refuse a 22 per cent rise in land revenue in 1928; an inquiry cuts it to about 6 per cent, and Vallabhbhai Patel becomes Sardar.
1928 – 1931 · Shadman Chowk, Lahore
Simon go back, and Bhagat Singh
Lajpat Rai dies after a police beating at Lahore's Simon protest in 1928; Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev are hanged in Lahore jail in March 1931.
1930 – 1931 · Dandi, Navsari
The Salt March
Gandhi and 78 marchers walk about 390 km from Sabarmati to Dandi and break the salt law on 6 April 1930, opening civil disobedience.
1930 – 1934 · Chittagong
The Chittagong armoury raid
Surya Sen's Indian Republican Army seizes Chittagong's armouries on 18 April 1930; Sen is caught in 1933 and hanged in January 1934.
1932 · Yerwada Central Jail, Pune
The Round Tables and the Poona Pact
Gandhi fasts in Yerwada jail against separate electorates for the depressed classes; on 24 September 1932 Ambedkar accepts reserved seats instead.
1935 – 1940 · Council House (Samvidhan Sadan), New Delhi
The Government of India Act 1935
The 1935 Act gives the provinces elected governments in 1937; its all-India federation never forms, but much of the Act passes into the Constitution.
1942 – 1944 · August Kranti Maidan (Gowalia Tank), Bombay
Quit India
On 8 August 1942 the Congress passes the Quit India resolution at Gowalia Tank; by the next morning its leaders are jailed and the country rises.
1943 – 1944 · Calcutta
The Bengal famine
Wartime Bengal starves in 1943; the 1945 inquiry counts about 1.5 million dead, later estimates run to 3 million, and the causes are still argued.
1943 – 1945 · INA Memorial, Moirang, Manipur
Subhas Bose and the Indian National Army
Bose leads the INA alongside Japan; its flag flies at Moirang in April 1944 before defeat at Imphal, and his death in 1945 has been disputed ever since.
1945 – 1946 · Viceregal Lodge, Shimla
Simla and the Cabinet Mission
Talks at Simla in 1945 and the Cabinet Mission plan of May 1946 try to keep India united in a loose federation; both founder on Congress–League mistrust.
1945 – 1946 · HMIS Talwar, Colaba, Bombay
The INA trials and the naval mutiny
The Red Fort trials of three INA officers stir protest in 1945; in February 1946 ratings of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny at Bombay and Karachi.
1946 · Ochterlony Monument (Shaheed Minar), Calcutta
Direct Action Day
The League's Direct Action Day on 16 August 1946 becomes days of killing in Calcutta; more than 4,000 die, and violence spreads to Noakhali and Bihar.
1947 · Viceroy's House (Rashtrapati Bhavan), New Delhi
Mountbatten's 3 June plan
On 3 June 1947 Mountbatten announces that British India will be partitioned; the handover is brought forward to August and Parliament passes the act in July.