British Cultural Policies in India

The beginning of British rule in India witnessed many imperial ideologies in operation. Back home in England, there were divergent ideologies at work regarding best possible ways of governing the Empire.

Policies were often driven by the popularity of specific ideologies in Europe in general and England in particular. They also depended upon the whims and fancies of higher British authorities in India. After the battles at Plassey (1757) and Buxar (1764), British rulers faced many difficulties in governing the regions they had won. Different ideologies took centre stage at different times.

Orientalists

The first generation of British administrators in India like Warren Hastings, William Jones and Jonathan Duncan popularised the view that India had a glorious past which had subsequently degenerated. These scholars and administrators were called Orientalists.

They were keen to learn and propagate Indian languages and tradition. This, they thought, would ensure a better understanding of India which would eventually strengthen their rule over this country. The Orientalists depicted India’s past in a way that was in consonance with the needs of the colonial administration.

Important institutions that came to be identified with their efforts were the Calcutta Madrassa founded by Warren Hastings (1781), the Asiatic Society of Bengal founded by William Jones (1784) and the Sanskrit College at Benaras founded by Jonathan Duncan (1794).

William Jones learnt Indian classical languages and found important linguistic connection between Sanskrit and classical western languages like Greek and Latin. For around fifty years, the Asiatic Society was an important centre of learning and a rare institution to undertake translations of notable Sanskrit texts. An important journal published by it was the Asiatick Researches.

Warren Hastings held the view that Hindus possessed laws which continued unchanged for centuries. Therefore, the British should master these laws and the Sanskrit language in which these texts were written if they wished to establish their governance in the country. To provide a precise idea of the customs and manners of Hindus, N. B. Halhed published A Code of Gentoo Laws in 1776.

There was a strong urge to make local British administrators familiar with Indian culture and tradition. Fort William College founded by Wellesley in 1801 to train the young British recruits to the civil service in India was meant to serve primarily this purpose. This college became an important centre for producing knowledge on and about India. It had many departments devoted exclusively to research on Indian languages and literature.

Influence of Ideas on Administrative and Economic Policies

Influence of ideas was clearly visible in the administrative and economic policies. Lord Cornwallis, who became Governor General in 1786, was influenced by the 18th century Whig political philosophy. In the Whig philosophy, the main organs of the government, i.e. executive, legislative and judiciary should be separate. This would provide check and balance on each other’s activity so that no organ exercises arbitrary powers.

Philip Francis and Edmund Burke were the two most eminent political thinkers of the 18th century England. Burke insisted that the prosperity of the natives must be secured before any attempt was made to reap profit from them. Philip Francis, his friend and a member of the Supreme Council in Calcutta in the 1770s, drew up a comprehensive plan for administering property in Bengal.

This plan subsequently influenced Cornwallis’ policy of Permanent Settlement for Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in 1793. Cornwallis succeeded in laying the foundation of a strong Whig policy in the governance of Bengal.

England was the first country to experience Industrial Revolution which led to a massive increase in the output of finished products. British industrial capitalists now argued for a free play in the British colonies. They put pressures on the British government to curtail the company’s monopoly in the Indian market. Free market theorists influenced the ideological positions of many policy makers in India as well.

Finally the Charter Act of 1813 abolished Company’s monopoly of trade with India. Simultaneously, the Liberals and the Utilitarians gained strong positions within the policy making apparatus of India.