construction of schools and colleges, intended to educate an Indian elite in
British “ideas.” By 1835, English was established as the medium of education
and exchange, following the advice of economic utilitarians and evangelicals,
but contrary to the advice of “orientalist” scholars. A greater priority
was given to higher education and several English-medium colleges were
founded (e.g., Elphinstone College in Mumbai and Fort Williams College
in Calcutta).
These policies of development and education received a severe jolt in
1857, when Indian soldiers, trained by the British for service in the army,
engaged in a rebellion, apparently supported by disaffected princes, peas-
ants, and others. Known as the “Sepoy Mutiny,” it was triggered when
some soldiers refused to use ammunition believed to have been lubricated
with animal fat. These soldiers were imprisoned and their colleagues set
out to free them. Though the uprising was quelled within nine months, the
company lost its governance in India to the British crown. India was made
officially part of the British empire, its parliament the official policy maker
for Indians, and Queen Victoria was the Empress of India. Once India
became part of the British empire, it became Britain’s “barracks” in Asian
seas. By 1880, Britain had sold 20 percent of its goods in India and invested
20 percent of its overseas capital.^21 There was now greater ambivalence about
the wisdom of increasing higher educational opportunities and more
discussion on the need to build on India’s past. In the face of Indian criti-
cisms of British policies, a rationale for the British presence in India was now
increasingly articulated: having trusteeship of India was the “white man’s
burden”; the British could assure protection of minorities and “backward
classes” (and there is some evidence of a policy of divide and conquer); the
British claimed they were the most efficient of administrators and without
their presence India would fragment into many parts.
The Indian response
It is clear that these “streams” from the West and especially the coming of
British colonialism and Christianity had a permanent impact on the Indian
landscape. Ironically, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the
civilizations flourishing in India exceeded those of Europe in most respects.
Yet by the mid-eighteenth century, the industrial revolution came to Europe,
whereas India was experiencing one of its least productive centuries. On the
subcontinent, political patronage of the arts had dwindled; rural areas still
suffered from famine and drought; and political fragmentation and
infighting were common. In fact, the era of European colonialism in India
was made possible in part by the decline of the Mughals and the concomitant
Streams from the “West” and their Aftermath 175