The Days of The Raj:
From medieval times to modern times, British sailed to various parts of the world to colonise and rule it in the name of the Crown.
The most precious colony of Great Britain was India, which British pioneers and colonisers ruled, had good times and memories and earned their fortunes. At any given time, a mere 450,000 Britishers were in India as rulers, administrators, (businessmen, employees and family members). With their "divide and rule" policy they managed to rule a subcontinent consisting of present day, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.
This subcontinent consisted of around 525 Maharajas, Rajas, Nawabs and other princes and the British Crown kept their kingdoms and principalities knitted together by having a British Resident or Officer posted in each kingdom, directly reporting to the Viceroy about the developments in their kingdoms.
The British strictly adhered to these divisions, with social intermingling normally limited to the same class itself. A civil servant hosting a party for members of his fraternity would strictly adhere to protocol. The host and hostess would sit at the head of the row with the most senior civil servant present, taking the seat next to the host with the junior most guest sitting farthest and last down the row.
How well did the British live in India? The incident narrated here below should provide the answer. In India, the train’s guard would always approach the saloon car in which a senior most district official and his family travelled to seek permission to start the train. When the official’s children reached an age when they had to be admitted in schools in England, the official’s wife sailed with the children to England and there they were travelling by a crowded train in London. The children asked their mother, why they were not having an exclusive compartment for themselves, rather than travelling in a cramped, crowded train? Why had the guard not approached her to seek permission to start the train and why they were not provided with iced water?
The military led its unique lifestyle in cantonments across the country, indulging in peacetime activities and pastimes like hunting, horse riding, polo, cricket and other recreational and social activities in the officers’ mess.
Exquisite trophies, stuffed heads and hides of animals, namely tigers, leopards, deer, etc. adorned these messes. Box-wallahs came to India carrying suitcases and trunks, starting businesses which flourished and they periodically shipped expensive and rare items in wooden chests or crates for their homes in Great Britain. Though lower in the class order, they lived very comfortable lives from their handsome earnings and profits earned through their businesses and enterprises.
Missionaries led a life of drudgery, being absorbed in the noble task of caring for the poor, sick and the needy, setting up and running schools and hospitals, etc.
There were good and bad things about the British rules. Good in the sense, they set up a sound system of administration, education, hospitals, got rid of evils like child marriages, Sati (wife killing herself by jumping into the burning, funeral pyre of the dead husband), etc. They also left behind one of the largest railway systems in the world. During their reign, they built fine buildings of high taste, bridges, dams and other works, involving civil engineering of the highest order, that are so sound in construction that they are going strong and are functional even today.
The bad point about the British rule was that they plundered the country of its wealth, did not industrialize the subcontinent and in a way they also practiced the policy of apartheid by not having any social interaction with the natives.
A race that came to India as traders and set up the East India Company for mercantile activities, took full advantage of the rivalry that existed amongst the princes then, by siding with one prince against the other and by arrangements with the princes, political manipulations, wars and campaigns and managed to have the full subcontinent under their domain. It is noteworthy that maximum 450,000 British reigned over this vast land (comprising present day India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan) at any given time, a significant number of whom were not administrators, servicemen or police, but civilians and dependents.
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