While studying the Indian National
Movement, we often come across the term ‘colonialism’. It is often mentioned
that the freedom struggle was directed against the colonial rule. Hence before
we look into various events and aspects of the national movement it is
important to understand the term ‘colonialism’ and various aspects of its
nature.
Colonialism is a system in which one
country is subjugated by the other. The country which subjugates is referred to
as the metropolis while the country
which is subjugated is known as the colony.
The subjugation is not only political but has economical and social
dimensions. Colonialism has been
interpreted in different ways. One view is to see it as a traditional society which
moves towards modernization under the colonial administrative structure.
Sometimes it is seen as a transitional society; the transition being from a traditional
pre-capitalist society to a modern capitalist society. These people believe
that colonial societies would have graduated into modern capitalist societies
had colonialism been given sufficient time. Still others believe that colonial
society is a dualistic society in which the pre-modern and the modern exist
side by side. Colonialism begins the task of modernization but leaves it midway
leaving the process of modernization incomplete. Some writers do not prefer to
go into these details and consider colonialism as nothing more than political subjugation
of one country by the other.
Nature
of Colonialism
As can be figured from the above
discussion, colonialism produces a society which is neither capitalist nor
pre-capitalist. Feudal structures of the pre-colonial period under went a
change but did not turn completely into capitalist. An example of this is the
change in agrarian relations in India. Jagirdari
system of the Mughal period gave way to the Permanent and Ryotwari settlements
in the colonial period. Land became a private property and was freely brought
and sold. Hence the agrarian system did not remain pre-colonial and acquired
some traits of capitalism but it did not completely turn into a capitalist system.
Colonialism was in fact a system in
which two countries were involved in unequal relations. Traditional or
pre-colonial structure was linked with the world economy but not independently.
The link was through the metropolis as its subordinate. The colonies did not
have the option of moving out of this unequal relationship which was forced
through the political control of the colony by the metropolis. An important
aspect of colonialism was that it had one face in the metropolis and another in
colony. While it helped in development of the metropolis as a modern
industrially developed country; it under developed the colony by destroying the
indigenous structure and making it dependent on the metropolis. In the colony,
colonialism uproots old society and economy but the change does not give way to
modern industrial society and economy. The colonial structure prevents economic
growth in the colony as the economic activities are undertaken not for the
benefit of the colony but for that of the metropolis.
Stages
of colonialism
Colonialism and the institutions
associated with it did not remain unchanged during the colonial rule. These
changed with time to adjust themselves as per the needs of the metropolis.
These changes can be summarized in three stages of colonialism. The first stage
is known as Period of Monopoly Trade and
Direct Appropriation. In India the period corresponded from 1757-1813. The
British East India Company acquired a monopolistic charter from the King of
England which kept other British competitors away. Competition from Indian
merchants and other European companies was eliminated by way of wars and
acquiring political control over the Indian states. These wars required large
sums of money. Money was also needed to pay for the Indian products which were
to be exported to England. In normal situation this could have been done
through goods manufactured in Britain or through bullion i.e. gold and silver.
However, during this period manufacturing activities in Britain had not
increased to such level so as to produce goods for export to India. Export of
bullion from England also did not find favour with the British. Hence, money
required to buy Indian goods was obtained from direct appropriation of the revenue generated from Indian
territories. Appropriation of revenue also increased the profits of the company
and dividends of shareholders. This appropriation became possible when the
Company acquired control, first over Bengal and then over the rest of the
country. An important feature of this stage was that there no was no
significant change in administration except those which facilitated
appropriation of revenue like the land revenue settlements. In social fields
also there were no changes. This was because colonialism of this stage could be
superimposed upon the existing structures without making significant changes.
There was no need to do so until revenue was successfully sucked out through
traditional methods of revenue collection.
Second stage of colonialism is the Stage of Free Trade. Britain was
undergoing industrial revolution and newly emerging capitalists wanted cheap
raw materials for their industries as well as a market for their ever
increasing products. This group attacked the policies of East India Company and
wanted the colony to serve their interests which were different from those of
East India Company. This led the British Government to control the activities
of the Company by enacting a number of Acts like Regulating Act of 1773 and
Pit’s India Act of 1784. By 1813, when another Charter Act was passed, the
Company had lost most of its political and economic power. During this stage, India
was to become the subordinate trading partner of Britain by exporting
agricultural products and raw materials and importing industrially manufactured
goods. In this stage the colony could not be exploited under the existing
socio-economic structures hence important changes were made in the
administration. Policy of Laissez faire
or free trade was adopted and import duties on all the goods were either
removed or reduced to nominal rates. This gave the British products a free run
in the country. Free entry was also given to the British capitalists to develop
plantations, trade, transport, mining and other modern industry in India. Railway
was also developed as a cheap mode of transport and by 1905 about 45000
kilometers of railways was laid. Legal procedures and administration also
underwent a change to make it more comprehensive and elaborate. The
administration now penetrated deeper into the villages and far flung areas.
However legal changes were limited to criminal law, law of contract and legal
procedures. Personal laws were left unchanged. Changes in Education were also
introduced primarily to prepare a working force to man lower levels posts in
the administration and to develop a sense of loyalty among the subjects. Earlier
methods of revenue extraction also continued during this period. This coupled
with costly administration and maintenance of large military establishment put
severe financial constraints upon the country.
The third stage of colonialism is
known as the stage of Foreign
Investments and International Competition. This stage commenced in India
from about 1860s. Now other countries were being rapidly industrialized. This
led to an intense search for raw materials and markets. Exploitation from
colonies also accumulated large amounts of capital which was finding exclusive
and safe locations to be reinvested. Hence there was a vigorous search and
competition for exclusive areas for raw materials, markets and investment of
capital. As the position of Britain was being constantly challenged at the
international level it now made vigorous efforts to retain its hold over India.
Continuation of domination over India was essential for the British to keep out
rivals and for safety of British investments. Another interest was the Indian
army which served the global interests of the British even when the interests
of India were not affected. Due to these compulsions liberal imperialist
ideology gave way to the reactionary imperialist ideology. Earlier talk of
training Indians for democracy and self government were given a good bye and
all efforts were made to stifle nationalist feelings.
Thus, extraction of surplus from
India continued during the entire period of British rule though its methods
changed over the years. Another thing that must be kept in mind is that these
stages were not strictly demarcated with respect to time i.e advent of the next
stage did not mean end of the earlier stage in all spheres of administration.
Two stages could exist simultaneously compounding the burden on India. The
impact of British rule was disastrous for India. However, the subject will be
discussed in detail in the next article.
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