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Just over 400 years ago, a group of London merchants arrived here | 0:00:06 | 0:00:09 | |
on the Indian coast hoping to do some peaceful trading. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:13 | |
Those early pioneers dreamt of making huge profits. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:17 | |
Over 200 years, the company they formed grew into a commercial titan. | 0:00:17 | 0:00:23 | |
Its wealth rivalled that of the British state. | 0:00:23 | 0:00:27 | |
It had its own army...and eventually ruled over 400 million people. | 0:00:28 | 0:00:33 | |
Its trade was vital to Britain's commercial success | 0:00:33 | 0:00:37 | |
and it revolutionised the British lifestyle... | 0:00:37 | 0:00:40 | |
The East India Company changed the way we dress, | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
it changed the way we eat, it changed the way we socialise. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:47 | |
..and by accident created one of the most powerful empires in history. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:52 | |
But the company's rise was followed by a dramatic descent into profiteering and corruption... | 0:00:56 | 0:01:01 | |
..and, eventually, a chilling story of unchecked greed with devastating consequences. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:08 | |
This is where it all started. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:23 | |
On December 31st 1600, | 0:01:23 | 0:01:25 | |
the East India Company was established by royal charter in London | 0:01:25 | 0:01:30 | |
and granted a monopoly on trade with the East by Queen Elizabeth I. | 0:01:30 | 0:01:35 | |
It was the beginning of a new age in Britain's history, | 0:01:35 | 0:01:38 | |
an age of speculation and profit, enterprise and competition, | 0:01:38 | 0:01:43 | |
an age that saw the beginnings | 0:01:43 | 0:01:45 | |
of one of the most powerful empires in history. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:48 | |
Capitalism would change for ever the lives of its people and politics. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:53 | |
Trade would make Britain great | 0:01:53 | 0:01:56 | |
and turn London into the richest city in the world. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
Thanks to the East India Company, | 0:02:04 | 0:02:06 | |
exotic goods like spices from Indonesia, tea and porcelain from China, | 0:02:06 | 0:02:11 | |
became part of everyday life. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:14 | |
Every year, huge merchant ships of the East India Company, | 0:02:14 | 0:02:18 | |
known as East Indiamen, would leave from right here | 0:02:18 | 0:02:21 | |
loaded down with silver bullion and British merchandise | 0:02:21 | 0:02:24 | |
heading up the Thames and out to sea to trade with the East. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
On board were young men filled with hope. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:33 | |
In following their dreams, | 0:02:33 | 0:02:35 | |
these young men would inadvertently forge an empire, | 0:02:35 | 0:02:39 | |
an empire that would create thousands of winners... | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
but millions of losers. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:44 | |
One country above all would play a major role | 0:02:46 | 0:02:49 | |
and become the jewel in the company's crown... | 0:02:49 | 0:02:52 | |
India. | 0:02:52 | 0:02:54 | |
Our story begins in 1639 at an unlikely spot on the east coast, | 0:02:59 | 0:03:04 | |
a place that became known as Madraspatnam. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:08 | |
When the company arrived here it wasn't pursuing dreams of conquest or empire | 0:03:10 | 0:03:15 | |
but looking for a secure base from which to conduct trade. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
And one of its employees, Francis Day, | 0:03:19 | 0:03:21 | |
was convinced this was the right spot. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
And with good reason. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:29 | |
This is the Coromandel Coast, | 0:03:29 | 0:03:31 | |
a name synonymous with diamonds, pearls and the finest cotton. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:34 | |
In mid-17th-century Europe, Indian cotton was the height of fashion. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:41 | |
It was cheap, colourful and hard-wearing. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
A fortune could be made exporting it. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:46 | |
Francis Day claimed a section of beach and set up shop. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:51 | |
Within a year, 300 Bengali weavers | 0:03:54 | 0:03:56 | |
were working here and a handful of Englishmen were busy exporting cloth and spices | 0:03:56 | 0:04:01 | |
back home for sale in London, much to the delight of the company's shareholders. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:06 | |
They could send their ships out here, fill their holds with spices | 0:04:10 | 0:04:14 | |
and hopefully return rich men. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:16 | |
Now, it was a very lucrative trade and it's one that had been exploited | 0:04:16 | 0:04:19 | |
by other European powers for quite a long time now, | 0:04:19 | 0:04:22 | |
but by making it a monopoly, they could ensure | 0:04:22 | 0:04:24 | |
there'd be no domestic opposition to threaten the shareholders' profits. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:28 | |
Even so, the company's investors were taking a huge gamble. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:35 | |
Each voyage could take two years or more, a long and tense wait to see a return on investment. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:41 | |
Along the way there would be potential loss | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
of ships through storms, there could be piracy, | 0:04:46 | 0:04:49 | |
there could be conquest by local rulers etc etc. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:53 | |
So this was a very high-risk venture. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:56 | |
But one that had paid dividends from the beginning. | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
When company ships first returned from the East Indies in 1607, | 0:04:59 | 0:05:03 | |
investors had hit the jackpot. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:05 | |
That single voyage netted an absolutely vast amount of money | 0:05:08 | 0:05:11 | |
because of these...cloves. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
A single cargo of this ensured that the investors made a 230% profit, | 0:05:13 | 0:05:18 | |
bringing them £36,000, that's tens of millions in today's money. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:23 | |
It's hard to comprehend just how much of a revolution this was, | 0:05:23 | 0:05:27 | |
something that we now take for granted. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:29 | |
Used in medicine as a painkiller, | 0:05:29 | 0:05:32 | |
cloves were so highly prized | 0:05:32 | 0:05:33 | |
they were literally worth their weight in gold. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:37 | |
In Madras the company built a warehouse and several homes along three miles of beach. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:46 | |
Trade was valuable, so they protected their new settlement | 0:05:46 | 0:05:49 | |
with a stockade and called it Fort St George. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:53 | |
The original Fort St George was built on this spot. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:03 | |
Now it's been massively strengthened and enlarged over the years, | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
but it took 14 years to build | 0:06:06 | 0:06:08 | |
and the East India Company directors bitterly complained about the cost. | 0:06:08 | 0:06:12 | |
But this was like a big security barrier for their warehouse. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:15 | |
Madras was the springboard for expansion. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:20 | |
Within 50 years, the company was building two further settlements, | 0:06:20 | 0:06:24 | |
which they called Bombay and Calcutta. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:26 | |
By 1700, it was operating 22 trading posts across India. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:36 | |
Calcutta was one of the biggest. The company's star was rising fast. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:41 | |
But investors were about to be handed a commercial opportunity | 0:06:44 | 0:06:48 | |
beyond their wildest expectations. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:50 | |
For 200 years, | 0:07:02 | 0:07:03 | |
India had been part of a vast empire ruled by a powerful dynasty. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:07 | |
The Mughals had imposed a centralised government, | 0:07:08 | 0:07:12 | |
built imposing monuments and unified the country with a road system and single currency. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:17 | |
The population was huge compared with Britain's. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
It was about 140 million and Britain then had about four million. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
The economic position | 0:07:28 | 0:07:31 | |
was it was the second largest economy in the world, reputedly, | 0:07:31 | 0:07:36 | |
with about 25% of the world's GDP. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:41 | |
For the first few decades, | 0:07:42 | 0:07:44 | |
the mighty Mughals barely even noticed the East India Company. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:48 | |
The British didn't cause trouble. And, besides, they paid good money. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:53 | |
The Mughal Empire had a tax on imports of bullion, | 0:07:53 | 0:07:57 | |
so they were doing quite well out of the company bringing in all this silver and gold. | 0:07:57 | 0:08:01 | |
They were also selling the company trading concessions | 0:08:01 | 0:08:05 | |
and wherever they were able to set up factories they had to pay for it. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:10 | |
So it was quite a good sort of source of income for the Empire. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:14 | |
But in 1707, the Mughal Empire began to disintegrate. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:22 | |
When the last great Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb, died, | 0:08:23 | 0:08:27 | |
his successors were unable to hold his empire together | 0:08:27 | 0:08:30 | |
and power devolved into a patchwork of competing regional states. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:35 | |
Obsessed with its own problems, therefore, | 0:08:35 | 0:08:38 | |
the Empire didn't have time to worry about the little old East India Company. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:41 | |
Amid the confusion a deal was signed. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:48 | |
In exchange for an annual fee | 0:08:48 | 0:08:50 | |
the East India Company was granted the right to trade duty-free across the state of Bengal. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:56 | |
No gift could have been greater. | 0:08:56 | 0:08:59 | |
Company merchants previously restricted to the coast | 0:08:59 | 0:09:02 | |
could now do business across an entire province. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:05 | |
And as the Mughal Empire weakened further the company expanded. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:10 | |
The East India Company was sucked into this vacuum. | 0:09:12 | 0:09:15 | |
It would back one local claimant to a throne against another | 0:09:15 | 0:09:19 | |
and in return for its support it would be given little land holdings or trading concessions. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:24 | |
That meant within decades the East India Company | 0:09:24 | 0:09:27 | |
was becoming a sovereign entity in its own right. | 0:09:27 | 0:09:30 | |
It had the power to raise revenue, to make war and peace, | 0:09:30 | 0:09:33 | |
to mint its own coins, to administer justice. | 0:09:33 | 0:09:36 | |
The East India Company...was becoming a state. | 0:09:36 | 0:09:41 | |
A state that was controlled | 0:09:41 | 0:09:43 | |
by 159 civil servants in a London office some 14,000 miles away. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:49 | |
Their headquarters, East India House, has long since disappeared | 0:09:49 | 0:09:52 | |
under this towering structure, the Lloyd's building. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:55 | |
It was from here that the company was run. | 0:09:55 | 0:09:58 | |
As its ships scoured the world's oceans, | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
they were controlled by directors elected by shareholders, | 0:10:00 | 0:10:04 | |
who were known collectively as The Court of Directors. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
The East India Company helped to develop many modern business practices | 0:10:08 | 0:10:12 | |
and turned London into the world's commercial capital. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:15 | |
By 1800, the state that they administered from London | 0:10:15 | 0:10:18 | |
would rule 140 million people across 94,000 square miles | 0:10:18 | 0:10:23 | |
and command an army a quarter of a million strong. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
This was the beginning of Britain's empire. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:30 | |
The East India Company in its early trading activities | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
had a huge influence on the British way of life, | 0:10:48 | 0:10:51 | |
both in India and back in Britain. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:53 | |
People were eager to learn about this exotic place | 0:10:54 | 0:10:57 | |
with its very different customs, dress and culture. | 0:10:57 | 0:11:00 | |
And the Indian products that the company exported to Britain | 0:11:00 | 0:11:03 | |
became more popular than their British equivalents. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:07 | |
By 1700, goods were flooding across the sea from India. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:12 | |
Can I have a single tea, please? | 0:11:13 | 0:11:15 | |
It was the beginning of new kinds of diets, of choice, of consumerism. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:21 | |
People could now choose to have sugar from the West Indies, | 0:11:21 | 0:11:24 | |
pepper from India. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:26 | |
It was also the start of the Brits' obsession with hot drinks. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:31 | |
Tea and coffee arrived for the first time. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:33 | |
Thanks very much. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:39 | |
Delicious. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:46 | |
Gingham, silk, muslin, calico. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:52 | |
Back in Britain the company was importing a cavalcade of rich new fabrics. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:58 | |
Bowled over by the exquisite skill of India's craftsmen | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
the British public went crazy. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:03 | |
18th-century Indian textiles held at London's Victoria and Albert Museum | 0:12:04 | 0:12:09 | |
revealed an impressive range of techniques were used in their manufacture. | 0:12:09 | 0:12:13 | |
All these objects are made of chintz, | 0:12:16 | 0:12:18 | |
which is basically cotton | 0:12:18 | 0:12:21 | |
which has been hand painted rather than printed. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:25 | |
The Indians managed to find ways of dyeing cotton | 0:12:25 | 0:12:30 | |
so the colours remained brilliant and were colourfast. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:34 | |
So that was very exciting for people in the West. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:37 | |
Cheap, washable and hard-wearing, they made a huge impact. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:43 | |
Less formal clothing became acceptable and fashionable. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:47 | |
And it certainly worried the British textile industry, | 0:12:47 | 0:12:51 | |
because they were very fearful that there would be no demand for their own wool and linen products. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:59 | |
And at one point it caused such a sensation and so much fear | 0:12:59 | 0:13:04 | |
-amongst the silk workers that they tore the clothes off people's backs. -Really? | 0:13:04 | 0:13:09 | |
Because they thought their livelihoods were threatened. So it was that dramatic. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:13 | |
Company merchants were quick to respond to the consumers' changing tastes. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:18 | |
The East India Company would report back regularly after every shipment to Britain from India | 0:13:19 | 0:13:25 | |
saying, "Well, we liked this, but these didn't sell so well. And could you do more of the floral sprigs?" | 0:13:25 | 0:13:30 | |
Or, "Could you do more of this colour?" | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
The British retail fashion industry was born. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:36 | |
Pyjamas, bandannas, dungarees, | 0:13:39 | 0:13:41 | |
dozens of new words entered the English dictionary. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
Demand for Indian textiles was so great it threatened to destroy Britain's industry. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:50 | |
The Government even passed a law to ban people from wearing Indian textiles, | 0:14:04 | 0:14:08 | |
but it didn't work, testimony to the rising power of the consumer. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:13 | |
Over the next 100 years, | 0:14:17 | 0:14:19 | |
sales of Indian textiles would generate 60% of the company's income. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:23 | |
While the British back at home were succumbing to Indian influences | 0:14:23 | 0:14:27 | |
the British in India were also changing. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
Many company men formed lifelong relationships with Indian women | 0:14:30 | 0:14:34 | |
and some even adopted the local tradition of polygamy. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:37 | |
The East India Company had serious misgivings | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
about its employees cohabiting with local women. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:47 | |
But, then again, knowledge of local markets was good for business. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:51 | |
Liaisons with indigenous women teach men languages, | 0:14:52 | 0:14:56 | |
so the company really has a vested interest | 0:14:56 | 0:14:58 | |
in these relationships being close and tight-knit. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
By the middle of the 18th century, | 0:15:04 | 0:15:06 | |
90% of company employees in India had local partners. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:10 | |
Morning, driver. | 0:15:10 | 0:15:12 | |
Many could now afford several mistresses and a house full of servants. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:16 | |
Right, let's go! | 0:15:16 | 0:15:18 | |
But something odd was going on. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:24 | |
They'd arrived here as humble merchants, | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
but their new-found wealth was having a bizarre effect. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:31 | |
They adopted the ostentatious, flamboyant lifestyles of an Eastern prince, | 0:15:31 | 0:15:35 | |
surrounded themselves with armies of servants, being carried from place to place in a palanquin. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:40 | |
The pomposity and extravagance of these white Mughals knew no bounds. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:45 | |
Much to the annoyance of their fellow countrymen. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:48 | |
I think this is my favourite picture from the period. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:04 | |
It shows a man who looks like a Mughal emperor, | 0:16:04 | 0:16:06 | |
he's sitting on a cushion, smoking a hookah, attended by servants, | 0:16:06 | 0:16:09 | |
master of all he surveys in his luscious robes and turban. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:12 | |
But that is no Mughal emperor, | 0:16:12 | 0:16:15 | |
in fact it's an accountant from Yorkshire. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:17 | |
His name's John Wombwell, he's living the dream. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:21 | |
Whilst some lived like overblown maharajahs, | 0:16:24 | 0:16:26 | |
others, like Major General Charles Stuart, engaged with India on a more profound level. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:32 | |
Charles Stuart came out here from his native Ireland aged 19 | 0:16:33 | 0:16:37 | |
and immediately fell in love with the place. | 0:16:37 | 0:16:39 | |
He had a house here on Wood Street which he turned into a museum, | 0:16:39 | 0:16:43 | |
filling it up with Indian artefacts and carvings. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:46 | |
He was happy to show anybody around | 0:16:46 | 0:16:48 | |
and share his passion for all things Indian. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:52 | |
Stuart's encounter with India changed his life. | 0:16:55 | 0:16:59 | |
Within a year of his arrival, he had discarded Christianity and become a Hindu. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:04 | |
Hindoo Stuart, as he became known, learned the local languages, | 0:17:07 | 0:17:11 | |
dressed like a local, would have been very comfortable in places like this. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:15 | |
He took a local woman as a wife and had a brood of mixed-race children. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:19 | |
He even hired a group of Brahmins, Hindu scholars, | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
to prepare the family's food in traditional Hindu manner. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:25 | |
Stuart wasn't unusual in embracing his new home. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:33 | |
Many Britons and Indians accepted each other | 0:17:33 | 0:17:36 | |
in an atmosphere of mutual understanding. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:38 | |
The British came to India before the 19th century very much as explorers, | 0:17:41 | 0:17:45 | |
adventurers, people out to make their money, | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
and they encountered a very old and very complex civilisation | 0:17:48 | 0:17:51 | |
and they were often impressed by it. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:53 | |
And so they didn't feel that they were in any way superior to Indians, | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
they were just simply one of a number of groups jostling in India | 0:17:56 | 0:17:59 | |
to try and earn a living and to try and make their way. | 0:17:59 | 0:18:03 | |
In these early days of the company's activities in India, | 0:18:03 | 0:18:06 | |
respect and tolerance for Indian customs, culture and religion were encouraged. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:11 | |
They weren't there to change India or Indians but to profit from them. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:17 | |
In the final analysis, integration was good for business. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:23 | |
And business was what mattered to the company above all else. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:28 | |
In the mid-18th century, | 0:18:38 | 0:18:39 | |
the East India Company was at the heart of a global conflict. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:43 | |
Driven by antagonism between the great world powers | 0:18:43 | 0:18:47 | |
of the 18th century over colonial interests, | 0:18:47 | 0:18:49 | |
the Seven Years' War raged from Europe to North America | 0:18:49 | 0:18:53 | |
and across the world's oceans. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:55 | |
But in India the ultimate prize was control over trade. | 0:18:57 | 0:19:01 | |
ALL CHANT | 0:19:01 | 0:19:04 | |
A bitter rivalry grew between Britain and France | 0:19:04 | 0:19:07 | |
over their colonial and trading interests. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:10 | |
They both hoped to be the greatest European power on the Indian subcontinent. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:14 | |
The East India Company's hostility towards their French counterpart | 0:19:15 | 0:19:18 | |
grew into an escalating military confrontation. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:22 | |
The British and French had set up trading posts | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
within a few miles of each other, | 0:19:25 | 0:19:27 | |
the French at Pondicherry and Chandernagore, | 0:19:27 | 0:19:30 | |
the British at Madras and Calcutta. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:34 | |
In 1756, rivalry exploded into open warfare. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:39 | |
The merchants of the East India Company had traditionally tried to avoid war, | 0:19:39 | 0:19:43 | |
its costs were certain but its outcomes far less so. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
It was bad for business. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:47 | |
But as the French grew more threatening in the subcontinent, | 0:19:47 | 0:19:50 | |
the company realised it needed to get more serious | 0:19:50 | 0:19:53 | |
about the military side of things, | 0:19:53 | 0:19:55 | |
and the motley crews guarding its forts in India weren't up to scratch. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:59 | |
What it needed was a serious standing army. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
The company decided to strengthen its garrison at Fort St George. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:08 | |
In January 1748, 150 British troops arrived in Madras | 0:20:08 | 0:20:12 | |
led by an irascible old soldier, Major Stringer Lawrence. | 0:20:12 | 0:20:18 | |
He's 50 years old, he's fought in the lowlands in Spain | 0:20:18 | 0:20:21 | |
and also in the Jacobite Rebellion. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:24 | |
And he is a man with great knowledge of military affairs | 0:20:24 | 0:20:27 | |
and his job is really to reform the company troops out in India. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:32 | |
He begins by forming them into companies, each commanded by an officer, | 0:20:33 | 0:20:37 | |
and those companies are equipped, trained and disciplined exactly like British troops would be. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:41 | |
And, of course, the end result of all of this | 0:20:41 | 0:20:44 | |
is it becomes a much more effective fighting force. | 0:20:44 | 0:20:47 | |
BAGPIPES PLAY | 0:20:47 | 0:20:48 | |
His new army was led by European officers, | 0:20:50 | 0:20:53 | |
but most of the troops were Indians known as "sepoys" | 0:20:53 | 0:20:56 | |
from the Persian word for soldier. | 0:20:56 | 0:20:58 | |
Stringer Lawrence is seen as the grandfather of the modern Indian Army. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:03 | |
Many units are the direct descendants of those he founded 250 years ago. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:08 | |
One young soldier in Lawrence's new army | 0:21:12 | 0:21:15 | |
was the future national hero Clive of India. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:18 | |
Robert Clive was from a family of provincial gentry. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:23 | |
As a young boy, he was a bit of a tearaway and loved getting into fights. | 0:21:23 | 0:21:26 | |
And he was expelled three times from school. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:29 | |
So his father thought nothing much would come of him | 0:21:29 | 0:21:31 | |
and he might as well gamble and send him out here to India | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
to join the East India Company, which made men or broke them. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:38 | |
He was known as a man who had a relatively short temper. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:41 | |
He was, as we discover in his later career, | 0:21:41 | 0:21:44 | |
a man with tremendous energy, vigour and resolution, | 0:21:44 | 0:21:47 | |
and this must have seemed a pretty crushing way to begin his career. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:52 | |
Clive would be the driving force in transforming the company | 0:21:52 | 0:21:56 | |
from commercial giant to THE dominant political power in India. | 0:21:56 | 0:22:00 | |
In 1756, his great adversary was the Mughal ruler or Nawab of Bengal. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:07 | |
Siraj ud Daulah, an ally of the French, loathed the British | 0:22:07 | 0:22:11 | |
and bitterly resented the company's hold on Calcutta. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:15 | |
In June...he attacked the city. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:17 | |
Calcutta fell within hours. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:21 | |
And on the evening of June 20th, 146 British prisoners were taken to Fort William... | 0:22:22 | 0:22:28 | |
..now the site of the Government Post Office. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:32 | |
100 yards from this spot stands a grim reminder of what happened next. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:38 | |
The most vivid account we have was left by a man called John Zephaniah Holwell. | 0:22:39 | 0:22:43 | |
He'd been the Chief Magistrate of Calcutta, he'd been left in charge. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:47 | |
And he and his men were marched into a cell just 18 foot wide at gunpoint. | 0:22:47 | 0:22:52 | |
It became known simply as the Black Hole. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:55 | |
And what happened in there became one of the most infamous stories | 0:22:55 | 0:22:59 | |
in the whole of British imperial history. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:01 | |
ORGAN MUSIC | 0:23:03 | 0:23:05 | |
It's said the prisoners, crushed together, suffocating | 0:23:07 | 0:23:10 | |
and fighting to stay upright were gripped by claustrophobic terror. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:14 | |
The heat was almost unbearable. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
To try to slake his thirst, Holwell took off his sweat-soaked shirt | 0:23:21 | 0:23:26 | |
and wrang it out into his mouth. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:28 | |
Other people trampled on the weakened bodies of their comrades, | 0:23:28 | 0:23:32 | |
desperately trying to reach the two small windows at the top of the wall | 0:23:32 | 0:23:36 | |
and gulp down some fresh air. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:38 | |
It was a night of unspeakable suffering and cruelty. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:43 | |
When the doors were flung open at dawn the next day, | 0:23:46 | 0:23:49 | |
the cell was filled with corpses. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:51 | |
To Holwell's horror just 23 had survived. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:55 | |
The news of what had happened to their fellow countrymen at the hands of a barbarous Indian despot | 0:23:57 | 0:24:03 | |
electrified congregations right across Britain. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:06 | |
This after all was a generation that was starting to believe that... | 0:24:06 | 0:24:09 | |
"Britons never, never, never shall be slaves." | 0:24:09 | 0:24:12 | |
The story of the Black Hole | 0:24:14 | 0:24:16 | |
had an immense impact on generations of Britons. | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
To Victorian schoolchildren the events of 1756 were as familiar as the Battle of Hastings. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:26 | |
What we don't know for sure is how many actually perished that night. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:33 | |
The numbers range from three to over 100, | 0:24:33 | 0:24:36 | |
I suspect it's somewhere in-between. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:38 | |
What is not in question is that this was an atrocity. Was it deliberate? Almost certainly not. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:42 | |
It was unfortunate that this small airless room... | 0:24:42 | 0:24:46 | |
It happened on an incredibly hot and humid night, | 0:24:46 | 0:24:50 | |
some of the people inside were already wounded from the battle that had taken place. | 0:24:50 | 0:24:53 | |
And there were bound to be some fatalities, | 0:24:53 | 0:24:56 | |
but that there were so many was a point taken very seriously by the British, | 0:24:56 | 0:25:02 | |
the remaining British in India and also the British back home, | 0:25:02 | 0:25:04 | |
and there was very much a sense that they wanted revenge. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:07 | |
Determined to re-assert supremacy, | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
Clive recaptured Calcutta and confronted Siraj at a village called Plassey, | 0:25:12 | 0:25:17 | |
120 miles north of the city, in what would become a decisive moment | 0:25:17 | 0:25:21 | |
in the history of the East India Company. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:24 | |
At Plassey, Clive was terribly outnumbered by more than ten to one, | 0:25:27 | 0:25:31 | |
but Clive had a plan that didn't just rely on military might alone. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:35 | |
He'd been in secret correspondence with one of the Nawab's key lieutenants, | 0:25:35 | 0:25:39 | |
the commander of his cavalry, a man called Mir Jafar. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:43 | |
The deal is done between Clive and Mir Jafar that at a certain key part of the fight, | 0:25:43 | 0:25:48 | |
Mir Jafar will come onto his side, in other words he'll leave his chief. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:52 | |
And in return for putting him on the throne, | 0:25:52 | 0:25:54 | |
the company will not only be paid vast sums of money, | 0:25:54 | 0:25:57 | |
and we are talking about fantastical sums, | 0:25:57 | 0:25:59 | |
but also it will be given a free rein in terms of its trade. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:02 | |
NOISES OF BATTLE | 0:26:02 | 0:26:04 | |
It was all over in a matter of hours, | 0:26:07 | 0:26:09 | |
but it had little to do with military might. | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
Mir Jafar, the traitor, had been paid off and he ensured | 0:26:12 | 0:26:15 | |
that the majority of the Nawab's troops took no part in the battle. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:19 | |
He was then installed as Britain's puppet. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:22 | |
This opened up the richest province of India to the company. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:26 | |
Robert Clive regarded this Machiavellian manoeuvring as the pinnacle of his career. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:32 | |
Clive and the company were now rich. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:36 | |
Better still, in exchange for a single payment of £270,000, | 0:26:36 | 0:26:40 | |
the company was granted the right to manage the "diwani" or the revenue and civil administration of Bengal. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:47 | |
This allowed them to collect | 0:26:49 | 0:26:51 | |
land tax from the entire population of Bengal, ten million people. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:55 | |
It effectively turned them into the de facto government. | 0:26:55 | 0:26:59 | |
Robert Clive estimated that it would be worth £1.7 million every year. | 0:26:59 | 0:27:06 | |
With control over the revenues of India's richest province, | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
the company's role had profoundly changed. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
It's the point at which the East India Company | 0:27:13 | 0:27:16 | |
really moves from being a trading enterprise to an actual ruler of territory. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:21 | |
The company now had impressive armies, a robust trading network | 0:27:22 | 0:27:26 | |
and authority over a huge swathe of territory. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:29 | |
The British were in a position of unrivalled supremacy in India | 0:27:29 | 0:27:33 | |
and overall Britain emerged from the Seven Years' War | 0:27:33 | 0:27:36 | |
as the world's leading colonial power. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:39 | |
In the mid-18th century, the East India Company took control of India's richest province. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:55 | |
Led by Robert Clive, the company defeated the ruler of Bengal | 0:27:55 | 0:27:59 | |
and installed a replacement of their choosing. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
They were given the right to manage the revenue | 0:28:02 | 0:28:04 | |
and civil administration of Bengal called the "diwani". | 0:28:04 | 0:28:08 | |
The diwani was a licence to print money. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:12 | |
After the costs of administering Bengal had been met | 0:28:12 | 0:28:15 | |
the company's profit margin was 49%. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:18 | |
The commercial floodgates had opened. | 0:28:18 | 0:28:22 | |
In 1766, news of the diwani reached London. | 0:28:22 | 0:28:26 | |
The prospect of massive financial gains in Bengal | 0:28:27 | 0:28:30 | |
pushed the company's share price through the roof. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:34 | |
Now, this is partly fuelled by Clive, who wrote to his friends from India | 0:28:34 | 0:28:38 | |
advising them to buy stock, and he wrote to his own attorneys as well | 0:28:38 | 0:28:42 | |
telling them to make huge purchases on his behalf. | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
Not surprisingly other British and foreign investors followed suit. | 0:28:45 | 0:28:49 | |
Robert Clive returned home a national hero | 0:28:56 | 0:28:59 | |
with a personal fortune equivalent to £38 million today | 0:28:59 | 0:29:04 | |
and a generous income from land holdings in Bengal. | 0:29:04 | 0:29:07 | |
He went on a spending spree. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:10 | |
He bought a raft of properties including his childhood home, Styche Hall, | 0:29:10 | 0:29:14 | |
which he renovated for his father, and then he bought this place, Walcot Hall, | 0:29:14 | 0:29:18 | |
for the princely sum of £90,000. | 0:29:18 | 0:29:21 | |
BIRDSONG | 0:29:22 | 0:29:24 | |
Not bad for 6,000 acres. | 0:29:26 | 0:29:29 | |
Clive began transforming his new home into a lavish palazzo | 0:29:29 | 0:29:33 | |
with one of the finest gardens in England. | 0:29:33 | 0:29:36 | |
After ruling a state four times bigger than Britain, | 0:29:36 | 0:29:40 | |
Clive was determined to forge a political career back in the old country. | 0:29:40 | 0:29:44 | |
His new Shropshire pile came with an added bonus. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:48 | |
Walcot Hall had traditionally been owned by the powerful Walcot family | 0:29:51 | 0:29:54 | |
and they'd been able to nominate the area's MPs. | 0:29:54 | 0:29:58 | |
When they fell badly into debt, Clive saw his chance. | 0:29:58 | 0:30:00 | |
He bought the estate and with it came control of the local parliamentary borough. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:05 | |
That allowed him to basically appoint his cousin as the MP. | 0:30:05 | 0:30:09 | |
For the next 50 years, Clive's money ensured that his family continued to live in style | 0:30:09 | 0:30:14 | |
and they continued to control the politics of the local area. | 0:30:14 | 0:30:18 | |
Clive added half a dozen seats in Shropshire | 0:30:20 | 0:30:23 | |
and further estates in Devon, Monmouth and Surrey to a bulging property empire. | 0:30:23 | 0:30:28 | |
He was just one of a number of company men who had grown fabulously wealthy in Bengal | 0:30:30 | 0:30:34 | |
and then had returned home to improve their status in life. | 0:30:34 | 0:30:38 | |
They bought their way into the aristocracy. | 0:30:38 | 0:30:40 | |
They bought influence and power. | 0:30:40 | 0:30:42 | |
They became known as "nabobs", | 0:30:44 | 0:30:46 | |
a term synonymous with vanity and absurd pretention. | 0:30:46 | 0:30:50 | |
They're perceived to be too rich for their own good, | 0:30:51 | 0:30:54 | |
to wear their diamonds too ostentatiously, | 0:30:54 | 0:30:57 | |
to wear textiles from India, concerns about so-called Oriental despotism | 0:30:57 | 0:31:03 | |
that they may have brought back from the Mogul Empire in India with them. | 0:31:03 | 0:31:07 | |
All of those are great concerns for people. | 0:31:07 | 0:31:10 | |
The nabobs represented the East India Company at its most venal and corrupt, | 0:31:10 | 0:31:15 | |
a direct threat to the social and political order. | 0:31:15 | 0:31:18 | |
By the 1780s, they had become a powerful minority, | 0:31:20 | 0:31:24 | |
with one tenth of the seats in Parliament. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:27 | |
But their good fortune would soon end. | 0:31:30 | 0:31:33 | |
A natural calamity was about to throw the Honourable Company into the biggest crisis in its history. | 0:31:35 | 0:31:41 | |
Famine had long been a part of life in Bengal, | 0:31:47 | 0:31:49 | |
but one that began in the late 1760s was turned into a full-blown humanitarian disaster | 0:31:49 | 0:31:56 | |
by the East India Company. | 0:31:56 | 0:31:59 | |
It's hard to come to terms with even after all these years, | 0:31:59 | 0:32:02 | |
but while the nabobs were back in Britain buying stately homes, | 0:32:02 | 0:32:05 | |
throwing parties, filling them with silver wine and art, | 0:32:05 | 0:32:09 | |
the people of Bengal who were paying for all that | 0:32:09 | 0:32:12 | |
were experiencing some of the most appalling conditions imaginable. | 0:32:12 | 0:32:15 | |
A prolonged drought and a poor harvest caused a famine | 0:32:22 | 0:32:25 | |
that continued for three long years, the worst in living memory. | 0:32:25 | 0:32:29 | |
The East India Company watched and recorded everything. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:42 | |
Did the East India Company help or did they make things worse? | 0:32:44 | 0:32:47 | |
They made things worse. They raised the taxes on agricultural produce, | 0:32:47 | 0:32:51 | |
they banned the hoarding of rice and grain, | 0:32:51 | 0:32:54 | |
which was traditionally used to tide over the population | 0:32:54 | 0:32:58 | |
through periods of scarcity. | 0:32:58 | 0:32:59 | |
They ripped up some of the food crops to plant much more profitable indigo | 0:32:59 | 0:33:04 | |
and even more profitable opium. | 0:33:04 | 0:33:07 | |
And, finally, some of their junior servants | 0:33:07 | 0:33:11 | |
started to speculate and profiteer from the sale of rice and grain, | 0:33:11 | 0:33:19 | |
selling it out of the province at grossly inflated prices. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:24 | |
The company was more interested in protecting its profits | 0:33:24 | 0:33:27 | |
than in relieving the suffering of the Bengali people. | 0:33:27 | 0:33:31 | |
It's estimated that between two million and ten million people died. | 0:33:31 | 0:33:36 | |
A valuable lesson on the dangers of unchecked corporate power. | 0:33:36 | 0:33:40 | |
Nobody was ultimately brought to account for it, | 0:33:42 | 0:33:44 | |
but there was certainly a sense that the nature of East India Company government at the time | 0:33:44 | 0:33:50 | |
had exacerbated the famine, | 0:33:50 | 0:33:52 | |
that it had made things worse, if it hadn't actually caused it. | 0:33:52 | 0:33:56 | |
The famine was a human tragedy and a financial disaster. | 0:34:02 | 0:34:06 | |
The Bengal economy collapsed, | 0:34:06 | 0:34:09 | |
the company's income plummeted. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:11 | |
Its share price crashed and all dividend payments were suspended. | 0:34:11 | 0:34:15 | |
The bubble was burst. People wanted to know why, how could this have happened? | 0:34:16 | 0:34:20 | |
Parliament set up its own inquiry and a scapegoat was lined up... | 0:34:20 | 0:34:25 | |
Robert Clive, Britain's richest man. | 0:34:25 | 0:34:27 | |
He became seen as the sort of leader of the nabobs | 0:34:31 | 0:34:34 | |
and was nicknamed Lord Vulture. | 0:34:34 | 0:34:36 | |
Denounced for enriching himself with Indian loot, | 0:34:38 | 0:34:41 | |
Clive was hauled before Parliament. | 0:34:41 | 0:34:44 | |
He asked his accusers to remember the situation that he'd been in, | 0:34:44 | 0:34:47 | |
an opulent city had lain at his mercy. | 0:34:47 | 0:34:50 | |
He'd been shown through vaults full of treasure, gold and precious stones on every side. | 0:34:50 | 0:34:54 | |
He finished by saying "By God, Mr Chairman, I stand astonished at my own moderation". | 0:34:54 | 0:35:01 | |
Well, if Clive was greedy or corrupt, | 0:35:01 | 0:35:04 | |
he certainly wasn't the only one in the House of Commons. | 0:35:04 | 0:35:06 | |
He was acquitted. In fact, he was even thanked for services to his country. | 0:35:06 | 0:35:12 | |
But his life ended in tragedy. | 0:35:12 | 0:35:15 | |
In November 1774, Clive was found dead at his London home. | 0:35:15 | 0:35:20 | |
He'd suffered depression for much of his life | 0:35:20 | 0:35:23 | |
and he'd become an opium addict. | 0:35:23 | 0:35:25 | |
It's very likely that he'd committed suicide. | 0:35:25 | 0:35:28 | |
Dr Samuel Johnson wrote that his crimes | 0:35:28 | 0:35:30 | |
had driven him to slit his own throat. | 0:35:30 | 0:35:33 | |
It was a scandalous and pitiful end | 0:35:33 | 0:35:36 | |
to a life of extraordinary if controversial achievement. | 0:35:36 | 0:35:40 | |
Robert Clive's victory in Bengal | 0:35:42 | 0:35:44 | |
proved to be a major turning for the East India Company, | 0:35:44 | 0:35:47 | |
but not in the way he had hoped for. | 0:35:47 | 0:35:50 | |
Their mismanagement of the province, the devastating famine | 0:35:50 | 0:35:54 | |
and the company's plummeting fortunes led to a crisis point | 0:35:54 | 0:35:59 | |
which could only be solved by government intervention. | 0:35:59 | 0:36:02 | |
By the 1760s, the East India Company had grown | 0:36:13 | 0:36:16 | |
from a tiny band of merchants with a small foothold in India into a colossal trading empire, | 0:36:16 | 0:36:22 | |
pouring wealth into the pockets of its shareholders back in Britain. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:26 | |
But then they conquered the wealthy region of Bengal and bled it dry, | 0:36:27 | 0:36:32 | |
amplifying the effects of a deadly famine, leading to the deaths of millions of people | 0:36:32 | 0:36:37 | |
in a human tragedy of unprecedented scale. | 0:36:37 | 0:36:40 | |
The British were horrified and the Government was forced to step in. | 0:36:41 | 0:36:45 | |
From that point on the state's grip grew ever tighter | 0:36:45 | 0:36:48 | |
as it attempted to control this voracious monster. | 0:36:48 | 0:36:52 | |
Accused of corruption, incompetence and greed | 0:36:52 | 0:36:55 | |
the company's reputation was in tatters | 0:36:55 | 0:36:58 | |
and there was worse to come. | 0:36:58 | 0:37:01 | |
The crisis that was affecting the company really came to | 0:37:01 | 0:37:04 | |
a head in 1772, where there was a failure of a major Scottish | 0:37:04 | 0:37:08 | |
bank, the Ayr Bank. | 0:37:08 | 0:37:09 | |
About 30 other banks in fact failed | 0:37:09 | 0:37:11 | |
and that led to a major shortage of money in the economy. The company | 0:37:11 | 0:37:15 | |
had to go repeatedly to the Bank of England for loans to tie them over. | 0:37:15 | 0:37:19 | |
They were very indebted. | 0:37:19 | 0:37:21 | |
Now, starved of funds, | 0:37:21 | 0:37:23 | |
the world's greatest company had run out of cash. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:27 | |
There was only one possible way out. Massive government bailout. | 0:37:28 | 0:37:32 | |
For reasons that are spookily familiar, | 0:37:32 | 0:37:34 | |
it was decided that the | 0:37:34 | 0:37:35 | |
East India Company was too big to fail. | 0:37:35 | 0:37:39 | |
The British government rescued the company with public money | 0:37:39 | 0:37:42 | |
today equivalent to £176 million. | 0:37:42 | 0:37:44 | |
But its powers were progressively curtailed. | 0:37:47 | 0:37:50 | |
The India Act of 1784 transferred its executive management to | 0:37:51 | 0:37:55 | |
an independent Board of Control, answerable to Parliament. | 0:37:55 | 0:37:59 | |
A new chapter in its history began. | 0:38:01 | 0:38:04 | |
From now on, its affairs in India would be | 0:38:04 | 0:38:06 | |
run by a Board of Control, appointed by the British government. | 0:38:06 | 0:38:10 | |
And Parliament would gradually transform the way that the | 0:38:10 | 0:38:13 | |
company functioned in India. | 0:38:13 | 0:38:15 | |
The British state was now pulling the strings. | 0:38:17 | 0:38:20 | |
Instead of entrepreneurs like Robert Clive, the British government | 0:38:22 | 0:38:26 | |
would now send out its own, more reliable people to run India. | 0:38:26 | 0:38:30 | |
The Governor General here in Calcutta would rule supreme, | 0:38:30 | 0:38:34 | |
given sweeping new powers in revenue, diplomacy and war. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:39 | |
It was nothing less than the birth of empire. | 0:38:39 | 0:38:41 | |
In 1798 Lord Richard Wellesley was given the top | 0:38:43 | 0:38:46 | |
job in India by the British government. | 0:38:46 | 0:38:49 | |
In the 19th century the biggest risk to the company would be | 0:38:50 | 0:38:53 | |
the emerging struggle between trade and empire, | 0:38:53 | 0:38:56 | |
between the objectives of the company and those of the Government. | 0:38:56 | 0:39:01 | |
This conflict was intensified by Wellesley. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:04 | |
'Wellesley was from a grand aristocratic family back home | 0:39:11 | 0:39:14 | |
'and he took one look at Government House in Calcutta' | 0:39:14 | 0:39:17 | |
and decided something a little more ostentatious was required to | 0:39:17 | 0:39:20 | |
reflect the power of the British in India. | 0:39:20 | 0:39:22 | |
Not to mention his own exalted status. | 0:39:22 | 0:39:25 | |
So he built this, the new Government House. | 0:39:25 | 0:39:28 | |
It's not much, but it's home. | 0:39:29 | 0:39:31 | |
The cost of the project rang alarm bells back at company | 0:39:36 | 0:39:39 | |
headquarters in Leadenhall St. | 0:39:39 | 0:39:42 | |
But of more concern were Wellesley's outright imperial ambitions, | 0:39:42 | 0:39:45 | |
which clashed with the company's stated objectives to minimise | 0:39:45 | 0:39:49 | |
military expenditure. | 0:39:49 | 0:39:50 | |
In London the directors were keen to avoid war. | 0:39:53 | 0:39:56 | |
Their costs were certain, their outcomes less so. | 0:39:56 | 0:39:59 | |
But Wellesley dismissed the concerns of the people he described as | 0:39:59 | 0:40:02 | |
the cheesemongers of Leadenhall St. He was here with a personal agenda, | 0:40:02 | 0:40:07 | |
one supported by the British government. | 0:40:07 | 0:40:09 | |
And it had little to do with the rag trade. | 0:40:09 | 0:40:11 | |
He wanted to smash the vestiges of French power in India, | 0:40:11 | 0:40:15 | |
wipe out local opposition | 0:40:15 | 0:40:16 | |
and extend British rule across the subcontinent. | 0:40:16 | 0:40:20 | |
And from 14,000 miles away, there was | 0:40:20 | 0:40:22 | |
little the directors could do to stop him. | 0:40:22 | 0:40:24 | |
Wellesley had set his sights on a formidable Muslim adversary, | 0:40:27 | 0:40:31 | |
Tipu Sultan. | 0:40:31 | 0:40:32 | |
The Tiger of Mysore. | 0:40:32 | 0:40:33 | |
The rich, battle-hardened Muslim leader of Mysore was | 0:40:37 | 0:40:40 | |
the East India Company's most intractable enemy. | 0:40:40 | 0:40:44 | |
Three times in three decades his family had fought the company. | 0:40:44 | 0:40:49 | |
They were known as the Terrors of Leadenhall St. | 0:40:49 | 0:40:52 | |
And now Wellesley discovered that on top of it all, | 0:40:52 | 0:40:54 | |
they were in league with the French. | 0:40:54 | 0:40:56 | |
I think he identified quite early on that if he could play the French | 0:41:00 | 0:41:04 | |
and British off against each other, he could expand at their expense. | 0:41:04 | 0:41:09 | |
The French were at the time Britain's main global rival | 0:41:09 | 0:41:13 | |
for the status of global superpower. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:17 | |
And that was being played out in India as it was in North America | 0:41:17 | 0:41:21 | |
and other arenas. | 0:41:21 | 0:41:22 | |
A striking force of around 4,000 East India Company troops, | 0:41:23 | 0:41:27 | |
many of them native soldiers or sepoys, | 0:41:27 | 0:41:30 | |
attacked Tipu's fort in Seringapatam. | 0:41:30 | 0:41:33 | |
Inside with his men, the Tiger was ready to do battle. | 0:41:33 | 0:41:36 | |
A ruler who prided himself on military prowess had | 0:41:40 | 0:41:43 | |
to have an extensive, extravagant, | 0:41:43 | 0:41:46 | |
ornate collection of weapons in his personal arsenal. | 0:41:46 | 0:41:49 | |
And here are some of them. | 0:41:49 | 0:41:50 | |
The sword was the emblem of manhood, the emblem of a great ruler. | 0:41:50 | 0:41:56 | |
And judging by these swords Tipu Sultan was a deeply religious | 0:41:56 | 0:41:59 | |
man and a deeply aggressive one. | 0:41:59 | 0:42:02 | |
Look at this fabulous sword here. | 0:42:02 | 0:42:04 | |
The hilt is entirely covered in gold. | 0:42:04 | 0:42:08 | |
Gold tiger clasping a steel blade in its mouth. | 0:42:08 | 0:42:13 | |
This man was obsessed with the tiger motif. He lived his life as a tiger. | 0:42:13 | 0:42:17 | |
In fact, his favourite expression was, | 0:42:17 | 0:42:19 | |
"It's better to live one day as a tiger than 1,000 days as a sheep." | 0:42:19 | 0:42:23 | |
What I love about this particular one is on the hilt is written | 0:42:23 | 0:42:27 | |
an expression in Persian. | 0:42:27 | 0:42:29 | |
"This blade is the lightning that flashes through | 0:42:29 | 0:42:31 | |
"the lives of infidels." | 0:42:31 | 0:42:33 | |
Probably quite near the end of their lives, I expect. | 0:42:33 | 0:42:35 | |
And on here is the name of Tipu Sultan himself, | 0:42:35 | 0:42:39 | |
and Allah and Muhammad his prophet. | 0:42:39 | 0:42:41 | |
This was a man who believed he was engaged in holy war. | 0:42:44 | 0:42:47 | |
He was God's instrument on earth. | 0:42:47 | 0:42:49 | |
And the task was to destroy infidels, driving them | 0:42:49 | 0:42:52 | |
out from the Indian subcontinent. | 0:42:52 | 0:42:54 | |
But this time it wasn't to be. | 0:42:58 | 0:43:00 | |
After a month-long siege Tipu's stronghold fell | 0:43:00 | 0:43:04 | |
and the Tiger was slaughtered. | 0:43:04 | 0:43:05 | |
When news of the Tiger's death reached Britain there was jubilation. | 0:43:09 | 0:43:12 | |
It turns out the British people didn't share Tipu Sultan's | 0:43:12 | 0:43:14 | |
opinion of himself as a noble servant of God. | 0:43:14 | 0:43:18 | |
They thought he was an extremist tyrant. | 0:43:18 | 0:43:20 | |
There were parties and balls across the country, decorations | 0:43:20 | 0:43:23 | |
and medals were struck. Artists got in on the act | 0:43:23 | 0:43:25 | |
and painted depictions of the final battle. | 0:43:25 | 0:43:29 | |
This wasn't being celebrated as a private, | 0:43:29 | 0:43:31 | |
commercial triumph for the East India Company | 0:43:31 | 0:43:33 | |
but as a moment of national, public achievement. | 0:43:33 | 0:43:37 | |
There was now nothing else standing in the way of total British | 0:43:37 | 0:43:41 | |
domination in the subcontinent. | 0:43:41 | 0:43:43 | |
With the vast, rich kingdom of Mysore now under their dominion, | 0:43:45 | 0:43:49 | |
the company's power in India was growing. | 0:43:49 | 0:43:52 | |
But territorial growth meant bigger | 0:43:52 | 0:43:54 | |
and more expensive armies to hold it. | 0:43:54 | 0:43:57 | |
The cost of this could ruin the company, but from their | 0:43:57 | 0:44:00 | |
offices in London the directors were powerless to contain Lord Wellesley. | 0:44:00 | 0:44:04 | |
Wellesley saw himself as a ruler, not a merchant. | 0:44:06 | 0:44:09 | |
And like countless other empire builders | 0:44:09 | 0:44:11 | |
he developed an insatiable desire for ever wider expansion. | 0:44:11 | 0:44:15 | |
He spent a vast amount of money that should have | 0:44:15 | 0:44:17 | |
been for commercial purposes on conquest. | 0:44:17 | 0:44:20 | |
Against the company's wishes, Wellesley annexed more | 0:44:22 | 0:44:25 | |
and more Indian territory. | 0:44:25 | 0:44:27 | |
Vast swathes of southern, western | 0:44:27 | 0:44:29 | |
and northern India fell to the British. | 0:44:29 | 0:44:31 | |
One quote at the time is he's increased | 0:44:32 | 0:44:35 | |
the population of British India by 40 million. | 0:44:35 | 0:44:39 | |
So this is a massive expansion and it's really the time | 0:44:39 | 0:44:41 | |
when the East India Company moves from paramountcy, from being | 0:44:41 | 0:44:45 | |
the major influential power to being the major territorial power. | 0:44:45 | 0:44:49 | |
It's the start, in effect, of the British Empire. | 0:44:49 | 0:44:52 | |
Wellesley had completely transformed the company's | 0:44:53 | 0:44:56 | |
position in India even whilst the directors back in Britain | 0:44:56 | 0:44:59 | |
were complaining that his actions were taking them into debt. | 0:44:59 | 0:45:02 | |
By the time he was finished, Britain controlled an area that | 0:45:02 | 0:45:05 | |
was ten times the size of the British Isles | 0:45:05 | 0:45:08 | |
with a population of 180 million people. | 0:45:08 | 0:45:12 | |
That's one sixth of the entire global population at the time. | 0:45:12 | 0:45:16 | |
British India flourished under Wellesley. | 0:45:18 | 0:45:21 | |
And in turn, Britain was boosted. | 0:45:21 | 0:45:23 | |
The stage was set for the creation of an empire. | 0:45:23 | 0:45:26 | |
And despite their objections, | 0:45:26 | 0:45:28 | |
the East India Company was at the heart of it. | 0:45:28 | 0:45:31 | |
By the early 19th century, Britain, | 0:45:42 | 0:45:44 | |
through the East India Company, was the dominant authority in India. | 0:45:44 | 0:45:48 | |
But the next few years would see a significant | 0:45:48 | 0:45:50 | |
change in the company's role. | 0:45:50 | 0:45:52 | |
The end of their trading monopoly saw them | 0:45:52 | 0:45:55 | |
become colonial administrators rather than merchants. | 0:45:55 | 0:45:58 | |
This new role as ruler of India would herald a new attitude | 0:46:00 | 0:46:05 | |
towards its subjects. | 0:46:05 | 0:46:07 | |
Over time, the British would grow more distant and aloof. | 0:46:07 | 0:46:11 | |
Neglecting its relationship with the people of India, | 0:46:15 | 0:46:18 | |
carefully cultivated over the previous centuries, would prove | 0:46:18 | 0:46:22 | |
a terrible mistake and threaten the company's very existence. | 0:46:22 | 0:46:26 | |
They increasingly see a need to separate | 0:46:27 | 0:46:31 | |
themselves from the people that they're ruling | 0:46:31 | 0:46:33 | |
and to create a sense of British prestige around themselves | 0:46:33 | 0:46:37 | |
as the ruling race and the people who are in charge. | 0:46:37 | 0:46:40 | |
Where earlier companymen had embraced local | 0:46:44 | 0:46:46 | |
and religious customs, now people were becoming alarmed by them, | 0:46:46 | 0:46:50 | |
especially Britain's growing number of Christian missionaries, | 0:46:50 | 0:46:54 | |
who had been arriving in India in small numbers | 0:46:54 | 0:46:56 | |
against the company's wishes. | 0:46:56 | 0:46:58 | |
The company believed that the people of India should be left to | 0:47:01 | 0:47:04 | |
practise their own religions. | 0:47:04 | 0:47:06 | |
Otherwise, they could grow hostile. | 0:47:06 | 0:47:08 | |
And that would jeopardise Britain's position on the subcontinent. | 0:47:08 | 0:47:12 | |
But, it wasn't up to the company any more. | 0:47:13 | 0:47:16 | |
'With ultimate control over its activities in India, | 0:47:16 | 0:47:19 | |
'the British government found itself lobbied by some powerful | 0:47:19 | 0:47:23 | |
'Christian representatives.' | 0:47:23 | 0:47:24 | |
In 1813 the British government gave way | 0:47:26 | 0:47:29 | |
and forced the company to give missionaries full access to India, | 0:47:29 | 0:47:33 | |
sending a dangerous message to its people that the British | 0:47:33 | 0:47:36 | |
planned to convert them to Christianity. | 0:47:36 | 0:47:38 | |
'Missionaries were just one of the parliamentary impositions' | 0:47:43 | 0:47:47 | |
the company was forced to accept in order to stay in India. | 0:47:47 | 0:47:51 | |
'Just 20 years since Parliament extended its royal charter, | 0:47:51 | 0:47:55 | |
'it was up for renewal again.' | 0:47:55 | 0:47:57 | |
Every time the East India Company's royal charter had come | 0:47:59 | 0:48:02 | |
up for renewal, there were calls to end its commercial | 0:48:02 | 0:48:05 | |
monopoly on trade with India. | 0:48:05 | 0:48:08 | |
But it survived intact for more than 200 years. | 0:48:08 | 0:48:11 | |
But this was the era of free trade | 0:48:11 | 0:48:13 | |
and Parliament decided to end that privileged position. | 0:48:13 | 0:48:17 | |
That meant that the East India Company servants were no | 0:48:17 | 0:48:19 | |
longer here to trade, to make money through buying and selling | 0:48:19 | 0:48:23 | |
but as colonial administrators, | 0:48:23 | 0:48:25 | |
running its vast territories on behalf of the British Crown. | 0:48:25 | 0:48:29 | |
'The 1813 Charter Act marked a complete | 0:48:33 | 0:48:36 | |
'shift in the company's role.' | 0:48:36 | 0:48:38 | |
After some 200 years in India, | 0:48:38 | 0:48:40 | |
they were no longer here as merchants but as rulers. | 0:48:40 | 0:48:44 | |
And this new position would have a tangible | 0:48:44 | 0:48:46 | |
effect on the behaviour of the British in India. | 0:48:46 | 0:48:48 | |
Britain was going through a massive Industrial Revolution. | 0:48:50 | 0:48:52 | |
It was becoming one of the richest | 0:48:52 | 0:48:54 | |
and perhaps THE richest country in the world. | 0:48:54 | 0:48:56 | |
And the British in India reflected that change. | 0:48:56 | 0:48:59 | |
They no longer saw themselves as people who had chosen to | 0:48:59 | 0:49:01 | |
live in India and had to muddle along and get on with the locals. | 0:49:01 | 0:49:04 | |
They now saw themselves as part of a superior, | 0:49:04 | 0:49:07 | |
advanced, progressive civilisation. | 0:49:07 | 0:49:08 | |
And they saw themselves increasingly as detached from India. | 0:49:08 | 0:49:11 | |
The respect for Indian culture that had characterised previous | 0:49:15 | 0:49:18 | |
generations had completely vanished. | 0:49:18 | 0:49:19 | |
It was no longer acceptable for an East India Company servant to | 0:49:19 | 0:49:23 | |
speak like or dress like an Indian. | 0:49:23 | 0:49:25 | |
They had to now wear European dress and the army soon followed suit. | 0:49:25 | 0:49:29 | |
European customs and manners were emphasised. | 0:49:29 | 0:49:33 | |
A huge gulf was opening between the British governing elite | 0:49:33 | 0:49:36 | |
and the Indian subjects. | 0:49:36 | 0:49:39 | |
As the British entered the new, self-assured Victorian age, | 0:49:39 | 0:49:41 | |
their attitude towards the Indians hardened. | 0:49:41 | 0:49:44 | |
They were convinced of their own cultural superiority | 0:49:44 | 0:49:47 | |
and they believed India needed all the help it could get. | 0:49:47 | 0:49:49 | |
India was a barbaric place and its civilisation was stagnant. | 0:49:49 | 0:49:53 | |
From now on, company servants and officers who came to India | 0:49:55 | 0:49:58 | |
were influenced by this conviction of moral and racial superiority. | 0:49:58 | 0:50:02 | |
To our ears their views seem shockingly racist. | 0:50:04 | 0:50:07 | |
The refusal to learn local languages, dismissing | 0:50:10 | 0:50:12 | |
Indians as savage barbarians incapable of elevated thought. | 0:50:12 | 0:50:16 | |
These were ignorant views and ones which ironically confined | 0:50:16 | 0:50:20 | |
the British into a narrow life that many of them found so boring. | 0:50:20 | 0:50:24 | |
But perhaps even more than being stupid and racist, | 0:50:24 | 0:50:27 | |
these views were dangerous, | 0:50:27 | 0:50:29 | |
because if that chasm opened up between the rulers | 0:50:29 | 0:50:32 | |
and the ruled, then there's fertile ground for conflict. | 0:50:32 | 0:50:36 | |
Few of these Brits had the urge or the need to look outside | 0:50:39 | 0:50:42 | |
the confines of this artificial little bubble. | 0:50:42 | 0:50:45 | |
Often the only natives they did meet were their own servants. | 0:50:45 | 0:50:48 | |
They tried to recreate their old British lives, | 0:50:48 | 0:50:50 | |
eating British food three times a day, planting British | 0:50:50 | 0:50:54 | |
seeds in their garden and wearing ridiculous British clothing | 0:50:54 | 0:50:58 | |
as they went out in the hot Indian sun. | 0:50:58 | 0:51:01 | |
It was an obstinate, desperate attempt to keep a little | 0:51:01 | 0:51:03 | |
piece of Britishness alive here in the heart of India. | 0:51:03 | 0:51:07 | |
As administrator of India, | 0:51:11 | 0:51:12 | |
the East India Company was allocated a pot of money by the British | 0:51:12 | 0:51:15 | |
government for the intellectual improvement of the people. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:18 | |
But no-one could best decide how to use it. | 0:51:18 | 0:51:21 | |
No-one, that is, until the arrival of one man, Thomas Babington Macaulay, | 0:51:21 | 0:51:27 | |
law maker on the newly created Supreme Council of India. | 0:51:27 | 0:51:31 | |
And his legacy has left a profound mark on the subcontinent. | 0:51:31 | 0:51:35 | |
These poor young men have exam week on at the moment. | 0:51:43 | 0:51:46 | |
It's bringing back all sorts of horrible memories of my own | 0:51:46 | 0:51:48 | |
time at school. | 0:51:48 | 0:51:50 | |
Macaulay, like many other prominent Victorians, assumed that | 0:51:50 | 0:51:54 | |
British culture was the highest form of human civilisation. | 0:51:54 | 0:51:57 | |
And he was desperate to try | 0:51:57 | 0:51:59 | |
and bestow some of that on the Indian subjects. | 0:51:59 | 0:52:02 | |
He envisaged an education system that would create | 0:52:02 | 0:52:04 | |
"Indians in blood and colour but English in tastes, opinions, morals | 0:52:04 | 0:52:11 | |
"and intellect." And the first thing to do was teach them all English. | 0:52:11 | 0:52:15 | |
Macaulay's act, the Minute on Education, | 0:52:20 | 0:52:24 | |
was passed in February 1835. | 0:52:24 | 0:52:26 | |
And almost immediately the children of India's elite began | 0:52:26 | 0:52:30 | |
learning English as their main language. | 0:52:30 | 0:52:32 | |
The changing attitudes of the British towards the Indians | 0:52:35 | 0:52:38 | |
affected military life as well as the civilian world. | 0:52:38 | 0:52:41 | |
The Indian army had grown to become a bit of a source of worry | 0:52:46 | 0:52:49 | |
for many in the East India Company. | 0:52:49 | 0:52:50 | |
What had begun as a few security teams guarding the company's | 0:52:50 | 0:52:54 | |
forts around India had grown into one of the largest standing | 0:52:54 | 0:52:58 | |
armies in the world - | 0:52:58 | 0:53:00 | |
more than 250,000 troops, | 0:53:00 | 0:53:02 | |
larger than most European armies at the time. | 0:53:02 | 0:53:05 | |
And that was 96% composed of native, Indian troops | 0:53:05 | 0:53:11 | |
known as sepoys. | 0:53:11 | 0:53:12 | |
Keeping these sepoy troops loyal was critical to the company's survival. | 0:53:13 | 0:53:17 | |
So what would happen if this huge native army turned on them? | 0:53:19 | 0:53:23 | |
The problem with the Indian army at that time is that it's set up | 0:53:26 | 0:53:29 | |
if you have any ambition, any get-up-and-go, any drive, | 0:53:29 | 0:53:33 | |
you will leave your regiment early on for probably civil employ or staff | 0:53:33 | 0:53:36 | |
employ and the reason you did that was because they were better paid. | 0:53:36 | 0:53:39 | |
And so the residue left in the regiments, | 0:53:39 | 0:53:41 | |
the people who had close daily contact with the Indian | 0:53:41 | 0:53:44 | |
soldiers, were the refuse, the worst of the lot. And they didn't tend... | 0:53:44 | 0:53:48 | |
These men were disgruntled, they were bored. | 0:53:48 | 0:53:51 | |
And they didn't tend to treat their Indian soldiers very well. | 0:53:51 | 0:53:54 | |
Just as throughout the rest of British India, in the company's | 0:53:56 | 0:53:59 | |
three armies a racial gulf had opened up between the officers | 0:53:59 | 0:54:03 | |
and their Indian troops. | 0:54:03 | 0:54:04 | |
Any team, but particularly the army, needs that trust and respect between | 0:54:06 | 0:54:10 | |
those who are giving the orders and those who are carrying them out. | 0:54:10 | 0:54:13 | |
If you were an East India Company sepoy, why would you follow | 0:54:14 | 0:54:18 | |
an officer into battle who is openly disdainful of you? | 0:54:18 | 0:54:21 | |
In fact, why would you do anything he said at all? | 0:54:21 | 0:54:23 | |
The sepoys no longer trusted their East India Company officers. | 0:54:31 | 0:54:34 | |
They were appalled at their degrading treatment | 0:54:34 | 0:54:36 | |
and were very suspicious about the future intentions of the company. | 0:54:36 | 0:54:39 | |
What was needed to turn this very tense | 0:54:39 | 0:54:41 | |
situation into a full-blown crisis was a spark. | 0:54:41 | 0:54:45 | |
Appropriately enough that spark was provided by the sepoy's rifles. | 0:54:50 | 0:54:55 | |
In the mid-19th century a sepoy would have | 0:54:55 | 0:54:57 | |
lots of cartridges in his cartridge pouch. | 0:54:57 | 0:54:59 | |
He had to bite off the end... | 0:54:59 | 0:55:01 | |
..pour it down the barrel of the rifle... | 0:55:03 | 0:55:05 | |
then put the cartridge itself and the bullet into the barrel, | 0:55:05 | 0:55:09 | |
ram it down with a ramrod and then it would fire at the enemy. | 0:55:09 | 0:55:13 | |
The big problem came when a rumour spread like wildfire | 0:55:13 | 0:55:16 | |
throughout the sepoy forces | 0:55:16 | 0:55:18 | |
that the British were greasing these cartridges with pig or beef fat. | 0:55:18 | 0:55:22 | |
For them it was completely intolerable to insert anything | 0:55:22 | 0:55:25 | |
that had ever been near a pig or cow into their mouth. | 0:55:25 | 0:55:29 | |
At a stroke the culturally ignorant, | 0:55:29 | 0:55:31 | |
distant British decision makers had managed to alienate not just | 0:55:31 | 0:55:35 | |
the Hindus but also the Muslims of their vast Indian army. | 0:55:35 | 0:55:40 | |
In fact, realising their error, | 0:55:42 | 0:55:44 | |
the East India Company never issued these cartridges to the sepoys. | 0:55:44 | 0:55:48 | |
But it was too late. | 0:55:48 | 0:55:50 | |
The scene was set for the | 0:55:53 | 0:55:54 | |
East India Company's greatest challenge yet, | 0:55:54 | 0:55:57 | |
an episode that has become known to the British as the Indian Mutiny | 0:55:57 | 0:56:01 | |
but to the Indians, it was the First War of Independence. | 0:56:01 | 0:56:05 | |
After several isolated incidents the uprising began for real when the troops at Meerut | 0:56:06 | 0:56:11 | |
rose up and headed for Delhi. | 0:56:11 | 0:56:13 | |
On the 11th of May 1857, the city fell. | 0:56:14 | 0:56:19 | |
The rebellion is a mixture of dissatisfied | 0:56:19 | 0:56:22 | |
groups in India. The biggest dissatisfied | 0:56:22 | 0:56:24 | |
group are the soldiers and since they're professionals | 0:56:24 | 0:56:26 | |
and they're armed, they are the most dangerous. | 0:56:26 | 0:56:28 | |
You will see in any revolution that you've got a problem | 0:56:28 | 0:56:31 | |
if your army turns on you. | 0:56:31 | 0:56:32 | |
But also they were joined by a lot of disgruntled civilians, | 0:56:32 | 0:56:35 | |
people who for | 0:56:35 | 0:56:36 | |
various reasons weren't happy with East India Company rule, | 0:56:36 | 0:56:39 | |
and that included a lot of people whose principalities had been | 0:56:39 | 0:56:43 | |
taken from them, a lot of people who felt | 0:56:43 | 0:56:45 | |
they had something to gain by seeing the back of the British. | 0:56:45 | 0:56:48 | |
The East India Company was about to pay a heavy | 0:56:48 | 0:56:51 | |
price for allowing its relationship with India to break down. | 0:56:51 | 0:56:54 | |
Right across northern India native troops rebelled against their | 0:56:55 | 0:56:59 | |
British officers, often killing them and their families. | 0:56:59 | 0:57:03 | |
There were serious disturbances at the strategically placed | 0:57:03 | 0:57:05 | |
towns of... | 0:57:05 | 0:57:06 | |
These were situated between Delhi | 0:57:09 | 0:57:11 | |
and the administrative capital, Calcutta. | 0:57:11 | 0:57:14 | |
If they fell it would seriously imperil the entire British | 0:57:14 | 0:57:17 | |
position in northern India. | 0:57:17 | 0:57:19 | |
Even the supposedly reliable garrison at Cawnpore was in revolt. | 0:57:19 | 0:57:24 | |
The East India Company was unable to restore order or prevent | 0:57:25 | 0:57:28 | |
acts of savage retribution by its troops. | 0:57:28 | 0:57:31 | |
The situation spiralled out of control. | 0:57:31 | 0:57:34 | |
The company had fatally bungled its response to the uprising. | 0:57:37 | 0:57:41 | |
Having been forced, bit by bit, to give up its privileges | 0:57:41 | 0:57:44 | |
throughout the previous century, it was finally on its knees. | 0:57:44 | 0:57:48 | |
The mutiny is the beginning of the end for the East India Company, | 0:57:48 | 0:57:51 | |
because it shows quite clearly to the British government that the | 0:57:51 | 0:57:54 | |
East India Company is no longer capable of governing India. | 0:57:54 | 0:57:57 | |
It's clearly made mistakes, probably in the way it runs its army | 0:57:57 | 0:58:00 | |
but also in its civil administration, and the amount of lives lost, | 0:58:00 | 0:58:06 | |
the treasure expended, can only mean one thing | 0:58:06 | 0:58:09 | |
and that is that India has to become a part of the British Empire. | 0:58:09 | 0:58:14 | |
The Government and the British people had had | 0:58:16 | 0:58:18 | |
enough of the rapacious, profiteering East India Company. | 0:58:18 | 0:58:22 | |
On the 1st of November 1858 British India was finally | 0:58:22 | 0:58:27 | |
and inevitably handed over to the government of Queen Victoria. | 0:58:27 | 0:58:31 |