Learning Zone The Birth of Empire: The East India Company


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Just over 400 years ago, a group of London merchants arrived here

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on the Indian coast hoping to do some peaceful trading.

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Those early pioneers dreamt of making huge profits.

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Over 200 years, the company they formed grew into a commercial titan.

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Its wealth rivalled that of the British state.

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It had its own army...and eventually ruled over 400 million people.

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Its trade was vital to Britain's commercial success

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and it revolutionised the British lifestyle...

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The East India Company changed the way we dress,

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it changed the way we eat, it changed the way we socialise.

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..and by accident created one of the most powerful empires in history.

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But the company's rise was followed by a dramatic descent into profiteering and corruption...

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..and, eventually, a chilling story of unchecked greed with devastating consequences.

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This is where it all started.

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On December 31st 1600,

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the East India Company was established by royal charter in London

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and granted a monopoly on trade with the East by Queen Elizabeth I.

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It was the beginning of a new age in Britain's history,

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an age of speculation and profit, enterprise and competition,

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an age that saw the beginnings

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of one of the most powerful empires in history.

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Capitalism would change for ever the lives of its people and politics.

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Trade would make Britain great

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and turn London into the richest city in the world.

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Thanks to the East India Company,

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exotic goods like spices from Indonesia, tea and porcelain from China,

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became part of everyday life.

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Every year, huge merchant ships of the East India Company,

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known as East Indiamen, would leave from right here

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loaded down with silver bullion and British merchandise

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heading up the Thames and out to sea to trade with the East.

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On board were young men filled with hope.

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In following their dreams,

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these young men would inadvertently forge an empire,

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an empire that would create thousands of winners...

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but millions of losers.

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One country above all would play a major role

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and become the jewel in the company's crown...

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India.

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Our story begins in 1639 at an unlikely spot on the east coast,

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a place that became known as Madraspatnam.

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When the company arrived here it wasn't pursuing dreams of conquest or empire

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but looking for a secure base from which to conduct trade.

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And one of its employees, Francis Day,

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was convinced this was the right spot.

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And with good reason.

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This is the Coromandel Coast,

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a name synonymous with diamonds, pearls and the finest cotton.

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In mid-17th-century Europe, Indian cotton was the height of fashion.

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It was cheap, colourful and hard-wearing.

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A fortune could be made exporting it.

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Francis Day claimed a section of beach and set up shop.

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Within a year, 300 Bengali weavers

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were working here and a handful of Englishmen were busy exporting cloth and spices

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back home for sale in London, much to the delight of the company's shareholders.

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They could send their ships out here, fill their holds with spices

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and hopefully return rich men.

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Now, it was a very lucrative trade and it's one that had been exploited

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by other European powers for quite a long time now,

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but by making it a monopoly, they could ensure

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there'd be no domestic opposition to threaten the shareholders' profits.

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Even so, the company's investors were taking a huge gamble.

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Each voyage could take two years or more, a long and tense wait to see a return on investment.

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Along the way there would be potential loss

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of ships through storms, there could be piracy,

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there could be conquest by local rulers etc etc.

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So this was a very high-risk venture.

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But one that had paid dividends from the beginning.

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When company ships first returned from the East Indies in 1607,

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investors had hit the jackpot.

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That single voyage netted an absolutely vast amount of money

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because of these...cloves.

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A single cargo of this ensured that the investors made a 230% profit,

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bringing them £36,000, that's tens of millions in today's money.

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It's hard to comprehend just how much of a revolution this was,

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something that we now take for granted.

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Used in medicine as a painkiller,

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cloves were so highly prized

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they were literally worth their weight in gold.

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In Madras the company built a warehouse and several homes along three miles of beach.

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Trade was valuable, so they protected their new settlement

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with a stockade and called it Fort St George.

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The original Fort St George was built on this spot.

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Now it's been massively strengthened and enlarged over the years,

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but it took 14 years to build

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and the East India Company directors bitterly complained about the cost.

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But this was like a big security barrier for their warehouse.

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Madras was the springboard for expansion.

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Within 50 years, the company was building two further settlements,

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which they called Bombay and Calcutta.

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By 1700, it was operating 22 trading posts across India.

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Calcutta was one of the biggest. The company's star was rising fast.

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But investors were about to be handed a commercial opportunity

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beyond their wildest expectations.

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For 200 years,

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India had been part of a vast empire ruled by a powerful dynasty.

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The Mughals had imposed a centralised government,

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built imposing monuments and unified the country with a road system and single currency.

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The population was huge compared with Britain's.

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It was about 140 million and Britain then had about four million.

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The economic position

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was it was the second largest economy in the world, reputedly,

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with about 25% of the world's GDP.

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For the first few decades,

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the mighty Mughals barely even noticed the East India Company.

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The British didn't cause trouble. And, besides, they paid good money.

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The Mughal Empire had a tax on imports of bullion,

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so they were doing quite well out of the company bringing in all this silver and gold.

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They were also selling the company trading concessions

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and wherever they were able to set up factories they had to pay for it.

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So it was quite a good sort of source of income for the Empire.

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But in 1707, the Mughal Empire began to disintegrate.

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When the last great Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb, died,

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his successors were unable to hold his empire together

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and power devolved into a patchwork of competing regional states.

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Obsessed with its own problems, therefore,

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the Empire didn't have time to worry about the little old East India Company.

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Amid the confusion a deal was signed.

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In exchange for an annual fee

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the East India Company was granted the right to trade duty-free across the state of Bengal.

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No gift could have been greater.

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Company merchants previously restricted to the coast

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could now do business across an entire province.

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And as the Mughal Empire weakened further the company expanded.

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The East India Company was sucked into this vacuum.

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It would back one local claimant to a throne against another

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and in return for its support it would be given little land holdings or trading concessions.

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That meant within decades the East India Company

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was becoming a sovereign entity in its own right.

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It had the power to raise revenue, to make war and peace,

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to mint its own coins, to administer justice.

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The East India Company...was becoming a state.

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A state that was controlled

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by 159 civil servants in a London office some 14,000 miles away.

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Their headquarters, East India House, has long since disappeared

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under this towering structure, the Lloyd's building.

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It was from here that the company was run.

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As its ships scoured the world's oceans,

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they were controlled by directors elected by shareholders,

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who were known collectively as The Court of Directors.

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The East India Company helped to develop many modern business practices

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and turned London into the world's commercial capital.

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By 1800, the state that they administered from London

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would rule 140 million people across 94,000 square miles

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and command an army a quarter of a million strong.

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This was the beginning of Britain's empire.

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The East India Company in its early trading activities

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had a huge influence on the British way of life,

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both in India and back in Britain.

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People were eager to learn about this exotic place

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with its very different customs, dress and culture.

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And the Indian products that the company exported to Britain

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became more popular than their British equivalents.

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By 1700, goods were flooding across the sea from India.

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Can I have a single tea, please?

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It was the beginning of new kinds of diets, of choice, of consumerism.

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People could now choose to have sugar from the West Indies,

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pepper from India.

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It was also the start of the Brits' obsession with hot drinks.

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Tea and coffee arrived for the first time.

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Thanks very much.

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Delicious.

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Gingham, silk, muslin, calico.

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Back in Britain the company was importing a cavalcade of rich new fabrics.

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Bowled over by the exquisite skill of India's craftsmen

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the British public went crazy.

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18th-century Indian textiles held at London's Victoria and Albert Museum

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revealed an impressive range of techniques were used in their manufacture.

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All these objects are made of chintz,

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which is basically cotton

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which has been hand painted rather than printed.

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The Indians managed to find ways of dyeing cotton

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so the colours remained brilliant and were colourfast.

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So that was very exciting for people in the West.

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Cheap, washable and hard-wearing, they made a huge impact.

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Less formal clothing became acceptable and fashionable.

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And it certainly worried the British textile industry,

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because they were very fearful that there would be no demand for their own wool and linen products.

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And at one point it caused such a sensation and so much fear

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-amongst the silk workers that they tore the clothes off people's backs.

-Really?

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Because they thought their livelihoods were threatened. So it was that dramatic.

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Company merchants were quick to respond to the consumers' changing tastes.

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The East India Company would report back regularly after every shipment to Britain from India

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saying, "Well, we liked this, but these didn't sell so well. And could you do more of the floral sprigs?"

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Or, "Could you do more of this colour?"

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The British retail fashion industry was born.

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Pyjamas, bandannas, dungarees,

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dozens of new words entered the English dictionary.

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Demand for Indian textiles was so great it threatened to destroy Britain's industry.

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The Government even passed a law to ban people from wearing Indian textiles,

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but it didn't work, testimony to the rising power of the consumer.

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Over the next 100 years,

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sales of Indian textiles would generate 60% of the company's income.

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While the British back at home were succumbing to Indian influences

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the British in India were also changing.

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Many company men formed lifelong relationships with Indian women

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and some even adopted the local tradition of polygamy.

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The East India Company had serious misgivings

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about its employees cohabiting with local women.

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But, then again, knowledge of local markets was good for business.

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Liaisons with indigenous women teach men languages,

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so the company really has a vested interest

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in these relationships being close and tight-knit.

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By the middle of the 18th century,

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90% of company employees in India had local partners.

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Morning, driver.

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Many could now afford several mistresses and a house full of servants.

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Right, let's go!

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But something odd was going on.

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They'd arrived here as humble merchants,

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but their new-found wealth was having a bizarre effect.

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They adopted the ostentatious, flamboyant lifestyles of an Eastern prince,

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surrounded themselves with armies of servants, being carried from place to place in a palanquin.

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The pomposity and extravagance of these white Mughals knew no bounds.

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Much to the annoyance of their fellow countrymen.

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I think this is my favourite picture from the period.

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It shows a man who looks like a Mughal emperor,

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he's sitting on a cushion, smoking a hookah, attended by servants,

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master of all he surveys in his luscious robes and turban.

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But that is no Mughal emperor,

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in fact it's an accountant from Yorkshire.

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His name's John Wombwell, he's living the dream.

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Whilst some lived like overblown maharajahs,

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others, like Major General Charles Stuart, engaged with India on a more profound level.

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Charles Stuart came out here from his native Ireland aged 19

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and immediately fell in love with the place.

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He had a house here on Wood Street which he turned into a museum,

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filling it up with Indian artefacts and carvings.

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He was happy to show anybody around

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and share his passion for all things Indian.

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Stuart's encounter with India changed his life.

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Within a year of his arrival, he had discarded Christianity and become a Hindu.

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Hindoo Stuart, as he became known, learned the local languages,

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dressed like a local, would have been very comfortable in places like this.

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He took a local woman as a wife and had a brood of mixed-race children.

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He even hired a group of Brahmins, Hindu scholars,

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to prepare the family's food in traditional Hindu manner.

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Stuart wasn't unusual in embracing his new home.

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Many Britons and Indians accepted each other

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in an atmosphere of mutual understanding.

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The British came to India before the 19th century very much as explorers,

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adventurers, people out to make their money,

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and they encountered a very old and very complex civilisation

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and they were often impressed by it.

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And so they didn't feel that they were in any way superior to Indians,

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they were just simply one of a number of groups jostling in India

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to try and earn a living and to try and make their way.

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In these early days of the company's activities in India,

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respect and tolerance for Indian customs, culture and religion were encouraged.

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They weren't there to change India or Indians but to profit from them.

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In the final analysis, integration was good for business.

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And business was what mattered to the company above all else.

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In the mid-18th century,

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the East India Company was at the heart of a global conflict.

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Driven by antagonism between the great world powers

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of the 18th century over colonial interests,

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the Seven Years' War raged from Europe to North America

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and across the world's oceans.

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But in India the ultimate prize was control over trade.

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ALL CHANT

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A bitter rivalry grew between Britain and France

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over their colonial and trading interests.

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They both hoped to be the greatest European power on the Indian subcontinent.

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The East India Company's hostility towards their French counterpart

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grew into an escalating military confrontation.

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The British and French had set up trading posts

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within a few miles of each other,

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the French at Pondicherry and Chandernagore,

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the British at Madras and Calcutta.

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In 1756, rivalry exploded into open warfare.

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The merchants of the East India Company had traditionally tried to avoid war,

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its costs were certain but its outcomes far less so.

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It was bad for business.

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But as the French grew more threatening in the subcontinent,

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the company realised it needed to get more serious

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about the military side of things,

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and the motley crews guarding its forts in India weren't up to scratch.

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What it needed was a serious standing army.

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The company decided to strengthen its garrison at Fort St George.

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In January 1748, 150 British troops arrived in Madras

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led by an irascible old soldier, Major Stringer Lawrence.

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He's 50 years old, he's fought in the lowlands in Spain

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and also in the Jacobite Rebellion.

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And he is a man with great knowledge of military affairs

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and his job is really to reform the company troops out in India.

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He begins by forming them into companies, each commanded by an officer,

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and those companies are equipped, trained and disciplined exactly like British troops would be.

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And, of course, the end result of all of this

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is it becomes a much more effective fighting force.

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BAGPIPES PLAY

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His new army was led by European officers,

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but most of the troops were Indians known as "sepoys"

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from the Persian word for soldier.

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Stringer Lawrence is seen as the grandfather of the modern Indian Army.

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Many units are the direct descendants of those he founded 250 years ago.

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One young soldier in Lawrence's new army

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was the future national hero Clive of India.

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Robert Clive was from a family of provincial gentry.

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As a young boy, he was a bit of a tearaway and loved getting into fights.

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And he was expelled three times from school.

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So his father thought nothing much would come of him

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and he might as well gamble and send him out here to India

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to join the East India Company, which made men or broke them.

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He was known as a man who had a relatively short temper.

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He was, as we discover in his later career,

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a man with tremendous energy, vigour and resolution,

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and this must have seemed a pretty crushing way to begin his career.

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Clive would be the driving force in transforming the company

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from commercial giant to THE dominant political power in India.

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In 1756, his great adversary was the Mughal ruler or Nawab of Bengal.

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Siraj ud Daulah, an ally of the French, loathed the British

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and bitterly resented the company's hold on Calcutta.

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In June...he attacked the city.

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Calcutta fell within hours.

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And on the evening of June 20th, 146 British prisoners were taken to Fort William...

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..now the site of the Government Post Office.

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100 yards from this spot stands a grim reminder of what happened next.

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The most vivid account we have was left by a man called John Zephaniah Holwell.

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He'd been the Chief Magistrate of Calcutta, he'd been left in charge.

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And he and his men were marched into a cell just 18 foot wide at gunpoint.

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It became known simply as the Black Hole.

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And what happened in there became one of the most infamous stories

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in the whole of British imperial history.

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ORGAN MUSIC

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It's said the prisoners, crushed together, suffocating

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and fighting to stay upright were gripped by claustrophobic terror.

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The heat was almost unbearable.

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To try to slake his thirst, Holwell took off his sweat-soaked shirt

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and wrang it out into his mouth.

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Other people trampled on the weakened bodies of their comrades,

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desperately trying to reach the two small windows at the top of the wall

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and gulp down some fresh air.

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It was a night of unspeakable suffering and cruelty.

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When the doors were flung open at dawn the next day,

0:23:460:23:49

the cell was filled with corpses.

0:23:490:23:51

To Holwell's horror just 23 had survived.

0:23:510:23:55

The news of what had happened to their fellow countrymen at the hands of a barbarous Indian despot

0:23:570:24:03

electrified congregations right across Britain.

0:24:030:24:06

This after all was a generation that was starting to believe that...

0:24:060:24:09

"Britons never, never, never shall be slaves."

0:24:090:24:12

The story of the Black Hole

0:24:140:24:16

had an immense impact on generations of Britons.

0:24:160:24:19

To Victorian schoolchildren the events of 1756 were as familiar as the Battle of Hastings.

0:24:200:24:26

What we don't know for sure is how many actually perished that night.

0:24:290:24:33

The numbers range from three to over 100,

0:24:330:24:36

I suspect it's somewhere in-between.

0:24:360:24:38

What is not in question is that this was an atrocity. Was it deliberate? Almost certainly not.

0:24:380:24:42

It was unfortunate that this small airless room...

0:24:420:24:46

It happened on an incredibly hot and humid night,

0:24:460:24:50

some of the people inside were already wounded from the battle that had taken place.

0:24:500:24:53

And there were bound to be some fatalities,

0:24:530:24:56

but that there were so many was a point taken very seriously by the British,

0:24:560:25:02

the remaining British in India and also the British back home,

0:25:020:25:04

and there was very much a sense that they wanted revenge.

0:25:040:25:07

Determined to re-assert supremacy,

0:25:090:25:12

Clive recaptured Calcutta and confronted Siraj at a village called Plassey,

0:25:120:25:17

120 miles north of the city, in what would become a decisive moment

0:25:170:25:21

in the history of the East India Company.

0:25:210:25:24

At Plassey, Clive was terribly outnumbered by more than ten to one,

0:25:270:25:31

but Clive had a plan that didn't just rely on military might alone.

0:25:310:25:35

He'd been in secret correspondence with one of the Nawab's key lieutenants,

0:25:350:25:39

the commander of his cavalry, a man called Mir Jafar.

0:25:390:25:43

The deal is done between Clive and Mir Jafar that at a certain key part of the fight,

0:25:430:25:48

Mir Jafar will come onto his side, in other words he'll leave his chief.

0:25:480:25:52

And in return for putting him on the throne,

0:25:520:25:54

the company will not only be paid vast sums of money,

0:25:540:25:57

and we are talking about fantastical sums,

0:25:570:25:59

but also it will be given a free rein in terms of its trade.

0:25:590:26:02

NOISES OF BATTLE

0:26:020:26:04

It was all over in a matter of hours,

0:26:070:26:09

but it had little to do with military might.

0:26:090:26:12

Mir Jafar, the traitor, had been paid off and he ensured

0:26:120:26:15

that the majority of the Nawab's troops took no part in the battle.

0:26:150:26:19

He was then installed as Britain's puppet.

0:26:190:26:22

This opened up the richest province of India to the company.

0:26:220:26:26

Robert Clive regarded this Machiavellian manoeuvring as the pinnacle of his career.

0:26:260:26:32

Clive and the company were now rich.

0:26:330:26:36

Better still, in exchange for a single payment of £270,000,

0:26:360:26:40

the company was granted the right to manage the "diwani" or the revenue and civil administration of Bengal.

0:26:400:26:47

This allowed them to collect

0:26:490:26:51

land tax from the entire population of Bengal, ten million people.

0:26:510:26:55

It effectively turned them into the de facto government.

0:26:550:26:59

Robert Clive estimated that it would be worth £1.7 million every year.

0:26:590:27:06

With control over the revenues of India's richest province,

0:27:060:27:09

the company's role had profoundly changed.

0:27:090:27:12

It's the point at which the East India Company

0:27:130:27:16

really moves from being a trading enterprise to an actual ruler of territory.

0:27:160:27:21

The company now had impressive armies, a robust trading network

0:27:220:27:26

and authority over a huge swathe of territory.

0:27:260:27:29

The British were in a position of unrivalled supremacy in India

0:27:290:27:33

and overall Britain emerged from the Seven Years' War

0:27:330:27:36

as the world's leading colonial power.

0:27:360:27:39

In the mid-18th century, the East India Company took control of India's richest province.

0:27:500:27:55

Led by Robert Clive, the company defeated the ruler of Bengal

0:27:550:27:59

and installed a replacement of their choosing.

0:27:590:28:02

They were given the right to manage the revenue

0:28:020:28:04

and civil administration of Bengal called the "diwani".

0:28:040:28:08

The diwani was a licence to print money.

0:28:090:28:12

After the costs of administering Bengal had been met

0:28:120:28:15

the company's profit margin was 49%.

0:28:150:28:18

The commercial floodgates had opened.

0:28:180:28:22

In 1766, news of the diwani reached London.

0:28:220:28:26

The prospect of massive financial gains in Bengal

0:28:270:28:30

pushed the company's share price through the roof.

0:28:300:28:34

Now, this is partly fuelled by Clive, who wrote to his friends from India

0:28:340:28:38

advising them to buy stock, and he wrote to his own attorneys as well

0:28:380:28:42

telling them to make huge purchases on his behalf.

0:28:420:28:45

Not surprisingly other British and foreign investors followed suit.

0:28:450:28:49

Robert Clive returned home a national hero

0:28:560:28:59

with a personal fortune equivalent to £38 million today

0:28:590:29:04

and a generous income from land holdings in Bengal.

0:29:040:29:07

He went on a spending spree.

0:29:070:29:10

He bought a raft of properties including his childhood home, Styche Hall,

0:29:100:29:14

which he renovated for his father, and then he bought this place, Walcot Hall,

0:29:140:29:18

for the princely sum of £90,000.

0:29:180:29:21

BIRDSONG

0:29:220:29:24

Not bad for 6,000 acres.

0:29:260:29:29

Clive began transforming his new home into a lavish palazzo

0:29:290:29:33

with one of the finest gardens in England.

0:29:330:29:36

After ruling a state four times bigger than Britain,

0:29:360:29:40

Clive was determined to forge a political career back in the old country.

0:29:400:29:44

His new Shropshire pile came with an added bonus.

0:29:440:29:48

Walcot Hall had traditionally been owned by the powerful Walcot family

0:29:510:29:54

and they'd been able to nominate the area's MPs.

0:29:540:29:58

When they fell badly into debt, Clive saw his chance.

0:29:580:30:00

He bought the estate and with it came control of the local parliamentary borough.

0:30:000:30:05

That allowed him to basically appoint his cousin as the MP.

0:30:050:30:09

For the next 50 years, Clive's money ensured that his family continued to live in style

0:30:090:30:14

and they continued to control the politics of the local area.

0:30:140:30:18

Clive added half a dozen seats in Shropshire

0:30:200:30:23

and further estates in Devon, Monmouth and Surrey to a bulging property empire.

0:30:230:30:28

He was just one of a number of company men who had grown fabulously wealthy in Bengal

0:30:300:30:34

and then had returned home to improve their status in life.

0:30:340:30:38

They bought their way into the aristocracy.

0:30:380:30:40

They bought influence and power.

0:30:400:30:42

They became known as "nabobs",

0:30:440:30:46

a term synonymous with vanity and absurd pretention.

0:30:460:30:50

They're perceived to be too rich for their own good,

0:30:510:30:54

to wear their diamonds too ostentatiously,

0:30:540:30:57

to wear textiles from India, concerns about so-called Oriental despotism

0:30:570:31:03

that they may have brought back from the Mogul Empire in India with them.

0:31:030:31:07

All of those are great concerns for people.

0:31:070:31:10

The nabobs represented the East India Company at its most venal and corrupt,

0:31:100:31:15

a direct threat to the social and political order.

0:31:150:31:18

By the 1780s, they had become a powerful minority,

0:31:200:31:24

with one tenth of the seats in Parliament.

0:31:240:31:27

But their good fortune would soon end.

0:31:300:31:33

A natural calamity was about to throw the Honourable Company into the biggest crisis in its history.

0:31:350:31:41

Famine had long been a part of life in Bengal,

0:31:470:31:49

but one that began in the late 1760s was turned into a full-blown humanitarian disaster

0:31:490:31:56

by the East India Company.

0:31:560:31:59

It's hard to come to terms with even after all these years,

0:31:590:32:02

but while the nabobs were back in Britain buying stately homes,

0:32:020:32:05

throwing parties, filling them with silver wine and art,

0:32:050:32:09

the people of Bengal who were paying for all that

0:32:090:32:12

were experiencing some of the most appalling conditions imaginable.

0:32:120:32:15

A prolonged drought and a poor harvest caused a famine

0:32:220:32:25

that continued for three long years, the worst in living memory.

0:32:250:32:29

The East India Company watched and recorded everything.

0:32:390:32:42

Did the East India Company help or did they make things worse?

0:32:440:32:47

They made things worse. They raised the taxes on agricultural produce,

0:32:470:32:51

they banned the hoarding of rice and grain,

0:32:510:32:54

which was traditionally used to tide over the population

0:32:540:32:58

through periods of scarcity.

0:32:580:32:59

They ripped up some of the food crops to plant much more profitable indigo

0:32:590:33:04

and even more profitable opium.

0:33:040:33:07

And, finally, some of their junior servants

0:33:070:33:11

started to speculate and profiteer from the sale of rice and grain,

0:33:110:33:19

selling it out of the province at grossly inflated prices.

0:33:190:33:24

The company was more interested in protecting its profits

0:33:240:33:27

than in relieving the suffering of the Bengali people.

0:33:270:33:31

It's estimated that between two million and ten million people died.

0:33:310:33:36

A valuable lesson on the dangers of unchecked corporate power.

0:33:360:33:40

Nobody was ultimately brought to account for it,

0:33:420:33:44

but there was certainly a sense that the nature of East India Company government at the time

0:33:440:33:50

had exacerbated the famine,

0:33:500:33:52

that it had made things worse, if it hadn't actually caused it.

0:33:520:33:56

The famine was a human tragedy and a financial disaster.

0:34:020:34:06

The Bengal economy collapsed,

0:34:060:34:09

the company's income plummeted.

0:34:090:34:11

Its share price crashed and all dividend payments were suspended.

0:34:110:34:15

The bubble was burst. People wanted to know why, how could this have happened?

0:34:160:34:20

Parliament set up its own inquiry and a scapegoat was lined up...

0:34:200:34:25

Robert Clive, Britain's richest man.

0:34:250:34:27

He became seen as the sort of leader of the nabobs

0:34:310:34:34

and was nicknamed Lord Vulture.

0:34:340:34:36

Denounced for enriching himself with Indian loot,

0:34:380:34:41

Clive was hauled before Parliament.

0:34:410:34:44

He asked his accusers to remember the situation that he'd been in,

0:34:440:34:47

an opulent city had lain at his mercy.

0:34:470:34:50

He'd been shown through vaults full of treasure, gold and precious stones on every side.

0:34:500:34:54

He finished by saying "By God, Mr Chairman, I stand astonished at my own moderation".

0:34:540:35:01

Well, if Clive was greedy or corrupt,

0:35:010:35:04

he certainly wasn't the only one in the House of Commons.

0:35:040:35:06

He was acquitted. In fact, he was even thanked for services to his country.

0:35:060:35:12

But his life ended in tragedy.

0:35:120:35:15

In November 1774, Clive was found dead at his London home.

0:35:150:35:20

He'd suffered depression for much of his life

0:35:200:35:23

and he'd become an opium addict.

0:35:230:35:25

It's very likely that he'd committed suicide.

0:35:250:35:28

Dr Samuel Johnson wrote that his crimes

0:35:280:35:30

had driven him to slit his own throat.

0:35:300:35:33

It was a scandalous and pitiful end

0:35:330:35:36

to a life of extraordinary if controversial achievement.

0:35:360:35:40

Robert Clive's victory in Bengal

0:35:420:35:44

proved to be a major turning for the East India Company,

0:35:440:35:47

but not in the way he had hoped for.

0:35:470:35:50

Their mismanagement of the province, the devastating famine

0:35:500:35:54

and the company's plummeting fortunes led to a crisis point

0:35:540:35:59

which could only be solved by government intervention.

0:35:590:36:02

By the 1760s, the East India Company had grown

0:36:130:36:16

from a tiny band of merchants with a small foothold in India into a colossal trading empire,

0:36:160:36:22

pouring wealth into the pockets of its shareholders back in Britain.

0:36:220:36:26

But then they conquered the wealthy region of Bengal and bled it dry,

0:36:270:36:32

amplifying the effects of a deadly famine, leading to the deaths of millions of people

0:36:320:36:37

in a human tragedy of unprecedented scale.

0:36:370:36:40

The British were horrified and the Government was forced to step in.

0:36:410:36:45

From that point on the state's grip grew ever tighter

0:36:450:36:48

as it attempted to control this voracious monster.

0:36:480:36:52

Accused of corruption, incompetence and greed

0:36:520:36:55

the company's reputation was in tatters

0:36:550:36:58

and there was worse to come.

0:36:580:37:01

The crisis that was affecting the company really came to

0:37:010:37:04

a head in 1772, where there was a failure of a major Scottish

0:37:040:37:08

bank, the Ayr Bank.

0:37:080:37:09

About 30 other banks in fact failed

0:37:090:37:11

and that led to a major shortage of money in the economy. The company

0:37:110:37:15

had to go repeatedly to the Bank of England for loans to tie them over.

0:37:150:37:19

They were very indebted.

0:37:190:37:21

Now, starved of funds,

0:37:210:37:23

the world's greatest company had run out of cash.

0:37:230:37:27

There was only one possible way out. Massive government bailout.

0:37:280:37:32

For reasons that are spookily familiar,

0:37:320:37:34

it was decided that the

0:37:340:37:35

East India Company was too big to fail.

0:37:350:37:39

The British government rescued the company with public money

0:37:390:37:42

today equivalent to £176 million.

0:37:420:37:44

But its powers were progressively curtailed.

0:37:470:37:50

The India Act of 1784 transferred its executive management to

0:37:510:37:55

an independent Board of Control, answerable to Parliament.

0:37:550:37:59

A new chapter in its history began.

0:38:010:38:04

From now on, its affairs in India would be

0:38:040:38:06

run by a Board of Control, appointed by the British government.

0:38:060:38:10

And Parliament would gradually transform the way that the

0:38:100:38:13

company functioned in India.

0:38:130:38:15

The British state was now pulling the strings.

0:38:170:38:20

Instead of entrepreneurs like Robert Clive, the British government

0:38:220:38:26

would now send out its own, more reliable people to run India.

0:38:260:38:30

The Governor General here in Calcutta would rule supreme,

0:38:300:38:34

given sweeping new powers in revenue, diplomacy and war.

0:38:340:38:39

It was nothing less than the birth of empire.

0:38:390:38:41

In 1798 Lord Richard Wellesley was given the top

0:38:430:38:46

job in India by the British government.

0:38:460:38:49

In the 19th century the biggest risk to the company would be

0:38:500:38:53

the emerging struggle between trade and empire,

0:38:530:38:56

between the objectives of the company and those of the Government.

0:38:560:39:01

This conflict was intensified by Wellesley.

0:39:010:39:04

'Wellesley was from a grand aristocratic family back home

0:39:110:39:14

'and he took one look at Government House in Calcutta'

0:39:140:39:17

and decided something a little more ostentatious was required to

0:39:170:39:20

reflect the power of the British in India.

0:39:200:39:22

Not to mention his own exalted status.

0:39:220:39:25

So he built this, the new Government House.

0:39:250:39:28

It's not much, but it's home.

0:39:290:39:31

The cost of the project rang alarm bells back at company

0:39:360:39:39

headquarters in Leadenhall St.

0:39:390:39:42

But of more concern were Wellesley's outright imperial ambitions,

0:39:420:39:45

which clashed with the company's stated objectives to minimise

0:39:450:39:49

military expenditure.

0:39:490:39:50

In London the directors were keen to avoid war.

0:39:530:39:56

Their costs were certain, their outcomes less so.

0:39:560:39:59

But Wellesley dismissed the concerns of the people he described as

0:39:590:40:02

the cheesemongers of Leadenhall St. He was here with a personal agenda,

0:40:020:40:07

one supported by the British government.

0:40:070:40:09

And it had little to do with the rag trade.

0:40:090:40:11

He wanted to smash the vestiges of French power in India,

0:40:110:40:15

wipe out local opposition

0:40:150:40:16

and extend British rule across the subcontinent.

0:40:160:40:20

And from 14,000 miles away, there was

0:40:200:40:22

little the directors could do to stop him.

0:40:220:40:24

Wellesley had set his sights on a formidable Muslim adversary,

0:40:270:40:31

Tipu Sultan.

0:40:310:40:32

The Tiger of Mysore.

0:40:320:40:33

The rich, battle-hardened Muslim leader of Mysore was

0:40:370:40:40

the East India Company's most intractable enemy.

0:40:400:40:44

Three times in three decades his family had fought the company.

0:40:440:40:49

They were known as the Terrors of Leadenhall St.

0:40:490:40:52

And now Wellesley discovered that on top of it all,

0:40:520:40:54

they were in league with the French.

0:40:540:40:56

I think he identified quite early on that if he could play the French

0:41:000:41:04

and British off against each other, he could expand at their expense.

0:41:040:41:09

The French were at the time Britain's main global rival

0:41:090:41:13

for the status of global superpower.

0:41:130:41:17

And that was being played out in India as it was in North America

0:41:170:41:21

and other arenas.

0:41:210:41:22

A striking force of around 4,000 East India Company troops,

0:41:230:41:27

many of them native soldiers or sepoys,

0:41:270:41:30

attacked Tipu's fort in Seringapatam.

0:41:300:41:33

Inside with his men, the Tiger was ready to do battle.

0:41:330:41:36

A ruler who prided himself on military prowess had

0:41:400:41:43

to have an extensive, extravagant,

0:41:430:41:46

ornate collection of weapons in his personal arsenal.

0:41:460:41:49

And here are some of them.

0:41:490:41:50

The sword was the emblem of manhood, the emblem of a great ruler.

0:41:500:41:56

And judging by these swords Tipu Sultan was a deeply religious

0:41:560:41:59

man and a deeply aggressive one.

0:41:590:42:02

Look at this fabulous sword here.

0:42:020:42:04

The hilt is entirely covered in gold.

0:42:040:42:08

Gold tiger clasping a steel blade in its mouth.

0:42:080:42:13

This man was obsessed with the tiger motif. He lived his life as a tiger.

0:42:130:42:17

In fact, his favourite expression was,

0:42:170:42:19

"It's better to live one day as a tiger than 1,000 days as a sheep."

0:42:190:42:23

What I love about this particular one is on the hilt is written

0:42:230:42:27

an expression in Persian.

0:42:270:42:29

"This blade is the lightning that flashes through

0:42:290:42:31

"the lives of infidels."

0:42:310:42:33

Probably quite near the end of their lives, I expect.

0:42:330:42:35

And on here is the name of Tipu Sultan himself,

0:42:350:42:39

and Allah and Muhammad his prophet.

0:42:390:42:41

This was a man who believed he was engaged in holy war.

0:42:440:42:47

He was God's instrument on earth.

0:42:470:42:49

And the task was to destroy infidels, driving them

0:42:490:42:52

out from the Indian subcontinent.

0:42:520:42:54

But this time it wasn't to be.

0:42:580:43:00

After a month-long siege Tipu's stronghold fell

0:43:000:43:04

and the Tiger was slaughtered.

0:43:040:43:05

When news of the Tiger's death reached Britain there was jubilation.

0:43:090:43:12

It turns out the British people didn't share Tipu Sultan's

0:43:120:43:14

opinion of himself as a noble servant of God.

0:43:140:43:18

They thought he was an extremist tyrant.

0:43:180:43:20

There were parties and balls across the country, decorations

0:43:200:43:23

and medals were struck. Artists got in on the act

0:43:230:43:25

and painted depictions of the final battle.

0:43:250:43:29

This wasn't being celebrated as a private,

0:43:290:43:31

commercial triumph for the East India Company

0:43:310:43:33

but as a moment of national, public achievement.

0:43:330:43:37

There was now nothing else standing in the way of total British

0:43:370:43:41

domination in the subcontinent.

0:43:410:43:43

With the vast, rich kingdom of Mysore now under their dominion,

0:43:450:43:49

the company's power in India was growing.

0:43:490:43:52

But territorial growth meant bigger

0:43:520:43:54

and more expensive armies to hold it.

0:43:540:43:57

The cost of this could ruin the company, but from their

0:43:570:44:00

offices in London the directors were powerless to contain Lord Wellesley.

0:44:000:44:04

Wellesley saw himself as a ruler, not a merchant.

0:44:060:44:09

And like countless other empire builders

0:44:090:44:11

he developed an insatiable desire for ever wider expansion.

0:44:110:44:15

He spent a vast amount of money that should have

0:44:150:44:17

been for commercial purposes on conquest.

0:44:170:44:20

Against the company's wishes, Wellesley annexed more

0:44:220:44:25

and more Indian territory.

0:44:250:44:27

Vast swathes of southern, western

0:44:270:44:29

and northern India fell to the British.

0:44:290:44:31

One quote at the time is he's increased

0:44:320:44:35

the population of British India by 40 million.

0:44:350:44:39

So this is a massive expansion and it's really the time

0:44:390:44:41

when the East India Company moves from paramountcy, from being

0:44:410:44:45

the major influential power to being the major territorial power.

0:44:450:44:49

It's the start, in effect, of the British Empire.

0:44:490:44:52

Wellesley had completely transformed the company's

0:44:530:44:56

position in India even whilst the directors back in Britain

0:44:560:44:59

were complaining that his actions were taking them into debt.

0:44:590:45:02

By the time he was finished, Britain controlled an area that

0:45:020:45:05

was ten times the size of the British Isles

0:45:050:45:08

with a population of 180 million people.

0:45:080:45:12

That's one sixth of the entire global population at the time.

0:45:120:45:16

British India flourished under Wellesley.

0:45:180:45:21

And in turn, Britain was boosted.

0:45:210:45:23

The stage was set for the creation of an empire.

0:45:230:45:26

And despite their objections,

0:45:260:45:28

the East India Company was at the heart of it.

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By the early 19th century, Britain,

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through the East India Company, was the dominant authority in India.

0:45:440:45:48

But the next few years would see a significant

0:45:480:45:50

change in the company's role.

0:45:500:45:52

The end of their trading monopoly saw them

0:45:520:45:55

become colonial administrators rather than merchants.

0:45:550:45:58

This new role as ruler of India would herald a new attitude

0:46:000:46:05

towards its subjects.

0:46:050:46:07

Over time, the British would grow more distant and aloof.

0:46:070:46:11

Neglecting its relationship with the people of India,

0:46:150:46:18

carefully cultivated over the previous centuries, would prove

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a terrible mistake and threaten the company's very existence.

0:46:220:46:26

They increasingly see a need to separate

0:46:270:46:31

themselves from the people that they're ruling

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and to create a sense of British prestige around themselves

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as the ruling race and the people who are in charge.

0:46:370:46:40

Where earlier companymen had embraced local

0:46:440:46:46

and religious customs, now people were becoming alarmed by them,

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especially Britain's growing number of Christian missionaries,

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who had been arriving in India in small numbers

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against the company's wishes.

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The company believed that the people of India should be left to

0:47:010:47:04

practise their own religions.

0:47:040:47:06

Otherwise, they could grow hostile.

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And that would jeopardise Britain's position on the subcontinent.

0:47:080:47:12

But, it wasn't up to the company any more.

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'With ultimate control over its activities in India,

0:47:160:47:19

'the British government found itself lobbied by some powerful

0:47:190:47:23

'Christian representatives.'

0:47:230:47:24

In 1813 the British government gave way

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and forced the company to give missionaries full access to India,

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sending a dangerous message to its people that the British

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planned to convert them to Christianity.

0:47:360:47:38

'Missionaries were just one of the parliamentary impositions'

0:47:430:47:47

the company was forced to accept in order to stay in India.

0:47:470:47:51

'Just 20 years since Parliament extended its royal charter,

0:47:510:47:55

'it was up for renewal again.'

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Every time the East India Company's royal charter had come

0:47:590:48:02

up for renewal, there were calls to end its commercial

0:48:020:48:05

monopoly on trade with India.

0:48:050:48:08

But it survived intact for more than 200 years.

0:48:080:48:11

But this was the era of free trade

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and Parliament decided to end that privileged position.

0:48:130:48:17

That meant that the East India Company servants were no

0:48:170:48:19

longer here to trade, to make money through buying and selling

0:48:190:48:23

but as colonial administrators,

0:48:230:48:25

running its vast territories on behalf of the British Crown.

0:48:250:48:29

'The 1813 Charter Act marked a complete

0:48:330:48:36

'shift in the company's role.'

0:48:360:48:38

After some 200 years in India,

0:48:380:48:40

they were no longer here as merchants but as rulers.

0:48:400:48:44

And this new position would have a tangible

0:48:440:48:46

effect on the behaviour of the British in India.

0:48:460:48:48

Britain was going through a massive Industrial Revolution.

0:48:500:48:52

It was becoming one of the richest

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and perhaps THE richest country in the world.

0:48:540:48:56

And the British in India reflected that change.

0:48:560:48:59

They no longer saw themselves as people who had chosen to

0:48:590:49:01

live in India and had to muddle along and get on with the locals.

0:49:010:49:04

They now saw themselves as part of a superior,

0:49:040:49:07

advanced, progressive civilisation.

0:49:070:49:08

And they saw themselves increasingly as detached from India.

0:49:080:49:11

The respect for Indian culture that had characterised previous

0:49:150:49:18

generations had completely vanished.

0:49:180:49:19

It was no longer acceptable for an East India Company servant to

0:49:190:49:23

speak like or dress like an Indian.

0:49:230:49:25

They had to now wear European dress and the army soon followed suit.

0:49:250:49:29

European customs and manners were emphasised.

0:49:290:49:33

A huge gulf was opening between the British governing elite

0:49:330:49:36

and the Indian subjects.

0:49:360:49:39

As the British entered the new, self-assured Victorian age,

0:49:390:49:41

their attitude towards the Indians hardened.

0:49:410:49:44

They were convinced of their own cultural superiority

0:49:440:49:47

and they believed India needed all the help it could get.

0:49:470:49:49

India was a barbaric place and its civilisation was stagnant.

0:49:490:49:53

From now on, company servants and officers who came to India

0:49:550:49:58

were influenced by this conviction of moral and racial superiority.

0:49:580:50:02

To our ears their views seem shockingly racist.

0:50:040:50:07

The refusal to learn local languages, dismissing

0:50:100:50:12

Indians as savage barbarians incapable of elevated thought.

0:50:120:50:16

These were ignorant views and ones which ironically confined

0:50:160:50:20

the British into a narrow life that many of them found so boring.

0:50:200:50:24

But perhaps even more than being stupid and racist,

0:50:240:50:27

these views were dangerous,

0:50:270:50:29

because if that chasm opened up between the rulers

0:50:290:50:32

and the ruled, then there's fertile ground for conflict.

0:50:320:50:36

Few of these Brits had the urge or the need to look outside

0:50:390:50:42

the confines of this artificial little bubble.

0:50:420:50:45

Often the only natives they did meet were their own servants.

0:50:450:50:48

They tried to recreate their old British lives,

0:50:480:50:50

eating British food three times a day, planting British

0:50:500:50:54

seeds in their garden and wearing ridiculous British clothing

0:50:540:50:58

as they went out in the hot Indian sun.

0:50:580:51:01

It was an obstinate, desperate attempt to keep a little

0:51:010:51:03

piece of Britishness alive here in the heart of India.

0:51:030:51:07

As administrator of India,

0:51:110:51:12

the East India Company was allocated a pot of money by the British

0:51:120:51:15

government for the intellectual improvement of the people.

0:51:150:51:18

But no-one could best decide how to use it.

0:51:180:51:21

No-one, that is, until the arrival of one man, Thomas Babington Macaulay,

0:51:210:51:27

law maker on the newly created Supreme Council of India.

0:51:270:51:31

And his legacy has left a profound mark on the subcontinent.

0:51:310:51:35

These poor young men have exam week on at the moment.

0:51:430:51:46

It's bringing back all sorts of horrible memories of my own

0:51:460:51:48

time at school.

0:51:480:51:50

Macaulay, like many other prominent Victorians, assumed that

0:51:500:51:54

British culture was the highest form of human civilisation.

0:51:540:51:57

And he was desperate to try

0:51:570:51:59

and bestow some of that on the Indian subjects.

0:51:590:52:02

He envisaged an education system that would create

0:52:020:52:04

"Indians in blood and colour but English in tastes, opinions, morals

0:52:040:52:11

"and intellect." And the first thing to do was teach them all English.

0:52:110:52:15

Macaulay's act, the Minute on Education,

0:52:200:52:24

was passed in February 1835.

0:52:240:52:26

And almost immediately the children of India's elite began

0:52:260:52:30

learning English as their main language.

0:52:300:52:32

The changing attitudes of the British towards the Indians

0:52:350:52:38

affected military life as well as the civilian world.

0:52:380:52:41

The Indian army had grown to become a bit of a source of worry

0:52:460:52:49

for many in the East India Company.

0:52:490:52:50

What had begun as a few security teams guarding the company's

0:52:500:52:54

forts around India had grown into one of the largest standing

0:52:540:52:58

armies in the world -

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more than 250,000 troops,

0:53:000:53:02

larger than most European armies at the time.

0:53:020:53:05

And that was 96% composed of native, Indian troops

0:53:050:53:11

known as sepoys.

0:53:110:53:12

Keeping these sepoy troops loyal was critical to the company's survival.

0:53:130:53:17

So what would happen if this huge native army turned on them?

0:53:190:53:23

The problem with the Indian army at that time is that it's set up

0:53:260:53:29

if you have any ambition, any get-up-and-go, any drive,

0:53:290:53:33

you will leave your regiment early on for probably civil employ or staff

0:53:330:53:36

employ and the reason you did that was because they were better paid.

0:53:360:53:39

And so the residue left in the regiments,

0:53:390:53:41

the people who had close daily contact with the Indian

0:53:410:53:44

soldiers, were the refuse, the worst of the lot. And they didn't tend...

0:53:440:53:48

These men were disgruntled, they were bored.

0:53:480:53:51

And they didn't tend to treat their Indian soldiers very well.

0:53:510:53:54

Just as throughout the rest of British India, in the company's

0:53:560:53:59

three armies a racial gulf had opened up between the officers

0:53:590:54:03

and their Indian troops.

0:54:030:54:04

Any team, but particularly the army, needs that trust and respect between

0:54:060:54:10

those who are giving the orders and those who are carrying them out.

0:54:100:54:13

If you were an East India Company sepoy, why would you follow

0:54:140:54:18

an officer into battle who is openly disdainful of you?

0:54:180:54:21

In fact, why would you do anything he said at all?

0:54:210:54:23

The sepoys no longer trusted their East India Company officers.

0:54:310:54:34

They were appalled at their degrading treatment

0:54:340:54:36

and were very suspicious about the future intentions of the company.

0:54:360:54:39

What was needed to turn this very tense

0:54:390:54:41

situation into a full-blown crisis was a spark.

0:54:410:54:45

Appropriately enough that spark was provided by the sepoy's rifles.

0:54:500:54:55

In the mid-19th century a sepoy would have

0:54:550:54:57

lots of cartridges in his cartridge pouch.

0:54:570:54:59

He had to bite off the end...

0:54:590:55:01

..pour it down the barrel of the rifle...

0:55:030:55:05

then put the cartridge itself and the bullet into the barrel,

0:55:050:55:09

ram it down with a ramrod and then it would fire at the enemy.

0:55:090:55:13

The big problem came when a rumour spread like wildfire

0:55:130:55:16

throughout the sepoy forces

0:55:160:55:18

that the British were greasing these cartridges with pig or beef fat.

0:55:180:55:22

For them it was completely intolerable to insert anything

0:55:220:55:25

that had ever been near a pig or cow into their mouth.

0:55:250:55:29

At a stroke the culturally ignorant,

0:55:290:55:31

distant British decision makers had managed to alienate not just

0:55:310:55:35

the Hindus but also the Muslims of their vast Indian army.

0:55:350:55:40

In fact, realising their error,

0:55:420:55:44

the East India Company never issued these cartridges to the sepoys.

0:55:440:55:48

But it was too late.

0:55:480:55:50

The scene was set for the

0:55:530:55:54

East India Company's greatest challenge yet,

0:55:540:55:57

an episode that has become known to the British as the Indian Mutiny

0:55:570:56:01

but to the Indians, it was the First War of Independence.

0:56:010:56:05

After several isolated incidents the uprising began for real when the troops at Meerut

0:56:060:56:11

rose up and headed for Delhi.

0:56:110:56:13

On the 11th of May 1857, the city fell.

0:56:140:56:19

The rebellion is a mixture of dissatisfied

0:56:190:56:22

groups in India. The biggest dissatisfied

0:56:220:56:24

group are the soldiers and since they're professionals

0:56:240:56:26

and they're armed, they are the most dangerous.

0:56:260:56:28

You will see in any revolution that you've got a problem

0:56:280:56:31

if your army turns on you.

0:56:310:56:32

But also they were joined by a lot of disgruntled civilians,

0:56:320:56:35

people who for

0:56:350:56:36

various reasons weren't happy with East India Company rule,

0:56:360:56:39

and that included a lot of people whose principalities had been

0:56:390:56:43

taken from them, a lot of people who felt

0:56:430:56:45

they had something to gain by seeing the back of the British.

0:56:450:56:48

The East India Company was about to pay a heavy

0:56:480:56:51

price for allowing its relationship with India to break down.

0:56:510:56:54

Right across northern India native troops rebelled against their

0:56:550:56:59

British officers, often killing them and their families.

0:56:590:57:03

There were serious disturbances at the strategically placed

0:57:030:57:05

towns of...

0:57:050:57:06

These were situated between Delhi

0:57:090:57:11

and the administrative capital, Calcutta.

0:57:110:57:14

If they fell it would seriously imperil the entire British

0:57:140:57:17

position in northern India.

0:57:170:57:19

Even the supposedly reliable garrison at Cawnpore was in revolt.

0:57:190:57:24

The East India Company was unable to restore order or prevent

0:57:250:57:28

acts of savage retribution by its troops.

0:57:280:57:31

The situation spiralled out of control.

0:57:310:57:34

The company had fatally bungled its response to the uprising.

0:57:370:57:41

Having been forced, bit by bit, to give up its privileges

0:57:410:57:44

throughout the previous century, it was finally on its knees.

0:57:440:57:48

The mutiny is the beginning of the end for the East India Company,

0:57:480:57:51

because it shows quite clearly to the British government that the

0:57:510:57:54

East India Company is no longer capable of governing India.

0:57:540:57:57

It's clearly made mistakes, probably in the way it runs its army

0:57:570:58:00

but also in its civil administration, and the amount of lives lost,

0:58:000:58:06

the treasure expended, can only mean one thing

0:58:060:58:09

and that is that India has to become a part of the British Empire.

0:58:090:58:14

The Government and the British people had had

0:58:160:58:18

enough of the rapacious, profiteering East India Company.

0:58:180:58:22

On the 1st of November 1858 British India was finally

0:58:220:58:27

and inevitably handed over to the government of Queen Victoria.

0:58:270:58:31

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