0:00:06 > 0:00:10Just over 400 years ago, a group of London merchants arrived here
0:00:10 > 0:00:13on the Indian coast, hoping to do some peaceful trading.
0:00:13 > 0:00:18Those early pioneers dreamt of making huge profits.
0:00:18 > 0:00:23From humble beginnings, this ragtag band of adventurers secured land
0:00:23 > 0:00:28from Indian rulers, formed alliances with local craftsmen and built
0:00:28 > 0:00:32from scratch a commercial enterprise to export goods to Britain.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37The East India Company was part of this tremendous globalisation
0:00:37 > 0:00:40of the world which really started in the 17th century
0:00:40 > 0:00:43and speeded up in the 18th and 19th centuries.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47Over 200 years the Company grew into a commercial titan.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50Its wealth rivalled that of the British State.
0:00:52 > 0:00:58It had its own army and eventually ruled over 400 million people.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02Its trade was vital to Britain's commercial success
0:01:02 > 0:01:07and its shares were the centre point of London's financial markets.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10It revolutionised the British lifestyle.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12The East India Company changed the way we dress,
0:01:12 > 0:01:16it changed the way we eat, it changed the way we socialise.
0:01:16 > 0:01:22And, by accident, created one of the most powerful empires in history.
0:01:23 > 0:01:28They were instrumental in making Britain the maritime superpower,
0:01:28 > 0:01:32they helped lay the foundations for our own global trading system
0:01:32 > 0:01:36today and they also helped to make English the world's language.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41Every step of the Company's rise is recorded in a unique archive.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45"What a lucky fellow you are, Charley, going to India.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48"You lead such a luxurious life. Why, you dog!
0:01:48 > 0:01:50"When you come home you will be a rich man."
0:01:50 > 0:01:53But the letters and diaries also chart its fall
0:01:53 > 0:01:56into profiteering, nepotism and corruption...
0:01:56 > 0:01:58"Every ancient friend of the family
0:01:58 > 0:02:01"hoped I should live to be a major general..."
0:02:01 > 0:02:05..and eventually a chilling story of drug-running and famine.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08"Numbers of famishing wretches followed our army
0:02:08 > 0:02:11"for the sole purpose of existing on the offal of the camp."
0:02:11 > 0:02:16This is the story of the greatest company the world has ever known.
0:02:42 > 0:02:47By 1880 the East India Company had grown from a tiny band of merchants
0:02:47 > 0:02:53with a small foothold in India into a colossal trading empire,
0:02:53 > 0:02:58pouring wealth into the pockets of its shareholders back in Britain.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11They had conquered the wealthy region of Bengal and bled it dry...
0:03:14 > 0:03:17..amplifying the effects of a deadly famine,
0:03:17 > 0:03:19leading to the deaths of millions of people
0:03:19 > 0:03:22in a human tragedy of unprecedented scale.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28The British were horrified and the government was forced to step in.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31From that point on the state's grip grew ever tighter
0:03:31 > 0:03:35as it attempted to control this voracious monster.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41A new chapter in its history began.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44From now on its affairs in India would be run
0:03:44 > 0:03:48by a Board of Control appointed by the British government.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50And Parliament would gradually transform
0:03:50 > 0:03:52the way that the Company functioned in India.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05This new role as ruler of India would herald a new attitude
0:04:05 > 0:04:08towards its subjects.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12Over time, the British would grow more distant and aloof.
0:04:16 > 0:04:21They increasingly see a need to separate themselves from the people
0:04:21 > 0:04:25that they're ruling and to create a sense of British prestige around
0:04:25 > 0:04:28themselves as the ruling race and the people who are in charge.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36Neglecting its relationship with the people of India
0:04:36 > 0:04:39- carefully cultivated over the previous centuries -
0:04:39 > 0:04:41would prove a terrible mistake
0:04:41 > 0:04:43and threaten the Company's very existence.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50In the 19th century the biggest risk to the Company
0:04:50 > 0:04:54would be the emerging struggle between trade and Empire.
0:04:54 > 0:04:59This conflict was intensified by one man when, in 1798,
0:04:59 > 0:05:01he was given the top job in India.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05Governor-General of the Bengal Presidency, Lord Richard Wellesley.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21Wellesley was from a grand, aristocratic family back home
0:05:21 > 0:05:24and he took one look at Government House in Calcutta
0:05:24 > 0:05:27and decided that something a little more ostentatious was required
0:05:27 > 0:05:30to reflect the power of the British in India,
0:05:30 > 0:05:32not to mention his own exalted status.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35And so he built this, the new Government House.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39It's not much, but it's home.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47The cost of the project rang alarm bells
0:05:47 > 0:05:51back at Company headquarters in Leadenhall Street.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54But of more concern were Wellesley's outright imperial ambitions,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57which clashed with the Company's stated objectives
0:05:57 > 0:05:59to minimise military expenditure.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05In London the directors were keen to avoid wars.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08Their costs were certain, their outcomes less so.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10But Wellesley dismissed the concerns of the people
0:06:10 > 0:06:13he described as the cheesemongers of Leadenhall Street.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15He was here with a personal agenda,
0:06:15 > 0:06:17one supported by the British government,
0:06:17 > 0:06:20and it had little to do with the rag trade.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23He wanted to smash the vestiges of French power in India,
0:06:23 > 0:06:25wipe out local opposition
0:06:25 > 0:06:28and extend British rule across the subcontinent.
0:06:28 > 0:06:30And from 14,000 miles away,
0:06:30 > 0:06:33there was little the directors could do to stop him.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41Wellesley had set his sights on a formidable Muslim adversary -
0:06:41 > 0:06:44Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55The rich, battle-hardened Muslim leader of Mysore
0:06:55 > 0:06:59was the East India's Company's most intractable enemy.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04Three times in three decades his family had fought the Company.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07They were known as the Terrors of Leadenhall Street.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10And now Wellesley discovered that on top of it all,
0:07:10 > 0:07:12they were in league with the French.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19I think he identified quite early on that if he could play the French
0:07:19 > 0:07:25and British off against each other he could expand at their expense.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29The French were at the time Britain's main global rival
0:07:29 > 0:07:33for the status of global superpower and that was being played out
0:07:33 > 0:07:37in India as it was in North America and other arenas.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45A striking force of around 4,000 East India Company troops
0:07:45 > 0:07:48- many of them native soldiers or sepoys -
0:07:48 > 0:07:51attacked Tipu's fort in Seringapatam.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55Inside with his men, the Tiger was ready to do battle.
0:08:00 > 0:08:02A ruler who prided himself on military prowess
0:08:02 > 0:08:05had to have an extensive, extravagant,
0:08:05 > 0:08:09ornate collection of weapons in his personal arsenal.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11And here are some of them.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13The sword was the emblem of manhood in this period,
0:08:13 > 0:08:15the emblem of a great ruler.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17and judging by these swords,
0:08:17 > 0:08:21Tipu Sultan was a deeply religious man and a deeply aggressive one.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24Look at this fabulous sword here.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28The hilt is entirely covered in gold.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32Gold tiger clasping a steel blade in its mouth.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35This man was absolutely obsessed with the tiger motif.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37He lived his life as a tiger.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39In fact, his favourite expression was,
0:08:39 > 0:08:41"It's better to live one day as a tiger
0:08:41 > 0:08:43"than a thousand days as a sheep."
0:08:43 > 0:08:46What I love about this particular blade is on the hilt
0:08:46 > 0:08:48is written an expression in Persian.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50"This blade is the lightning
0:08:50 > 0:08:52"that flashes though the lives of infidels."
0:08:52 > 0:08:55Probably quite near the end of their lives, I expect.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59And on here is the name of Tipu Sultan himself
0:08:59 > 0:09:01and Allah and Muhammad his prophet.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06This was a man who believed that he was engaged in holy war.
0:09:06 > 0:09:12He was God's instrument on Earth and his task was to destroy infidels,
0:09:12 > 0:09:14driving them out from the Indian subcontinent.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20But this time it wasn't to be.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24After a month-long siege, Tipu's stronghold fell
0:09:24 > 0:09:26and the tiger was slaughtered.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30The significance of the defeat of Tipu Sultan in 1799
0:09:30 > 0:09:34is that it's the beginning of the end of the independence
0:09:34 > 0:09:37of the great southern principalities in India.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41It meant of course that British paramountcy was beginning
0:09:41 > 0:09:43to be established in that region of India
0:09:43 > 0:09:45and that the Madras Presidency,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48the most southern of the East India Company presidencies,
0:09:48 > 0:09:51was increasing, territorially, hugely in size
0:09:51 > 0:09:55in this very short five or six years
0:09:55 > 0:09:58of Richard Wellesley's time as Governor-General.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04Almost immediately after Tipu's death,
0:10:04 > 0:10:07his palace of treasures was looted.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10The Company's troops could hardly contain themselves
0:10:10 > 0:10:13when they came across Tipu's showpiece.
0:10:17 > 0:10:23This comes from Tipu Sultan's unbelievably flamboyant throne he had built.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26These little tiger heads would have sat atop the edge of the throne,
0:10:26 > 0:10:28and like this one here they're all covered in gold,
0:10:28 > 0:10:31set with diamonds, rubies and emeralds.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35This would have been so striking that really it sealed its own fate
0:10:35 > 0:10:37because as soon as the East India Company's Prize Committee
0:10:37 > 0:10:41- the people responsible for giving out rewards to its troops -
0:10:41 > 0:10:43set their beady little eyes on this,
0:10:43 > 0:10:46they hacked it up and gave it away or sold it off.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50Some of those pieces arrived back here in Britain.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54It's a tiny glimpse into what must have been one of the most
0:10:54 > 0:10:57spectacular objects these people had ever seen.
0:11:09 > 0:11:11When news of the Tiger's death reached Britain,
0:11:11 > 0:11:13there was jubilation.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16It turns out the British people didn't share Tipu Sultan's
0:11:16 > 0:11:18opinion of himself as a noble servant of God.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21They thought he was an extremist tyrant.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23There were parties and balls cross the country,
0:11:23 > 0:11:25decorations and medals were struck.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29Artists got in on the act and painted depictions of the final battle.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31This wasn't being celebrated as a private,
0:11:31 > 0:11:34commercial triumph for the East India Company,
0:11:34 > 0:11:37but as a moment of national, public achievement.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40There was now nothing else standing in the way
0:11:40 > 0:11:44of total British domination in the subcontinent.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55With the vast, rich kingdom of Mysore now under their dominion,
0:11:55 > 0:11:59the Company's power in India was growing.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01But territorial growth meant bigger
0:12:01 > 0:12:03and more expensive armies to hold it.
0:12:03 > 0:12:08The cost of this could ruin the Company but from their offices in London,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11the directors were powerless to contain Lord Wellesley.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15Wellesley saw himself as a ruler, not a merchant and,
0:12:15 > 0:12:17like countless other empire builders,
0:12:17 > 0:12:22he developed an insatiable desire for ever-wider expansion.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24He spent a vast amount of money that should have been
0:12:24 > 0:12:27for commercial purposes on conquest.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30He wrote a bragging letter home to Britain, saying that
0:12:30 > 0:12:34he was satisfying, "the voracious appetite for lands and fortresses."
0:12:34 > 0:12:37He went on to say, "Seringapatam ought, I think, to stay your
0:12:37 > 0:12:42"stomach for a while, not to mention Tanjore and the Poliga countries.
0:12:42 > 0:12:44"Perhaps I may be able to give you a supper of Oudh
0:12:44 > 0:12:47"and the Carnatic, if you should still be hungry."
0:12:51 > 0:12:53Against the Company's wishes,
0:12:53 > 0:12:56Wellesley annexed more and more Indian territory.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58Vast swathes of southern,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01western and northern India fell to the British.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06One quoted contemporaneous at the time is that he's increased
0:13:06 > 0:13:09the population of British India by 40 million.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12So this is a massive expansion and it's really the time when the
0:13:12 > 0:13:14East India Company moves from paramountcy,
0:13:14 > 0:13:17from being the major influential power,
0:13:17 > 0:13:20to being the major territorial power.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22It's the start, in effect, of the British Empire.
0:13:22 > 0:13:27Wellesley had completely transformed the Company's position in India,
0:13:27 > 0:13:30even whilst the directors back in Britain were complaining
0:13:30 > 0:13:32that his actions were taking them into debt.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34By the time he was finished,
0:13:34 > 0:13:39Britain controlled an area that was ten times the size of the British Isles,
0:13:39 > 0:13:42with a population of 180 million people.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46That's one sixth of the entire global population at the time.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08An important part of Wellesley's plans
0:14:08 > 0:14:11was bringing a little bit of Britishness to India.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25When Calcutta all got a bit too much for Wellesley and the greater good
0:14:25 > 0:14:29of British society, they would head 16 miles north to Barrackpore.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40But they travelled in slightly more refined style.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55"Barrackpore is a charming place,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58"like a beautiful English villa on the banks of the Thames.
0:14:58 > 0:15:00"So green and fresh."
0:15:06 > 0:15:10"The Governor General has a country residence with a fine park there.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14"During the races the Calcutta world assembles there.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17"Lady Amherst rendered Government House gay with quadrilles
0:15:17 > 0:15:19"and displays of fireworks."
0:15:22 > 0:15:24British officers once lived here
0:15:24 > 0:15:27in single-storey buildings known as bungalows
0:15:27 > 0:15:32- one of the many Indian words that has permanently entered the English language.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35Their decaying remains are still visible today.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42These crumbling ruins are now all that remains
0:15:42 > 0:15:44of the magnificent British homes.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47You can see how well laid out they were.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50Nice big gardens, no doubt planted with beautiful beds of flowers,
0:15:50 > 0:15:53big airy windows and doors so the breeze,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56or what breeze there was, could just flow through the house.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58Lots of shade, of course, big trees planted.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01It's funny, you look at these houses and they're so confident.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03Built in the imperial style.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05The people who lived in them would have been certain
0:16:05 > 0:16:08that their grasp on India and, in fact, the world, was unshakable.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11And yet here, only a couple of hundred years later,
0:16:11 > 0:16:13they're shelters for wild dogs.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27'In the Company's day, it was British officers
0:16:27 > 0:16:29'who sheltered here from the blistering heat of the sun.'
0:16:29 > 0:16:31Thank you very much. Good morning.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35'It was generally far too hot to do any actual work.'
0:16:37 > 0:16:40"My disgraceful laziness is appalling.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44"I have hardly opened a book or written a line for the last ten days.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48"In fact, I have done absolutely nothing but lounge and saunter about."
0:16:55 > 0:16:57Barrackpore was given the stamp of approval
0:16:57 > 0:17:00when Wellesley chose it as his summer retreat.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05This is how Wellesley would have got to Barrackpore
0:17:05 > 0:17:07- the river acting like a private highway,
0:17:07 > 0:17:09taking him from his palace in Calcutta
0:17:09 > 0:17:13up to the front steps of his palatial residence here,
0:17:13 > 0:17:15minimising the time he had to spend in the public space.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18I mean, God forbid he would actually have to travel through the country
0:17:18 > 0:17:22and look out on the plight of the Indians over whom he ruled.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Wellesley spent £50,000 of Company money
0:17:31 > 0:17:32building himself a palatial residence
0:17:32 > 0:17:35at the heart of this British haven.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51But his burgeoning empire was in direct conflict
0:17:51 > 0:17:53with the Company's objectives...
0:17:56 > 0:17:58..which were still trade and profit.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05Attempting to gain the upper hand,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08the Court of Directors came up with a plan.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17They would train a new breed of employee
0:18:17 > 0:18:20to act on the Company's behalf in India.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22The civil servant.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29Civil service is a term coined by the East India Company at this time.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32It describes a group who had previously been administrators,
0:18:32 > 0:18:34known as writers.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36But the use of the term marks an important shift
0:18:36 > 0:18:39because in the past these writers hadn't been terribly high quality.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42As long as they could read and write and do a bit of maths,
0:18:42 > 0:18:43they were given the job.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46But now there were whole swathes of India to rule over,
0:18:46 > 0:18:48they had to know the people.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50And they had to know how to govern them.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52It was time for an upgrade.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59In 1806 the Company opened a new school to train its future
0:18:59 > 0:19:03governors and administrators - East India College in Hertfordshire,
0:19:03 > 0:19:05known today as Haileybury College.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15To educate this new class of servant,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18the training was progressive and exacting.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24The curriculum was pretty demanding.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27Just how demanding became clear
0:19:27 > 0:19:30when I had a go at an exam in my own favourite subject.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32- Here's a history one. - OK, here we go.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34OK, for 1851.
0:19:34 > 0:19:36"Describe the foundations
0:19:36 > 0:19:39"and progress of ecclesiastical wealth and power.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42"Distinguish between the depositories of that power
0:19:42 > 0:19:44"in the ninth century and the 12th..."
0:19:44 > 0:19:46Mm-hmm.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51"In what manner did the Curia regis of the Conqueror
0:19:51 > 0:19:54"create and extend the original jurisdiction?"
0:19:54 > 0:19:56OK. I think we'll just leave those actually.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58I think we've looked at those enough.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02Once every term, the directors would come down.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05These were known as dye days, at the end of the term,
0:20:05 > 0:20:11and distribute prizes and medals to Haileyburians
0:20:11 > 0:20:13or East India men that had done well.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16And these are the medals here. Beautiful, aren't they?
0:20:16 > 0:20:21- That is a medal for Sanskrit, there. - It's even got Sanskrit on it.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26And the inscription says that the pursuit of knowledge
0:20:26 > 0:20:30is better than the pursuit of gold, which is very apt.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35Self-enrichment would no longer be the sole ambition
0:20:35 > 0:20:37of young men bound for India.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40This new college was educating them with new goals
0:20:40 > 0:20:42and instilling them with new values.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48And would it matter how well they'd done at this college?
0:20:48 > 0:20:51Would that affect their careers once they got to India?
0:20:51 > 0:20:54If you made it through the rigours of the four terms,
0:20:54 > 0:20:56it was indeed a job for life.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59- Guaranteed?- Guaranteed.
0:21:04 > 0:21:09The same patronage that helped the pupils through their studies here
0:21:09 > 0:21:11at the school would also smooth their paths once they got to India.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14And although there were no longer the opportunities to make
0:21:14 > 0:21:17vast amounts of money now that private trading had been outlawed,
0:21:17 > 0:21:21they were still the highest paid civil servants in the world
0:21:21 > 0:21:23and they had generous living allowances
0:21:23 > 0:21:26and they even got a commission on tax revenue.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29This was still an extremely attractive career
0:21:29 > 0:21:31for Britain's most influential classes.
0:21:33 > 0:21:38"It is with feelings of both pleasure and pride that we can record
0:21:38 > 0:21:41"the fact of you passing through the college at Haileybury
0:21:41 > 0:21:46"and that the prize in Hindoostanee has been awarded to you.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49"You have passed through the fiery ordeal of college unscathed,
0:21:49 > 0:21:53"without being contaminated by its vices."
0:22:04 > 0:22:09Soon they would have to resist the vices of India.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13Where earlier Company men had embraced local and religious customs,
0:22:13 > 0:22:16now people were becoming alarmed by them.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19Especially Britain's growing number of Christian missionaries,
0:22:19 > 0:22:21who had been arriving in India in small numbers,
0:22:21 > 0:22:23against the Company's wishes.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33And in the British Library's archives are some persuasive letters
0:22:33 > 0:22:36warning of the consequences of allowing them free rein.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43One of the loudest voices was General Charles Stuart,
0:22:43 > 0:22:47known as Hindoo Stuart because of his profound love of Hindu culture.
0:22:47 > 0:22:49Now this culture was under threat
0:22:49 > 0:22:53so he published his feelings in an effort to protect it.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00So Stuart lays it down on the line.
0:23:00 > 0:23:02"Is it wise, is it politic,
0:23:02 > 0:23:06"is it even safe to institute a war of sentiment
0:23:06 > 0:23:09"against the only friends of any importance that we seem to have left
0:23:09 > 0:23:12"in India - our faithful subjects of the Ganges."
0:23:12 > 0:23:15By which he means the Hindus and the Muslims.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20Hindoo Stuart wasn't the only man to regard missionaries with suspicion.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24Stark warnings were issued by the famous tea merchant Thomas Twining.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31He's saying that they're facing a danger no less
0:23:31 > 0:23:34than the threatened extermination of our Eastern sovereignty
0:23:34 > 0:23:38and that danger commands them to step forth
0:23:38 > 0:23:42and arrest the progress of such rash and unwarrantable proceedings.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46Stop the missionaries now before it's too late.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51When men like Twining and Stuart made their feelings public,
0:23:51 > 0:23:53the missionaries fought back.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57Here is another letter to the poor, long-suffering chairman
0:23:57 > 0:24:00of the East India Company, a Court of Directors,
0:24:00 > 0:24:04from a member of the British Bible Society.
0:24:04 > 0:24:09And he says that Mr Twining's letter is an extraordinary publication
0:24:09 > 0:24:13and the plain object is to frighten the Company from imparting
0:24:13 > 0:24:18the blessings of Christianity to 50 million people in India,
0:24:18 > 0:24:21to represent the circulation of the scriptures amongst them
0:24:21 > 0:24:24as a crime of the deepest dye and most dangerous tendency.
0:24:24 > 0:24:29Broadly, what was the Company's sort of point of view during this period?
0:24:29 > 0:24:34The Company believed that...publicly declared a policy
0:24:34 > 0:24:36that they weren't adverse to Christian missionaries
0:24:36 > 0:24:39but what they were against
0:24:39 > 0:24:41is anything which would disturb the status quo.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45Anything which would make the Hindus, particularly,
0:24:45 > 0:24:48feel that their religious beliefs were being threatened.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55The Company believed that the people of India should be left
0:24:55 > 0:24:59to practise their own religions, otherwise they could grow hostile.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03And that would jeopardise Britain's position on the subcontinent.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12But it wasn't up to the Company any more.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15With ultimate control over its activities in India,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18the British Government found itself lobbied by some powerful
0:25:18 > 0:25:20Christian representatives.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27The most forceful part of this group were a number
0:25:27 > 0:25:30of evangelical Christians who lived around Clapham Common, here.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32They were known as the Clapham Sect
0:25:32 > 0:25:35and they worshipped here at the Holy Trinity Church.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39They were led in Parliament by the veteran humanitarian
0:25:39 > 0:25:41campaigner William Wilberforce.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51Wilberforce is perhaps best known for his successful campaign
0:25:51 > 0:25:55for the abolition of the slave trade in the early 19th century.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59After that, he turned his attention to India, declaring it...
0:25:59 > 0:26:03"The greatest of all causes, for I really place it before Abolition."
0:26:05 > 0:26:08Wilberforce, in common with other Clapham Sect members,
0:26:08 > 0:26:13saw the propagation of Christianity in India as sort of British duty.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17They had a world view that saw everything
0:26:17 > 0:26:20that happened as being part of God's plan.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22And they saw British imperial expansion in India as being
0:26:22 > 0:26:26indicative of God's plan for them to use that platform
0:26:26 > 0:26:28to spread the message of Christianity.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46These windows are modern but they clearly reflect the great
0:26:46 > 0:26:49passions that drove Wilberforce through his life.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53On the right you can see the work he did getting the slave trade abolished,
0:26:53 > 0:26:57freeing the slaves of the West Indies from their bondage, their servitude.
0:26:57 > 0:27:01On the left his other great passion, spreading the Christian message,
0:27:01 > 0:27:03evangelizing all over the word.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05And you can see the distinctive national dresses
0:27:05 > 0:27:07of all the people in the bottom left,
0:27:07 > 0:27:11from the native Americans to the Indian there as well.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14He believed that everyone was created equal in the eyes of God
0:27:14 > 0:27:16and there were many aspects of religion in India
0:27:16 > 0:27:18which he heartily disapproved of.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22For example the caste system, which seemed to enshrine inequality.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26He, and the other influential Christians who worshipped here,
0:27:26 > 0:27:28wanted Britain to use its rising power
0:27:28 > 0:27:31to civilize and Christianise India.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43The British found Hinduism in particular
0:27:43 > 0:27:46very difficult to understand.
0:27:46 > 0:27:48There were a number of Hindu practices that the
0:27:48 > 0:27:51East India Company were concerned about,
0:27:51 > 0:27:53in particularly suttee or widow-burning.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03Suttee was the Hindu practice of burning widows alive
0:28:03 > 0:28:06on the funeral pyres of their husbands.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11Because of its sort of sensational and emotive appeal,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14it was something that became very prominent
0:28:14 > 0:28:17in the way in which Britons imagined India.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27"Their Divinities are absolute monsters
0:28:27 > 0:28:30"of lust, injustice, wickedness and cruelty.
0:28:30 > 0:28:35"In short, their religious system is one of grand abomination."
0:28:37 > 0:28:41In 1813 the British government gave way and forced the Company
0:28:41 > 0:28:44to give missionaries full access to India,
0:28:44 > 0:28:47sending a dangerous message to its people that the British
0:28:47 > 0:28:49planned to convert them to Christianity.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01Missionaries were just one of the Parliamentary impositions
0:29:01 > 0:29:05the Company was forced to accept in order to stay in India.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09Just 20 years since Parliament extended its prized Royal Charter,
0:29:09 > 0:29:11it was up for renewal again.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14Other British merchants took advantage of the deadline.
0:29:14 > 0:29:16They wanted a slice of the tea trade
0:29:16 > 0:29:19and pressured the British Government to act.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24Every time the East India Company's Royal Charter
0:29:24 > 0:29:27had come up for renewal there were calls to end
0:29:27 > 0:29:30its commercial monopoly on trade with India.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33But it had survived intact for more than 200 years.
0:29:33 > 0:29:35But this was now the era of free trade
0:29:35 > 0:29:39and Parliament decided to end that privileged position.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42That meant that the East India Company's servants were no
0:29:42 > 0:29:45longer here to trade, to make money through buying and selling,
0:29:45 > 0:29:48but as colonial administrators,
0:29:48 > 0:29:51running its vast territories on behalf of the British Crown.
0:29:59 > 0:30:01The 1813 Charter Act marked a complete shift
0:30:01 > 0:30:03in the Company's role.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06After some 200 years in India,
0:30:06 > 0:30:10they were no longer here as merchants but as rulers.
0:30:10 > 0:30:12And this new position would have a tangible
0:30:12 > 0:30:16effect on the behaviour of the British in India.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18Britain was going through a massive Industrial Revolution.
0:30:18 > 0:30:22It was becoming one of the richest, perhaps the richest country in the world,
0:30:22 > 0:30:25and the British in India, I think, reflected that change.
0:30:25 > 0:30:27They no longer saw themselves as people who'd chosen to live
0:30:27 > 0:30:30in India and had to muddle along and just get on with the locals.
0:30:30 > 0:30:35They now saw themselves as part of a superior, advanced, progressive civilisation,
0:30:35 > 0:30:38and they saw themselves increasingly as detached from India.
0:30:42 > 0:30:45The respect for Indian culture that had characterized previous
0:30:45 > 0:30:47generations had completely vanished.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50It was no longer acceptable for an East India Company servant
0:30:50 > 0:30:53to speak like or dress like an Indian.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57They had to now wear European dress and the army soon followed suit.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01European customs and manners were emphasised.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04A huge gulf was opening up between the British governing elite
0:31:04 > 0:31:06and the Indian subjects.
0:31:08 > 0:31:10By the 19th century you have the British increasingly talking
0:31:10 > 0:31:15in terms of a British race, which is somehow different from other races, and embodies different values.
0:31:15 > 0:31:17And it wasn't just the British doing it,
0:31:17 > 0:31:19this was what was happening in the 19th century.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22And so when it comes to India you have a lot of the British saying,
0:31:22 > 0:31:24"Really, the Indians are an inferior race,
0:31:24 > 0:31:27"they wouldn't be ruled by us if they weren't inferior."
0:31:29 > 0:31:31"We should always preserve the European,
0:31:31 > 0:31:35"for to adopt their manners is a departure from the very principle
0:31:35 > 0:31:39"on which every impression of our superiority is grounded."
0:31:39 > 0:31:43As the British entered the new self-assured Victorian age,
0:31:43 > 0:31:45their attitude towards the Indians hardened.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48They were convinced of their own cultural superiority
0:31:48 > 0:31:51and they believed that India needed all the help it could get.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54India was a barbaric place and its civilisation was stagnant.
0:32:04 > 0:32:08From now on, Company servants and officers who came to India
0:32:08 > 0:32:12were influenced by this conviction of moral and racial superiority.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15And so were the growing numbers of British women.
0:32:21 > 0:32:25To our ears, their views seem shockingly racist.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30"There is something in the idea of gentlemen who never wear any clothes
0:32:30 > 0:32:34"picking the fruit you eat which is not at all appetizing."
0:32:35 > 0:32:37"I take all the naked black creatures
0:32:37 > 0:32:40"squatting at the doors of their huts in such aversion,
0:32:40 > 0:32:43"and what with the climate and the strange trees and shrubs,
0:32:43 > 0:32:45"I feel like Robinson Crusoe.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48"I cannot abide India and that is the truth."
0:32:50 > 0:32:52The refusal to learn local languages,
0:32:52 > 0:32:54dismissing Indians as savage barbarians
0:32:54 > 0:32:56incapable of elevated thought.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00These were ignorant views, and ones which ironically confined
0:33:00 > 0:33:04the British into a narrow life that many of them found so boring.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08But perhaps even more than being stupid and racist,
0:33:08 > 0:33:11these views were dangerous because if that chasm opens up
0:33:11 > 0:33:13between the rulers and the ruled,
0:33:13 > 0:33:16then there's fertile ground for conflict.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22The blame for this increasingly racist attitude
0:33:22 > 0:33:26has often been entirely levelled at Victorian women.
0:33:26 > 0:33:28I think to blame the British women in India for the gulf
0:33:28 > 0:33:31that grew between the races is really unfair
0:33:31 > 0:33:33and I've always felt it to be unfair.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36The British women were very much part of their own community
0:33:36 > 0:33:39and they were part of a community that didn't want a closer involvement with India.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43In fact, the British establishment in India, which was male, of course,
0:33:43 > 0:33:47discouraged women from getting too closely involved in India.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50I mean there was a real bias now, among the British men in India,
0:33:50 > 0:33:53that they wanted their women kept separately.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01Few of these Brits had the urge or the need to look outside
0:34:01 > 0:34:03the confines of this artificial little bubble.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06Often the only natives they did meet were their own servants.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09Thy tried to recreate their old British lives, eating British food
0:34:09 > 0:34:14three times a day, planting British seeds in their gardens and wearing
0:34:14 > 0:34:18ridiculous British clothing as they went out in the hot Indian sun.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21It was an obstinate, desperate attempt to keep a little
0:34:21 > 0:34:25piece of Britishness alive, here in the heart of India.
0:34:28 > 0:34:32"I keep up as much as possible all English customs,
0:34:32 > 0:34:34"so that when I come to see you all again I hope you will find me
0:34:34 > 0:34:38"just as much of an Englishman as I was before I left."
0:34:55 > 0:34:59This determination to Anglicise India was about to gain momentum
0:34:59 > 0:35:03with a final shift in the Company's operations and purpose.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06The British government closed in on their one remaining,
0:35:06 > 0:35:08jealously-guarded trading monopoly.
0:35:10 > 0:35:12In the early 1830s the East India Company's charter
0:35:12 > 0:35:14came up for renewal once again.
0:35:14 > 0:35:18This time its monopoly on trade with China was stripped away
0:35:18 > 0:35:21and all commercial operations came to a halt.
0:35:21 > 0:35:23The transition from merchant trading house
0:35:23 > 0:35:27to imperial administrator was complete.
0:35:40 > 0:35:42As administrator of India,
0:35:42 > 0:35:45the East India Company was allocated a pot of money by the
0:35:45 > 0:35:48British government for "intellectual improvement" of the people.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51But no-one could decide how best to use it.
0:35:51 > 0:35:55No-one, that is, until the arrival of one man,
0:35:55 > 0:35:57Thomas Babington Macaulay,
0:35:57 > 0:36:01lawmaker on the newly-created Supreme Council of India.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05And his legacy has left a profound mark on the subcontinent.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09Macaulay when he arrived in India,
0:36:09 > 0:36:15saw it as his role to establish a very Westernising,
0:36:15 > 0:36:20Anglicist approach to education and government in India.
0:36:20 > 0:36:24He decisively defeated the Orientalist lobby, which had
0:36:24 > 0:36:30been in favour of encouraging native Indian classical languages.
0:36:30 > 0:36:36Macaulay's approach was that India had to be introduced to modern,
0:36:36 > 0:36:40scientific knowledge via the English language.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43It couldn't be done through Indian classical languages.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53These poor young men have got exam week on at that moment.
0:36:53 > 0:36:55It's bringing back all sorts of horrible memories
0:36:55 > 0:36:57of my own time at school.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01Macaulay, like many other prominent Victorians, assumed that British
0:37:01 > 0:37:04culture was basically the highest form of human civilisation.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06And he was desperate to try
0:37:06 > 0:37:09and bestow some of that on the Indian subjects.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11He envisaged an education system that would create,
0:37:11 > 0:37:16as he said "Indians in blood and colour but English in tastes,
0:37:16 > 0:37:20"Opinions, morals and intellect."
0:37:20 > 0:37:23And the first thing to do was teach them all English.
0:37:23 > 0:37:27We have traced from the fall of Constantinople,
0:37:27 > 0:37:34in 1453 and we had explained to you what Renaissance meant.
0:37:34 > 0:37:39Now, tell me one thing, why was this reawakening required?
0:37:39 > 0:37:42The spirit of enquiry grows amongst the people
0:37:42 > 0:37:46and then they wanted to learn new things and explore new worlds.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52Macaulay's Act, The Minute on Education,
0:37:52 > 0:37:55was passed in February, 1835.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58And almost immediately the children of India's elite began
0:37:58 > 0:38:01learning English as their main language.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06Macaulay did not intend to educate all the masses.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09He talked about educating the cream of society.
0:38:09 > 0:38:11And from there his downward filtration
0:38:11 > 0:38:14theory, that is going to percolate down to the masses.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18In some time, it's going to be like education for all
0:38:18 > 0:38:20but it'll take some years to happen.
0:38:20 > 0:38:21So, is the fact that this kind of
0:38:21 > 0:38:24English, modern education system was introduced,
0:38:24 > 0:38:25is that seen as a good thing?
0:38:25 > 0:38:28We definitely appreciate the coming of the English
0:38:28 > 0:38:31and the English language and everything as our, you know,
0:38:31 > 0:38:33the doors opening to enlightenment,
0:38:33 > 0:38:37the touch of light, the enlightenment.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41Of course, definitely. The doors opening onto the Western world.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43And it's still carrying on, the remnants of the Raj is still
0:38:43 > 0:38:46there, you and I are speaking the language of the Raj.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51Macaulay's educational revolution had far-reaching
0:38:51 > 0:38:54consequences for the children of India.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56Do you speak English at home, as well?
0:38:56 > 0:38:58Yes, all the time, it's the only language I speak,
0:38:58 > 0:39:00pretty much, at home.
0:39:00 > 0:39:01Do you speak any other languages?
0:39:01 > 0:39:03Yeah, I speak Hindi and Bengali
0:39:03 > 0:39:05but at home it's only English, as in school.
0:39:05 > 0:39:07In fact, we're only allowed to speak English in school.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09Really? In the playground here?
0:39:09 > 0:39:12Yeah, everywhere except in the Hindi and Bengali classes, where we
0:39:12 > 0:39:16have to speak Indian but otherwise it's only English.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25It feels like a faintly controversial thing to say but
0:39:25 > 0:39:29when you come here and you look at these young men and their uniforms,
0:39:29 > 0:39:32their ties, they're speaking their impeccable English, in a lesson
0:39:32 > 0:39:35about the Renaissance, discussing which football club they like
0:39:35 > 0:39:37best, Chelsea or Man United.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41It does seem like, in some ways, Macaulay's
0:39:41 > 0:39:46dream of creating Englishmen out here in India, is being realised.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05But while Macaulay claimed to be improving the young
0:40:05 > 0:40:08minds of India, the Company he served was still prepared to
0:40:08 > 0:40:10do anything to increase its wealth.
0:40:10 > 0:40:16Including pursuing an immoral, government-backed, trade in drugs.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33The Company controlled the opium-growing areas of India.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35It operated a brutal monopoly,
0:40:35 > 0:40:38it forced peasant farmers to grow opium but then they could
0:40:38 > 0:40:42only sell it to the Company, it was then brought here to Calcutta.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45Now to get round accusations they were pushing drugs,
0:40:45 > 0:40:49the opium was then sold in auction houses here for 1,000% profit,
0:40:49 > 0:40:51to independent traders.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54They would then ship it off, down the Hooghly,
0:40:54 > 0:40:57across the Indian Ocean and into China.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05But the Company was not the only guilty party in this illicit trade.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12The story of the opium trade is really one of just mass collusion.
0:41:12 > 0:41:14It was collusion between the East India Company
0:41:14 > 0:41:16and the British Government,
0:41:16 > 0:41:18who both benefited immensely from this illegal trade.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21And it was collusion between the private traders and many officials
0:41:21 > 0:41:25in the Chinese authorities, who with receipt of a bribe, would
0:41:25 > 0:41:30quite happily turn their eyes away from this smuggling in of opium.
0:41:32 > 0:41:38In 1838 over 35,000 opium chests were shipped from Calcutta to
0:41:38 > 0:41:43China and the Chinese Emperor finally snapped.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47All in the name of profit, opium was ruining
0:41:47 > 0:41:51the lives of over 12 million Chinese people and draining
0:41:51 > 0:41:52the country of prosperity.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55The Chinese government seized 20,000 chests
0:41:55 > 0:41:59of the finest East India Company opium and dumped in the ocean.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02Then they banned traders from bringing any more
0:42:02 > 0:42:04opium into the country.
0:42:05 > 0:42:08But neither the Company nor the British Government was
0:42:08 > 0:42:10prepared to let matters end there.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14Opium was the Company's most profitable export from India
0:42:14 > 0:42:16and funded the lucrative tea trade.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21I don't think there's sort of any other way really of viewing
0:42:21 > 0:42:25what was going on with the China trade in this period other
0:42:25 > 0:42:28than drug pushing. The East India Company and the private
0:42:28 > 0:42:32agency houses who worked with them, the opium trade, were aggressively
0:42:32 > 0:42:35marketing opium in the coastal towns of China against the wishes
0:42:35 > 0:42:39of the Chinese government because it was the one commodity that they
0:42:39 > 0:42:42could sell there and the one that allowed them to finance their
0:42:42 > 0:42:46trade in tea, which obviously was hugely profitable back in Britain.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50This dubious business had to be protected,
0:42:50 > 0:42:52whether China wanted it or not.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55An Asian state had the nerve to stop the Company trading
0:42:55 > 0:42:58and stand in the way of its making money!
0:42:58 > 0:43:01The East India Company had been here before, in India,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04and its solution was the same...force!
0:43:04 > 0:43:07The British Government sent the Royal Navy to batter
0:43:07 > 0:43:08the Chinese into submission.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10They backed down and even
0:43:10 > 0:43:13had to hand over the island of Hong Kong to the British,
0:43:13 > 0:43:17which then became the centre of the ongoing opium trade.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25But, back in India, a final reckoning was looming.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28And it would be sparked from an unexpected quarter.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32THEY CHANT
0:43:34 > 0:43:38The Company's own loyal, standing army.
0:43:46 > 0:43:49The Indian army had grown to become a bit of a source of worry
0:43:49 > 0:43:51for many in the East India Company.
0:43:51 > 0:43:53What had begun as a few
0:43:53 > 0:43:56security teams guarding the Company's forts around India,
0:43:56 > 0:43:59had grown into one of the largest standing armies in the world.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02More than 250,000 troops,
0:44:02 > 0:44:05larger than most European armies at the time.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08And that was 96% composed of native
0:44:08 > 0:44:12Indian troops, known as "sepoys".
0:44:15 > 0:44:19Keeping these sepoy troops loyal was critical to the Company's survival.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25So what would happen if this huge native army turned on them?
0:44:36 > 0:44:41But, increasingly, the quality of those few Englishmen was debatable.
0:44:41 > 0:44:45The problem with the Indian army at the time is that it's set up
0:44:45 > 0:44:48that if you have any ambition, any get up and go, any drive,
0:44:48 > 0:44:52you will leave your regiment early on for probably civil employ
0:44:52 > 0:44:54or staff employ and the reason you did that is because they were
0:44:54 > 0:44:58better paid. So, the residue left in the regiments, the people
0:44:58 > 0:45:01who had close daily contact with the Indian soldiers were the refuse,
0:45:01 > 0:45:03were the worst of the lot.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07And they didn't tend...these men were disgruntled, they were bored
0:45:07 > 0:45:10and they didn't tend to treat their Indian soldiers very well.
0:45:12 > 0:45:14Just as throughout the rest of British India,
0:45:14 > 0:45:18in the Company's three armies, a racial gulf had opened up,
0:45:18 > 0:45:21between the officers and their Indian troops.
0:45:38 > 0:45:42All of these accounts bear witness to a catastrophic breakdown in the
0:45:42 > 0:45:46bond between the officers and men of the East India Company's army.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50Now any team, but particularly an army, needs that trust
0:45:50 > 0:45:53and respect between those who are giving the orders
0:45:53 > 0:45:55and those who are carrying them out.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59If you were an East India Company sepoy, why would you follow
0:45:59 > 0:46:02an officer into battle who's openly disdainful of you?
0:46:02 > 0:46:05In fact, why would you do anything he said at all?
0:46:12 > 0:46:15The sepoys no longer trusted their East India Company officers.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18They were appalled at their degrading treatment and
0:46:18 > 0:46:21they were very suspicious about the future intentions of the Company.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24What was needed to turn this very tense situation into a full
0:46:24 > 0:46:26blown crisis was a spark.
0:46:32 > 0:46:38Appropriately enough that spark was provided by the sepoys' rifles.
0:46:38 > 0:46:40In the mid-19th century a sepoy
0:46:40 > 0:46:42would have lots of cartridges in his cartridge pouch.
0:46:42 > 0:46:47He had to bite off the end, pour it down the barrel of the rifle,
0:46:47 > 0:46:52then put the cartridge itself and the bullet into the barrel,
0:46:52 > 0:46:56ram it down with a ramrod and then it would fire at the enemy.
0:46:56 > 0:46:57The big problem came
0:46:57 > 0:47:00when a rumour spread like wildfire throughout the sepoy forces,
0:47:00 > 0:47:05that the British were greasing these cartridges with pig of beef fat.
0:47:05 > 0:47:07For them it was completely intolerable to insert
0:47:07 > 0:47:11anything that had ever been near a pig or a cow into their mouth.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14At a stroke, the culturally ignorant,
0:47:14 > 0:47:18distant British decision-makers, had managed to alienate not just
0:47:18 > 0:47:22the Hindus, but also the Muslims of their vast Indian army.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26In fact, realising their error,
0:47:26 > 0:47:31the East India Company never issued these cartridges to the sepoys...
0:47:31 > 0:47:32but it was too late.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35Those soldiers within the army who were disgruntled did not want
0:47:35 > 0:47:37to let the issue lie.
0:47:37 > 0:47:39In other words they kept it going. Why?
0:47:39 > 0:47:41Because something to do with caste
0:47:41 > 0:47:44and religion like this was a means of uniting both Muslims and
0:47:44 > 0:47:48Hindus, who traditionally, frankly, had not been the closest of allies.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52The scene was set for the East India Company's gravest
0:47:52 > 0:47:54challenge yet.
0:47:54 > 0:47:58An episode that's become known to the British as the Indian Mutiny
0:47:58 > 0:48:01but to Indians it was the First War of Independence.
0:48:06 > 0:48:08The earliest signs of dissent
0:48:08 > 0:48:11occurred in one of the Company's oldest military settlements,
0:48:11 > 0:48:14the favourite summer hang-out of the British.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17In Barrackpore, on 29th of March, 1857,
0:48:17 > 0:48:20the peace of an afternoon was shattered.
0:48:22 > 0:48:26Sergeant-Major James Hewson was in his bungalow one day when he heard
0:48:26 > 0:48:30that one of his sepoys, a man called Mangal Pandey, armed himself with a
0:48:30 > 0:48:33loaded musket and was behaving very erratically on the parade ground.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37Hewson warned an officer, got dressed picked up his sword
0:48:37 > 0:48:40and went to work out what the hell was going on!
0:48:42 > 0:48:46The inebriated Pandey was acting in protest against the new gun
0:48:46 > 0:48:49cartridges but he failed to incite his fellow soldiers to join him.
0:48:49 > 0:48:54The British adjutant arrived to see what all the fuss was about.
0:48:54 > 0:48:56Pandey shot at Hewson.
0:48:56 > 0:48:58He shot at a British officer who came to help him.
0:48:58 > 0:49:01The three of them ended up in a huge sword fight,
0:49:01 > 0:49:03the two Brits being wounded before Pandey was arrested.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06Then, a week later, having been court-marshalled,
0:49:06 > 0:49:09and in front of the assembled garrison of both Indian and
0:49:09 > 0:49:11European troops in Barrackpore,
0:49:11 > 0:49:13he was hanged.
0:49:13 > 0:49:15Allegedly from this banyan tree behind me.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22Mangal Pandey's unit was disbanded but the uprising
0:49:22 > 0:49:27began for real when troops at Meerut rose up and then headed for Delhi.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32On May 11th, 1857, the city fell.
0:49:32 > 0:49:35The rebellion is really a mixture of dissatisfied groups in India.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39The biggest dissatisfied group are, of course the soldiers and because
0:49:39 > 0:49:42they're professionals and they're armed, they are the most dangerous.
0:49:42 > 0:49:44You will see in any revolution you've got a problem
0:49:44 > 0:49:46if you're army turns on you.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49But also they were joined by a lot of disgruntled civilians.
0:49:49 > 0:49:51People who, for various reasons, weren't happy with
0:49:51 > 0:49:53East India Company rule and, of course,
0:49:53 > 0:49:55that included a lot of people whose
0:49:55 > 0:49:58principalities had been taken away from them, a lot of people who
0:49:58 > 0:50:03felt that they had something to gain by seeing the back of the British.
0:50:03 > 0:50:06The East India Company was about to pay a heavy
0:50:06 > 0:50:09price for allowing its relationship with India to break down.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14Right across northern India native troops rebelled against their
0:50:14 > 0:50:18British officers, often killing them and their families.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21There were serious disturbances at the strategically placed
0:50:21 > 0:50:25towns of Benares, Allahabad and Lucknow.
0:50:25 > 0:50:27These were situated between Delhi
0:50:27 > 0:50:29and the administrative capital, Calcutta.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33If they fell, it would seriously imperil the entire British
0:50:33 > 0:50:35position in Northern India.
0:50:35 > 0:50:39Even the supposedly reliable garrison of Cawnpore, was in revolt.
0:50:42 > 0:50:44After a bloody three week siege,
0:50:44 > 0:50:48the British garrison surrendered to save the women and children inside.
0:50:48 > 0:50:50They were offered safe conduct
0:50:50 > 0:50:53but it became clear that this was a trick.
0:50:53 > 0:50:57As the survivors made their way down to boats on the Ganges,
0:50:57 > 0:50:59the rebels opened fire.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02Most of those who survived the bullets were then bludgeoned
0:51:02 > 0:51:04or hacked to death.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07180 women and children were taken prisoner and held for three weeks,
0:51:07 > 0:51:10until news arrived of an approaching British relief column.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13At that point the prisoners were massacred.
0:51:13 > 0:51:15Their bodies hacked to pieces
0:51:15 > 0:51:18and the dismembered parts thrown down a well.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24The first British troops on the scene had trouble dealing
0:51:24 > 0:51:28with the shock of seeing the dead bodies of women and children.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31Their accounts survive today in the British Library.
0:51:34 > 0:51:38No Englishman who saw the sight that beheld them,
0:51:38 > 0:51:40can ever forget or forgive it.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43The floor was a mass of blood, clots of blood and women's hair,
0:51:43 > 0:51:46with pieces of women's apparel lying about in all directions,
0:51:46 > 0:51:50cut and torn. Outside of the compound in a dry well was
0:51:50 > 0:51:53seen the bodies, apparently not long thrown there.
0:51:53 > 0:51:57Could any human being conceive of such horrible slaughter?
0:51:57 > 0:52:00Clearly there's going to be an enormous appetite for revenge.
0:52:00 > 0:52:02And it was fulfilled.
0:52:02 > 0:52:07The officer who commanded, a Colonel Neal, of the First Madras Fusiliers,
0:52:07 > 0:52:09by way of retribution,
0:52:09 > 0:52:12made every man who was taken under suspicion of having been
0:52:12 > 0:52:15implicated in the mutiny at Cawnpore, at first wash up
0:52:15 > 0:52:19with his hands portions of the bloodstains in that dreadful room.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22"If he was a man of any influence or high caste
0:52:22 > 0:52:25"He was made to go down on his knees and lick it up
0:52:25 > 0:52:28"And was then hung at the door where a gallows had been erected."
0:52:28 > 0:52:33So that fury for revenge, is in the air already.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37And we see it in another letter from a Lieutenant Kemp,
0:52:37 > 0:52:41who talks about a "fearful vengeance".
0:52:41 > 0:52:44"Colonel Havelock's men, 3,000 Europeans,
0:52:44 > 0:52:47"have killed every man, woman and child in Cawnpore.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51"The men could not be kept back after seeing their countrymen lying
0:52:51 > 0:52:53"dead in all directions."
0:52:53 > 0:52:56You can really tell it's his emotion at that moment.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59It hasn't been edited or printed or anything like that.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02It's the emotions of a man straight out of combat.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10The East India Company was unable to restore order or
0:53:10 > 0:53:13prevent acts of savage retribution.
0:53:13 > 0:53:15The situation spiralled out of control.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20The amount of execution which is going on across the country
0:53:20 > 0:53:26is astonishing. I mean, we have some images here of what was called
0:53:26 > 0:53:29"Pandey's Hornpipe", which is hanging mutineers.
0:53:29 > 0:53:33And then the East India Company
0:53:33 > 0:53:37adopted the practices of the old Mughal Empire
0:53:37 > 0:53:41and executed mutineers by blowing them from the mouths of canon.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44They used to strap them in front of a canon and then fire it, which
0:53:44 > 0:53:51would shatter, throw the remains of the mutineer a fair distance.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54The East India Company did a lot to provoke the rebellion and yet
0:53:54 > 0:53:57it sounds like their handling of it was very messy as well.
0:53:57 > 0:54:01It was a terrible shock to the body politic of the East India Company
0:54:01 > 0:54:07and they realised, really, the game was up and I think in a way
0:54:07 > 0:54:12they must have smelt the end of the East India Company's reign in India.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21The Company had fatally bungled its response to the uprising.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25Having been forced, bit-by-bit, to give up its privileges
0:54:25 > 0:54:28throughout the previous century, it was finally on its knees.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34The mutiny is the beginning of the end for the East India Company
0:54:34 > 0:54:37because it shows quite clearly to the British Government that the
0:54:37 > 0:54:40East India Company is no longer capable of governing India.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43It's quite clearly made mistakes, probably chiefly in the way
0:54:43 > 0:54:46it runs its army, but also in its civil administration.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49And the amount of lives that have been lost, the amount of treasure
0:54:49 > 0:54:53that's been expended, can only mean one thing and that is that the
0:54:53 > 0:54:58India has to be formalized, has to become a part of the British Empire.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05The government and the British people had had
0:55:05 > 0:55:09enough of the rapacious, profiteering East India Company.
0:55:09 > 0:55:13On the first of November 1858, British India was finally
0:55:13 > 0:55:18and inevitably handed over to the government of Queen Victoria.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21The Court of Directors issued a poignant farewell message
0:55:21 > 0:55:24to its thousands of servants in India.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27The Company has the great privilege of transferring, to the
0:55:27 > 0:55:30service of Her Majesty, such a body of civil
0:55:30 > 0:55:34and military officers as the world has never seen before.
0:55:34 > 0:55:37Let Her Majesty appreciate the gift.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40Let her take the vast country
0:55:40 > 0:55:43and the teeming millions of India under direct control.
0:55:43 > 0:55:45But let her not forget the great
0:55:45 > 0:55:48corporation from which she received them.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59Over the course of its dramatic rise and fall,
0:55:59 > 0:56:03the East India Company made some devastating mistakes that
0:56:03 > 0:56:05caused misery and ruin.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10But over more than 400 years in India,
0:56:10 > 0:56:12it left some enduring legacies.
0:56:17 > 0:56:19Cricket!
0:56:19 > 0:56:20HE LAUGHS
0:56:20 > 0:56:24Probably most importantly, the legal system it puts in place,
0:56:24 > 0:56:27so that you get very much the basic infrastructure that is still
0:56:27 > 0:56:30being used in modern India today.
0:56:37 > 0:56:40The Company was really the model for the multinational
0:56:40 > 0:56:44company of today, in terms of the management of long distance
0:56:44 > 0:56:48value-chains and so on, and the systems it set out for that really
0:56:48 > 0:56:52sort of are the platform for today's international business operations.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00One of India's advantages has been that we have a large
0:57:00 > 0:57:03population in numbers,
0:57:03 > 0:57:07speaking English of at least international standards, as such.
0:57:07 > 0:57:10We are talking a population, probably,
0:57:10 > 0:57:13almost the size of Britain who could speak English well.
0:57:13 > 0:57:15So, this certainly is a legacy and
0:57:15 > 0:57:18is an advantage in the international world.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25And all of this grew out of a small group of profit-seeking
0:57:25 > 0:57:30men and the adventurers and glory-seekers who served them.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36It's so hard to generalise about the men of the East India Company.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39The system that brought them here was very often cruel,
0:57:39 > 0:57:42rapacious and venal.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45But those men who risked everything, endured appalling hardships and saw
0:57:45 > 0:57:48their friends and loved ones carried away by disease,
0:57:48 > 0:57:51they weren't inherently evil.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55They lived and worked in a world that was unrecognizable to us
0:57:55 > 0:57:58today and in doing so they reshaped it.
0:57:58 > 0:58:00Their epitaph lies all around us.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04Here in India, Britain and even further afield.
0:58:04 > 0:58:07We're all still living with the consequences of what they built
0:58:07 > 0:58:09and what they destroyed,
0:58:09 > 0:58:12whilst working for history's most influential company.