Social and Cultural Policy
We have seen that the British authorities reorganised and regulated India’s economy in the interests of British trade and industry and organised a modern administrative system to guarantee order and security. Till 1813, they also followed a policy of non-interference in the religious, social, and cultural life of the country, but later they took active steps to transform Indian society and culture. This followed the rise of new interests and new ideas in Britain during the 19th century. The Industrial Revolution and the consequent growth of industrial capitalism were fast-changing all aspects of British society. The rising industrial interests wanted to make India a big market for their goods. This could not be accomplished merely by adhering to the policy of keeping peace and required the partial transformation and modernisation of Indian society.
Science and technology also opened new vistas of human progress. The 18th and 19th centuries witnessed a great ferment of new ideas in Britain and Europe which influenced the British outlook towards Indian problems. The great French Revolution of 1789 with its message of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity generated powerful democratic sentiments and unleashed the force of modern nationalism. The impact of these new ideas and values was naturally felt in India and affected the nature of governance.
However, the British administration was divided on infusing these values in India and modernizing the society. One view was that Indian civilization was only different and not inferior to western civilization and so western ideas and practices must be introduced slowly and cautiously. But this approach started losing weight when it was found that it neither led to the desired expansion in trade nor did it provide adequately for the perpetuation of British supremacy in India.
By 1800, Indian society was condemned to be static and backward, and its thought, narrow and unscientific. The people who developed this view put forward the concept of ‘white man’s burden to justify the political and economic enslavement of India and that any improvement must take place under British tutelage.
However, a few Englishmen, known as Radicals, went beyond this narrow criticism and imperialistic outlook and applied the advanced humanistic and rational thought of the West to the Indian situation as they saw it. The doctrine of reason led them to believe that India had the capacity to improve by following the dictates of reason and science. The doctrine of humanism led them to desire the improvement of the Indian people. The doctrine of progress led them to the conviction that Indians were bound to improve. And so the Radicals, representing the better elements of British society, desired to make India a part of the modern progressive world of science and humanism.
The humanism of these men was aroused by the social injustice of such institutions as the caste system and untouchability, such customs as Sati and infanticide, and the low status of women. Their scientific minds were also outraged by the many superstitious minds of the Indian people and by the complete absence of the scientific outlook in the country. To them, the answer to India’s ills appeared to lie in the introduction of modern Western education. The Radicals got an opportunity to influence Indian politics through James Mill, one of the leading Radical philosophers of England, who came to occupy a very important position in the service of the East India Company and William Bentinck, a Radical who became the Governor-General of India in 1829. Also, some of the officials who came to India in the 1820s and ’30s were deeply influenced by the Radical outlook. Moreover, the reforming Whigs were in power in England after 1830.
It must, however, be emphasised at this stage that such honest and philanthropic Englishmen were few and that their influence was never decisive so far as the British administration of India was concerned which continued to be imperialistic and exploitative. They would accept new ideas and adopt reformist measures only if, and to the extent that, they did not come into conflict with their commercial interests.
The basic dilemma before the British administrators in India was that while British interests in India could not be served without some modernisation, full modernisation would generate forces of reaction which would go against their interests and would, in the long run, endanger British supremacy in the country. They had, therefore, to follow a delicately balanced policy of partial modernisation, that is, a policy of introducing modernisation in some respects and blocking and preventing it in other respects.
The policy of modernising Indian society was also encouraged by the Christian missionaries who wanted to spread Christianity in India. They too adopted a critical attitude towards Indian society but on religious grounds. They believed that Christianity was the true religion and that all other religions were false. They supported modernisation in the hope that it would eventually lead to the country’s conversion to Christianity. They, therefore, opened modern schools, colleges, and hospitals in the country. The missionaries also supported the imperialistic policies since they looked upon law and order and British supremacy as essential for their work of proselytisation. They also sought the support of British merchants and manufacturers by holding out the hope that Christian converts would be better customers of their goods.
The Radicals were given strong support by Raja Ram Mohan Roy and other like-minded Indians, who were conscious of the decay which had set in Indian society, who were sick of caste prejudices and other social evils, and who believed that the salvation of India lay in science and humanism.
The British followed a policy of partial modernisation as they fully anticipated a reaction in case of a policy of full-scale modernisation. Even the Radicals paid heed to this warning for, along with the other members of the British governing classes, they too desired most of all the safety and perpetuation of British rule in India. Every other consideration was of secondary importance. As a matter of fact, the policy of modernisation was gradually abandoned after 1858 as Indians shifted rapidly towards modernisation of their society and assertion of their culture, and demanded to be ruled in accordance with the modern principles of liberty, equality and nationality.
The official British efforts at reforming Indian society of its abuses were on the whole meagre and, therefore, bore little fruit. Their biggest achievement was the outlawing of the practice of Sati in 1829 when William Bentinck made it a crime to be associated with it. Earlier the British rulers had been apathetic and afraid of arousing the anger of the orthodox Indians by abolishing sati. It took this radical step only after Ram Mohan Roy and other enlightened Indians agitated persistently for the abolition of this monstrous custom.
Female infanticide was prohibited and sternly enforced by Bentinck and Hardinge. Hardinge also suppressed the practice of human sacrifices that had prevailed among the primitive tribe of Gonds.
In 1856, the Government legalised widow re-marriage after Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and other reformers had carried on a prolonged agitation in favour of the measure. All these official reforms touched only the fringes of the Indian social system and did not affect the life of the vast majority of the people as it was difficult to enforce them in a vast country.