The English East India Company was founded at the end of 1600, and its primary purpose was a trading company. It expanded rapidly between 1660 and 1700, and in the late 18th century began to colonise the Indian subcontinent. 

In 1757, the East India Company (EIC) defeated the Nawab (equivalent to prince) of Bengal at the Battle of Plassey. Following this victory, the EIC annexed land from Bengal and began to build its army in India. The EIC began to take over the administration of large parts of India, with British communities established around Bombay (now Mumbai), Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Madras (now Chennai). The EIC forced Indian rulers to pay for its troops or otherwise seized their land and rapidly expanded its reach across India between 1783 and 1818. The EIC exploited the labour and resources of people in the Indian subcontinent for profit. From the mid-1830s the EIC introduced new land and tax systems, with civil law and administration and higher education all modelled on English lines.

With the growth of the EIC in India, British administrators, educators and lawyers took up jobs in India. During the 17th and 18th century, the EIC encouraged employees to closely engage with Indian culture and languages, and to intermarry. This created dual-heritage families in India. Some Indian wives accompanied their husbands back to Britain. William Palmer (1740–1816) rose through the ranks of the East India Company to the role of military secretary to the governor-general, Warren Hastings (1732–1818). Palmer married Begum Fyze Baksh (?–1828), a member of the royal family of Oudh. Their descendent Edward Palmer eventually founded Veeraswamy’s restaurant. 

In 1858, following rebellions in India in 1857 against EIC rule, the British Crown took over control of India from the East India Company. The governance of India was now directly under the control of Parliament. A proclamation announcing these changes was issued on 1 November 1858, addressed to ‘the princes, chiefs and people of India’. The East India Company was formally dissolved by an Act of Parliament in 1874. 

Queen Victoria as Empress of India and Adbul Karim

In 1876 Queen Victoria took on the role of Empress of India. On 1 January 1877, a lavish celebration was held in Delhi to mark this occasion, highlighting the grandeur and importance of India as an imperial possession. Indians were involved in further celebrations of Queen Victoria’s reign. To celebrate her Golden Jubilee in 1887, Indian princes were invited to attend the ceremony at Westminster Abbey and dinner at Buckingham Palace. An Indian cavalry also escorted Victoria on her jubilee.

Several exhibitions were held in Britain to celebrate the wealth and power of the Empire and to promote imperial propaganda to the British public. They featured materials and people from the Indian subcontinent. In 1886, the Colonial and Indian Exhibition held in South Kensington, London, was dominated by an Indian Court which took up roughly one third of the exhibition space. The exhibition included art, architecture, economic goods and textiles, as well as a display of 'native artisans' – 34 men from Agra demonstrating various crafts and professions, from sweetmeat maker to potter to carpet weaver. These men were in fact inmates from Agra Jail who had arrived in Britain on 20 April 1886 with Dr J W Tyler, the jail superintendent. They were all invited to a reception at Windsor Castle to meet Queen Victoria in July 1886. 

In 1895, the Empire of India Exhibition was held at Earl’s Court, London. Once again, alongside material goods, the exhibition included ‘native craftsmen’ from India. The display of people as exhibits played into exoticising stereotypes about people from the Indian subcontinent and was an example of the ‘paternalism’ of Empire where Indians were given very little voice but were silent display objects. A follow up, the 1896 India and Ceylon Exhibition, included a Bombay Theatre of Varieties with performers such as a yogi (yoga practitioner). 

Anti-colonialism and Home Rule for India 

Across the 19th century, anti-colonial organising and activity gathered pace in Britain and India. In 1885, the Indian National Congress held its first meeting in Bombay (now Mumbai). Congress, as it is known, was a political party that was interested in reform of the political structures in India that saw British Crown control over Indians. They wanted more political representation by Indians and eventually became one of the major parties calling for Indian independence. The Home Rule for India League set up in 1916 by Annie Besant (1847– 1933) was modelled on the Irish Home Rule League and was renamed the India League in 1928. The India League was an important campaigning body in Britain for Indian independence. Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949) was president of the 1925 session of Congress. She was a poet and politician, who worked with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948) and was a vocal supporter of Indian independence. She recited a poem, ‘Awake (to India)’ at the Indian National Congress, in Bombay (now Mumbai), in December 1915.  

Sarojini Naidu’s poem ‘Awake (Invocation to India, Her Children Speak)’ was recorded in Britain in circa December 1931. Across 1930 to 1932, three Round Table Conferences were held in London between Indian and British representatives to discuss the political future of India. Naidu and M K Gandhi attended these alongside Indian princes and politicians. King-Emperor George V inaugurated the first Round Table Conference in the Royal Gallery of the Palace of Westminster. The recommendations of the Conferences led to the 1935 Government of India Act, which partially reorganised the political structures of British India and introduced direct elections. 

Indian nationalists continued to campaign for Indian independence after 1935. The India League, which was based in Britain, continued to engage with meetings and collaborations to lobby British politicians and the British public for their support. V K Krishna Menon (1896–1974) was the driving force behind the India League and by the 1940s it had branches in the East End of London and the Midlands. Dhani Prem (1904–1979) was a member of the Birmingham Indian Association and the Midlands India League, with connections to the Birmingham Borough Labour Party and Indian Workers’ Association. These political connections were important in acting as a link between Britain’s growing South Asian communities who were campaigning for their own rights within Britain and the ongoing struggle for independence from the British Empire. By 1942, with the Second World War ongoing, the hypocrisies of fighting German imperialism became stark for Indians. The ‘Quit India’ movement in India and the activities of campaigners in Britain added to the urgency of the fight for independence. 

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Credit: Remaking Britain team (Rehana Ahmed, Aleena Din, Sumita Mukherjee, Susheila Nasta, Maya Parmar, Florian Stadtler, Rozina Visram).