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| 1845–48 |
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| FIRST AND SECOND ANGLO-SIKH WARS, arising from disorders after Ranjit Singh's death (1839), led to annexation of the Punjab, modernization of its government, and permanent loyalty of the Sikhs. Kashmir was sold (1846) to a Hindu chieftain who accepted British paramountcy. | 1 |
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| 1848–56 |
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| LORD DALHOUSIE, the governor-general, accelerated pub-lic works, developing roads, irrigation canals, and railways (first line opened, 1853), introducing telegraph service (Calcutta-Agra line opened, 1854), and fixing uniform postal rates. | 2 |
| Dalhousie adhered consistently to the doctrine of lapse (disavowed, 1859), whereby dependent states with no heirs in the ruling line fell to the paramount power; seven principalities were annexed in this manner. | 3 |
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| 1851 |
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| British Indian Association was founded in Calcutta to press for administrative and political reforms in the forthcoming renewal of the company's charter. It had branches in Madras and Avadh (Oudh) and Debendranath Tagore, the Brahmo Samaj leader, as secretary. The Bombay Association (1852), under Parsi leadership, had similar aims but was short-lived. | 4 |
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| 1853 |
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| Company's charter renewed. | 5 |
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| 1854 |
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| Education dispatch of Sir Charles Wood, president of the Board of Control, laid down the pattern for future government-aided expansion of elementary and secondary schools, and affiliating universities (founded in 1857 at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay). | 6 |
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| 1855 |
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| The first Indian cotton textile mill was established in Bombay, marking the beginning of a strategy of substituting Indian goods for industrial imports. | 7 |
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| 1856 |
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| Annexation of Avadh (Oudh), on grounds of misgovernment, aroused deep resentment, especially among the 40,000 Avadhi sepoys in the Bengal army. | 8 |
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| 1856–62 |
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| EARL CANNING, governor-general and (from 1858) first viceroy, was confronted by a short war with Persia (1856–57). | 9 |
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| 1857–58 |
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| REBELLION occurred in northern India, comprising mutinies (beginning at Meerut, May 10) by sepoy troops, popular uprisings, and scattered revolts by Hindu and Muslim chiefs seeking restoration of canceled privileges. The recapture of Delhi by loyal forces from the Punjab (Sept. 20) marked the turning of the tide, but three expeditions were required to retake Lucknow (March 5, 1858), and guerrilla warfare continued for some months. Although British losses were small, the memory of atrocities committed by both sides (notably the massacre of 211 British women and children at Cawnpore, July 15, 1857) embittered social relations between Indians and Europeans for the next 90 years. The last of the Mughal rulers, Bahadur Shah II, having been declared emperor of India by the Delhi rebels, was deposed, tried, and exiled. He died in Rangoon (1862). | 10 |
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| 1858, Aug. 2 |
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| By the GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT, Parliament transferred the government of India from the East India Company (dissolved, 1874) to the Crown. The governor-general received the additional title of viceroy and was made directly responsible to the secretary of state for India in the British cabinet. | 11 |
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| Nov. 1 |
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| Proclamation by the queen renounced the policy of annexation of princely states, promised noninterference in religious belief or worship, and opened higher administrative offices to qualified Indians. | 12 |
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