V. The Modern Period, 1789–1914 > D. South and Southeast Asia, 1753–1914 > 1. India, 1800–1914 > 1878–81
  PREVIOUS NEXT  
CONTENTS · SUBJECT INDEX · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
  The Encyclopedia of World History.  2001.
 
 
1878–81
 
The SECOND ANGLO-AFGHAN WAR, provoked by Lytton, led to his recall, increased the public debt, but established British control over Afghanistan's foreign relations.  1
 
1880–84
 
LORD RIPON, viceroy, a Gladstonian liberal, introduced local self-government, but fierce opposition by British residents in India defeated the Ilbert Bill (1883) by which Indian judges in outlying areas could try Europeans. These developments spurred the growth of nationalist sentiment. Concurrently the spread of higher education, the rise of the daily press, and the ease of travel created by the railway network facilitated the establishment of regional and all-India associations by the English-speaking middle class: Indian Association (1876), Poona Sarvajanik Sabha (1876), National Conference (1883), Madras Mahajana Sabha (1884), and Bombay Presidency Association (1885), many of whose leaders joined in founding the Indian National Congress.  2
 
1885, Dec. 27
 
The INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS met for the first time, led by A. O. Hume. At successive annual meetings (held at different cities in the last week of each year), the congress demanded expansion and reform of the legislative councils and more rapid Indianization of the civil service. Sayyid Ahmad Khan, fearing Hindu domination of representative institutions, led conservative Muslim opposition to the congress, organizing the Muslim Education Conference (meeting annually from 1887), the Indian Patriotic Association (1888), and the Upper India Muslim Defence Association (1893). The viceroy, Lord Dufferin (1884–88), originally encouraging, grew cooler to the congress as its agitation assumed a more aggressive character.  3
 
1885–86
 
Third Anglo-Burmese War ended in annexation of Upper Burma.  4
 
1888–94
 
Lord Lansdowne, viceroy, was followed by Lord Elgin (1894–98).  5
 
1891
 
Riot in Banaras typified both resistance to new technology and the “traditionalistic” idiom in which this resistance came to be expressed. Ostensibly provoked by the local administration's decision to let a temple collapse as a new waterworks plant was constructed, the rioting crowd attacked not only the waterworks station (emblematic of the health and public works ethos versus traditionalistic understandings of the purity of water in the sacred pilgrimage site of Banaras), but also the railway station, the telegraph lines, and other forms of new technology.  6
 
1892
 
Dadabhai Naoroji, Parsi business and political leader resident in England, was elected to Parliament on the Liberal ticket. His example of selfless service to India inspired many younger compatriots (notably Mohandas K. Gandhi and Mohammad A. Jinnah) during their visits to London.  7
Legislative councils were enlarged and their powers increased. The provision that the nonofficial (European and Indian) members were to be nominated by local bodies gave tacit recognition to the principle of election.  8
 
1893
 
The Durand Line demarcated by mutual agreement the border between India and Afghanistan, but bisected the area inhabited by the Pathan tribes.  9
In this same year the Bengali Swami Vivekananda, a disciple of the mystic Sri Ramakrishna, became a hero in India by his well-received speeches at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago; Mrs. Annie Besant arrived at Madras to take charge of the growing Theosophist movement; and in the Punjab Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was attracting a growing following (later known as the Ahmadiyas) by his claims to prophethood. Anti-Christian sentiment and its corollaries, Hindu and Muslim revivalism, grew more pronounced from this time onward, all contributing to the increasingly popular character of the nationalist movement.  10
Cow Protection Movement represented the first successful political effort to link north Indian city and countryside in the same ideological movement. Focused on protection of the cow (symbol of sacred rites common among many kinds and classes of Hindus, but often used by Muslims as a sacrificial animal), this movement rested on itinerant preachers and money-collecting networks that knit together villages and cities throughout the Ganges plain. The movement was suppressed only when British administrators, alarmed by the massing of 5,000–6,000 people in various locales in the countryside, put extraordinary pressure on “natural leaders” to keep order.  11
 
April
 
British administrators became alarmed at representations of political figures carried in processions connected to religious and civic ceremonials, including those of Tilak, Gokhale, Lala Lajput Rai—but also the Rani of Jhansi (a heroine in the mutiny and uprising of 1857) and “Bande Mataram” (Mother India).  12
 
 
 
The Encyclopedia of World History, Sixth edition. Peter N. Stearns, general editor. Copyright © 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Maps by Mary Reilly, copyright © 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS · SUBJECT INDEX · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
  PREVIOUS NEXT