British Raj

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Raj, British A term derived from the Sanskrit word raja (king), it denotes the British Empire of India. Its beginnings date back to the foundation of the British East India Company in 1600, though the Raj was not formally established until the subcontinent had come under British control in its entirety in 1858, and Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India in 1877. British control over the directly ruled territories (about three-fifths of the total area) was exercised by a Secretary of State in the British Cabinet and a viceroy in India. The administration was staffed by the Indian Civil Service, which in later years was gradually opened to Indians, although Europeans and Indians remained socially separate. In addition there were in India some 700 princely states, bound by treaty to the Crown, in which the princes preserved control over domestic affairs. There was a large British army garrison, together with the Indian army, with British officers in controlling positions until the 1920s and recruited from British and Indian ranks. Supported by an army of 175,000 men (most of whom were Indian), the Raj could only exist in a country with 450 million people with popular cooperation. As this began to diminish with the campaigns of Gandhi, the position of the Raj was steadily weakened from the 1920s, and it became increasingly clear that the status quo could not be maintained.

British Raj (Hindi, ‘rule’) The British government in India, particularly during the period from 1858 to 1947. Created gradually and haphazardly as a by-product of the EAST INDIA COMPANY's trading objectives, the Raj's heyday was the half-century following the INDIAN MUTINY (1857), which had abruptly ended Company rule. It was an age of IMPERIALISM, symbolized by the proclamation of Queen Victoria as Empress of India (January 1877), and the viceroyalty of Lord CURZON (1899–1905) over an empire ‘on which the Sun never sets’. The Indian National CONGRESS, which initiated nationalist criticism of the Raj, and eventually succeeded it, was founded in 1885. The Raj ended in 1947 when Britain transferred power to the new states of India and Pakistan. British personnel withdrew, but Western modes of thought, especially through the educational system and the army, have made a continuing contribution to the character and administration of the independent countries (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) of the subcontinent.