Then Came Lord Curzon

The Empire was expanding and India was gradually becoming one unit. Dalhousie's ‘Doctrine of Lapse’ was used to annex a number of small States that were ‘misgoverned’ according to the British. States like Satara, Sambalpur, Udaipur, Jaipur, Jhansi, Nagpur, and Oudh were annexed and confiscated. Many Indian rulers like the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Nawab of Carnatic, the Raja of Tanjore and others became only figureheads. By the end of the eighteenth century, the British were able to bring the entire subcontinent under their control. Many administrative and social reforms were imposed to civilize the ‘ignorant and apathetic’ Hindus. These annexations, social reforms, educational reforms and scientific innovations introduced from the West had their repercussions.

On the one hand, the use of English in India brought a different kind of awareness to the minds of urban Indians. The British Empire was getting established more and more not only as a territorial empire but also in the minds of men as a result of Western education and the English language. It was the Empire of the language through education. The establishment of universities in cities like Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Lahore, Allahabad and Punjab was a clear indication of this ‘linguistic and cultural empire’.

In fact there was a lurking fear back in England that the spread of Western education and the English language among the Indians might make them challenge the alien rule.