The impact of British Rule on the Indian Muslim Community in the nineteenth Century

Abstract

Upon taking the reins of power in the South Asian Sub-continent, the East India Company officials, being aware of how sensitive Indians were of their socio-cultural traditions, adopted a policy of "non-interference" and kept aloof from all matters related to the socio-cultural and religious affairs of the local inhabitants. Instead, they busied themselves with the economic exploitation of the country, the objective for which they had come to the region.Nevertheless, following a vociferous clamour and pressure from the Christian missionaries who regarded the Indian people as "primitive" and "benighted", and who felt duty bound to "civilize" them, the British Government in London forced the East India Company in 1813 to forsake its, hitherto privileged, "no-interference policy" and give the evangelical movement unrestricted access to the country as an essential precondition for the renewal of the charter.Thus, upon setting foot in the Sub-continent, the missionaries, and even some British reform-minded officials, embarked on the process of reforming, as well as westernizing, the Indian society. Although some of the reforms being introduced were, when looked at objectively, positive, they were always despised by the native Indians. Indeed, this brought about a widespread malaise among the natives who interpreted the Company's actions as part of a scheme to forcefully convert them to Christianity. Thus, the task of this paper is to set out this socio-cultural malaise.