A map of the Indian subcontinent showing British Expansion between 1805 and 1910.A map of the British Indian Empire in 1909, showing British India in two shades of pink (coral and pale) and the princely states in yellow.
British India is the term used to describe the territory on the Indian subcontinent that was under the tenancy or the sovereignty of either the English East India Company or the British Crown between 1612 and 1947; the term has also been used as a shortened form for "the Britishnation in India."[1] The East India Company established its first permanent factory in India in 1612. For the next century and a half the Company functioned primarily as a trading company, establishing trading posts with the permission of the Mughal emperor of India and competing for business with other European trading companies.[2] However, after its victory in the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the Company gradually began to formally administer its expanding dominions.[3] By the early 19th century, the East India Company had become the paramount political and military power on the subcontinent, its territory held in trust for the British Crown.[4]
Company rule in India, however, ended in 1858 following the events of the Indian rebellion of 1857.[4] India was thereafter directly ruled by the British Crown as a colony of the United Kingdom, and officially known after 1876 as the Empire of India.[5] India consisted of regions referred to as British India that were directly administered by the British,[6] and other regions, the Princely States,[7] that were ruled by Indian rulers. These rulers were allowed a measure of internal autonomy in exchange for British suzerainty. British India constituted a significant portion of India both in area and population; in 1910, for example, it covered approximately 54% of the area and included over 77% of the population.[8] In addition, there were Portuguese and Frenchexclaves in India. Independence from British rule was achieved in 1947 with the formation of the Dominions of India and Pakistan, the latter also including present-day Bangladesh.
The term British India also applied to Burma (present-day Myanmar) for a shorter time period: starting in 1824, a small part of Burma, and by 1886, almost two thirds of Burma had come under British India.[6] This arrangement lasted until 1937, when Burma commenced being administered as a separate British colony. British India did not apply to other countries in the region, such as Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), which was a British Crown Colony, or the Maldive Islands, which were a British protectorate. At its greatest extent, in the early 20th-century, the territory of British India (shown in the second map in two shades of pink) extended as far as the frontiers of Persia in the west; Afghanistan in the northwest; Tibet in the northeast; and China, French Indo-China and Siam in the east. It also included the Colony of Aden in the Persian Gulf.[9]
^Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. IV 1908, p. 5 Quote: "The history of British India falls ... into three periods. From the beginning of the seventeenth to the middle of the eighteenth century the East India Company is a trading corporation, existing on the sufferance of the native powers, and in rivalry with the merchant companies of Holland and France. During the next century the Company acquires and consolidates its dominion, shares its sovereignty in increasing proportions with the Crown, and gradually loses its mercantile privileges and functions. After the Mutiny of 1857, the remaining powers of the Company are transferred to the Crown ..." (p. 5)
Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. II (1908), The Indian Empire, Historical, Published under the authority of His Majesty's Secretary of State for India in Council, Oxford at the Clarendon Press. Pp. xxxv, 1 map, 573.
Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. IV (1908), The Indian Empire, Administrative, Published under the authority of His Majesty's Secretary of State for India in Council, Oxford at the Clarendon Press. Pp. xxx, 1 map, 552.
Copland, Ian (2001), India 1885-1947: The Unmaking of an Empire (Seminar Studies in History Series), Harlow and London: Pearson Longmans. Pp. 160, ISBN0582381738.
Majumdar, R. C.; Raychaudhuri, H. C.; Datta, Kalikinkar (1950), An Advanced History of India, London: Macmillan and Company Limited. 2nd edition. Pp. xiii, 1122, 7 maps, 5 coloured maps. {{citation}}: Text "authorlink1" ignored (help).
Peers, Douglas M. (2006), India under Colonial Rule 1700-1885, Harlow and London: Pearson Longmans. Pp. xvi, 163, ISBN058231738{{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help).
Sarkar, Sumit (1983), Modern India: 1885-1947, Delhi: Macmillan India Ltd. Pp. xiv, 486, ISBN0333904257.
Smith, Vincent A. (1921), India in the British Period: Being Part III of the Oxford History of India, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press. 2nd edition. Pp. xxiv, 316 (469-784) {{citation}}: Text "authorlink1" ignored (help).
24Claimed in 1908; territory formed 1962; overlaps portions of Argentine and Chilean claims, borders not enforced but claim not renounced under the Antarctic Treaty.
