British Indian Acts after 1784 ( OLevel Pakistan studies)

 Q. How did British Acts and agreements helped them to establish their rule over the subcontinent during 1784 onwards? 

1. According to the Pitts India Act of 1784 the British government took over control of the sub-continent from the East India Company (EIC). Now the British official government had intervened and measures were made to ensure the proper governance according to the British rules and policies in order to confirm that the local Indians submitted their taxes to the British and had become the subjects/ colony of the Queen's (England) rule.
   In 1782 the first treaty was signed with the Marathas ending the British Maratha war and by 1803, the Marathas were defeated to accept that they were now ruling under the British control.
   In 1799, the main war of Sarangapatam was fought against the Tipu sultan the Tiger of Mysore. Tipu Sultan believed that in order to fight the British he had to match the weaponry. Hence it is said that he had 100 cannons, 10000 cannon balls, 10 muskets as well as guns. His army was also trained properly and moreover, he was a brave warrior himself determined to fight the British and oust them out of the sub-continent. However the British were technologically much more advanced being gone through industrial revolution and their army was also much more experienced in fighting wars hence, Tipu Sultan was martyred due to the tricery of his own general Mir Sadiq(the Ghadar) who was bribed by the British.
   Another fierce fighter was Syed Mir Nisar who had raised an army of 15,000 men and was fighting from a fort at Narkal baria and was able to defeat the British forces but heavy weapons and disciplined British army were sent to destroy local forces of Mir Nisar. He lost his life while fighting the freedom war.
   In 1757, the British also fought the Battle of Plassey with the Nawab of Bengal Siraj-ud-daulah however, Siraj-ud-daulah had lost the war due to the treachery of his key man Mir Jafar. Nawab was martyred and his province went under British East India company. Afterwards British government took over the control.
   In 1764 the Battle of Buxar was fought in which Mir Qasim joined forces with Shah Alam and Nawab of Oudh to oust the British out of the sub-continent however, they had terribly failed as the British forces were trained so they defeated them easily. Hence, it is clear that same wars were won by bribing the opponent army.
   By 1855, Delhi was also borought under British control and Ranjit Singh of Punjab was also siding with the British.
   British wanted to take Afghanistan to expand area under their own rule and hoped that Ranjit Singh would help to make a supportive ruler in Kabul too. However Ranjit refused and the British were forced to act on their own. However a tragedy took place when all the forces of British were killed in a fire deliberately letting only one person to escape to tell the story.
   Ashamed, by this the British provoked the Sindhis and giving them excuse that they first wanted to attack on British residency took Sindh under the British rule as well. It was proved later as a conspiracy of General Napier to provoke Sindhies and later making an excuse to control Sindh under British rule.
   By 1839, the Ranjit Singh also had died and the Sikhs feared of the British expansion at this point the war between Sikh freedom fighters and British was inevitable. Finally when the Battle of Aliwal took place it brought Punjab under the British rule as well. Gulab Singh Dogra was made ruler of Kashmir for his help in putting the Punjab under British control. Shortly, afterwards the NWFP was also brought under British control.
   Hence it can be clearly seen that the main reason the British were able to expand beyond Bengal was due to the British weaponry power and disciplined fighting techniques. They were much more experienced, educated, trained and had better weapons as well due to which they consider themselves as superior. They know that they would win against the Indians because they had confidence over their expertise and .Click Here