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Class 8 The Colonial Era in India: cheat sheet
CBSE Social Science. How European traders came to India and the British gained control: Plassey, subsidiary alliances and the Doctrine of Lapse, land revenue, railways, textiles, uprisings and 1857.
Key ideas
- Colonialism is one country taking control of another region and imposing its political, economic and cultural systems.
- The Portuguese, Dutch, French and British came as traders and set up bases along the coasts.
- After the Battle of Plassey (1757), the British East India Company gained power in Bengal.
- Under a subsidiary alliance, a ruler paid for British troops and dealt with other states only through the British.
- The Doctrine of Lapse annexed a state whose ruler died without a natural male heir.
- The Permanent Settlement (Bengal, 1793) fixed land revenue for ever, collected through zamindars.
- Indian cloth was taxed heavily in Britain while British goods entered India cheaply, and many weavers lost their work.
- There were many uprisings, such as the Santhal Rebellion and the Indigo Revolt; after 1857 India was ruled by the British Crown.
Remember
| Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut | 1498 |
| European bases | Portuguese: Goa; French: Pondicherry; British: Madras, Bombay, Calcutta |
| Battle of Colachel | 1741: Travancore defeated the Dutch |
| Battle of Plassey | 1757 |
| Macaulay’s Minute on education | 1835 |
| Santhal Rebellion / Indigo Revolt | 1855–56 (Sidhu and Kanhu) / 1859–62 |
| Crown rule begins | 1858, after the Great Rebellion of 1857 |
Watch out
- Mixing up the subsidiary alliance and the Doctrine of Lapse.
- Mixing up the European bases: Goa was Portuguese, Pondicherry French.
- Getting the order wrong: Plassey (1757) came a century before 1857.
Worked example
How many years passed from the Battle of Plassey (1757) to 1919? From the start of Crown rule (1858)?
Working: 1919 − 1757; 1919 − 1858
Answer: 162 years; 61 years
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