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Alexandrina Victoria, bettwr known as Queen Victoria, was the queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and monarch of the British Empire, for most of the 19th century. Her reign constituted the Victorian Era, a period of industrial, cultural and political change, as well as a great time for scientific development, lierature and physlosophy, marked for the expansion of the Empire. However, the Victorian Era was also marked for a tremendous inequality among the british and between the british and the people of the colonies.

On that context and after a complicate and strange succesion process, Victoria became Queen and strarted to live in the Buckingham Palace. On 1840 she married Prince Albert of Saxe-Couburg and Gotha, who would be one of the greatest moral, emotional and actions supporters that the Queen would have. The couple wanted to be perceived as a standard and example of what a British couple should be. Victoria, depsite being a determined women, always tried to look calmed and acted with a lot of self-control in public, at the time she encouraged a high moral way of life. Yet, she also showed concern for its people and tried to get close to them and help those in need. She became patron of over 100 institutions, including dozens of charities, while Albert was known for supporting the development of education and museums. They made civic visits to industrial towns and attended military reviews to support the armed forces. Aditionally, during her reign many social reforms aiming to improve the ocnditions of people in need were approved (even if she wasn't necessary involved on the creation of those laws, she approved them).

Those actions shows that Queen Victoria tried to be a monarch close to the people and who was concerned about those in need. It is unclear how much did she actually care about her citizens or, unlikely, if everything was part of a political strategy, yet it is undeniable that Victoria presented herself as benevolent ruler who look for her citizens and that her actions had an actual impact on how the value of individuals was perceived by society and the british government.

Sources:

Bates, S. (2014). Queen Victoria also pleaded poverty. But these days [arliament bites back. The Guardian, website: Queen Victoria also pleaded poverty. But these days parliament bites back | Stephen Bates | The Guardian

BBC teach. Queen Victoria: The woman who redefined Britain's monarchy. BBC, website: Queen Victoria: The woman who redefined Britain’s monarchy - BBC Bitesize

Hibbert, C. (2000). Queen Victoria: A Personal History. London: Harper Collins.

Image of Public Domain.

During Victorian Era, the British crown gain direct control over India, in what would be called the "British raj". Since the 18th century, parts of what nowadays are India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, were administered by the East India Company (a British company), but after years of distrust and dissatisfaction, which led to a violent uprising in 1857, the company started to loose control over the subcontinent. The political, social and economical consequences of this caused the abolishment of the East India Company and the transfer of rule to the British government and the Crown. With that India would fully become part of the empire, and Queen Victoria herself would be proclaimed Empress of India in 1876.

But this didn't went without controversy. Complains and denounces of abuses by the colonial authorities were common even before the start of the Raj, and many times the critics came from British themselves. Many authors, thinkers, political and authorities, publicly criticize the colonial rule and the abuses against the local populations. A well-known case is the novel "War of the Worlds", fromt he writer and society' critic, H.G. Wells, who knew and witnessed those abuses first hand, something that inspire him to write his novel in which "a foreign power" came to England and start to conquered it.

The division of opinions about colonialism on India, remain relevant during most of the Raj and after it. There were many positions about the rule over India, which let us see how there were many ways in which people were valued for the British. There were those who saw Indians as less and that justify the rule over them (and sometimes the abuses), with the idea that it was British' duty to help them to be better. Other people considered them as less, but were against the abuses and the rule those sutained. Other positions were those that considered that India was a burden for the empire, other that considerates Indians a equally humans but different from the British (some of those wanted them to be apart of the British) and others that thought that Indians should be equals with the native British. Those are just some of the positions, yet it let us see that in general terms, either conciously or not, most British had a feeling of superiority and thought of the Indians with condescendence. Either way, this an example of how the value that society give to a same colelctive or the individuals of it may vary a lot depending on who you ask.

Sources:

Kaul, C. (2011). From Empire to Independence: The British Raj in India 1858-1947. BBC History.

Steinback, S. (2012). Understanding the Victorians: Politics, Culture and Society in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Routledge: London & New York.

Wolpert, S. (2025). British Raj. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Website: British raj | Imperialism, Impact, History, & Facts | Britannica

Image of Public Domain, from the Edinburgh Geographical Institute.