Start of British Raj

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.