The British Raj in India

The British Raj is the name given to the period of British colonial rule in India between 1858 and 1947, after the fall of Mughal Empire. It started when the European acquire Asian trading, but over time, the acquisition of territory grew in importance. Britain had been trading in India since about 1600. During the Mogul emperor Jahangir, the East India Company was able to establish operations in India, where they traded cotton, silk, tea and opium. By 1700s, The East India Company established its own army in India, which was composed of British troops as well as native soldiers called “Sepoys”. In the 1800s English power expanded in India. The British rule in India became known as "The Raj," which was derived from the Sanskrit term ‘raja’ meaning king. During the period under the British control, there were many rivals of the Indian against the British commanders, for example, “The Indian Rebellion of 1857”, which was also called the ‘Great rebellion’, was a turning point in the history of Britain in India. There were a number of other underlying causes for the rebellion. Many Indians were distressed by the rapid cultural changes imposed by the British. They worried that Hindu and Muslim India would be "Christianized." Resentment toward the British had been building for some time, and new policies, which allowed the British to annex some areas of India, exacerbated tensions However, the rivals had to surrender to the British power because of superior weaponry. In 1858 which is the beginning of the raj, the system of governance was instituted when the rule of the British East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria (and who in 1877 was proclaimed Empress of India). It lasted until 1947, when the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two sovereign dominion states: the Republic of India, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the eastern half of which, still later, became the People's Republic of Bangladesh.

Architecture of the British Raj

In December 1911, the British announced that India’s capital, then in Calcutta, would return to Delhi where a new city would be built. Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, the English architects were assigned by Jawaharan Nehru, the first president of India after the independence to design the new city. They designed a grand capital in ‘imperial style’, spacious, symmetrical, with a few elements of Indian architecture. Buildings under the British Raj tended to emulate Roman styles with the addition of Mughal type commonly known as the 'Indo-Saracenic’, which composed of i.e. surface decoration, and arched gateways. The last legacy of the Raj includes imposing government buildings, such as Rashtrapati Bhavan, the ceremonial Rajpath, India Gate and the vast crescent of Connaught Place. The architecture of the British Raj was enduring and represented a means of ensuring that Indians were aware of British power and supremacy.