THE BRITISH MAKEOVER OF INDIA: Judicial and Other Indigenous Institutions Upturned

Early officials of the East India Company were surprised to discover that indigenous institutions of judicial redress had survived in a surprisingly good state during the centuries of “Tartar” rule. They noted that those institutions had largely remained beyond the purview of the medieval state, and had well served the needs of the populace. Subsequently, Company-men observed the functioning of indigenous judicial institutions in the areas under their control and cautioned against any transplantation from Britain.

The eighteenth-century reverence for indigenous institutions was overturned in the mid-nineteenth century when a marked change in the British attitude became perceptible. The earlier appreciation gave way to censure. The transformation could be attributed to mounting self-confidence following a series of military successes in India, and triumph over Napoleonic France by 1815.

Among other factors that turned the tide against India was the advent of the Scientific Revolution. As a result, a racist element entered the British perception of India. A view gained currency that human progress was closely linked to the biological traits of people. The shape of the skull determined the size of the brain, and hence, the degree of human intelligence. Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) was used to justify Europe’s triumph in Africa and Asia; it was the natural dominance of superior white men over inferior races.

As the notion of race increasingly gained currency, there was a noticeable decline in the admiration for Indian culture. India began to be seen as a land of the past that needed to be reformed. The policy of non-interference with Indian traditions, a British byword in the eighteenth century, was abandoned in favour of change through the initiation of British institutions and values.