The History and Culture of the Indian People: Volume 9: British Paramountcy and Indian Renaissance Part I

The History and Culture of the Indian People #9

by R.C. Majumdar

This volume deals with the political history and economic condition of India from 1818 to 1905. It describes the nature of British rule in India for nearly a century afgter the British had become dominant political power. It is not a mere chronicle of events nor a kind of Gazetteer giving meticulous details of administration. It is a broad review of the British rule, bringing out its two main characteristics, namely the establishment of paramount authority all over India and the creation of a framework of all-India administration such as India probably never knew before. It also seeks to draw in true colour the colonial imperialism and the economic exploitation which formed the real background of British rule in India in the nineteenth century. IN these respects this volume breaks an altogether new ground, as will be evident from a comparison with V.A. Smith's Oxford History of India or the Cambridge History of India, volumes V and VI, which are now regarded as standard authorities on the subject. These two books were written mainly with a view to defend British Imperialim in India and look at India purely from the standpoint of British officials and statemen. The comprehensive Cambridge History of India is the last great historical work on India written by Englishmen. Difference in spirit even from the old English historians of British India, it has put forth only the official or imperial view of British transactions in India, without any attempt to discuss the dissentient views. It suppresses truth in many cases where the preservation of good name for the British rulers requires it; worse still, it repeats theofficial calumny against Indian rulers concocted by the British Government of the day in order to justify their unjust action against them, though a little inquiry would have sufficed, to demonstrate the totally unreliable character of the evidence on which the statements of the Government of India were based.

Genres: History

1206 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2002

About the author

Ramesh Chandra Majumdar (known as R. C. Majumdar; 4 December 1888 – 11 February 1980) was a historian and professor of Indian history.

Born at Khandarpara, in Faridpur District (now in Bangladesh) on 4 December 1888, to Haladhar Majumdar and Bidhumukhi, Majumdar passed his childhood in poverty. In 1905, he passed his Entrance Examination from Ravenshaw College, Cuttack. In 1907, he passed F.A. with first class scholarship from Ripon College (now Surendranath College) and joined Presidency College, Calcutta. Graduating in B.A.(Honours) in 1909 and MA from Calcutta University in 1911, he won the Premchand Roychand scholarship from the University of Calcutta for his research work in 1913.

Majumdar started his teaching career as a lecturer at Dacca Government Training College. Since 1914, he spent seven years as a professor of history at the University of Calcutta. He got his doctorate for his thesis "Corporate Life in Ancient India".[3] In 1921 he joined the newly established University of Dacca as a professor of history. He also served, until he became its vice chancellor, as the head of the Department of History as well as the dean of the Faculty of Arts. Between 1924 and 1936 he was Provost of Jagannath Hall. Then he became the vice chancellor of that University, for five years from 1937 to 1942. From 1950, he was Principal of the College of Indology, Benares Hindu University. He was elected the general president of the Indian History Congress and also became the vice president of the International Commission set up by the UNESCO for the history of mankind.

Majumdar started his research on ancient India. After extensive travels to Southeast Asia and research, he wrote detailed histories of Champa (1927), Suvarnadvipa (1929) and Kambuja Desa. On the initiative of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, he took up the mantle of editing a multi-volume tome on Indian history. Starting in 1951, he toiled for twenty six long years to describe the history of the Indian people from the Vedic Period to the present day in eleven volumes. In 1955, Majumdar became the founder-principal of the College of Indology of Nagpur University. In 1958-59, he taught Indian history in the University of Chicago and University of Pennsylvania. He was also the president of the Asiatic Society (1966–68) and the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad (1968–69). For some time he was also the Sheriff of Calcutta (1967–68).

When the final volume of "The History and Culture of the Indian People" was published in 1977, he had turned eighty-eight. He also edited the three-volume history of Bengal published by Dacca University. His last book was "Jivaner Smritidvipe".

When the Government of India set up an editorial Committee to author a history of the freedom struggle of India, he was its principal member. But, following a conflict with the then Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on the Sepoy Mutiny, he left the government job and published his own book. The Sepoy Mutiny & Revolt of 1857. According to him the origins of India's freedom struggle lie in the English-educated Indian middle-class and the freedom struggle started with the Banga Bhanga movement in 1905. His views on the freedom struggle are found in his book History of the Freedom Movement in India. He was an admirer of Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.