Queen Victoria: Proclamation concerning India

Questions for Further Study

• 1. Explain the extent to which the queen's proclamation and the Government of India Act sowed the seeds of eventual Indian independence.
• 2. What were the circumstances that allowed the British East India Company to assume many of the functions of government in India?
• 3. How did events in India illustrate the effects of “big power” colonialism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?
• 4. What role did religion play in the queen's proclamation? Why would an administration run by a business enterprise such as the East India Company have attempted to impose religious beliefs in a colony?
• 5. It is sometimes argued that British colonialism in India, all things considered, was actually good for the country in the long run. On what considerations would such an argument be based? How would you respond?