Section 2 Imperial Consolidation and Liberal Rule c1890-1914 Chapter 12: Relations with Indigenous People
Chapter 12: Relations with Indigenous People
How did Indigenous people challenge British rule in India and Africa?
What were the challenges to British Rule in India 1890-1914?
• In the 1890s, political opposition to British rule grew amongst the educated Indian professional classes
• An outlet for protest was founded in the emergence of the growth of nationalist newspapers
• Both Bal Tilak, editor of Kesari, and Shivram Paranjee, founder of Kaal (in 1898) were imprisoned for stirring
up hostilities
• Tilak was the first leader of the Indian independence movement, and was known as ‘the father of the Indian
unrest’. He formed a close alliance with many Indian National Congress leaders and Tilak was accused of
inciting the murder of a medical officer
• The popularity of Kaal led to Pranjee’s arrest for sedition in 1908. He served 19 months imprisonment and
hard labour – released in 1910. The British authorities banned the paper and confiscated his writings
• The Abhinar Bharat (Young Indian) organisation, founded by brothers Vinayak and Ganesh Damodar Savarkar
in 1903, became the home for several hundred revolutionaries and political activists. Vinayak wrote regular
newsletters to his counterparts in India as well as carrying out revolutionary propaganda in London. It
established branches in several parts of India and carried out assassinations of British officials, including the
district magistrate, Arthur Jackson, and a London based military advisor, Lieutenant-Colonel Curzon-Wyllie in
1909. Vinayak was charged with the Jackson murder and imprisoned in 1910. The society was formally
disbanded in1952.
• The partition of Bengal prompted the most vociferous opposition
• Tilak was at the forefront of a swadeshi, or self-sufficiency, a campaign designed to undermine British rule
• Petitions, protests and public boycotts of British goods took place
• The 6-year campaign was successful in as much as Bengal was reunited in 1911. Its methods and principles
greatly influenced the later campaigns of Gandhi
What were the challenges to British Rule in Africa?
• British Somaliland
o Sayyid Hassan, a self-styled Somali religious warrior known as the ‘Mad Mullah’ by the British, was
typical of those who saw it as their duty to resist British rule
o He built a force of c20 000 Dervish forces, armed with weapons from the Ottoman Empire, with the
aim to halt Ethiopian, Italian and British gains in Somalia
o From c1900, his forces mounted raids on British Somaliland, antagonising local communities
o To counter him, the British conducted joint military action with Ethiopia’s Emperor Menelik,
although without conclusive success
o The Dervish secured a somewhat hollow victory over the outnumbered British ‘camel constabulary’
at the Battle of Dal Madoba in August 1913 and were never fully suppressed until after WW1
• Zanzibar
o British control was challenged briefly by Khalid bin Barghash who assumed power in 1896 following
the suspicious death of the pro-British Hamound
o Khlahid commanded 3000 men but he quickly fled following heavy bombardment from the British.
The challenge lasted less than 2 days.
• West Africa
o In 1898, the British governor of Sierra Leone, Colonel Cardew, introduced a new sever tax on
dwellings, known as the ‘hut tax’ and also insisted that local chiefs organise their followers to
maintain roads
o These demands were met with resistance, one in the northern area of the Temne, led by Bai Bureh and
the other in the southern area by the Mende, led by Momoh Jah
o Cardew responded militarily and eventually deployed a ‘scorched earth’ policy, which involved
setting fire to entire villages, farms, and crops
o This tactic secured surrender from Cardew’s primary adversary, Chief Bai Burch, in November 189,
although 100s had been killed in the process
o Despite the British government's plea for leniency, Cardew had 96 of the chief warriors hanged
Chapter 12: Relations with Indigenous People
How did Indigenous people challenge British rule in India and Africa?
What were the challenges to British Rule in India 1890-1914?
• In the 1890s, political opposition to British rule grew amongst the educated Indian professional classes
• An outlet for protest was founded in the emergence of the growth of nationalist newspapers
• Both Bal Tilak, editor of Kesari, and Shivram Paranjee, founder of Kaal (in 1898) were imprisoned for stirring
up hostilities
• Tilak was the first leader of the Indian independence movement, and was known as ‘the father of the Indian
unrest’. He formed a close alliance with many Indian National Congress leaders and Tilak was accused of
inciting the murder of a medical officer
• The popularity of Kaal led to Pranjee’s arrest for sedition in 1908. He served 19 months imprisonment and
hard labour – released in 1910. The British authorities banned the paper and confiscated his writings
• The Abhinar Bharat (Young Indian) organisation, founded by brothers Vinayak and Ganesh Damodar Savarkar
in 1903, became the home for several hundred revolutionaries and political activists. Vinayak wrote regular
newsletters to his counterparts in India as well as carrying out revolutionary propaganda in London. It
established branches in several parts of India and carried out assassinations of British officials, including the
district magistrate, Arthur Jackson, and a London based military advisor, Lieutenant-Colonel Curzon-Wyllie in
1909. Vinayak was charged with the Jackson murder and imprisoned in 1910. The society was formally
disbanded in1952.
• The partition of Bengal prompted the most vociferous opposition
• Tilak was at the forefront of a swadeshi, or self-sufficiency, a campaign designed to undermine British rule
• Petitions, protests and public boycotts of British goods took place
• The 6-year campaign was successful in as much as Bengal was reunited in 1911. Its methods and principles
greatly influenced the later campaigns of Gandhi
What were the challenges to British Rule in Africa?
• British Somaliland
o Sayyid Hassan, a self-styled Somali religious warrior known as the ‘Mad Mullah’ by the British, was
typical of those who saw it as their duty to resist British rule
o He built a force of c20 000 Dervish forces, armed with weapons from the Ottoman Empire, with the
aim to halt Ethiopian, Italian and British gains in Somalia
o From c1900, his forces mounted raids on British Somaliland, antagonising local communities
o To counter him, the British conducted joint military action with Ethiopia’s Emperor Menelik,
although without conclusive success
o The Dervish secured a somewhat hollow victory over the outnumbered British ‘camel constabulary’
at the Battle of Dal Madoba in August 1913 and were never fully suppressed until after WW1
• Zanzibar
o British control was challenged briefly by Khalid bin Barghash who assumed power in 1896 following
the suspicious death of the pro-British Hamound
o Khlahid commanded 3000 men but he quickly fled following heavy bombardment from the British.
The challenge lasted less than 2 days.
• West Africa
o In 1898, the British governor of Sierra Leone, Colonel Cardew, introduced a new sever tax on
dwellings, known as the ‘hut tax’ and also insisted that local chiefs organise their followers to
maintain roads
o These demands were met with resistance, one in the northern area of the Temne, led by Bai Bureh and
the other in the southern area by the Mende, led by Momoh Jah
o Cardew responded militarily and eventually deployed a ‘scorched earth’ policy, which involved
setting fire to entire villages, farms, and crops
o This tactic secured surrender from Cardew’s primary adversary, Chief Bai Burch, in November 189,
although 100s had been killed in the process
o Despite the British government's plea for leniency, Cardew had 96 of the chief warriors hanged
