Authors: Eshwarappa M T
Abstract: The article focuses on the analysis of how social and cultural organization of colonial India changed during the British rule, with particular attention paid to the interdependency of the economic restructuring, intervention in the form of education, cultural reformation and political mobilization. It also claims that British colonialism was not just administrative control but it re-organized the social structures of India, destabilized the local economies, transformed cultural identities, and created new ways of public consciousness. The paper follows the development of deindustrialization, land revenue settlements, commercialization of agriculture and the proliferation of Western education on transforming the traditional institutions and creating a novel educated middle class. It also discusses how the religious reform movements, artistic adjustment and cultural revivalism helped in redefining Indian identity in the face of colonial pressure. The article also demonstrates the role these changes played in resistance movements, politicization of social reform and also the development of Indian nationalism. Lastly, it evaluates the postcolonial after-effects of the British rule regarding education, class construction, religious background, and state institutions. The paper shows that colonialism was characterized by coercion and cultural re-arrangement, and anti-colonial reactions selectively utilized both the native traditions and colonial modernity to create modern Indian identity.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20112815
