The Begginings

The beginning of the English language in India starts with the history of the British East Indian Company. The British East India Company was created in 1600, and later in 1707 it becomes British joint-stock company and megacorporation formed for pursuing trade with the East Indies but which ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent.

The East India Company traded mainly in cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpetre, tea and opium.

Shares of the company were owned by wealthy merchants and aristocrats, in other words, it was an example of an English joint-stock company. The government owned no shares and had only indirect control.

The Company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own private armies, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. Company rule in India effectively began in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey, and then India became the center of their activities. In the late seventeenth century, England had commercial rights of India and several key ports like Calcutta, Madras and Bombay.

There were many private fortunes. Some made ​​their home in Asia, founding European centers in India, Southeast Asia and China. In the seventeenth century many European travelers visited India. Through them became known in Europe the amazing history and culture of India.

The control of the Company British East India grew and the British finally becoming in the dominant Indian society. Many British people became extremely rich working for the East India Company and lived in India as genuine princes. Some of these nabobs, as they were called, built beautiful houses in Calcutta and elsewhere, designed by British architects and equipped with luxurious furniture from England, India and the other colonies. In Calcutta, the English celebrated meetings, parties and dances as if they were in Britain. Gradually coming to India their wives and families to share this form of English life.

During the 1830s, the governor of the company invalidated ostentatiously Indian traditions and introduced several missionaries to convert the Indians to Christianity. The Company built roads, railways and buildings, and expanded the British business, insisting on using English as the language for education and business. As a result, the rejection among Indians was gradually increasing.

Problems arose between the sepoys and Indian soldiers of the army of the Company. Aroused by a terrible famine, the Indian mutiny began in 1857. The sepoys took several cities, including the capital, Delhi, and killed British men, women and children. The mutiny was put down violently by British troops. Thereafter, the mistrust reigned between the two sides. The British began to live separately from the Indians, who kept to themselves. The British government took control of the East India Company in 1858 and closed it. India was perhaps the richest and most developed of all European colonies, but the British had to work hard to control.

The East India Company has had a long lasting impact on the Indian Subcontinent. Although dissolved following the rebellion of 1857, it stimulated the growth of the British Empire. Its armies after 1857 were to become the armies of British India and it played a key role in introducing English as an official language in India.

Andrés Fernández-Palacios Delgado