The British Raj
Explore the British Raj — British colonial rule over the Indian subcontinent from 1858 to 1947 and the independence movement that ended it.
The British Raj (1858–1947) was the period of direct British Crown rule over the Indian subcontinent, governing a population that grew from roughly 250 million to 400 million — making India the jewel of the British Empire. The Raj began after the Indian Rebellion of 1857 prompted Britain to dissolve the East India Company and assume direct control.
British rule brought railways, telegraph systems, a unified legal code, and English-language education — but primarily to serve imperial interests. The colonial economy was extractive: India exported raw cotton to British mills and imported finished textiles, while famines killed millions even as grain was exported. The Bengal Famine of 1943, in which an estimated 2–3 million died, remains one of the most damning indictments of colonial governance.
The Indian independence movement, led by the Indian National Congress and later by Mahatma Gandhi's strategy of nonviolent resistance, gradually built an unstoppable demand for self-rule. Gandhi's Salt March (1930), the Quit India movement (1942), and the broader mobilization of Indian society made continued British rule untenable. Independence came on August 15, 1947 — but accompanied by the traumatic Partition that created India and Pakistan and caused the displacement of 10–15 million people and the deaths of 1–2 million.