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The British Raj was the period of British Parliament rule on the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947, for around 89 years of British occupation. The system of governance was instituted in 1858 when the rule of the East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria .
A map of India showing the territorial possessions of the British and Portuguese and Independent States.Samuel Rawson Gardiner D.C.L., L.L.D., School Atlas of English History (London, England: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1914) 54 Source
The timeline of major famines in India during British rule covers major famines on the Indian subcontinent from 1765 to 1947. The famines included here occurred both in the princely states (regions administered by Indian rulers), British India (regions administered either by the British East India Company from 1765 to 1857; or by the British Crown, in the British Raj, from 1858 to 1947) and ...
A clear distinction between "dominion" and "suzerainty" was supplied by the jurisdiction of the courts of law: the law of British India rested upon the laws passed by the British Parliament and the legislative powers those laws vested in the various governments of British India, both central and local; in contrast, the courts of the Princely ...
A new British government department, the India Council, was created to handle the governance of India, and its head, the Secretary of State for India, was entrusted with formulating Indian policy. The Governor-General of India gained a new title (Viceroy of India), and implemented the policies devised by the India council. As a result of their ...
By the middle of the century, the British had already gained direct or indirect control over almost all parts of India. British India, consisting of the directly ruled British presidencies and provinces, contained the most populous and valuable parts of the British Empire and thus became known as "the jewel in the British crown".
1765–1805 map of India, shown with a territorial division between Hindus, Muslims and the British Political subdivisions of the Indian Empire in 1909 with British India (pink) and the princely states (yellow) The princely states at the time of Indian independence were mostly formed after the disintegration of the Mughal empire.
By the Indian Independence Act 1947, the British gave up their suzerainty of the states and left each of them free to choose whether to join one of the newly independent countries of India and Pakistan or to remain outside them. For a short time, some of the rulers explored the possibility of a federation of the states separate from either, but ...