South Asia: Creating Dilemmas of Diversity - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 171

0 250 500 mi

0 250 500 km

KASHMIR

Kabul

Srinagar

TIBET

AFGHANISTAN

PUNJAB

Lahore

Meerut, start of
Sepoy Rebellion, 1857

a p u t r a

Delhi

B H U

Lucknow

ASSAM

Agra

RAJPUTANA

Jaipur

BIHAR

Varanasi

Jodphur

SIND

s

BURMA

BENGAL

Battle of Plassey, 1757

d

Calcutta

NAGPUR

Surat

Diu

Bay of
Bengal

Bombay

Pune

HYDERABAD

Hyderabad

Arabian Sea

Goa

MYSORE

Madras

Pondicherry

British territory
Indian states

COCHIN

Portuguese

French

CEYLON

Indian Ocean

Figure 6-13
South Asia, 1856. By this time Britain had control over most of the region. Other colonial
possessions were reduced to small coastal colonies.

sacred to Hindus, a mutiny erupted. The Sepoy Rebellion of
1857 triggered nationwide violence. Whole communities of
Europeans or Indians were slaughtered, and cities were re-
duced to rubble. Some states such as Hyderabad, Baroda,
Rajasthan, and Punjab remained loyal to the British and the
rebellion was ultimately crushed.

In 1857, the British government, horrified at the ex-
tent of atrocities, abolished the East India Company and
formally took over India as a colony , a status it would re-
tain for nearly a century . The era known as the Raj ,
meaning the “rule,” had begun.