Indian Empire

India
Imperial political structure comprising (a) British India (a quasi-federation of presidencies and provinces directly governed by the  British Crown through the Viceroy and Governor-General of India); (b) Princely States, governed by Indian rulers, under the  suzerainty of the British Crown exercised through the Viceroy and Governor-General of India
1858–1947
Flag Star of India
Anthem God Save the King/Queen
The British Indian Empire in 1936.
Capital		1858–1911  Calcutta 1911–1947  New Delhi
Languages		English Hindi Many local languages
Government		Colonial / Empire
King/Queen of the United Kingdom Emperor/Empressa
•	1858–1901	Victoria
•	1901–1910	Edward VII
•	1910–1936	George V
•	1936	Edward VIII
•	1936–1947	George VI
Viceroy and Governor-Generalc
•	1858–1862	(first) Charles Canning
•	1947	(last)  Louis Mountbatten
Secretary of State
•	1858–1859	(first) Edward Stanley
•	1947	(last)  William Hare
Legislature		Imperial Legislative Council
History
•	Battle of Plassey	23 June 1757
•	Government of India Act	2 August 1858
•	Indian Independence Act	15 August 1947
•	Partition of India	15 August 1947
Area
•	1937	4,903,312 km² (1,893,179 sq mi)
•	1947	4,226,734 km² (1,631,951 sq mi)
Currency		Indian rupee
Preceded by Succeeded by Company rule in India Dominion of India Dominion of Pakistan British rule in Burma Colony of Aden Straits Settlements
Today part of		Bangladesh  China  India  Myanmar  Pakistan  Singapore  Somalia  Yemen
a.	Title existed 1876–1948.
c.	Full title was "Viceroy and Governor-General of India".

Colonial India

Imperial entities of India
Dutch India	1605–1825
Danish India	1620–1869
French India	1769–1954
Portuguese India (1505–1961)
Casa da Índia	1434–1833
Portuguese East India Company	1628–1633
British India (1612–1947)
East India Company	1612–1757
Company rule in India	1757–1858
British Raj	1858–1947
British rule in Burma	1824–1948
Princely states	1721–1949
Partition of India	1947

The British Raj (/rɑːdʒ/; from rāj, literally, "rule" in Hindustani) was the rule of the British Crown in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947. The rule is also called Crown rule in India, or direct rule in India. The region under British control was commonly called India in contemporaneous usage, and included areas directly administered by the United Kingdom, which were collectively called British India, and those ruled by indigenous rulers, but under British tutelage or paramountcy, and called the princely states. The resulting political union was also called the Indian Empire and after 1876 issued passports under that name. As India, it was a founding member of the League of Nations, a participating nation in the Summer Olympics in 1900, 1920, 1928, 1932, and 1936, and a founding member of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945.

This system of governance was instituted on 28 June 1858, when, after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the rule of the British East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria (who, in 1876, was proclaimed Empress of India). As a state, the British Empire in India functioned as if it saw itself as the guardian of a system of connected markets maintained by means of military power, business legislation and monetary management. It lasted until 1947, when the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two sovereign dominion states: the Dominion of India (later the Republic of India) and the Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the eastern part of which, still later, became the People's Republic of Bangladesh). At the inception of the Raj in 1858, Lower Burma was already a part of British India; Upper Burma was added in 1886, and the resulting union, Burma, was administered as an autonomous province until 1937, when it became a separate British colony, gaining its own independence in 1948.