This article is about the rule of the British Crown, in the person of Queen Victoria and her

successors up to George VI, over the Indian Subcontinent. This rule existed from 1858 to 1947. For
the previous rule ofEast India Company which existed from 1757 to 1858, see Company rule in
India.
"British Empire in India" redirects here. For other uses, see British India (disambiguation).
"Indian Empire" redirects here. For other Indian empires, see History of India.

India
Indian Empire

British Raj
Imperial political structure
comprising

(a) British India (a Crown colony;

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[1]

18581947

Flag

Star of India
Anthem

God Save the King/Queen

The British Indian Empire in 1936.

Capital
18581912 Calcu

tta
19121947 New

Delhi
English
Hindustani

Languages

Many local languages

Government

Empire

Empress/Empero
ra
- 18581901

Victoriab

- 19011910

Edward VII

- 19101936

George V

- 1936

Edward VIII

- 19361947

George VI

Viceroy and
GovernorGeneralc
- 18581862

(first) Charles Canning

- 1947

(last) Louis Mountbatten

Secretary of
State
- 18581859

(first) Edward Stanley

- 1947

(last) William Hare

Legislature

Central Legislative
Assembly

History
- Indian Rebellion

10 May 1857

- Government of
India Act

2 August 1858

- Indian
Independence
Act
- Partition of India

15 August 1947
15 August 1947

Area
- 1937

4,903,312 km(1,893,179
sq mi)

- 1947

4,226,734 km(1,631,951
sq mi)

Currency

British Indian rupee

Today part of

Bangladesh
India
Myanmar
Pakistan
Singapore
Somalia
Yemen

a Title existed 18761947.

.
b Ruled as Queen of the United Kingdom between 1858
. and 1 May 1876.
c.Full title was "Viceroy and Governor-General of India".

The British Raj (rj, meaning "rule" in Hindi)[2] was British rule in the Indian subcontinent between
1858 and 1947.[3] The term can also refer to the period of dominion.[3][4] The region under British
controlcommonly called "India" in the British periodincluded areas directly administered by the
United Kingdom (contemporaneously, "British India") as well as the princely states ruled by individual
rulers under the paramountcy of the British Crown. The region was less commonly also called
the Indian Empire.[5] 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.[6]
The system of governance was instituted in 1858, when the rule of the British East India
Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria[7] (and who, in 1876, was
proclaimed Empress of India), and lasted until 1947, when the British Indian Empire
was partitioned into two sovereigndominion states, the Union of India (later the Republic of India)
and the Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the eastern half 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 a province until 1937, when it became a separate British colony,
gaining its own