Timeline of major famines in India during British rule 1871 to 382 million in 1941. At least 15-35 million people may have died in famines caused by droughts and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation phenomenon during the British rule. The year 1765 is chosen as the start year because that year the British East India Company, after its victory in the Battle of Buxar, was granted the "Diwani" (rights to land revenue) in the region of Bengal (although it would not directly administer Bengal until 1784 when it was granted the "Nizamat", or control of law and order.) The year 1947 is the year in which the British Raj was
Political warfare in British colonial India that indirect rule allowed for social development through gradual change from within rather than shattering the social fabric, producing opposition from the local populace. Indirect rule is less confrontational and more collaborative, therefore a better means for domination. The colonial administration recognised around 600 semi-autonomous princely states, nominally advised by a British resident; the states possessed one quarter of the country’s population. British administrators also employed tax collectors and landlords even in the more "directly" ruled regions of the country and paid for the landlord’s loyalty with large tracts of land and some power to collect taxes for personal use.