Events in the year 1856 in India.
Incumbents
*
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
, Monarch of United Kingdom.
*
James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie, Governor-General of India (since 12 January 1848)
*
Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning
Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning, (14 December 1812 – 17 June 1862), also known as The Viscount Canning and Clemency Canning, was a British statesman and Governor-General of India during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the first Vice ...
, Governor-General of India (till 21 March 1862)
Events
*11 February– Nawab
Wajid Ali Shah
Mirza Wajid Ali Shah ( ur, ) (30 July 1822 – 1 September 1887) was the eleventh and last King of Awadh, holding the position for 9 years, from 13 February 1847 to 11 February 1856.
Wajid Ali Shah's first wife was Alam Ara who was better k ...
deposed. He was last King of
Oudh State
The Oudh State (, also Kingdom of Awadh, Kingdom of Oudh, or Awadh State) was a princely state in the Awadh region of North India until its annexation by the British in 1856. The name Oudh, now obsolete, was once the anglicized name of ...
, reigned 13 February 1847 – 11 February 1856. Annexation of the
Kingdom of Oudh
*28 February – End the tenure of Governor-General of India
James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie.
*28 February –
Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning
Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning, (14 December 1812 – 17 June 1862), also known as The Viscount Canning and Clemency Canning, was a British statesman and Governor-General of India during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the first Vice ...
became Governor-General of India (till 21 March 1862)
*25 July –
Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856
The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act 1856, also Act XV, 1856, passed on 16 July 1856, legalised the remarriage of widows in all jurisdictions of India under East India Company rule.The act was enacted on 26 July 1856. It was drafted by Lord Dalho ...
Law
*Indian Bills of Lading Act
*Foreign Tribunals Evidence Act (British statute)
Births
*4 March –
Toru Dutt
Toru Dutt ( bn, তরু দত্ত; 4 March 1856 – 30 August 1877) was an Indian Bengali translator and poet from British India, who wrote in English and French. She is among the founding figures of Indo-Anglian literature, alongside Henr ...
, poet (died
1877
Events
January–March
* January 1 – Queen Victoria is proclaimed ''Empress of India'' by the ''Royal Titles Act 1876'', introduced by Benjamin Disraeli, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom .
* January 8 – Great ...
).
*1 April –
Acacio Gabriel Viegas, Goan physician (died
1933)
*14 June –
Ahmed Rida Khan
Ahmed Raza Khan, commonly known as Aala Hazrat, Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi, or Ahmed Rida Khan in Arabic, (14 June 1856 CE or 10 Shawwal 1272 AH – 28 October 1921 CE or 25 Safar 1340 AH), was an Islamic scholar, jurist, mufti, philosopher, ...
,
Sunni Muslim scholar and founder of
Barelwi
The Barelvi movement ( ur, بَریلوِی, , ), also known as Ahl al-Sunnah wa'l-Jamaah (People of the Prophet's Way and the Community) is a Sunni revivalist movement following the Hanafi and Shafi'i school of jurisprudence, with strong Suf ...
school of thought
A school of thought, or intellectual tradition, is the perspective of a group of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement, economics, cultural movement, or art movement.
...
(died
1921).
*23 July –
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, nationalist, social reformer and independence fighter (died
1920).
*20 August –
Narayana Guru
Narayana Guru, , (20 August 1856 – 20 September 1928) was a philosopher, spiritual leader and social reformer in India. He led a reform movement against the injustice in the caste-ridden society of Kerala in order to promote spiritua ...
(died
1928
Events January
* January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA.
* January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhan ...
)
Deaths
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
Years of the 19th century in India
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