Did these people realize they were ruled over by a corporation rather than a state? Was there a different perception of the British Monarch/Parliament and the EIC? Did the EIC care about its PR in India?
Like every country, Indian society was not a homogenous one. Different sections had different opinion. Here I will state a few section's opinion on the British:
The main sections of the Indian Society which I would be looking at is:
#Tribals/Nomads/Migratory grazers
Under the english east India company, The British started an expansion drive to increase the land under cultivation/farming. Thus in order to obtain this, they intiated the clearing of forest lands. Forest lands which had been standing undisturbed for centuries! These forests were extremely holy to the tribals who considered the forest as their house. They spent their enite life in forest and even lived off the forests. The destruction of forests by british caused massive discontement and anger amongst the tribals. Thier very way of life and existence were wiped out by the destruction of forests. Often the british were helped in their activities by greedy landowners/peasents/village officials. Thus suffice to say, There was massive discontement against the company
Similarly destruction of forests and vegetarian denied nomads/grazing tribes the means to feed their animals who constantly moved on them.Thus they were angry too
Also, One of the reasons why British did this move was because, they did not trust such a group of people who were constantly on the move and never remained in any one place of administration.
The british viewed the nomads/tribals as danger and threat to their enpire in India because these groups were constantly on the move. No british political administration could exert any control or administration on them since they kept moving from one place to another.
#Landowners
Many landowners were also pissed by the British. The British made tax laws and revenue payment laws extremely strict to the point of absurdity. No matter whether a drought, storm or famine had just taken place, The british did not care. If the landowner did not pay their tax revenue to the british government in time, the britishers would pubish them severly.
The british would often kick the landowners out of thier own lands and auction of the land for recovery of dues.
Thus, at the slightest delay of the payment of taxes, the british would confesticate the land from landowners. Thus, The landowners were pretty angry.
Earlier, the mughals used to give extensions if the landowners had genuine reasons for non payment. However this humanity was replaced by a hunger of squeezing out maximum profit under british.
The British also deprived thousands of landowners of their rightful lands under a special goverment act. While I do not recall currently its exact name, The act stated that Landowners have to prove their ownership of the lands by showing Land ownership documents.
While this might seem resanable on the face , this was actually a big decision. The reason being that many of the lands possed by landowners were hereditary grants passed down from one generation to another. Many did not own actual documents since the lands had been in the possession of their families for centuries. Not to forget, the last decades of the mughal empire were an absolute chaos. The administration had decayed to nothing and thus the documents issued by mughals themselves were spotty . Record keeping were almost non existent.
#Peasents
The peasents were the most ill treated section of the company raj. Extremely high mind bongling tax rates, Severe punishment for non payment of taxes were norm.As a result a lot of resentment was created amongst the peasents for the British and the company.
The British forced the peasents to grow only Cash crops instead of food crops since they were more profitable. The peasents were forced to compulsorily sell to only english traders at below market rates. No concessions were given even in times of famine droughts etc.
If any peasent dare support any rebels or riot, then the british army would set fire to their fields.
Thus the peasents largely resented british too.
#Royals and ruling families
The royals hated the Company with an intense passion. The British often used flimsy reasons for annexing century old kingdoms into british company rule.
Some of the reasons used by british include: Adopted hires are not reap hires, The king is oppressing subjects etc etc. Any and every reasons under the sky were used for annexing kingdoms.
When they could not get their way with annexation, they would use backdoor methoed called 'Subsidar alliance'. While there is a lot to write about 'subsidary alliance', the gist is that british would deploy troops in a kings kingdom under the pretext of "protecting the king". The king would also voluntarily give up foreign policy of the empire to the british under subsidary alliance. Thus effectively, Under the "Subsidary alliance", the kingdom basically became a vessel state with a puppet king.
Using the above two method, British took control of many Indian kingdoms.
This massively pissed off the Indian royals and ruling class. While they outwardly did not support anything, they often funded rebellion and mutiny against British secretly.
Thus there was no love lost between british and the Indian royal class.
#Muslims
With the collapse of british empire and their becoming of puppets of british, The islamic ruling class and administration that existed for hundreds of years disappeared. The muslims were massively angry that they had been thrown out of power by the british.
Out of power and political influence for first time in maybe centuries, Muslim society started undergoing a reform and rebirth movement.
Islamic movement looking to restore muslim political power started propping. And their main target?- British!
Thus muslims had a lot of anger towards British and company too
#Upper caste Hindus in north India
One of the defining aspects of Indian society had been the domination of the armed forces by certain upper caste communities like Jats,Brahmins from Awadh etc etc .The upper castes dominated the armed forces of all kingdoms from upper to lower ranks . However , The British saw the caste system as a useful divide to divide Indian society . In order to ensure that social divisions in India remain rigid and prevent any united opposition to British power , The British started recruiting the lower castes into the army too . This antagonized the Upper castes who had dominated the armed forced in North India for decades . The sudden inclusion of lower castes diluted their power and influence . Also , many of them had hesitation with fighting alongside a lower caste but could not voice any anger or opposition due to fear of punishment from British commanders .
#Opinion of other Indian army towards British army
The British army was extremely feared by the armed forces of other Indian kingdoms . Their superiority in firearms ,artillery and military discipline were extremely intimidating for the armed forces of many Indian kingdom. The trademark uniform of British :i.e the Red coat and black bucket cap came to inspire awe and intimidation . Some Indian kingdom also introduced similar looking uniform in their army to raise the morale of the troops . Thus , with regards to the British army , There was respect ,awe and fear for them from the armed forces of other Indian kingdoms .
[To be continued. I am typing out more. Wait a little time]
#Opinion of Indian soldiers/sepoys working in the British Indian army
With the start of second decade of the the 19th century , Widespread resentment and anger had started taking roots within the minds of the Indian soldiers working in the British army.
First they hated the inferior and racist treatment given to the Indian soldiers while White British soldiers were treated better. The white soldiers were better paid , had better facilities and got all the promotions and perks . Indian soldiers were never allowed to get higher ranking or posts in the army . This racist treatment of the Indian soldier created a lot of resentment.
Another reason why Indian soldiers had started hating the Company and British was that the British showed a extremely ignorant nature with respect to religious beliefs of the soldiers : both Hindus and Muslims . They often gave orders that hurt the religious sentiments of the soldiers and often violated their religious beliefs and rule . This caused a environment ripe for mutiny and rebellion
Source: Cambridge history of India series - Book=Ideologies of British raj
Source: Cambridge history of India series: Book= Indian society and making of british empire