topics: |  history | british-india | postcolonial

The self-assurance of the British community, close to arrogance, partly from
the sheer scale of Britain's Indian enterprise: "mastery of the enormous
territory conferred on British character a sense of inflated imperial pride
and it also engineered a set of prejudices." p.50

	"C is for Colonies
	Rightly we boast,
	That of all the great nations
	Great Britain has the most."
	   (from Zachary Nunn)

Its own soldiers had challenged the Raj with a suddenness that left
everyone momentarily dazed....  One unexpected result of the crushing of the
mutiny was the strengthening of conservatism in the sub-continent. The Indian
princes', whom had shown almost a complete unanimity of loyalty towards the
British during the rebellion, now reaped their reward. The British
Administration clearly regarded them as stalwart champions of the Raj.  The
result was that princely states now were safe from British encroachment as
long as they accepted British overlordship and advice. As well, the British
exercised a new caution over the process of reform. Fearful to set in motion
an Indian reaction similar to the one that had precipitated the soldiers'
mutiny, the government avoided all forms of drastic political and social
change. Missionary activity was halted completely.  [Denis Judd, 1997,
Empire: The British Imperial Experience from 1765 to the Present, p.72]

E.M. Forster: "The Englishman in India  has been trained "in the fine
tradition of paternal government" and "In India we have done much good and
have a right" and "our sudden withdrawal would be disastrous."  - p.248

Lindsay Commission Report

A learned commission under Professor A D Lindsay, master at Ballicol  College,
Oxford, reported on Christian Education in India  in 1931:

     It maintained that although a ferment was in process within Hinduism,
     "Vedantic philosophy still retained its control and moulded consciously
     or unconsciously the fundamental attitudes of a vast majority of
     Hindus."

The ascendancy of a superficial secularism, typified in the Nehru plan
for an Indian constitution and in the personality of the Indian leader,
Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lindsay Commission declared, breathed new life into the
spirit of easy accommodation of a pantheistic attitude blurring distinctions
between truth and untruth and between right and wrong. With regard to the
various efforts by eminent Indians to recondition Hinduism, two superficial
motives were discerned. The first was the desire to give Hinduism a place in
the modern world of activity and competition and the other was to render it
respectable before a Western audience. Thus although the Gita with its call
for action became a breviary of inspiration to Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi, Aurobindo Ghosh, Swami Vivekananda and Dayanand Saraswati,
the Lindsay Commission opined that the outcome was warped, desultory and
perfunctory.

     The Lindsay Commission, however, unanimously concluded that Vedanta, in
that awkward position, occupied "an uneasy seat". The dominant figure in the
Indian landscape", the Commission pronounced, "is still the Hindu ascetic and
sceptic sitting by the Jamuna’s bank watching the phantasmagoria of existence
with indifference mingled with contempt... India is too old to resent
us". There was a familiar ring in the exasperation. "Yet who can doubt that
she will survive us? The secret of her permanence lies, I think, in her
passivity and power to assimilate. The faith that will not fight cannot
yield."

The city of Benares was frequently upheld as representing the incongruity
of this intriguing development. Eternal India persisted there with more
ardour and enthusiasm than anywhere else despite the definite assault of
Western science. The insolence and defiance of a superstitious Hinduism
amazed the learned Commission. Hinduism at Benares, the Lindsay Commission
reported, still continued to unfold itself, unheeding a Muslim emperor's
opposition, quite oblivious of the purifying and uplifting efforts of the
Buddhist monastery of a neighboring Sarnath and in sheer indifference to
the challenge of a Western and Christian civilization symbolized by the
steel bridge."  Christianity, and along with it, Western civilization, the
Lindsay Commission lamented, found Hinduism so firmly entrenched in the
Indian ethos that they could only touch it marginally. The future seemed
uncertain and this uncertainty released a feeling of melancholic
frustration which, in turn, reinforced the claims of righteousness and
dressed imperialism with a touch-me-not aloofness.

The Lindsay Commission further stated on page 51 – 55:

"Secularism is indeed the common enemy of all the religions since it
demands in India, as it does elsewhere, in the name of religion and
progress, that religion shall be rejected in a world where religion has no
right . . . Hinduism is far too deeply entrusted in the soul of India to be
reckoned as defeated as yet. As a matter of fact, the philosophy of Vedanta
and the life of secularism are perfectly natural allies. Both alike reject
many of the values that Christianity seeks to create and preserve, and with
them, therefore, Christianity can make no terms.

The imperial mind in utter bewilderment, was overwhelmed by a creepy
feeling which stood between it and Hinduism with its "ugly gods", devastating
"evil eyes" and "sure charms" all shrouded in mysterious forces that were
beyond any rational explanation. It shivered at the infinite and immense
secrets of India.

colonial poetry quoted in the Raj Syndrome

Winds of the World, give answer! They are whimpering to and fro -
And what should they know of England who only England know?
The poor little street-bred people that vapour and fume and brag
They are lifting their heads in the stillness to yelp at the British flag!
	Rudyard Kipling The English Flag p.13

Take up the white Man's burden -
Send forth the best of ye breed -
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in every harness
On fluttered folk and wild -
Your new-caught sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half child.
-	Rudyard Kipling The White Man's Burden, p.14

Wrong! Is it wrong? Well, may be.
But I'm going just the same.
Do they think me a Burgher's baby,
To be scared by a scolding name?
They may argue and prat and order,
Go tell them to save their breath:
Then, over the Transvaal border,
And Gallop for life and death.
   - "Alfred Austin captured the mood of this extrovert,
	unrepentant England" [after the Boer war, there was considerable,
	internationally and within, criticism of British bullying against
	Transvaal], The Jameson Raid, p.13

For we are bred to do your will
By land and sea, wherever files
The Flag, to fight and follow still,
And work your Empire's desitinies
Once more we greet you, though unseen our greetings
be, and coming slow.
Trust us, if need arise, O Queeen!
We shall not tarry with the blow.

	- Poem Ave Imperiatrix contributed by Rudyard Kipling for the
          college magazine after an attempt on Queen Victoria
          in a school Paper saluting the Widow of Windsor. p.25

Never the lotus closes, never the windfowl wake
But the soul goes out on the East Wind and dies for England's sake -
Men or women or suckling, bride or maid -
Because on the bones of England, the English flag is stayed.
	- Rudyard Kipling, The English Flag, p.29