topics: |  history | uk | scotland | wales | india | africa | empire | tradition

Representing authority of tradition in Victorian India : Bernard S. Cohen

Government of India act, and proclamation 8 Nov 1858:
Queen Victoria assured the Indian princes that 'their rights, dignity, and
honour' as well as their control over their territories would be respected,
and the queen 'was bound to the natives of Our Indian territories by the same
obligations of duty which bind us to all other subjects.'  All Indian
subjects were to be secure in the practice of their religions... all would be
done to stimulate 'the peaceful industry of India, to promote works of public
utility and improvement', and Indians would 'enjoy that social advancement
which can only be secured by internal peace and good government.'

The proclamation encomasses two divergent theories of rule:
   - feudal mode: India should be ruled through a feudal order
   - representational mode: changes would come which would inevitably lead
	to the destruction of the feudal order. p. 166

The British rulers assumed that Indians had lost their right to self-rule
through their own weakness, which led to their subjugation by a succession of
'foreign' rulers, stretching back to the Aryan invasions, and, in the more
recent past, to the British conquest of the preceding imperial rulers, the
Mughals.  The apparent fact of Indian incompetence for self-rule was accepted
by all the British concerned...  there was argument only to the extent as to
whether this incompetence was inherent and permanent or whether under proper
tutelage Indians could become effective enough to rule themselves.

Since the British had themselves lived through a feudal stage, the Indian
present could be seen as the British past.

Canning's tours of N India - durbars - honours and awards to loyal Indians
of 1857 - Raja, Nawab, Rai Sahib, Rai Bahadur, Khan Bahadur, and presented w
special cloths and emblems (khelats).  Form of durbars based on Mughal
tradition.

EI company's emergence as the most military powerful force in India:
defeated
	- Nawab of Bengal (1757),
	- Nawab Vizier of Awadh and the Mughal emperor (1764),
	- Tipu the sultan of Mysore (1799) and
	- Marathas under Scindhia (1803).
Formal position: appointed as Diwan (chief civil officer) of Bengal by the
Mughal emperor in 1765.  Protector of the Mughal emperor in 1803, after Lord
Lake had captured Delhi.

After 1757, emplooyees of the company began to return to England with great
wealth... Company's influence grew.  India Bill of 1784: parliament was
ultimately responsible for the governance of India, but Company was to
execute it.  Private trading by employees was reduced and then eliminated and
alliances with ruling native princes declared as "corruption".

[rest of the article outlines the plans for the great durbar of dec 1876/ jan
1877; plans for which went on from early 1876]
100 villages were cleared; the lands were rented and the cultivators
prevented from planting. -> semi-circular area of 5 miles

further durbars:
  - 1903 : Curzon to proclaim Edward VII the emperor of India - Curzon spent
	   6 mos planning the durbar -> indo-saracenic themes rather than victorian
  - 1911 : George V visits India

Early meetings of the All India Congress committees were much like durbars,
with processions and the centrality of leading figures and their speeches...

Contents

1. Introduction: inventing traditions Eric Hobsbawm
2. The invention of tradition: the Highland tradition of Scotland
	Hugh Trevor-Roper
3. From a death to a view: the hunt for the Welsh past in the Romantic period
	Prys Morgan
4. The context, performance and meaning of ritual: the British Monarchy and
   the Invention of Tradition, c. 1820–1977
	David Cannadine

[the pageantry of the British monarchy we see today was a creation of the
 1870s.  In Victoria's time, she did not open parliament for 40 years.
 However, Edward VII was jealous of his cousin the Kaiser's pomp, and
 instituted a ride through London and a speech from the throne in full
 regalia as part of the parliament opening.  His funeral, with a
 lying-in-state at Westminster was attended by 1.2 million people - "never
 before had so many ordinary people personally, individually paid their last
 respects to a monarch."  Among the main architects of this pageantry were
 Viscount Esher (Reginald Brett) and the composer Edward Elgar.

5. Representing authority of tradition in Victorian India
	Bernard S. Cohen
6. The invention of tradition in Colonial Africa
	Terence Roger
7. Mass-producing traditions: Europe, 1870–1914
	Eric Hobsbawm