Chaotic View of British Imperialism

In Jon Wilson’s 2016 study India Conquered: Britain’s Raj and the Chaos of Empire, he argued for a more chaotic enactment of the assertions put forth by Rudyard Kipling. Wilson is quoted saying “the British empire was never a project or a system. It was something far more anxious and chaotic. From beginning to end, it was ruled by individual self-interest, by a desire for glory and a mood of fear, by deeply ingrained habits of command and rarely any grand public reason. It consisted of fiercely guarded outposts of British sovereign power.” I think this is an entirely more accurate view of the British in their colonial phase. Despite the writings by Kipling such as “The White Man’s Burden” that makes the British seem dutiful and exalted for colonizing in other areas of the world, the truth of the matter is that they acted in a discriminatory and chaotic manner towards the natives of the lands they colonized.

Wilson’s view of the British Empire can be seen in E.M. Forester’s A Passage to India in the interactions between the British and Indian characters specifically Aziz. Throughout the novel we see the development of a character named Fielding. Fielding is a British man who, unlike nearly all British people at the time, was friendly with the Indian natives. More specifically, he became friends with Aziz despite the view “the club” (group of British people in this particular area of India) had of the locals. Aziz, wanting to be polite and hospitable to the British, decided to show various members of the club a set of caves or “the real India” as Forester writes. Unfortunately, Fielding and Godbole could not make the train in time to go to the caves with Adela, Mrs. Moore, and Aziz. The climax of the novel occurs when Adela and Aziz enter a cave alone. Adela runs out of the cave distraught and insinuating that Aziz assaulted her (Forester intentionally leaves the exact details ambiguous to the reader). Aziz is forced to stand trial of which the public is clearly aware of. Despite all the controversy and debate, Adela eventually drops the charges against Aziz. Fielding, trying to do the chivalrous thing, protects Adela which strains his relationship with Aziz for the rest of the novel despite Fielding originally trying to fight for his innocence.

This scene in Forester’s novel paints the chaotic picture from Wilson’s view of the British in India. In the quote previously stated by Wilson he says “…desire for glory and a mood of fear.” Because the scene at the caves is so murky it leaves room for different interpretations from different readers. My argument is consistent with Wilson’s view of the British Empire in that I believe Adela saw an opportunity to use her status as a British woman to assert dominance over an innocent Indian native. This was done to, what Wilson would say, “guard outposts of British sovereign power.” In other words, she filed false accusations against Aziz so that the superiority of the British would be made known publicly. Wilson claims that there was “rarely any grand public reason,” however, I argue that there was the intention of maintaining authority over the natives that they viewed as “half devil and half child” as written by Kipling in The White Man’s Burden. It wasn’t until Adela was struck with a guilty conscience that she decided to withdraw the charges she filed against Aziz.

In conclusion, I believe Wilson’s view of a chaotic enactment of Kipling’s assertions is the most accurate of the British Imperialists. The dutiful and helpful connotations we see in The White Man’s Burden and other British writings about their colonies are nothing but a façade. Forester’s novel depicts this perfectly in Aziz being the victim of a power hungry British mob. To believe that the British honestly believed they were fulfilling a moral duty would be of the utmost ignorance. This was simply the message they portrayed to the public (perhaps even to themselves) to mask the fact that they were robbing these colonies of their resources and mistreating their native peoples.

 

 

 

 

References

Forester, E. M. (1924). A Passage to India. Brace and Co. (1952) Harcourt, New York.

Kipling, R. (1899). Modern History Sourcebook: Rudyard Kipling, The White Man’s Burden, 1899. The        Internet Modern History Sourcebook.