The British in India: Imperialism or Trusteeship?

132 Pages·1962·11.892 MB·English

by  Martin Denning Lewis

Martin D. Lewis
AND COMPANY
*
LEBANON VALLEY COLLEGE
Gossard Memorial Library
THE BRITISH IN INDIA
Imperialism or Trusteeship?
PROBLEMS IN EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION
UNDER THE EDITORIAL DIRECTION OF
Ralph W. Greenlaw* and Dwight E. Lee j
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Why Did It Collapse? f
The Pirenne Thesis — Analysis, Criticism, and Revision*
The Coronation of Charlemagne — What Did It Signify? *
The Gregorian Epoch -— Reformation, Revolution, Reaction? *
Innocent III — Vicar of Cfirist or Lord of the World? f
The Crusades — Motives and Achievements*
The Renaissance — Medieval or Modern? *
Machiavelli — Cynic, Patriot, or Political Scientist? *
The Reformation — Material or Spiritual? *
The Character of Philip II — The Problem of Moral Judgments in History*
Protestantism and Capitalism — The Weber Thesis and Its Critics*
The Origins of the English Civil War — Conspiracy, Crusade, or Class Conflict? *
The Revolution of 1688 — Whig Triumph or Palace Revolution? t
Peter the Great — Reformer or Revolutionary? f
The Greatness of Louis XIV — Myth or Reality? *
The Eighteenth-Century Revolution — French or Western? f
The Influence of the Enlightenment on the French Revolution — Creative,
Disastrous, or Non-Existent? *
The Economic Origins of the French Revolution — Poverty or Prosperity? *
Metternich, the “Coachman of Europe” — Statesman or Evil Genius? *
The Industrial Revolution in Britain — Triumph or Disaster? *
1848 — A Turning Point? *
Napoleon III — Buffoon, Modern Dictator, or Sphinx? f
Otto von Bismarck — A Historical Assessment*
The “New Imperialism” — Analysis of Late Nineteenth-Century Expansion*
A Free Churcfi in a Free State? — The Catholic Church, Italy, Germany, France,
1864-1914f
The Dreyfus Affair — A Tragedy of Errors? f
The Outbreak of the First World War — Who Was Responsible? *
The Russian Revolution and Bolshevik Victory — Why and How? *
The Versailles Settlement — Was It Doomed to Failure? *
The Ethiopian Crisis — Touchstone of Appeasement? *
The Nazi Revolution — Germany’s Guilt or Germany’s Fate? *
The British in India — Imperialism or Trusteeship? f
The Outbreak of the Second World War — Design or Blunder? f
The Cold War — Ideological Conflict or Power Struggle? f
Other volumes in preparation
THE BRITISH IN INDIA
?
Imperialism or Trusteeship
Edited with an introduction by
Martin Doming Lewis
%\
SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY,
QUEBEC
D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY • BOSTON
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© 1962 D.
Copyright by C. Heath and Company
No part of the material covered hy this copyright may he reproduced
in any form without written permission of the publisher. (6D4)
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
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S Table of Contents
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THE PROBLEM OUTLINED
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ROMESH DUTT
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<> The Nationalist Critique
V
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SIR JOHN A. R. MARRIOTT
Proudly We May Look Back 7
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU
British Rule in India
12
SIR REGINALD COUPLAND
Re-statement and Balance Sheet
26
R. PALME DUTT
The Exploitation of India : A Marxist View 41
THE ECONOMIC IMPACT
DANIEL THORNER
The Transformation of Rural Economy 53
BARBARA WARD
Modernization Begun but Not Completed 57
v
Table of
Contents
VI
THE POLITICAL ASPECT (I)
L . S. S. O'MALLEY
British Rule and Indian Welfare 64
KATE L. MITCHELL
The Mechanism of British Rule 71
THE POLITICAL ASPECT (II)
SIR REGINALD COUPLAND
Hindu-Moslem Antagonism 77
RAMA NAND AGGARWALA
“Divide-and-Rule” Tactics 81
H. N . BRAILSFORD
The British Arbiter 84
TOWARD EREEDOM
E . W. R. LUMBY
The Transfer of Power 87
W . NORMAN BROWN
Nationalism, Communalism, and Partition 93
K . M . PANIUKAR
Asia and Western Dominance 103
Suggestions for Additional Reading 112
Introduction
I
n the shaping of the modern world, neglect of agriculture; the extreme backward¬
few historical processes have had ness in the social services; and, above all, the
greater significance than the impact of tragic poverty of the people.2
European imperialism on Asia and Africa,
If we are to understand the significance
and the reaction and response which came
of European expansion, it is necessary to
in its train. The most spectacular single
come to some evaluation of the British im¬
example of this process may be seen in the
pact on India. The two centuries of British
history of Britain's Indian Empire. Writing
rule brought changes of basic importance
in 1942, an official British spokesman
in Indian life. This much is beyond dis¬
declared:
pute. But the student who seeks to evalu¬
ate these changes soon finds that historians
No romance can compare with the story of
have achieved no consensus in their judg¬
the handful of Englishmen . . . who, begin¬
ning as mere traders and merchant settlers, ments of the character and consequences of
have in barely two centuries built up the ma¬ the British raj. In the broadest sense, the
jestic structure of an Imperial system under issues in dispute might be summed up by
which peace, order and good government are
the question: Was British rule in India de¬
secured for three hundred and fifty millions
structive or creative? Was its essence the
of human beings inhabiting what is in essence
exploitation and the impoverishment of the
a continent of its own.1
country for the benefit of alien rulers? Or,
in contrast, did British rule serve to infuse
One might debate this characterization of
a new dynamism into a hitherto stagnant
the results of British rule, but who can
and backward society, and to lay the essen¬
deny that it captures something of the in¬
tial groundwork for India’s ultimate mod¬
herent drama of the situation? There is no
ernization? Finally, is it possible that Brit¬
parallel in history to this story of imperial
ish rule was both destructive and creative
control maintained for so long, and over
at the same time?
such a large and populous area, by a small
It is conventional to date the beginning
and distant nation. To Indian nationalists,
of British rule from the Battle of Plassey in
however, there was another dimension to
1757, which pave effective control of the
British rule. Jawaharlal Nehru, while serv¬ o
key Indian province of Bengal to the agents
ing his ninth term of imprisonment in a
of the English East India Company. Be¬
British jail in India, wrote in 1944 that
hind this lay a century and a half of in¬
creasing involvement by “John Company”
those parts of India which have been longest
in Indian affairs. The Mughal Empire had
under British rule are the poorest today. . . .
been at its peak of effectiveness in the late
Nearly all our major problems today have
grown up during British rule and as a direct 16th and early 17th centuries, but after the
result of British policy: the princes; the mi¬ death of the emperor Aurungzeb in 1707
nority problem; various vested interests, for¬ it had begun to disintegrate. For some time
eign and Indian; the lack of industry and the
2 Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India
1 L. S. Amery, India and Freedom (London, (New York, 1946), pp. 295, 305—6. By permis¬
1942), p. 21. By permission of Oxford University sion of The John Day Company, Inc., and of
Press. Asia Publishing House.
Vll
Introduction
Vlll
it was unclear whether the successor power Indian independence. The coming of in¬
would be Indian or European — Maratha or dependence has resolved one aspect of that
British or French. But by the early 19th debate, but many disputed questions re¬
century the Company had defeated its main. Is the appalling poverty of the Indian
rivals and laid a secure foundation for Brit¬ and Pakistani masses today because of or
ish rule. in spite of British rule? Was independence
The expansion of the Company’s au¬ itself the fruit of patient British trustee¬
thority was paralleled by changes in its ship, or was it the result of incessant na¬
role. Originally it had been concerned tionalist agitation and the dramatic altera¬
solely with trade. After Plassey it took on tion in world power relationships which
a dual character. While continuing as a accompanied the Second World War? Did
trading concern, it became sovereign in the British seek to train India for self-gov¬
fact if not in name over an ever-widening ernment, or did they seek to perpetuate
extent of Indian territory. After an initial their rule for as long as possible by a judi¬
period of confusion lasting for several dec¬ cious mixture of “divide-and-rule” tactics
ades, the Company and its agents began to when practical, and repression when neces¬
be subjected to an increasing measure of sary? Was the British raj truly “the white
Parliamentary control, particularly after the man’s burden,” in which the welfare of
passage of Pitt’s India Act in 1784. In 1813 India was a primary concern, or was the
the Company lost its legal monopoly of the main test of British policy the benefit which
Indian trade, and in 1833 it was stripped would accrue to Britain herself?
of its commercial functions, though it re¬ Obviously, it is difficult to generalize
mained as the governing authority in Brit¬ about anything as complex as the political,
ish India until 1858, when power was taken social, and economic effects of two cen¬
over directly by the British government in turies of history. It may facilitate our task,
the wake of the great Mutiny of the Com¬ however, if we begin with some broad
pany’s Indian army the year before. observations:
The new British “Government of India” (1) The British first came to India in
established in 1858 continued essentially the era of the mercantilist empires and
unchanged for half a century after the trading companies of the 17th and 18th
Mutiny. In the 20th century, however, the centuries. Their rule lasted through the
rising tide of Indian nationalism led to the era of the “new imperialism” of the late
passage by the British Parliament of three 19th and early 20th centuries. Thus it spans
successive Indian constitutional reforms, in the two great periods of European overseas
1909, 1919, and 1935. These acts modified expansion, as well as the intervening period
direct British rule by the introduction of an in the first half of the 19th century when
increasing degree of Indian participation in “anti-imperialist” sentiments and policies
legislative and executive authority. Finally, were generally in vogue.
after the Second World War, British power (2) During these years Britain’s own
on the Indian sub-continent came to an economic life underwent momentous
end, with the partition of British India and changes. The traditional concept of a Brit¬
the establishment of the two new independ¬ ish “industrial revolution” between, say,
ent states of India and Pakistan in 1947. 1770 and 1830 has been criticized by some
Thus, in a sense, we can look back to¬ historians,3 but there is no question that
day on a completed historical process. The these years were marked both by a trans¬
history of the British impact on India first formation in the nature of the British tex¬
began seriously to be written during the tile industry and by a massive shift in the
course of the long controversy between In¬
3 See Philip A. M. Taylor (ed.), The Industrial
dian nationalists and defenders of British
Revolution in Britain: Triumph or Disaster? in
rule which preceded the achievement of this same series.