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Gandhi and the Debate about Civilisation

Author(s): LLOYD I RUDOLPH and SUSANNE HOEBER RUDOLPH


Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 50, No. 30 (JULY 25, 2015), pp. 78-82
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24481978
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NOTES

Gandhi and the Debate evangelicals, and Gandhi's vision of the


catastrophe the colonial power had

about Civilisation
inflicted when it drew India into colonial
modernity. For Gandhi, the nationalist
question, how to rid India of the colonial
power was a subset of a bigger issue,
lloyd ι rudolph, susanne hoeber rudolph how to resist and replace the modern
LLOYD I RUDOLPH, SUSANNE HOEBER RUDOLPH
civilisation that had been unleashed on

For Gandhi,the
For Gandhi, the national
national question andhi put the critique of "modern the world,
question
was muchmore
was much more than
than a struggle I -^civilisation" at the centre of his
a struggle
,between
. . u η j λ j two earliestculturally-defined
between two culturally-defined
and most seminal work, Orientalist
, , „ . TT Variant
,, ,,
Hind Swaraj or Home Rule. He thereby We start our account of the debate about
civilisations.
civilisations. For
For him,
him, getting
getting entered a long-standing debate in India civilisation in 18th century India with the
rid ofcolonial
rid of colonialrule
rule
waswas part
part of aof a and beyond about the meaning and so-called Orientalists, Sir William Jones
larger project to replace and resist consequences of civilisation. The ancient and his colleagues of the Asiatic Society of
modern
modern civilisation.
j ■ civilisation.
·ι· τ·· ι Greeks
This article ... ,, , ., , , r .. 1 , Λ
thought of the invading Persians Bengal. Serving as administrators and
This article
as uncivilised barbarians. Similarly, the judges for the East India Company (eic),
situates Gandhi's endeavour
situates Gandhi s endeavour ancient Chinese thought of themselves nominally a trading company chartered
against the backdrop of the as civilised and neighbouring kingdoms by the British parliament to do business
romantic vision
romantic vision ofof India's
India's past, as uncivilised barbarians. And we learn in India, they were educated men,
past,
envisaged
envisaged by the Orientalists, and j Jr · , , _ . , ,6 . . , .
11 ,i ,. . , from the laws of Manu that ancient learned in classic languages. Edward
by the Orientalists, and
Indians regarded foreigners as mlecchas, Said has argued that they acquired their
the
the disparaging
disparaging perspective
perspective of
of the
the again uncivilised barbarians. From knowledge of Indian civilisation to serve
Utilitarians and the evangelists. ancient times until the contemporary British power. Our reading suggests that
era the difference between self and other the power of intellectual curiosity and
has often been constructed in terms of a the love of learning were equally strong
civilised "us" and an uncivilised "them." motives as the need to succeed as a colo
This long-standing debate about niai administrator.
civilisation was given a boost when the In 1784, soon after his arrival in
late Samuel Huntington, a professor of Calcutta to serve the eic as a judge to the
political science and international Supreme Court of Bengal, Sir William
relations at Harvard, published "The Jones established a learned society, the
Clash of Civilisations?" in the Summer Asiatic Society.1 He and his colleagues,
1993 issue of Foreign Affairs. It created an Henry Τ Colebroke, James Prinsep,
enormous initial response with intense Charles Wilkins and Nathaniel Halhed,
debate about the nature and con- learned Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic and
sequences of civilisation and civilisa- translated texts such as the Bhagavad
tional differences for world politics. Gita and Shakuntala into English. Their
Huntington saw civilisations as closed, scholarship launched what Raymond
bounded homogeneous entities which, Schwab called an "Oriental Renais
when they encountered one another, sance"2 in Europe and influenced such
would clash. His critics have held that American literary and philosophical
civilisations are typically heterogeneous luminaries as Jefferson, Thoreau, Emer
and pluralistic, with soft boundaries, as son and Whitman.
τ, . , , „ ,. ... likely to learn from each other, to ex- In an era when classical education
Lloyd I Rudolph (lrudolph@uchicago.edu) is
Professor Emeritus of Political Science, change, as to clash. Our question is, how was prominent among British elites and
University of Chicago and co-author, most has the civilisational debate been defined the civilised person, they found
recently, of Destination India: Overland from framed in India and how has Gandhi Indian civilisation to be the equal of
London to India and what We Learned There. contributed to it. Greece and Rome. Jones famously
uchicago.edu) is Professor Emeritus of Political . ο ο
Susanne Hoeber Rudolph (srudolph@midway. we will present accounts of three described the Sanskrit language to be
Science, University of Chicago and former variants of the Indian civilisation debate: 'of wonderful structure; more perfect
president of the American Political Science a romantic vision of India created by the than the Greek, more copious than the
Association and of the Association of Asian Orientalists, a bleak and contemptuous Latin and more exquisitely defined than
Studies· vision created by the Utilitarians and either...". Jones also advanced the
78 july 25, 2015 vol l no 30 B23 Economic & Political weekly

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: NOTES

argument, one recognised by contem- Of Indian poetry he says: and to conquer or depose Indian rulers.
porary philologists, that India's ancient Of the style in which they are composed, The consequence was the mutual shed
language, Sanskrit, shared a common it's far from too much to say, that all the ding 0f blood and violence that accom

, nations...they exhibit in perfection:...meta- T .. . . ,, ....


civilisational root with European languages vices which characterise the style of rude panied the 1857 rebellion, an event in

via an original Indo-European language, phors...the most violent and strained> often Indian history comparable to the civil
that provides a common linguistic the most unnatural and ridiculous; obscu- war in American history,
ancestry for Sanskrit, Greek and other rity; tautology; repetition; verbosity; con- A critical turning point from the
European languages. The orientalists fusion...distinguish the Mahabharat and orientalist to the Utilitarian view of
associated language and people, an Ramayan (Mill 1968:36). civilisation came in 1835. The newly
association that led them to believe that Of architecture: appointed law member in the utilitarian
Indians shared common ancestors with In India...the arts have made very little administration ofGovernor General Lord
Europeans. progress. All the statues we see in their tern- wmiam Bentinck) Thomas Babington
pies are badly designed and worse executed , . . . .
(Mill 1968:33). Macauley, convinced a majority of
The Utilitarian Variant Bentinck's council to adopt his Minute on
Under Governor General Lord William Of religion: Education. Doing so reversed a half
Bentinck, the Orientalists' view of Indian Even those inquirers who have been least century of support for an orientalist policy
civilisation was challenged and dis- aware of the grossness of the Hindu reli- 0f endorsing a positive view of Indian
. . , , . Γττ . gion have seen that wretched ceremonies .... . . . . T .. .
placed by the views of Utilitarians and constituted almost the whole of its practical civilisation by teaching Indian languages
evangelicals such as Thomas Babington part...Never among any other people did the In educational institutions. Macauley
Macauley and Charles Grant, who held ceremonial part prevail over the moral to a judged Sanskrit and Persian learning and
Indian learning and Indian religion in greater...extent (Mill 1968:227). the Indian civilisation they conveyed,
contempt. Their view of Indian civilisa- We can better grasp Mill's views of sufficiently wanting that they had to be
tion relegated it to the lowest rungs on Indian civilisation from the debate he replaced. His Minute gave primacy to
the ladder of civilisation. The most influ- had with James Tod, a contemporary education in English about Western
ential voice among the Utilitarians was and rival, as a result of their parliamen- knowledge. As Macauley famously put it
that of James Mill. The two great sue- tary testimony in 1832. Like Mill, Tod at the time: "...all the books written in
cesses of Mill's life were his relationship was the author of an influential work, the Sanskrit language [are]...less
as a friend and colleague with the philo- The Annals and Antiquities ofRajasthan. valuable than what may be found in...
sophical radical, Jeremy Bentham, Unlike Mill, Tod knew India intimately abridgements used at preparatory
whom he met in 1808 and his authorship for 24 years of eic service. Both men schools in England." Macauley's goal
and publication in 1817 of the three-vol- were asked to assess the performance of was to form "a class of persons, Indian in
ume History of British India. It took 12 the eic so that parliament could make blood and colour, but English in taste, in
years to research and write but it made recommendations for eic Charter revi- opinions, in morals and in intellect"
him famous and garnered him an ap- sion the following year. Their testimony (Mansingh 2003: 236).5
pointment in 1819 at the eic as an frames radically contrasting views of
assistant examiner. By 1830, six years the value of India's civilisation and the The Queen's Proclamation
before his death, he was appointed head related question, whether Indians were Queen Victoria's Proclamation of 1858
examiner at the eic. The History re- capable of ruling themselves. Tod speaks followed the successful crushing of the
mained for the next century the hege- from the romantic Orientalist pers- 1857 rebellion. The proclamation replaced
monic text shaping British views of Indi- pective of William Jones and the Asiatic Utilitarian and evangelical contempt and
an civilisation.3 Mill wrote History of Society of Bengal, Mill from the con- disregard for the ideas and practices of
British India4 without visiting India or tempt for Indian civilisation implicit in Indian civilisation with respect and
knowing an Indian language. the Utilitarian perspective of Jeremy recognition. The princes of India were
Of Indian morals Mill concludes: Bentham's philosophical radicalism. Tod told that "all treaties and engagements

With_respect
, , . . arguesto
thatmorals and
Indian kings, duty,
if left itmade
to their appears 0 0by...the
with them J East India
not that any theory has ever been construct- own devices, were effective and benign Company are by us accepted and will be
ed by the Hindus. In what regards the per- and could be brought into a mutually scrupulously maintained...We shall re
ceptive part, their ethics exactly resemble supportive relationship with the British spect the rights, dignity and honour of
those of all other rude and uninstructedna- crown Mill holds that Indians are native princes as our own...." The
tions (Mill 1968.60]. incapable of ruling themselves and proclamation went on to say that "...we
Of the subtlety and nuance of Sanskrit require British rule if they are not to sink disclaim alike the right and desire to
grammarians Mill concludes: into anarchy and violence. impose our [religious] convictions on
, . , , , . The eic's adoption of a world view any of our subjects....".None are to be
Hindus...beyond any other nation abound _ r .......
in those frivolous refinements which are anc' P°^c^es based on Mills Utilitarian ...in anywise favoured, none molested or
suited to the taste of an uncivilised people rationalism leads it to try to uproot and disquieted, by reason of their religious faith
(Mill 1968: 62). eradicate Indian customs and practices or observances, but that all alike shall enjoy
Economic & Political weekly Q259 JULY 25, 2015 vol l no 30 79

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NOTES

the equal and impartial protection of the It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr the future. Accomplishments in science
law;andwedostrictly...enjoinallthosewho Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer anj technology and the capacity to use
may be in authority under us that they ab- now posing as a fakir of a type well-known , ... , , .
stain from all interference with the religious in the East, striding half-naked up the steps m ln ^enl8n an<^ productive ways
belief or worship of any of our subjects on 0f the viceregal palace, while he is still or- seemed to prove that humans could
pain our highest displeasure. ganizing and conducting a campaign of civil master and harness nature and direct
The queen then made a commitment disobedience, to parley on equal terms with and control social change. Before the
that was to be more honoured in the the rePresentative °f die King-Emperor, irrationality and carnage of the World
.breach
. , . ,than
.... m
, Such a spectacle can increase unrest in India „r , , . ... . . . ,
the realisation for several , . , „ ,. , , War i, shattered the illusion that material
and the dangers to which white people are '
decades and then only to a very limited there exposed (Herman 2008:359).8 and social progress was inevitable and
degree. "Our subjects, of whatever race benign, progress seemed as certain as it
or creed, [are to] be freely and impar- Churchill's first attack on the viceroy, was palpable. In formulating his inner
tially admitted to offices in our Lord Irwin's, efforts to secure dominion and outer critique of modern civilisation
service...." And in her coda she went all status for India had appeared in the in Hind Swaraj, Gandhi challenged this
out to restore recognition and respect for Daily Mail of 16 November 1930. Again view of progress.
Indian civilisation by calling upon her echoing Mill, Churchill wrote that The challenge has travelled and seeded
servants in India "in framing and Britain had rescued India "from ages of itself in many places. By 1992 Vaclav Havel,
administering the law, [to pay] due barbarism, internecine war and tyranny." an architect and hero of the non-violent
regard...to the ancient rights, usages India's "slow but ceaseless forward march revolution in Eastern Europe that ended
and customs of India" (McDermott et al to civilisation" constituted "the finest the Cold War, could pronounce an epitaph
2014:110-12). achievement of our history." The for the modern civilisation that Gandhi
Tod's Orientalist view of Indian extension of dominion status is "not would have embraced. In "The End of the
civilisation is to an extent restored in the practicable" at this time and "any attempt Modern Era," Havel (1992) interpreted the
world view and policies of Queen Victoria's to secure it will encounter the earnest "end of Communism" as signalling the
1858 Proclamation replacing the eic with resistance of the British nation." It was passing of "a major era in human history."
crown rule. The contestation between absurd to contemplate self-government Havel spoke of the close of "the modern
an "Orientalist" perspective that recog- "while India is prey to fierce racial and age as a whole." That age, he said, "has
nises difference and respects Indian religious dissensions... If the viceregal been dominated by the culminating
civilisation6 and Indians' capacity for proposal were adopted the British Raj belief.. .that the world—and Being as
self-rule and a "Utilitarian" perspective would be replaced by a'Gandhi Raj'...." such—is a wholly knowable system
that denies difference yet views India as (Manchester 1983: 847).9 governed by a finite number of universal
a barbarian country incapable of self-rule laws that man can grasp and rationally
continued to animate British thought Gandhi and Modern Civilisation direct for his own benefit." This
and policy for the hundred years The account we have so far given confidence "gave rise to the belief that
between Victoria's 1858 Proclamation establishes that the last three centuries man...was capable of objectively
and Indian independence in 1947.7 have produced two different visions of describing, explaining and controlling
Indian civilisation and that the visions everything that exists and of possessing
Churchill and Indian Civilisation have been allied to different political the one and only truth about the world."
The view that India was a barbarian outcomes. This background prepares us Havel, at the close of the modern era
country incapable of self-government for Gandhi's attempt to define and act in 1992, recognised the human hubris
was evident again in the early 1930s upon civilisation. Gandhi is best known embedded in modernity and its promise
when Winston Churchill, Gandhi's most as a nationalist who tried to rid India of of one truth. He urged a more modest
dedicated enemy, succeeded in blocking rule by the ethnically and linguistically vision of partial and contingent truths,
a parliamentary act giving India domin- defined civilisation of Great Britain. But Such partial truth enabled humans to
ion status, the equivalent of independ- he decided early on that the issue was recognise "an elementary sense of
ence. Churchill, echoing James Mill, ar- larger than a struggle between culturally justice" that gave them "the ability to see
gued that India needs British rule be- defined civilisations. In 1909 while still in things as others do," gave them "a sense of
cause Indians are incapable of govern- South Africa he launched a larger project, transcendental responsibility...," and
ing themselves. Without British rule the a struggle against modern civilisation. made them recognise politics as "morality
country would descend into anarchy As early as 1909, in his seminal essay, in practice."10
and violence. He rallied support for this Hind Swaraj, Gandhi formulated the Unlike most of his turn-of-the-century
view by asserting that India was an es- term "modern civilisation" and found it contemporaries in Europe, the us and
sential component of the British empire wanting. In doing so he flew in the face the colonial world of India, Gandhi did
and that without the empire Britain of prevailing world opinion. In 1909, not succumb to the allure of modern civ
would cease to be a world power. It was Europe and the United States (us) were ilisation's claim of progress, the claim that
in this context that Churchill delivered approaching the apogee of the belief in scientific knowledge and enlightenment
his most quoted attack on Gandhi: progress. There was great confidence in rationalism translated into practice by
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: NOTES

technocrats, engineers and managers the industrial revolution which "is only of John Ruskin and Henry David
made it possible for man to conquer and a hundred years old, or to be more Thoreau and Leo Tolstoy.
command nature, perfect society and re- precise fifty" (Gandhi 1998: 35, footnote Gandhi thought of the European
place poverty with abundance. Nor did 51). It makes "bodily welfare the object dissenters as the "other West." It was a
he share his contemporary Max Weber's of life" (Gandhi 1998: 35); "...the West that shaped his civilisational
tragic view of modernity as an iron cage, incessant search for comforts and their hybridity and countercultural mentality.
Rationalisation, Weber argued, promoted multiplications is...an evil and I make It was a West to which, in time, he made
not only efficiency, but also disenchant- bold to say that the Europeans them- major contributions. The other West was
ment—leaving no place for religion and selves will have to remodel their out- defined in part by the 20 authors Gandhi
myth. Gandhi rejected modernity's tri- look, if they are not to perish under the listed in an appendix to Hind Swaraj and
umphal progressivism and its denial of weight of the comforts to which they are in part by public figures of the 1880s and
religion and myth. becoming slaves" (Gandhi 1998:68). 1890s he admired such as William
Life-corroding competition and restless Morris, George Bernard Shaw and Annie
Gandhi's Ju-jitsu with striving are the result of the transfer of life Besant.11 They imagined another way to
Civilisational Discourse from the regulated wage of the ordered live and marched to a different drum
In 1909 Gandhi in two chapters of Hind village to the chaos and din and imper- mer. Gandhi's co-conspirators said no to
Swaraj, vi on "Civilisation" and xm on sonality of the city. The multiplication of modernity's siren call of progressivism
"What Is True Civilisation?," used ju-jitsu wants destroys happiness. Less is more. and maximalism and to empire's awesome
to reverse the force of the civilisational we notice that the mind is like a restless violence and splendour.
debate. Ju-jitsu, it will be remembered, bird; the more it gets the more it wants and Like other fighters against colonial

, , . dulge our passions, the more unbridled they ....... _ . . . .


is a martial art in which one of the oppo- sti11 remains unsatisfied. The more we in- ;5Π1) Gandhi drew on the traditions of

nents turns the other opponent s strength beœme Qur anœstors therefore> set a limit his civilisation. Popular iconography of
to his disadvantage. In Chapter vi, Gandhi on our indulgences. They saw that happi- Gandhi tends to stress the Indian part of
refashions the positively valued "modern ness was largely a mental condition (Gandhi his persona. But he does not have a limited
civilisation" into a negative, by irony: 1998:68). or exclusionary view of civilisations. His
Let us first consider what state of things is Chapter xm of Hind Swaraj is about a use of the other West signifies that un
described by the word "civilisation." Its positive version of civilisation, a version like Huntington's clash of civilisations,
true test lies in the fact that people living lived in India but available as well to Gandhi believes in the overlapping qual
in it make bodily welfare the object of life. Europeans jn his time and ours. That ity of civilisation, in civilisational learn
We will take some examples... Formerly, in r
Europe, people ploughed their lands mainly civilisation was characterised by the ing and collaboration.
by manual labour. Now, one man can plough "good conduct" that makes it possible In the Preface and in the Foreword to
a vast tract by means of steam engines and "to attain mastery over our mind and Hind Swaraj Gandhi tells us what he
can thus amass great wealth. This is called our passjonS;" a vjew based on Gandhi's learned from and shared with the other
a sign of civilisation... Men will not need the .. r , ... ... :
use of their hands and feet. They will press readm8 of the Bhagavad Gita (Gandhi West:
a button and they will have their clothing 1998: 68-69). The main fault of modern whilst the views expressed in Hind Swaraj
at their side. They will press another but- civilisation is that it pursues world are held by me, I have but endeavoured
ton and they will have their newspaper... mastery rather than self-mastery. It sets humbly to follow Tolstoy, Ruskin, Thoreau,
formerly when people wanted to fight one nQ jimits Qn desire and Qn growth Qne Emerson and other writers besides the mas
another they measured between them their ... , . "... . , ters of Indian philosophy. Tolstoy has been
bodily strength; now it is possible to take hundred years after the publication of one of my teachers for a number of years.
away thousands of lives by one man working Hind Swaraj, it is becoming increasingly Those who want to see a corroboration of
behind a gun from a hill. This is civilisation apparent that limiting growth has the views submitted in the following chap
(Gandhi 1998: 36). become a condition for global survival. ters, will find it in the works of the above
This is the "barbarism" that came to More production of goods and services named^ masters. For ready reference some
of the books are mentioned in the Appendi
dominate the Western mentality and means more pollution, more global ces.12
conduct following the industrial révolu- warming, more climate change and the
And in the foreword he tells us,
tion and that colonialism brought to In- exhaustion of resources, not least land
dia in the form of colonial modernity, and water. These views are mine and yet not mine They
are mine because I hope to act according to

Echoing Edward Carpenter, Gandhi Ilk- , them. They are also part of my being. But
ened modern civilisation to a disease. The Other est yet, they are not mine, because I lay no claim
But "civilisation is not an incurable dis- Gandhi's critique of modern civilisation to originality. They have been formed after
ease";. The English people who are par- was fashioned out of many components, reading several books. That which I dimly
ticularly "afflicted by it" "are a shrewd among them the critiques developed by felt received suPP°rt from these books
nation and I, therefore, believe that they those who lived uneasily in modern "The views I venture to place before
will cast off the evil" (Gandhi 1998: 38). society. Within the West there was the reader are, needless to say, held by
Writing in 1909, Gandhi reminds us another West, the "other West" of many Indians not touched by what is
that modern civilisation follows from vegetarianism and the craft movement, known as civilisation, but I ask the

Economic & Political weekly 03553 july 25, 2015 vol l no 30 8l

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NOTES

reader to believe me when I tell him that has no application to any state of things anteri Green, Martin (1993): Gandhi: Voice of a New Age
or to the time when mankind has become capa Revolution, Mount Jackson, Virginia: Axios
they are also held by thousands of Europe ble of being improved... It is, perhaps, hardly Press.

ans" (Gandhi 1998: 6, 10-11; emphasis necessary to say that his doctrine is meant to Havel, Vaclav (1992): "The End of the Modern Era,"
apply only to human beings in the maturity of The New York Times, 1 March. Address to the
mine). Gandhi is aware that what he has to their faculties... Those who are still in a state to
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,
say about modern civilisation in Hind require being taken care of by others, must be 4 February.
protected against their own actions as well as
Swaraj is explicitly or tacitly shared by Havel, Vaclav (1995): "Civilization's Thin Veneer,"
against external injury" (1975:15).
Harvard Magazine, July-August. Commence
"many Indians" and "thousands of Euro Mehta invokes Edmund Burke to counter the
ment address, 8 June.
Mills' liberal universalism. In words that capture
peans." He did not stereotype or essen Tod's worldview and objectives in writing
Herman, Arthur (2008): Gandhi & Churchill, New
York: Bantam Dell.
tialise the West of Western civilisation The Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, Me
Hutchins, Francis (1967): The Illusion of Permanence:
hta argues that Burke's views contrast "starkly"
or equate it with modern civilisation. He British Imperialism in India, Princeton: Princeton
with liberal universalism because of "the politi
University Press.
knew that the colonialism and imperial cal and psychological significance he attaches
to places. Individuals "belong to," "come from," Kejariwal, Om Prakash (1988): The Asiatic Society
ism of Britain, Tsarist Russia, and other
and "live in" places. For Burke, those philo of Bengal and the Discovery of India's Past,
European powers and the modern civi sophical emblems capture fundamental aspects 1784-1838, Delhi and New York: Oxford Uni
of individual and collective identity "...The versity Press.
lisation they perpetuated and imposed
normative force of history and location stem Manchester, William (1983): The Last Lion: Winston
did not eliminate the possibility of a from their psychological centrality to identity Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932,

Ruskin or a Tolstoy speaking from with formation" (Mehta 1999:160-61). New York: Dell Publishing.
For Churchill's expectation that opposition to Mansingh, Surjit (2003): Historical Dictionary of
in the West for an other West. For
the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of 5 March 1931 and its India, New Delhi: Vision Books.
Gandhi in 1909, the countercultural dis commitment to accord India dominion status McDermott, Rachel Fell, Leonard A Gordon,
would make him prime minister, see Herman Ainslie Τ Embree, Frances W Pritchett and
sent and resistance to the hegemony of
(2008: 352-59)· Dennis Dalton (eds) (2014): Sources of Indian
modern civilisation were already global For an account of how Irwin's proposal to grant Tradition, New York: Columbia University Press.

phenomena. dominion status to India played out in British Mehta, Uday Singh (1999): Liberalism and Empire,
politics see Manchester (1983: 837-58). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
The last phrase about politics being "morality Mill, James (1968): History of British India, London:
NOTES in practice" is from Vaclav Havel's 1995 Chelsea House.
Harvard commencement address, "Civiliza Mill, John Stuart (1975): "On Liberty" in Three
ι For more on this, see Kejariwal 1988.
tion's Thin Veneer," Harvard Magazine, July Essays, New York: Oxford University Press.
2 For more on this, see Schwab 1984.
August 1995. Rudolph, Lloyd I and Susanne Η Rudolph (1997):
3 For a masterful overview of British estimates of
See Green (1993) for more on this. "Occidentalism and Orientalism: Perspectives
Indian civilisation see Hutchins 1967.
4 It is arguable that Mill's History is Edward "Appendices" start on page 120 of Parel's on Legal Pluralism" in S C Humphreys (ed) Cul
Said's most telling example of "Orientalism". In edition of Hind Swaraj with 20 entries under tures of Scholarship, Ann Arbor, Michigan :
Said's words: "What follows are schemes for... "I Some Authorities." University of Michigan Press.
reconstituting [the natives] as people requiring Said, Edward W (1994): Culture and Imperialism,
a European presence....Kipling's fiction [posit New York: Vintage Books.
ed] the Indian as a creature clearly needing REFERENCES
Schwab, Raymond Schwab (1984): The Oriental
British tutelage...since without Britain India Renaissance; Europe's Rediscovery of India and
Gandhi, Mohandas Κ (1998): Hind Swaraj and Other
would disappear into its own corruption and the East, 1680-1880, New York: Columbia Uni
Writings, Anthony Parel (ed), Cambridge:
underdevelopment" (Said 1994:167).
Cambridge University Press. versity Press.
5 In 1835 Bentinck's council agreed to allocate its
educational funds to teaching western learning

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All funds appropriated for purposes of educa
tion were to be employed on English education

Snonisftiifc^; i What what d0 *ou ®et with


alone. Màcaulay's project of anglicised uni
formity was deepened in 1857 when Sir Charles do you get with
Wood's 1854 Education Dispatch recommend
ing inter alia the establishment of English me
a Print subscription?
dium universities in the three presidencies— • *> **** to*

Bengal, Madras and Bombay—was acted upon. • 5050issues


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6 Tod and the 18th century orientalists viewed >n the Periphery

Indians as civilised in part because they associ


tw iiBjK «e»s»* husssKwaos

ated language and people. Tod's efforts to find • All


Allspecial
special and reviewissues
and review issues
Indian analogues to Greek and Roman god and
heroes and his belief that Indians and Britons
were distant cousins are located in his parti • Access
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the
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past
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two
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cipation in Jones' Indo-European languages
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For more about why the 18th century oriental
ists of Bengal thought of India as civilised see
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7 Uday Singh Mehta's (1999) Liberalism and Em
pire shows how British liberals such as James
Mill and John Stuart Mill squared the circle of
affirming a Lockean liberal universalism, the
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doctrine that all humanity is the same, while
declaring Indians to be different because they Attractive rates available for students, individuals and institutions.
lacked civilisation.
Postal address: Economic and Political Weekly,
Indians, it seems, were like infants and wom
320-321, A to Ζ
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en, unfit to care for or improve themselves. As
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82 July 25, 2015 vol l no 30 ΠΤΊΓ7] Economic & Political weekly

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