Posted: 7/14/2018
A Popular, But False Stereotype
Colonialism stands for oppression, domination, dependency, and conquest.
For Marxists, colonialism was systematic exploitation. They called it imperialism and saw it as the final phase or stage of capitalism. How wrong they were! However, this false, simplistic narrative is still regurgitated and widely disseminated and believed by contemporaries.
It is like painting in black and white only.
Introduction
Nothing makes history more exciting than to introduce some biography of extraordinary individuals that made a significant positive difference. Following are a selected few and, so far, these examples are predominantly from the British colonial past. These individuals are presented in no particular order. Some of these British individuals surely could be called eccentrics, for which the UK is so famous for.
I am sure there were similar individuals from other European countries, e.g. Belgium, Netherlands, Germany etc., but I did not have the time to research more.
Richard Francis Burton
His many adventures and exploits during his life are mind boggling. He was a polyglot extraordinaire!
“Burton defied many aspects of the pervasive British ethnocentrism of his day, relishing personal contact with human cultures in all their variety. His works and letters extensively criticized colonial policies of the British Empire, even to the detriment of his career. … Burton was a captain in the army of the East India Company, serving in India (and later, briefly, in the Crimean War). Following this, he was engaged by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa and led an expedition guided by locals and was the first European known to have seen Lake Tanganyika. In later life, he served as British consul in Fernando Pó, Santos, Damascus [modern day Syria] ...” (emphasis added)
“His studies of Hindu culture had progressed to such an extent that "my Hindu teacher officially allowed me to wear the Janeu (Brahmanical Thread)",... although the truth of this has been questioned … Burton's interest (and active participation) in the cultures and religions of India was considered peculiar by some of his fellow soldiers who accused him of "going native" and called him "the White Nigger". ... Burton had many peculiar habits that set him apart from other soldiers. While in the army, he kept a large menagerie of tame monkeys [holy animals in India] in the hopes of learning their language.” (emphasis added)
“... him to attempt a Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca and, in this case, Medina). It was this journey, undertaken in 1853, which first made Burton famous. He had planned it whilst traveling disguised among the Muslims of Sindh, and had laboriously prepared for the adventure by study and practice (including undergoing the Muslim tradition of circumcision to further lower the risk of being discovered)” (incredible; emphasis added)
Sources:
Allan Octavian Hume
“Allan Octavian Hume, CB ICS (6 June 1829 – 31 July 1912) was a member of the Imperial Civil Service (later the Indian Civil Service), a political reformer, ornithologist and botanist who worked in British India. He was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, a political party that was later to lead in the Indian independence movement.” (emphasis added)
Yes, you read this right this British civil service member was on of the cofounders of the Indian National Congress. I do not remember, I have ever learnt this before.
“As an administrator of Etawah [a city in Uttar Pradesh], he saw the Indian Rebellion of 1857 as a result of misgovernance and made great efforts to improve the lives of the common people. The district of Etawah was among the first to be returned to normality and over the next few years Hume's reforms led to the district being considered a model of development. ” (emphasis added)
“... like his father Joseph Hume, the radical MP, he was bold and outspoken in questioning British policies in India. He rose in 1871 to the position of secretary to the Department of Revenue, Agriculture, and Commerce under Lord Mayo” (great example of British exceptionalism; emphasis added)
Sources:
Major General Charles ‘Hindoo’ Stuart
I tend to believe, this British gentleman was an eccentric in the best sense of the word.
Charles Stuart (1758 - 1828) was an officer in the East India Company Army and is well known for being one of the few British officers to embrace Hindu culture while stationed there, earning the nickname Hindoo Stuart. What were his fellow soldiers in the military thinking?
In his teens, Stuart left Ireland for India, where he remained for the rest of his life. Starting as a cadet, he rose through the ranks to become a Major-General. His last command was the Saugor Field Force.
He "had studied the language, manners and customs of the natives of this country with so much enthusiasm, his intimacy with them ... obtained for him the name of Hindoo Stuart”.
He published his letters extolling the virtues of "elegant, simple, sensible, and sensual" Indian saris vis-a-vis "the prodigious structural engineering European women strapped themselves into in order to hold their bellies in, project their breasts out and allow their dresses to balloon grandly up and over towards the floor".
In his book Vindication of the Hindoos (1808), Stuart criticised the work of European missionaries in India, claiming that:
- "Hinduism little needs the meliorating hand of Christianity to render its votaries a sufficiently correct and moral people for all the useful purposes of a civilised society."
- "Wherever I look around me, in the vast ocean of Hindu mythology, I discover Piety....Morality...and as far as I can rely on my judgement, it appears the most complete and ample system of Moral Allegory that the world has ever produced."
- Throughout this book Stuart warns of the dangers of the "obnoxious" missionaries and of attempts to convert Indians to Christianity, a process he describes as "impolitic, inexpedient, dangerous, unwise and insane". He asks "if their religion is insulted what confidence can we repose in the fidelity of our Hindu soldiers?" presaging, it is said, some of the causes of the very fateful Mutiny of 1857.
Stuart was buried with his idols at the South Park Street Cemetery in Calcutta, in a tomb which took the form of a Hindu temple. Looks quite impressive even today.
His remarkable collection of antiquities forms the basis of the British Museum's ancient Hindu and Buddhist sculpture collection from the Indian Subcontinent, now known as the Bridge Collection. “Stuart was a collector of Indian sculpture principally from Bihar, Bengal, Orissa and Central India. He opened the collections in his house in Wood Street, Calcutta, to the public. It contained weaponry, costume, prints, natural history specimens and a library. … He was a student of Indian culture and a vocal champion of Indian values during the pamphlet controversy of the early nineteenth century from which he acquired the name 'Hindoo Stuart'.”
As an aside: It appears that the famous Encyclopedia Britannica does not have an entry on this gentleman (as of 11/1/2017). Very Disappointing!
Sources:
John James Cowperthwaite
Many years I read about this extraordinary colonial civil service officer and how he made Hong Kong into a truly astonishing free market success story. For a long time, I did not know there were many others before him.
Since his story is well and widely known, I will not repeat it here.
Sources
Jindal, Nehru, And Gandhi
Where were the first, new leaders of an independent Indian subcontinent educated? What did they learn from the British?
Since Independence, India is the largest, successful democracy on earth with all its wrinkles and failures! If this is not an awe inspiring British colonial success, what is?
More Sources:
- Michael Wood’s documentary Story of India
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