The Great Divergence. Varieties of imperialism 8/29/2011. GEOG October British Colonialism in India and the Development of Liberalism

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1 GEOG October 2011 British Colonialism in India and the Development of Liberalism The Great Divergence Gapminder data Varieties of imperialism Settler colonialism Colonialism Neo-colonialism 1

2 Major Indian Colonial Developments 1757: Battle of Plassey 1793: Permanent Settlement 1813: End of East India Company monopoly 1840s: British promotion of Free Trade 1857: Indian Rebellion, establishment of Raj 1885: Establishment of Congress Party : Quit India campaign Effects of transfer of tax collection rights to British East India Company Richard Beecher, British East India Company, 1769: It must give pain to an Englishman to have reason to think that since the accession of the Company to the Diwani the condition of the people of this country has been worse than it was before This fine country, which flourished under the most despotic and arbitrary government, is verging towards ruin (Stavrianos, 1981: 233). Effects of British colonialism on Indian food consumption Railroads created better distribution Grain shortages created in producing regions At least 23 famines during British rule famine killed at least 10 million in Bengal and Behar 1943 famine killed million Agricultural output in Mughal India, 1600, similar to Europe (superior quality); agricultural output in British India, 1900, the same as in

3 Effects of British colonialism on peasant welfare Population increase: 6.4% per decade Crop production increase: 2.3% per decade (minus 20% per capita) Food crop production decrease per capita: minus 32% 1960s Mean food consumption lower than during Akbar s empire Effects of British colonialism on Indian labor Zamindars allowed to raise rents Peasants increasingly ejected from land (enclosure) and become agricultural workers (e.g., indigo plantations) Cotton weavers given advances from EIC Weavers can only deliver cloth to EIC and are pauperized out of existence, then joining wage labor force General monetization/commmodification Effects of British colonialism on rural class structure Viceroy Lord William Bentinck, 1829: If security was wanting against popular tumult or revolution, I should say that the Permanent Settlement, which though a failure in many other respects and in its most important essentials, has this great advantage at least, of having created a vast body of rich landed proprietors deeply interested in the continuance of British Dominion and having complete command over the mass of the people (Stavrianos, 1981: 244). 3

4 British divide-and-rule strategies Thomas Babington Macauly, president of the Committee on Public Instruction, 1835: We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect (Stavrianos, 1981: 239) Trade under British colonialism Import duties, 1814: British woolens imported to India: 2% Cotton and silk goods imported to India: 3.5% Indian raw cotton imported to Britain: nominal Indian cotton textiles imported to Britain: 70-80%. Average, overall British import duties: Early 1820s: 57% Late 1820s: 53% Late 19 th century: less than 30% Effects of colonialism on Indian manufacturing British cotton goods exports to India rose from less than 1 million yards to over 53 million yards. Indian cotton goods exports to Britain fell from 1.25 million pieces to 63,000 pieces. Late 19 th century Growth of less significant textiles such as jute. 4

5 Political Philosophies Royal Absolutism Liberalism Marxism Anarchism Fascism John Locke Letter Concerning Toleration general plea for religious tolerance exceptions: those who deliver themselves up to the protection and service of another prince (Muslims, Catholics?); atheists Second Treatise on Government general argument for political equality, liberty specific argument for private property (economic inequality) John Stuart Mill On Liberty general argument for political liberty (e.g., freedom of assembly, freedom of speech) exceptions: groups whose speech might cause harm; races in backward states Notes on Representative Government 5

6 Mill on India and colonialism Thus far, [I have spoken] of the [neo-british] dependencies whose population is in a sufficiently advanced state to be fitted for representative government. But there are others which have not attained that state, and which, if held at all, must be governed by the dominant country, or by persons delegated for that purpose by it. This mode of government is as legitimate as any other, if it is the one which in the existing state of civilization of the subject people, most facilitates their transition to a higher state of improvement. (1962, 345-6) Mill on the need for despotism The state of different communities, in point of culture and development, ranges downward to a condition very little above the highest of the beasts a people in a state of savage independence, in which everyone lives by himself, exempt, unless by fits, from any external control, is practically incapable of making any progress until it has learnt to obey. The indispensable virtue, therefore, in a government which establishes itself over a people of this sort is, that it make itself obeyed. To enable it to do this, the constitution of the government must be nearly, or quite, despotic. (1962, 38-9) Mill on enforced industrial labor Again, uncivilized races, and the bravest and most energetic still more than the rest, are averse to continuous labour of an unexciting kind. Yet all real civilization is at this price; without such labour, neither can the mind be disciplined into the habits required by civilized society, nor the material world prepared to receive it. There needs a rare concurrence of circumstances, and for that reason often a vast length of time, to reconcile such a people to industry, unless they are for a while compelled to it. Hence even personal slavery, by giving a commencement to industrial life, and enforcing it as the exclusive occupation of the most numerous proportion of the community, may accelerate the transition to a better freedom than that of fighting and rapine. (1962, 40) 6

7 Mill on colonialism and trade But though Great Britain could do perfectly well without her colonies there are strong reasons for maintaining the present slight bond of connexion It at least keeps the markets of the different countries open to one another, and prevents that mutual exclusion by hostile tariffs, which none of the great communities of mankind, except England, have yet outgrown. (1962, 342) British industrial policy in India I Charles Marjoribanks, before House of Commons, 1830: We have excluded the manufactures of India from England by high prohibitive duties and given every encouragement to the introduction of our own manufactures into India. By our selfish (I use the word invidiously) policy we have beat down the native manufactures of Dacca and other places and inundated their country with our goods. (Cited in Wallerstein, 1989: 150) British industrial policy in India II George G. de H. Lampiert, Chairman of the East India Company, 1840: This Company has, in various ways, encouraged and assisted by our great manufacturing ingenuity and skill, succeeded in converting India from a Manufacturing country into a country exporting raw produce. (Cited in Wallerstein, 1989: 150) 7

8 A British historian on British manufacturing supremacy M. Martin, testifying before the House of Lords in 1840: This supercession of the native for British Manufacture is often quoted as a splendid example of the triumph of British skill. It is a much stronger instance of English tyranny, and how India has been impoverished by the most vexatious system of customs duties imposed for the avowed object of favouring the mother country (Stavrianos, 1981: 247). Question How should we interpret Mill s liberalism: An idealistic universal project that has taken centuries to fulfill (perhaps because its original adherents didn t always abide by their own principles)? A self-serving or misleading set of arguments dressed in universalisms (that may not in fact be possible to implement)? Geographers on knowledge Even universals rise in particular places Tsing: universals are made from particulars by their extension (and [mis-]translation) Liberalism has its own place-based history Sheppard: Free Trade doctrine closely linked to the interests of Manchester merchants Mitchell: liberalism has different forms depending on whose liberalism it is 8

9 Mill and nationalism States as the territories of peoples The Indian experience and British nationalism, sovereignty Legacies of colonialism More developed transportation and communications systems (railroads) Development of dependent capitalism in port cities; weakening of basis for independent capitalist development Exacerbation of gender, ethnic, religious, and regional conflicts Development of wage labor Production of an Indian nation Sources P. Deane, The First Industrial Revolution (1979) L. Stavrianos, Global Rift (1981) D. Chakrabarty, Rethinking working-class history (1989) I. Wallerstein, The Modern World-System III (1989) M. Gadgil and R. Guha, This Fissured Land (1992) P. Porter and E. Sheppard, A World of Difference (1998) M. Goswami, Producing India (2004) B. Weightman, Dragons and Tigers (2004) J. S. Mill, On Representative Government (1962) J. S. Mill, On Liberty (1978) I. Hannaford, The Idea of Race in the West (1996) U. S. Mehta, Liberalism and Empire (1999) S. Sen, Distant Sovereignty (2002) J. Locke, Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration (2003) M. Goswami, Producing India (2004) K. Mitchell, Crossing the Neoliberal Line (2004) E. Sheppard, Constructing free trade, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (2005) A. Tsing, Friction (2005) 9

Geography 484 Southeast Asia Jim Glassman Lecture #9b November 2, 2011

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