Indians in Britain

Anglo-Indian Encounters, Race and Identity, 1880-1930

Shompa Lahiri

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780714680491
• eBook ISBN: 9781135264536
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

This is an analysis of the nature and impact of the Indian presence in Britain, and British reactions to it. Problems of discrimination, isolation, and deprivation turned many students to politics, they appropriated ideas and institutions, and challenged British metropolitan society.

1
Indian Purposes: Travelling Subjects

TWO apparently contradictory processes were taking place in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. In Britain there was a steady increase in the number of Indian students, while in India the perception of western superiority was undergoing erosion. Evidence for a rejection of the West can be seen in all spheres of life: socially there was increased racial animosity; politically, there was an assertion of indigenous Hindu identity and the rise of nationalism; lastly, there was a keener sense of economic exploitation. Before leaving India many students were exposed to all three.

Rejection of the West

According to the established view, one aspect of Indian life few Indians managed to escape, regardless of status, caste or wealth, was racial discrimination. Senior British officials were not blind to the indignities suffered by Indians; Sir Henry Cotton mentioned the abuses and assaults inflicted on the local population by the British community and noted that the more educated the Indian, the more he was disliked by Englishmen, because he wanted to be treated as an equal.¹ Ill-treatment of Indians, such as ejection from first-class train compartments and common assault, were regular occurrences. Another aspect of the problem was racial exclusion. Indians were debarred from advancement within government service, even though they had suitable qualifications. Pherozeshah Mehta, Brojendra De, W. C. Bonnerjee and Surendranath Banerjea were all passed over for promotion. Matters came to a head during the Ilbert Bill controversy, the legislation intended to give Indian judges and magistrates criminal jurisdiction over resident Europeans. Racism provoked a dual response: not only did it imbue Indians with a strong sense of colour and nationality, it also offered an area of emotional identification between different classes of Indian, which united them and to a certain degree overrode sectional interests.

Despite racism, alliances between English officials and well-placed Indians were fostered in the form of patron/client relations.² These relationships were used to facilitate travel to and education in Britain, particularly for students arriving in the nineteenth century. W. C. Bonnerjee was assisted by an English lawyer, Cockerel Smith. Aurobindo and Manmohan Ghose lived with an English friend of their father (K. D. Ghose), who acted as their guardian. Pandita Ramabai was encouraged and supported during her residence in England by the Sisters of Wantage Mission. However, Gandhi does not fit this model: he had no contact with the British before making his decision to go and study in England. 'For the first time in my life', he wrote, 'I had an interview with an English gentleman [Mr Lely]. Formerly I never dared to front them. But thoughts of London made me bold.'³ Gandhi was unable to secure any financial support for his venture from Lely, a British official.

The fundamental contradiction between British and Indian interests was most apparent in the economic context, promoted in the 'drain of wealth' theory. Dadabhai Naoroji first propounded the theory in 1867. He argued that nearly a quarter of India's revenues were expropriated by Britain; as a result, India was 'being continually bled'.⁴ The drain argument was a tangible symbol of British exploitation and its simple adversarial message had widespread appeal. The impression grew that, while Indians were faced with increased hardships from famines and an additional taxation burden, they were still obliged to pay for British home charges and contribute to the artificial export surplus. Naoroji and his associates argued that only self-rule would arrest the drain and allow the growth of native industries and traditional handicrafts, there-by removing any hindrance to Indian economic development. These theories were put into practice when British goods were boycotted in Bengal during the Swadeshi era (1905-08). By burning British imports, Bengalis were able to show their physical rejection of the West and their commitment to Swaraj.

The negative factors of racism and economic exploitation were not enough to stimulate the creation of national consciousness in India. Cultural nationalists looked for more positive ways in which the East could assert its superiority over the West. The glorification of ancient India was given intellectual credibility by the work of scholars such as Max Muüller. The theosophical movement of Olcott, Blavatsky and Besant all praised eastern spirituality over western materialism. All over India it was possible to see the assertion of a specifically Hindu identity. In western India, Balgangadhar Tilak spearheaded opposition to the Age of Consent Bill, complaining about British interference in Indian cultural practices. In northern India, the religious reform movement Arya Samaj argued the superiority of Hinduism based on Vedic infallibility, and in southern India Annie Besant influenced the English-educated. The development of overtly patriotic literature in the nineteenth century, particularly in the historic novels of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, did much to instil pride in Bengalis and popularise the Bhagavad Gita. Another Bengali, Swami Vivekananda, reinterpreted the Vedanta. He rejected all western models as alien to the Indian situation, advocating instead renunciation (sanyasa) and social service. The cult of Sakti, associated with the goddess Kali, was also unique to Bengal. This Hindu religious revival alienated Muslims, but even within Islam Sufi eclecticism was suffering a decline in popularity, leading to a return to fundamentals.

While 'new Hinduism' provided a religious stimulus, Japan's victory over Russia in 1904 demonstrated eastern military might. A contemporary Indian underground revolutionary pamphlet read: 'Indians, look the fire is burning in Japan and Russia has retreated before its blazing heat.'⁵ Inspired by the Japanese victory, Sarala Devi Ghoshal opened a fencing academy in Calcutta. She had already opened a school for physical education two years earlier to infuse her fellow countrymen with a sense of patriotism.⁶ Other events in the world were also noted in India, such as the development of anti-colonial movements in Turkey, Egypt and Ireland, the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Boxer rising and the introduction of representative institutions in colonies such as Barbados, the Philippines and New Zealand.

Why was it that Indians chose to travel to Britain during a period when the West was losing its attraction? I shall answer this question by examining student motivation for studying in Britain. This chapter will illustrate how functional motives for travel to Britain were accompanied by the quest for 'authentic' imperial culture. But first it is necessary to look at the background to this development. Travel is crucial to theories of colonial encounter mentioned earlier. By investigating why people travel, what they see, changing perceptions of themselves and others towards them, it is possible to see the effects of travel on self-image and identity.

Movement for Foreign Travel in Bengal

The increase in the number of Indians travelling to Europe by the early twentieth century may be attributed, in part, to the gradual lifting of the Hindu taboo on sea voyages. In 1894 a group of self-appointed Bengalis formed a standing committee to investigate the thorny topic of sea travel. The committee consisted of three judges and two doctors. The credentials of the committee secretary Maharaj Kumar Benoy Krishna were impeccable. He represented one 'of the most respectable orthodox Hindu families of Calcutta'⁷, which no doubt added substance to the committee's hopes of being taken seriously by religious fundamentalists. The Indian press reported the growth of meetings in support of sea voyages. Five well-attended and enthusiastic meetings were reported in Calcutta. The movement was also able to elicit the support of high-ranking British officials such as Sir Alexander Miller, the legal member of the viceregal council.

I am sure [he wrote to Maharaj Bahadur] it would be very useful to English public opinion if they saw more of Hindoo gentlemen. The English idea of a Hindoo is too frequently taken from some Bearer or Ayah, who has accompanied his or her employer to England, and even the young men who come over to read for the Bar, or at Universities, do not mix enough with English gentlemen to affect the feeling of society there. This is partly from their being so few in number, and partly also, no doubt, from difficulties of language, which induce them to stick a good deal together.⁸

The Hindu sea-voyage movement in Bengal launched a two-pronged attack on its opponents. In a pamphlet it sought to show, firstly, the advantages of foreign travel, while countering religious objections, and, secondly, it accused its orthodox critics of inconsistency in regard to their treatment of returnees.

The sea-voyage movement was able to show an historical precedent for foreign travel. Evidence from the Report of the Sixth National Social Conference in Allahabad was used. One delegate claimed that:

Under the Peshwa's rule, two Brahmin agents ... had gone to England 110 years ago and on their return they had been taken back into orthodox society. Fifty years ago an agent of the Satara Rajah's, who had gone to England, had been similarly received back into society. Since then there had been a regular series of accumulated precedents, in which the head of Acharayahs of different sects had made the same pronouncements time after time after most serious deliberations.⁹

Sea voyages were, as the Indian Mirror pointed out on 20 August 1892, common in ancient India. The committee's aim was to proceed in its own words 'on the very safe lines of recommending a voyage by sea when it is performed under Hindu conditions of life'.¹⁰ Consequently a crucial plank of the movement's argument was that it was practicable to live in Hindu fashion on board ship or in a foreign country. For this purpose several Anglo-Indian officials and the Indian press were cited to show that vegetarianism could be maintained in England without inconvenience.¹¹ For example, Hindu traders who travelled as far afield as New York and Hong Kong had not been outcast, because they travelled with a quantity of dried food and drank purified water.¹²

The movement for foreign travel was not just a turn of the century phenomenon. As early as 1871 Satyendranath Tagore on his return from Europe advocated foreign travel:

It is only when we see a state of society completely different from our own [he argued] and far more improved and civilised, not only see it, but are influenced by it, that we begin to realise our own shortcomings by contrast. When, for instance, we see the position occupied by the fair sex in European society, we feel how degraded ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Series Editor's Preface
• Preface: Identity and Colonial Encounter
• Acknowledgements
• Glossary
• Introduction
• 1 Indian Purposes: Travelling Subjects
• 2 Indian Experience: Race and Class at the Heart of Empire
• 3 Representations of Indians in Britain
• 4 Characteristics of British Policy: Dynamics of Reciprocity and Control
• 5 Indian Reactions: Identification and Resistance
• Conclusion
• Postscript
• Biographies
• Bibliography
• Index