09-24-2009, 09:42 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Ghostwriter says:
I see you have been reading Edmund Burke!
Burkeâs opposition to the empire should not be gleaned from this now famous comment â that would be misleading. He was not against the Empire because it undermined good government or tradition in India. His real anxiety was that the loot from India will empower a new set of âNabobsâ â the get rich quick, arriviste class â who would buy large estates and seats in parliament; thence undermine all that was noble in the British. Burkeâs central anxiety was â and continued to remain â conserving traditions and social norms in Britain.
A very good book on the heartburn that the Indian empire caused in Burke is Nicholas Dirks âThe Scandal of Empireâ. The author demonstrates how the trial of Hastings conducted by Burke actually strengthened the idea of empire in Britain, Burke playing the good cop to Hastingsâs bad cop. Burke said that the likes of Hastings were vultures, while a country like Britain should govern itâs dependencies in a more enlightened, paternalistic way. It laid the foundation for what came next â the British feeling that they were actually doing us a favour by ruling over us!<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I see you have been reading Edmund Burke!
Burkeâs opposition to the empire should not be gleaned from this now famous comment â that would be misleading. He was not against the Empire because it undermined good government or tradition in India. His real anxiety was that the loot from India will empower a new set of âNabobsâ â the get rich quick, arriviste class â who would buy large estates and seats in parliament; thence undermine all that was noble in the British. Burkeâs central anxiety was â and continued to remain â conserving traditions and social norms in Britain.
A very good book on the heartburn that the Indian empire caused in Burke is Nicholas Dirks âThe Scandal of Empireâ. The author demonstrates how the trial of Hastings conducted by Burke actually strengthened the idea of empire in Britain, Burke playing the good cop to Hastingsâs bad cop. Burke said that the likes of Hastings were vultures, while a country like Britain should govern itâs dependencies in a more enlightened, paternalistic way. It laid the foundation for what came next â the British feeling that they were actually doing us a favour by ruling over us!<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->