Outline Lecture Twelve—Britain’s Moral Impasse
1) How did the British Empire try to reconcile its “moral” burden of civilization with its
economic objectives?
2) What pivotal role did opium play in the British Empire?
I) The Moral “Burden” of Imperialism
a) “What redeems it is the idea only” (Conrad 20)
i) What did Marlow mean by this?
ii) Kurtz’s “International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs”
b) Britain’s Economic Interests in India
i) Dominant role of the British East India Company (EIC)
ii) British colonial expansion in Indian subcontinent in 18th century
iii) Sepoy Mutiny 1857
(1) Massacre at Cawnpore
iv) Shift to Direct Imperial Rule 1858
c) The Challenges of Religious Tolerance
i) Sati: The custom of widow-burning or concremation
ii) Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s appeal in 1820
iii) William Bentinck, Governor-General of EIC
(1) What is moral vs. what is politically/economically expedient?
(2) What would be “the greater evil”?
(3) An ironic “cost-benefit” approach to moral conscience
iv) Official Ban of Sati in 1829
II) The Economic Mainstay of Empire: Opium
a) “The Knife of Sugar”—“Sakar ki Churi”
i) Dadabhai Naoroji’s 1871 characterization of the British empire in India
ii) Benefits vs. detriments
b) Opium as a “Keystone” Commodity
i) Pivotal economic role of opium
(1) Chief export from India to China
ii) Trocki “Without opium, there would have been no empire”
c) Managing the Opium Monopoly
i) Subtle methods of labor coercion in Benares and Bihar in northeast India
ii) Labor-intensive work/cheap prices
iii) Controlling the competition of Malwa opium
iv) Impact on the supply and demand of opium
d) The Moral Conundrum
i) Rationale for a monopoly
(1) Manage this commodity out of “compassion to mankind” (Read Trocki 75)
ii) Extortion, control of supply and prices, blatant exploitation of peasants