A view across Hyderabad in the State of Telangana, India, from the Falaknuma Palace. The palace, designed by English architect William Ward Marrett, was the pet project of Nawab Viqar ul Omra, the Prime Minister of the Princely State of Hyderabad. However, spiralling costs forced him to call in the free-spending Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Mahbub Ali Khan (r. 1869-1911), to bail it out. Over the years, the ‘Mirror of the Sky’ welcomed such illustrious visitors as King George V and Tsar Nicholas II to its elegant courts. For a view of the palace, see Court of the Taj Falaknuma, Hyderabad.
Introduction
In 1883, Major Thomas Evans Bell, a former employee of the East India Company and a severe critic of the British Raj, was preparing for a lecturing tour in the United States. John Bright MP (who was not uncritical himself) wrote to remind him that what India needed most from Britain and America was not colonial guilt or blame, but free trade.
YOU are supposed to judge somewhat harshly of our Indian Government.1 In describing its course I do not doubt you will give it credit where credit is due, and that you will point out how much the people of England are disposed, so far as they are concerned, to govern wisely the vast population conquered by their fathers.
The task of the wise government of so vast an empire may be an impossible one — I often fear it is so — we may fail in our efforts, but, whether we fail or succeed, let us do our best to compensate for the wrong of the past and the present by conferring on the Indian people whatever good it is in our power to give them. Perhaps when the United States are wise enough to abolish what they call protections2 — that is, protection of a class or classes at the expense of the nation — they may find a market in India, from which now their costly system shuts them out.
Abridged
Abridged from ‘The Public Letters of John Bright’, collected and edited by H. J. Leech (1885).
1That is, ‘People say that you judge &c.’. Bell was appointed Assistant Commissioner at Nagpur in 1855, in the vacuum left by the death of King Raghoji III, who had no heir. Bell lost his position five years later for insubordination, after going over the head of the Commissioner to complain about the neglect of the royal family. However the Viceroy, Viscount Canning, backed him, his demands were met, and Bell himself was appointed Deputy Commissioner of Police at Madras.
2Protectionism describes any policy designed to insulate a country’s economy from foreign competition, for example, by taxing or regulating international trade. Protectionism (characteristic of nearly every major economy today) tends to increase prices, cost jobs, discourage innovation, and deny choice. In the longer term, it also inhibits growth at home and abroad, hence Bright’s fears for American exports — if Americans cannot buy from Indians, Indians will have less money to buy from Americans.
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
About the Author
John Bright (1811-1889) was a Victorian statesman who with his close friend Richard Cobden led the campaign to repeal the Corn Laws (1846) and make the UK into a nation committed to international free trade. Born in Rochdale, Bright was employed in his father’s mill making carpets until, two years after the death of his young wife Elizabeth, he entered the Commons as MP for Durham. Later he represented Birmingham, and served in William Gladstone’s cabinet as President of the Board of Trade (1868-1871) and as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1873-1874, 1880-1882). He campaigned vigorously against foreign military interventions (including the Crimean War) and slavery, and in favour of Indian independence and religious liberty. He married Margaret Leatham in 1847.
Archive
Word Games
1Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
2Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
3Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Confer. Do. Let.
2 Find. Unite. Whether.
3 I. Father. Market.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
4High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
t1b3u1i1s1o1i1
x
0
Add
Your Words ()
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