Introduction
When the East India Company was permitted by Emperor Jehan-gir in 1608 to hire a house for the purposes of setting up a factory on the banks of the river Tapti at Surat, the British had unconsciously taken the first step towards building an empire in India. This empire was the result of a few ambitious Britishers, not foreseen by many of them when they first landed in India. What was initially merely a com-mercial enterprise went beyond their carly plans. Interestingly enough, at that time India was not considered a good commercial proposition by the British, and this made them delve deeper into the local conditions with greater effort and insight than either the French or the Dutch who preceded them. This "provided (them) an uncon-scious preparation for their later debut on the Indian political state. "1 And it could be rightly said that, "the Indian empire was born when the British trading concern was caught in the chain-drive of Indian power politics. 2 The real British interest in India had come with Clive's exploits and Hastings's organization of Bengal. However, very soon the initial euphoria of having begun to rule a potentially big empire turned into grave misgivings because of the chaotic conditions and total disorder prevalent within the country. These misgivings were of two kinds. On the one hand, Hastings saw the conditions of the times being disorder-ly and the oppression of people maximum, while his opponents per-ceived rank corruption in the company officials themselves. The logical culmination was the trial of Warren Hastings. It is appropriate that one should begin a study of British attitudes towards India with Hastings. Not only was he "the real founder of the British dominion in India, but as the first governor general he made a sincere attempt-something never attempted so far - to be familiar with the local condi-ions and also with Indian culture. This interest in Indian culture led Hastings "to an affectionate respect for many Indians such as was un-common in his times. 4. He had a number of Sanskrit Dharma Sastras Bhagavadgita to which he contributed a foreword. He had the courage to assert that "these will survive when the British Dominion in India shall have long ceased to exist. "5 He also established a College of Arabic and Persian studies in Calcutta in 1781. These interests of Hastings have come in for sharp criticism. No doubt, all these as well as his desire to govern India according to her own traditional laws were, to some degree, determined by political necessity. Some historians have been more than unfair to Hastings in dubbing him an imperialist in the making. But when viewed against his successors, he does emerge as a towering figure, for his attitude towards India was never a supercilious one. And he did not suffer from either a feeling of moral righteousness or racial superiority seen so very often in the later British rulers. His rule in Bengal was very popular and he "laid the foundation of a better, more secure regime than India had known since Akbar. "6 The willingness of Hastings to learn about the natives cannot be in the ultimate analysis, regarded only as a matter of political expediency since it is known that he admired Indian manners and customs; mastered the Persian language; gathered Indian paintings and manuscripts and in his letters to his wife he used to quote from the Bhagavadgita which he found a great source of inspiration. In his ef-forts at understanding the people, he unknowingly offered an ideal for the rulers that was worthy of emulation. However, it was callously dis-regarded by the latter-day rulers with tragic results, both for themsel-ves and the ruled. In terms of categorising attitudes, Hastings's was basically conservative, something he shared rather ironically with his political adversary, Edmund Burke. About the same time, Burke emerged as a leading figure in British politics who was genuinely concerned about India. His role in the im-peachment of Warren Hastings has to be seen in relation to his dis-tress at the effect corruption and mismanagement in India was likely to have upon the preservation of the British Constitution. Burke studied extensively many works about various aspects of India-its culture, economy and history and showed good understanding of In-dian conditions. He was always inclined to take a philosophical view of political problems. He was essentially concerned with having political action correspond with the nature of the political order under God. He formulated a conservative theory of Indian society, culture and
About The Book
The study is an attempt to examine in descriptive and analytical terms the image of India projected in the fictional works of Rudyard Kipling, L.H. Myers and Raja Rao. It discusses in detail how they depict human relationship in their works and what motivates them to do it the way they have done it. It ventures further to study how far their attitudes, concerns and beliefs have influenced their technique and craft, including the manner in which they have handled the English language to talk about life in a land that is not native to English. The broader concerns of the relationship between language and literature as well as the micro analysis of life as presented in individual scenes in the writings of each author have been brought into clear focus. The book is divided into five chapters. While the first chapter is in the nature of an introduction, the next three chapters are on Kipling, Myers and Raja Rao. In the final chapter 'Towards Conclusion', the image of India in Kipling and Myers is seen in relation to the main trends evident in English fiction on India. Attention is drawn to the recurrence of stereotyped images of India and Indians in Anglo-Indian fiction. As against the response of the English writers, using Raja Rao, an attempt is made to determine how the Indian novelist differs from the English in his attitude towards India and whether his being an insider is always to his advantage. In addition, an effort is made to locate the possible reasons for the failure of the vast majority of the English writers to come to grips with.
About The Author
K.C. Belliappa (born 1950) obtained his M.A. (1972), and Ph.D. (1986) from the University of Mysore. He was Reader in Commonwealth Literature at the Centre Commonwealth Literature and Research in the University of Mysore.
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