Robert Clive’s Vision for India, by Sir John Malcolm

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TO the natives he wished to leave the internal trade, confining the English to the foreign import and export trade, as formerly he was anxious that the natives should have the entire management of their own concerns, undisturbed as far as possible by the intrusion of Europeans, whose misconduct, which in many instances had been carried to a grievous excess, there was at that time no judicial or political machinery for keeping in order. He concluded with perfect truth, “that the attempt to introduce the English laws throughout our possessions in India would be absurd and impracticable.”

He foresaw, from the spirit of the times, that expense was the rock on which the Government was likely to split, and used every means in his power to raise barriers against it. It was partly this which made him recommend that we should confine ourselves to a rich but limited territory, a small army, and few but well-paid English servants, and not plunge into the wide sea of Indian politics.*

by Sir John Malcolm 1769-1833

abridged

Abridged from ‘The Life of Robert, Lord Clive’ Vol. 3 by Sir John Malcolm (1769-1833).

Clive’s recommendations were met with indignation; indeed in 1773, with the Company’s finances in growing disarray and amid rising criticism over the bungling of the Great Bengal Famine of 1769, the Directors suddenly remembered how shocked they had been when Clive was showered with £234,000 (nearly £30m today) by his Indian allies following The Battle of Plassey in 1757, and demanded that “restitution of this sum should be made to the Company and the sufferers”. No mention was made of the Company restoring the government, lands and income of Bengal to the heirs of the defeated Nawab, Siraj ud-Daulah. “I was in the House all this day,” wrote one eyewitness “and had the mortification to hear the transactions in India, for these last sixteen years, treated, without distinction, as a disgrace to this nation; but without the smallest idea of restoring to the injured natives of India the territories and revenues said to have been so unjustly acquired.” A Parliamentary Inquiry largely exonerated Clive and even passed a motion of thanks for his services, but the affair broke his health and mind, and he died in mysterious circumstances on November 22nd, 1774.

Précis

Clive held that Europeans already meddled too much in Indian life. Regulating foreign trade and proving military security were responsibilities enough, and any attempt to transplant English law to India was doomed to fail. The most urgent task facing the Company was to rein in costs, which could be achieved by fighting corruption and cutting back on government overreach.

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.

Précis

Questions for Critics

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