Burke attitude to India

 

Write on Burke's attitude to India with special reference to his Speech on the East India Bill

 

Ans. Edmund Burke's Speech on the East India Bill deals with British colonial rule over India. He was deeply moved by the suffering of the Indians under the rule of the East India Company Burke calls for reform in the British Eastern administration. He thinks that the reform should be made for the sake of humanity. justice, and principles of true policy. In his speech Burke has presented India in graphic details including its history, geography, territorial vastness, culture, ethnicity ete.

 

India is a great empire. It is geographically very important. In the northern parts it is a solid mass of land, about eight hundred miles in length, and four or five hundred broad. Towards the southward, it becomes narrower. It afterwards dilates, Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, with Benares measure 161,978 square English miles, it is a territory considerably larger than the whole kingdom of France. Oude, with its dependent provinces, is 53,286 square miles, not a great deal less than England. The Carnatic, with Tanjour and the Circars, is 65.948 square miles; it is considerably larger than England. Thus India is a vast territory strictly ruled by the East India Company.

 

India has vast population. The population of this great empire is not easy to be calculated. The population of India is not at much less than thirty millions, more than four times the number of persons in the island of Great Britain. The Indians do not consist of an abject and barbarous populace. They are much less of gangs of savages, like the Guaranies and Chiquitos, who wander on the waste borders of the river of Amazons, or the Plate. But they are civilized and cultivated by all the arts of polished life. In India, there have been princes once of great dignity, authority, and opulence. There are the chiefs of tribes and nations.

 

To emphasise the importance of India, Burke compares it with the Empire of Germany and with the Austrian dominions. He compares the Nabob of Oude with the King of Prussia and the Babe of Arcot with the Elector of Saxony. Cheit Sing, the Rajah of Benar ranks with the Prince of Hesse; and the Rajah of Tanjore to the Elector of Bavaria. The Polygars and the northern remindars, and other great chiefs, class with the rest of the Princes, Dukes, Counts, Marquisses, and Bishops in the empire.

 

Burke in his Speech on the East India Bill presents the suffereings of the Indians at the hands of those who govern India Shah Alam was the de facto Emperor of India. He was the descendant of Tamerlane. He was amiable, pious, respectable and had profound interest in the Oriental literature and aesthetics. But he became victim to the East India Company's maladministration. Hafiz Rhamet Khan (1710 - 1774) was a leading Rohilla chief. Shuja al Daula invaded and slain him. His head was cut off and delivered for money to a barbarian. His wife and children were seen begging handful of rice through the English camp. The whole nation was massacred and the country was damaged by the invasion and turned into a dreary desert and jungles.

 

The natives of India were ruined by the hypocrisy of the Company. The first women in Bengal such as the Rani of Rajeshahi, the Rani of Burdwan, and the Rani of Amboa, were ruined by their thoughtless trust in the Company's honour and protection. Mahomed Reza Khan, the second Mussulman in Bengal was stripped of taken away) all his employment and was reduced to the lowest condition for having been distinguished by the honour of the countenance and protection of the Court of Directors. His ancient rival for power, Rajah Sundcomar was hanged in the face of his people for a pretended crime as a consequence of providing evidence against Hastings

 

Thus, Burke vividly portrays India as a vast territory and the suffering of the Indians in order to reform the Company government He was deeply moved by the sufferings and grievances of the natives. He portrays the bleak picture of the India and its inhabitants with sympathy.