● John Locke Essay, 2022 - History Field, 'Commended'
At its peak, the British Empire was often referred to as one “on which the sun never sets,” extending its vital essence three and a half centuries. At the height of the Empire, almost a quarter of the world’s landmass composed of about a quarter of the world’s population during the early portion of the 20th century. To say nothing good was produced by this lengthy presence of the Empire would be the height of cynicism. As with most empires, there were periods of abuse and exploitation, such as during the Bengal Famine of 1943, concentration camps introduced during the Boer War – which were copied by the Nazis four decades later – and during the Opium Wars fought for hegemony over China. Yet, no empire is perfect, and amassing power creates in many ways license for abuse. The British Empire was no different. To be fair, however, the Empire contributed a lot of good. One area which is often neglected was the British sense of sport. Over half of the world’s most popular sports were invented in Britain and spawned throughout its colonial holdings: soccer, cricket, hockey, tennis, golf, and table tennis. American football and baseball are also the derivatives of British Rugby and cricket. People of all colors and creeds bond as either spectators or athletes at these sporting events. More significant that warrant appreciation are three other achievements of the Empire: the philosophical birth of Lockean human rights, a progressive Western education system, and the lingua franca - of the British Empire and now the world - the English language.
British philosophers were key contributors to the Enlightenment. John Locke, in Two Treatises on Government, and Thomas Hobbes, in Leviathan, developed the idea of a social contract, though they had differing views of human nature. Locke’s claim to the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and property, encapsulated the justification for the people to revolt and replace the government when it failed to fulfill its role of securing its citizens’ natural rights. Many of Locke’s beliefs were reflected in Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence and the Federalist Papers, expanding the will of the people, and delineating the role of the government. Additionally, Mary Wollstonecraft, a passionate advocate for women’s social equality and education argued her cause in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in her A Vindication of the Rights of Women. It’s hard to imagine another empire allowing for not only unorthodox views, but those that align with potential enemies of the state. These philosophies emerged and became widespread during the same time as attempts to ban traditional Indian practices like sati came to the fore within the Empire.
Among the so-called inhumane traditional cultural practices the Indian society preserved was sati. Although the British Empire had banned polygamy and child marriage, sati was still extant within the Raj. Sati or Suttee meaning “good woman” or “chaste wife” in Sanskrit, is the Indian custom of a widow immolating herself atop the funeral pyres of her deceased husband. Though the practice of sati is described as a “voluntary” act of courage and devotion, it was often accompanied by the use of force, drugs, or restraints. As described in “An Account of a Woman Burning Herself, by an Officer,” in the Calcutta Gazette in 1785, the woman practicing sati was in an “unruffled” state, under the influence of opium or bhang, an edible mixture of cannabis plant. The article mentioned that during the practice of sati, “Two people immediately passed a rope twice across the bodies and fastened it so tight to the stakes that it would have effectively prevented her from rising had she attempted.” Indian culture often forced sati upon widows for reasons other than religious ones, including the kins’ attempts to get the deceased’s inheritance.
Although there were Indian emperors like Akbar who attempted to eliminate the practice of sati before British colonization, the degree of success remains questionable as Indian emperors like Jahangir, who succeeded Akbar, had sati continued in his regime and was fascinated by the custom. It was not until the British Empire when unwavering and institutionalized endeavors to prohibit sati were undertaken by numerous figures who were influenced by the philosophical ideas of British thinkers and Enlightenment ideals. Prominent figures include those who were active in the Parliament and in the East India Company like Lord William Bentick, British missionaries like William Carey, and those involved in Indian religious reform movements like Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Known as the ‘Father of Indian Renaissance’ and the founder of the Brahmo Samaj movement, Roy persuaded Lord William Bentick, the British Governor-General of India at that time, to pass Regulation XVII, in 1829, which outlawed Sati and made it punishable by courts.
The practice of suttee, or of burning or burying alive the widows of Hindus, is revolting to the feelings of human nature; it is nowhere enjoined by the religion of the Hindus as an imperative duty; ...The practice of suttee, or of burning or burying alive the widows of Hindus, is hereby declared illegal, and punishable by the criminal courts.
Though Roy was an Indian born in Bengal, his ideas and religious creed were influenced by Western education gained through the British Empire.
The influence of western education is a legacy of the British Empire. The education and philosophies available within the Empire stimulated reformers and informed the minds of the colonized with reason and western morality. Serving the exact opposite purpose than the one it was intended for poses the important question what was the “good” of the Empire. The impact of education provided to the population was incongruent with the Empire’s own interests, ironically working to undermine its power by becoming the root of anti-colonial revolts and independence movements. That, in my opinion, is a positive legacy of the British Empire. By embedding freedom of speech and press within the culture of the empire, it spawned revolts and invigorated the intellectual development of the population. The positive influence of Western education on the colonized population is further demonstrated by many other revolutionary figures.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, famous for his salt march and his civil disobedience movement that played a great role in India’s independence, studied law in London. Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian anti-colonial activist and the first prime minister of India, attended Harrow School and Trinity College in England. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a leader of Muslim League and the founder of Pakistan, attended Lincoln’s Inn and City Law School in England. The anti-colonial activist and first president of Kenya Jomo Kenyatta was educated in University College London, and the London School of Economics. South African anti-apartheid leader and first president of South Africa studied law in the University of London. All these revolutionary figures studied abroad - though mostly with the Empire - and returned to their countries to initiate an independence movement. Later, they became leaders and held high positions in the government after independence was achieved.
The spread of the English language likely empowered the independence movements, while at the same time cementing the hold on power of the British Empire through a lingua franca, cementing efficiencies among the schools and institutions of the British Empire. Commerce, planning, transportation, all elements of an efficient society, could be conducted in one language.
However, the extent of the English language’s penetration exceeds that of any lingua franca of the past. A record from Richard Carew demonstrates the merits of learning English:
Turn an Englishman at any time of his age into what Countrey soever, allowing him due respite, and you shall see him profit so well, that the imitation of his utterance will in nothing differ from the pattern of that Native Language.
Because the British colonial administration found it difficult to communicate with the natives, it made language education a top priority in its colonies. Schools taught the English language and Western culture to locals. Access to English was equivalent to access to education, whether at the first universities built in India or the missionary schools built in Africa. As knowledge of the English language was crucial to higher statuses and achieving higher-paying jobs, colonized peoples learned English out of necessity. Larger settler colonies in Australia, Canada, and the United States nearly made native languages and cultures become extinct, replacing them with English. Therefore, most former British colonies, including Ghana, South Africa, Bahamas, Barbados, India, and Pakistan, adopted English as their official language.
Worth noting about the Empire’s legacy of English to the world, is the body of literature that supported the learning of the language and the education of the person once the language was mastered. Two key worldwide monuments to literature, drama and religion are the complete works of Shakespeare and King James edition of the Bible. For many within the empire these two works served as solid bedrocks for many single room schools throughout the empire. Those works were supplemented by the Milton’s Paradise Lost. Fielding’s Tom Jones and the wave of literature produced in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. Contributions in fiction and poetry flowed throughout the empire with much of the wellspring originating in Britain.
Certainly, injustices were widespread in the British Empire, such as the evil that emanated from the East India Company, the mismanagement of Ireland over centuries, and the famines that dotted the Empire. At the same time, unbeknownst to many, the British Empire gave the world pulpable goods among its vast colossus of territories. Without the Empire’s influence, we today would not have been able to enjoy watching a FIFA soccer match, a seed of British Rugby and cricket, on the Internet, where English serves as the main language of. Prohibition of inhumane practices like sati was a consequence of the humane philosophies fostered in the intellectual corridors of the Empire. It is ironic yet intriguing that the British formal education that allowed freedom of thought and intellectual developments in colonies trained reformers, who advanced the end of the very system and ultimately, British colonialism. And of course, we are a debt of gratitude to the British Empire for making English the lingua franca of the globe. Absorbing vocabulary and concepts from all parts of the Empire, the English language gave the world access to the English’s greatest classics and literature in which to exercise the English tongue even today. If one is really looking for anything good about the British Empire, one doesn’t have to look too hard for too long to find it.
Writer : Seungeun, Lee
CSIA (CheongShim International Academy)
Princeton University
Awards : HIEEC Highly Commended
John Locke Global Essay Contest - Commended
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