ee Uleek 3 VI BENTINCK, METCALFE, AND MACAULAY: A DECADE OF REFORM IN INDIA, 1828-38 The Ascendancy of Reform B: 1828, when Munro and Elphinstone were passing from the political scene in India, the Utilitarians, wvangelicals, and huma: ‘most influential groups in determining British attitudes to- -wpoint of these groups, in fact, was too strong to be resisted.” Liberal and humanitarian attitudes hhad grown steadily more predominant in the British public ince Waterloo and the publication of Mill's History of Britsh India. James Mill himself was » powerful figure on the scene, in charge of the examiner's office of the East India Company, ready to induce the Company and Patliam adopt reforms in India. By 1828, also, a represent Liberal and evat sole force in Br triumphing, both dominated the groups Imperial sentiment, for example, was especially 4 strong in Lord Bllenborough, several times President of a 1“ Noxtingham University, Bentinck MSS,, Dentinck to Metcalfe, 21 ia 1834. Commonwesth. Relations fice, Tada ‘Appendix: Cour ee a Games Mill (London, 1882), pp. 367 a A.V, Dicey, Late and Public Opinion in England (London, 192 69, 210, 400-11. The Edinburgh Retae SOF ne Board of Control, and in British officers along the fi sers of Tnclia, The start of the Afghan venture in 1838 and in India up to the annexation 1856, showed how much imperial greatness Britons. Conservatives also survived ascendancy, objecting to changes and motivated through the Liber: * to the tempo of reform. This Conservative sentiment did not ri represene much of an intellectual leadership, either in the East India Company or in the country at large. Toward 1838, when the British public temporarily tired of further immediate reforms, Whig and Tory leaders responded by \ckening the tempo of reform. Like the Governor-General, Lord Auckland, who was sympathetic to Liberal projects but not vigorous i ving them during his administration (1836-42), Conservatives provided only a breathing space, hot a philosophy of Indian government.’ When the impulse of reform in India, resumed in the last decade of the Com- pany’s rule before its abolition in 18 58,-Conservatism had hot erected any bulwark against the changes whiclr had-un- settled Indian minds and Indian society. Thus, despite the impact of imperialism and the occasional influence of Con- servatism, reform’ was the major concern beginning in the decade 1828=38 and rémaining the predominant viewpoint in the Pritish-pitblic thereafter. ‘The attitudes of Liberals, Evangelicals, and humani- tarians during their ascendancy must necessarily be treated as a whole. Of course, the viewpoint of Utilitarian and Evangelicals was not exactly the same, and humani- tarianism was inspired by both movements, James M Jeremy Bentham, for example, had no religious, Evangelical inclinations. The Evangelical Lacd Shaftesbury, who was interested in the spread of Christianity in India before he championed the Factory Acts, was unsympathetic to the middle class and its gospel of /aissox-faire, In the cause of Liberal and humanitarian reforms in India, U ns and Evangelicals generally worked together. The major leaders in Inia, Lord William-Bentinck, Sir Charles Met- calfe, acting Governor-General from-183§ to 7846, and 2 Add. MSS, 37691, pp. 7-9, Aucland to Metcalfe, 3 June 1837. Eric Stokes, The English Usiterion? ond India (Oxford, 1939), p>. 240042 ie fany b: jr “Thomas Babington Macaulay, legal membs. « preme Council of India, wére responsive to Liberal, v-agelical, and humanitarian projects. Together with the younger Charles Grant, President of the Board of Control in Lord Grey's ministry (1830-4), they stood behind the parliamen- tary reform of 18giy they were heirs of the Clapham Sect and the anti-slavery movement, and they favoured humani- tarian and Liberal teforms generally. Analytic ly, one might describe the Liberalism of the Reform Bill period as a com- bination of laissez-faire economics, a Utilitarian regard for , good laws and administration, and a middle-class concernics with representative government and civil libertics, The | Evangelical movement was concerned with Spreading a real knowledge of the gospels both among nominal Christians and non-Christians in foreign parts. Both Liberals and Evangelicals converged on humanitarianism, when they con- centrated separately or together upon social and rel projects, the abolition of slavery, the improvement of prisons, the relief of the poor, and the spread of intellectual and moral enlightenment in this world, A distinction between Liberals and Evangelicals, therefore, is blurred when one considers the gencral character of their association in the movements of reform, ‘The work of the reformers during the decade of their ascendancy was chiefly the application of Liberal and humanitarian ideas in India. The attitudes which guided their actions had already been largely formulated. In the application of Liberal and humanitarian attitudes to India, however; the reformers introduced changes in emphasis, and, from the nature of their practical work, their attitudes became precisé arid expostulatory rather than nierely theoreti- cal. They had the prospect of some success before them, 3 They transformed the attitudes of their tradition in terms of the possibilities of success. In the application of attitudes, moreover, the reformers fixed such attitudes firmly in the structure of British rule in India, This work was to guide future British views of India and to contribute to India’s later development. Asa result of the work of the reformers during \ | this ascendancy, India had no choice but to receive a largq || dose of Westernization. | a4fe 16 BENTINCK, METCALFE, AND MACAULAY The Basic Outlook of the Reformers \ In the work of reform, Bentinck, Metcalfe, Macaulay, Charles Grant the younger, and their contemporaries ap- proached India with several basic convictions. Though they new conceptions of India but reflected those conceptions in the Liberal and Evangelical traditions, as reformers they showed attitudes which were directly related to the practice! tasks at hand, (1) They insisted on the im- immediate and rapid enactment of reforms. (2) They de- pended largely on Western political, social, and economic theory as a guide for such reforms, rather than on a know- ledge of India and a utilization of Indian theories applicable to India's development. (3) They especially trusted to the vigour of the middle clas in reforming India, and conceived of the end in India as 2 middle class, scientific, modernized society, such as was being developed in Britain in their own age, (4) They were optimistic about the prospects of reform- ing India and saw a new era unfolding as a result of their efforts. These basic attitudes towards the problems of India emerge rather unsystematically but impenetrate the thoughts and actions of the reformers during the decade of their ascendancy. ‘The insistence on immediate and rapid enactment of re- forms replaced the earlier caution and gradualness which had previously characterized the work of improvement. The philosophy of proceeding slowly until the people of India were ready for a change had been fundamental to Munro and Elphinstone and was still an attractive theory to the dis- ciples of these Governors. Among the reformers such as Bentinck, however, a kind of impatience had replaced this caiitiotiy’ind this quality is illustrated in Bentinck’s relations with J. G. Ravenshaw, a director of the East India Company who managed Bentinck’s political interests in the directors and sought to protect Bentinck against the Governor- General’s concealed enemies. Ravenshaw claimed to be 2 Whig and a supporter of the Reform Bill; his task was to get Bentinck’s re“orms approved by the home authorities. He vwas constantly advising Bentinck to proceed slowly. ‘I must ~Ami~ou are marching too fast and undertaking more than Srrpuk ‘THE BASIC OUTLOOK OF THE REFORMERS - 157 can be well done all at once’, he wrote Bentinck on 7 July 189. He warned Bentinck to tackle only retrenchment and to postpone other reforms, for he thought that rapid changes Unhinged the minds and feelings and exertions of all public servants’ In response to this pressure, Bentinck, who was wise to the ways of Company politics since“he had been Feaalled a5 Governor of Madras because of a sepoy mutiny at Vellore in 1806, sometimes trimmed his sails. He did not end press censorship in India, for Ravenshaw had"warned him against that, but he made the establishment of a free press in India a measuire that Metcalfe could logically car out without further delay: “Onthe other “hand, Bentinc! rapidly passed a muimber of important reforms despite all the protests about “violent innovations‘ He abolished sai early in his administration. He ended “fogging in the Indian Army even though his-arifiy commanders aiid” Ue home authorities were opposed to:his-policy-He-pursued revenue and judicial’ changes in India even though Ravenshaw warned him to go slow and though Bengal civil servants, except for Metcalfe, were not favourable to such changes. Further, though he waited until late in his term of office, Bentinck made a rapid and complete change in the Govern- ment’s role in education. The home authojities had “sup- ported a programmé-WKieh would accelerate the intellectual Improvement of India, but Bentinck and Macaulay acted in 1835 so quickly and so completely that the Conservative directors of the Company were taken aback,* The directors protested, and ironically the young Johin Stuart Mill wrote a Graft of a dispatch to embody their criticism but-Sit”John Hobhouse, Presidétit of the Board-of Control, suppressed the protests and commented with the characteristic attitude of the reformer: ‘Some measures are more safe by being \ Bentinck MSS, Revenshaw to Bentinck, 7 July 1829. # Ibid., Ravenshaw to Bentinck, 1 Feb, 1830; 19 Nov. 1829; 3 May 1830. 2 Edward Thompson, The Life of Charter, Lerd Metcalfe (London, 1937), pp- 320-1. PP. 1836, rh 5 sninutes, 3 Jan.18363 5-10, minule, 96 Feb. 1835. P,P. 1831-2, kx, Appendix, pp., 328-34, minute, Metcalfe, 7 Nov. 185 @ Unfavorable home reaction, see Be Beatincy § Oct 1835, 24 Oct 1835, 19 Ni Ellenborouph, § Avg. 8531 44627, Wel inck MSS., Revenshew 1829. 3 Hansard, xx. 308-1 igton, 9 Aug. 18°8 RENTINCK, METCALFE, AND MACAULAY adden." A similar comment was made in 1832 by the Edinbu-gh Review in describing the suddenness of the Corn- wallis revenue settlement in Bengal many years before: “The shock was abrupt, but its evil consequences have long since passed away, and its blessings are felt by the present genera- ion.” Thus the generation of the 1830's commended rapid ovations. ‘The theory which would guide the direction of Indian reform had to be ultimately derived from Britain. The re- formers generally viewed India as a land of superstition and despotism. For this condition they could think only of the principle of utility as the guide in the political, economic, and social instittitions of transformed country, enlightenment as the answer to India’s moral condition. ‘They could not think of depending very much upon the customs and opinions of Indians, as Munro insisted; for the Indian people, as the Edinburgh Review indicated, were not qualified to reach sound conclusions regarding their perma- nent interests, So the reformers could turn only to European theory: We are Sound to make’ our calcul and deeper, and to avail ourselves of that sound and experimental philosophy which our Indian subjects have enjoyed no opportunities of 2c : The reformers especially depended oh thé judgment of Parliament and on men thoroughly versed in Western c ture. The Westminster Review, in supporting Bentinck’s policies « s in India, challenged the judgment of most British officials of the Company in suggesting reforms ‘These officials would slow down necessary changes, Parlia- , on the other hand, was quite as well qualified as local officials, and, since it would legislate on the basis of utility, would establish a system more comprehensive than off als with Indian experience.* James Mill, in his advice to * Commanwesith Relations Office, India Library, Revenue, Jodiciel, and Legislative Committee, Miscellaneous Papers, IX, Hobliouse’s comment on 4 proposed dispatch of § Oct. 1836, ' Bdindrgh Review, (April 1832). 84. *Tbids Iv. 93-4. 4" Westminster Review (Oct. 1829), 326-53, and Christian(s ¢ ite ‘THE BASIC OUTLOOK OF THE RED 2"? 159 the House of Commons on the governmeint of Is..in, espect ally insisted that there be appointed to the Supreme Council of India a man who was familiar with the ‘philosophy of man, and government’, This philosophical legislator, who would be broadly trained in Western philosophy and would follow the principles of utility, turned out to be Thomas Babington qh Macaulay, whom Lord Grey's ministry appointed to full Vp" Mill's proposal! Similarly, Sir Alewander Johnston, a tae former Governor of Ceylon, proposed that works of British vi.) literature, drama, and art should be sent to India to show the "people the standards of British culture, illustrate what John- ston referred to as ‘the nature and benefits of a free govern- ment’, and thus tend to undermine the religions and customs of the country.* British culture in all its variety and depth was to serve as the model of India's reform. After all, what id Indian culture represent? The Edinburgh Review an- swered: ‘The spitit of Orien “ pansion of thought. In all ages of the world, A the'light of feedéri, and ha ly to the vigorous ex- has been deprived of consequence incurred the doom of yy in the higher fruits of moral and mental culture.* primacy of:"Westerntheory_as the standard for Thdia's future did not mean that Indian opinion and exp: ence was to be wholly disregarded. Bentinck was a practical man, sympathetic to many of Munro's ideas about the revenue systems of India, and interested in governing India according to the needs of the people. He consulted Indian opinion more often than Conservative sentiment in the civ! and military service. In the last analysis, however, Bentinck ‘and his contemporaries, despite their humanitarian senti- ments toward the Indian people, consulted the doctrines of the administration of Sir John Malcolm st Bombay for not having been conducted according to Western principles. ly 1852 Relations Office, India Librery, Home Mis. to Col, Robertson, 28 June 1829, Ben nck, 10 Des, 1831. lancous 134 P. 155, Mal Raveasba to Be& iGo BENTINCK, METCALFE, AND MACAULAY They insisted that Britons know something of India and its people, they-urged the employment of Indians in the ad- ministration of justice, and they sought to ft their reforms to Indian circumstances. The reforms, however, were . Western in origin and character. ~ _ One of the main hopes of the reformers in their vision of India’s Westernization was the establishment of an indus- tious, middle-class society. Middle-class virtues were in vogue. After the grandiloquence of the advocates of imperial- ism, the qualities which the middle class could bring to India seemed like virtues. Lord William Bentinck modelled him- self on the middle-class standard. Though a scion of a great noble family, the Dukes of Portland, though he owed his start in politics to family influence, Bentinck largely turned away from aristocratic politics and aristocratic social traits. He was a Radical in politics, 2 man of simple tastes, sober dress, and Christian propriety. He looked like a Pennsyl- vania Quaker. His post in India was one of splendour and magnificence, for the India of Lord Wellesley and Lord Hastings was 2 ft setting for @ proconsul surrounded by mace-bearers, arrays of sepoys, and durbars of bejewelled princes; but Benvinck conducted himself with the simplicity of a middle-class gentleman."Calcutta society, which pre- ferred imperial grandeur and the sense of British sup found his modesty and pacifism rather dull From Parliament and the British press came lavish praise for the virtues-of middle-class society and government. What India needed, first, was the colonization of British capitalists there, To some spokesmen, this colonization was a kind of +, ‘spell-word to charm away all the evil elements’ in the govern Guile” ment of Indi..2 The British middle class would develop the fof” resources of the country; it would be self-reliant and inde- endent in dealing withthe authorities; it would help train indians politically and help shicld them from pol oppression. Secondly, India needed to develop a native } Home Misc. 734, 474-5, Malcolm to Pulteney, 2 Sept. 1829. Victor Jacquemont, Lesiers from Indie (2 vols, Lonclon, 1834), 82-9. Carzon of Keddiesion, Briti:) Government tz India (2 vols London, 1925), 219-21+ Dictionars-of Nasional Bicgraph Teh Review, THE BASIC OUTLOOK OF THE REFORMERS 161 middle class. As James Mill told a committee of the House of Commons in 1831: ‘The right thing, in my opinion, is to teach people to look for their elevation to theit own resources, their industry and economy. Let the means of accumulation be afforded to our Indian subjects; let them ‘grow rich as cultivators, merchants, manufacturers; and not accustom themselves to look for wealth and dignity to successful intriguing for ces under government... .1 Whenever the reformers found their programme for India facing difficulties, they would cite the absence of a reliant middle class as the trouble. So Macaulay wrote of the diff culty of bringing good government and good laws to the Indian people: “There is no helping men who will ot help themselves."* Despite such difficulties as Macaulay expressed, generally the reformers hac great optimism about the sucess af reforin in India. Much of the optimism regarding the ceming of a new era, of course, was rather shallow. Lord Shaftesbury, for example, hailed Bentinck's appointment to India asthe start of ‘a new century of happitiéss and progress’ in Tiidia, ” What he had in mind-was that Bentinck would first abolish sati and then proceed, step by step, to transform the super stition and ignorance of India into Christian enlightenment, The happiness of this century of progress was the conversion of India to Christianity.* Similarly, Charles Trevelyan, an Anglo-Indian official and later Mactulay's brother-in-iaw, expressed his conviction: India is on the eve of a great moral change. The indications of it are perceptible in every putt ofthe came, Brey ae oe decided rejection of antiquated systems prevals creryuhere we tune craving for iatraction in the abolition of the exclusive pri in the courts and offices of govt will shake Hindooism and Mohame 2 PBs 1831, 7. 1397-1495, 17 June 1828, pons Be Mculyy Lord Marley's Legittice Minutes (Landon, 1946), ley to Bentinck, 24 June 1829, id., Trevelyan to Bentinch, 9 April 1834.OOF The introduction of Western technology, even more t, christianity, was the sign of the new era of progress in India In Lord William Bentinck, this faith in technology was especially marked. He Was niot’a man of easy Optiniisi, for in the beginning of his administration he saw a country ‘cursed from one end to the other by the vice, the ignorance the oppression, the despotism, the barbarous and cruel cus. toms that have been the growth of ages under every descrip- + tion of Asiatic misrule’.” He found little in the society and government of the country deserving of praise. The country vas poors the people were ignorant and backwards the civ servants lacked both a sympathy for the people and a kniow- ledge of what was needed for good administration; the Judicial system of Bengal was inefficient and corrupt; the ive to the peasants; agriculture manufacturing was depressed; comme:ce was ‘spiritless and ill-informed’; and the Govern. ‘ment, finally, was in such great financial difficulty that it was unable to maintain even an adequate defence establishment, to say nothing of promoting public works, developing teans- portation facilities, and raising moral and educational levels, In the attempt to reinvigorate India, Be measures of improvement for all of these con especially concerned to call forth the productive capacity of the courtry, now lying inert for want of encouragement, and make it possible for private enterprise to exploit the re- Sources ofthe country. Fle wanted tb imeroduce cn teches logical benefits as steam navigation in the country. At the end of his administration when he asserted that knowledge was what India needed, he was not thinking merely of litera. ture, learning, and abstract thought. ‘I look to steam naviga- tion as the great engine of working this moral improvement,’ he wrote in 1834. Indigo and coffee plantations, cotton sills, iron foundries, coal mines worked in British fashion— ‘Bentinck MSS., Generel Department Minutes, pp. 249-50, 14 Oct 1833, See-t Department Minutes, pp. 261-81, 20 Jan. 1834; Financial and Revenue M inates, 30 May 1829. ® P.P., 1837, vi, 186=99, testimony to a elect committee, 14 July 1837. C. Marsbman, The Life end Timer of Carey; Matidinan, and Ward (2 vole, jondon, 1859), ji 493. THE BASIC OUTLOOK OF, THE RI > ~§ -46)85! the whole technological apparatus of the Industiar Revolu’* tion—were the main ‘schools of instruction’ in which, he believed, India would raise its level of civilization, Ben. tinck’s view was fairly gencrally held among the refotiners, Lord Auckland wrote that, as steam navigation wae in. proved, 'the Indian Government would be conducted with an increased confidence, satisfaction, vigour, and success, to which I can assign no limits’ A secretary at the Board of Control, William Cabell, who strongly influenced Presidents of the Board such as Ellenborough and Hobhouse, aeclared that the steamboat on Indian rivers would ‘in 2 word . effect a complete moral revolution’ = In communicating the ‘blessings of the European condi- tion’, these moral and technological benefits, to India, the reformers were aware of the effect on future British rule in India. The future separation of India and Britain was the expected goal. To Macaulay, speaking in the Louse of Commons in 1833, such 2 separation would be ‘the proudest day in English history’; for by then, India would be Westerns ized, enlightened, able to govern itself through free institu, Ps. Moreover, the benefit which Britain might expect to receive from India's transformation was great. Macaulay ascerted that trading with a civilized nation was more advan, fageous than ruling a backward one. ‘Ie is scarcely possible to calculate the benefits which we might derive fom the diffusion of European civilization among the vast popula. tions of the East.’* oe hase et ._ To this expression of optimism, of course, there iwas some dissent. Sir John Malealm, who was a combination of old fashioned imperial sentiment and Conservatism, was certain that ‘the fair promise of the reign of liberalism’ would dis. appoint everyone.t Sir Charles Metcalfe, who had been in India a long time and was familiar with the sentiments of Munro and Elphinstone, could check his enthusiasms for 1 Add. MSS,, 37690, pp. 110-13, minute, r2 April 1857, * Add, MSS, 96468, PE 59-66 meme for We lee of Si Joa eth 2 aT etm ge pes Mantra 33-96 22 Jay hay, Gates ante peta ix. 110, 8 March 18532, The Times 19 Sept. 1334 “Home Misc. 734, pp. 300-1, Malcolia to Me 2A afye £5 fe BENTI‘ICK, METCALFE, AND MACAULAY reforms-with a bit of pessimism, ‘Empires grow old, decay, and perish,’ he wrote Bentinck. ‘Ours in India can hardly be called old,’ but seems destined to be short lived." These isgivings, however, seem inconsequential beside the real faith in a progressive transformation of India, 164 Peace, Retrerhment, and Reform: The Application of Liberal and Humanitarian Attitudes ‘The application of Liberal and humanitarian attitudes to India at the time of Bentinck, Metcalfe, and Macaulay, represented only a partial, and at tinies an unsatisfactory ful- filment of the attitudes. These statesmen, of course, had in- herited traditional practices of administration and long- standing policies which could not easily be overturned. As practical men, they had to compromise and delay some pro- jects. They had to deal with a Civil Service in India, an Indian population which was apathetic toward reform, and special interests in Britain, all of which obliged a dilution of the fair promise of liberalism. Further, some Liberal and humanitarian policies were not always in harmony with one another, so sometimes a Liberal project had to be sacrificed for another one that seemed more pressing. As a whole, however, despite some deficiencies, Bentinck, Metcalfe, and Macaulay maintained a consistent programme of peace, retrenchment, and reform. ‘The maintenance of peace and the avoidance of expansion in India was a prerequisite to a Liberal régime in India. Wars and expansior: had always been expensive, and Conservatives hhad consistently tried to forestall expansion not only because it disrupted Indian finances but also because it upset the traditional structure of the Indian polity. The Liberals, how- ever, did not insist on peace for quite the same reason. Ben- tinck and the Liberals had little admiration of semi-inde- pendent princely states. They considered these princely states badly administered, full of the privileges, inequalities, despotism, and’ backward institutions which characterized the old order of things. Bentinck sought permission to as- sume the administration of the most notorious of these T "\ MSS., Metcalfé memo, 11 Oct. 1829. Ae ‘oe wr. Wa" PEacH, RETRENCHMENT, AND REFORM KY princely states, Oudh, good government there. After some reluctance, the home| authorities gave Bentinck the authority to oceupy Oudh, but Bentinck did not use this authority and thus virtually annex this state. As a practical man, seeing how reluctantly the directors had granted him the authority, and asa Liberal dis- clined to expansion, he found other ways t0 improve the government of Oudh What lay behind Bentinck’s reluc. fance to annex new lands and his complete avoidance of wars during his administration was the problem of reform. The Liberals needed money to introduce reforms; they could obtain a surplus revenue only by avoiding the expense of wars expansion would grea money susy oe ceeeec ae jects, Metcalfe especially revealed this approach, ‘He opposed sending commercial missions to the north-west of India, Sind, Punjab, and Afghanistan, even though the apparent object was to expand British commerce to those regions, because he feared that such missions were a prelude to further wars and expansion, Such expansion, he realized, would be costly and halt the process of reform. When in 1838 Lord Auckland commenced the Afghan Was, he understood that it would mean, as Metcalfe anticipated, the ination of reforms for the time being. Until this event, by which time Bentinck, Metcalfe, and Macaulay had lefe India, the Liberals had guccessfully maintained a policy of eace* Pepentinc likewise successfully porsued-a. policy of #e- trenchment during his administration: He eZonomized on governmental expenditures, despite the opposition of mil tary officers who found their allowances reduced, and inh 165 last years produced a sizeable surplus revenue which could be applied to reform projects. In this retrenchment, Bentinck had the support of the Conservative directors of the East India Company, though not for entirely the same reason. 3 Home Misc. 777, pp. 273-84, minute, Metcalfe, 19 Dec. 1835. Ben= tinck MSS., Metcalfe to Bentinck, 9 Oct. 1831.Add. MSS. 375° a to Metcalfe. 44 Seve. 18e6. as the only way he might establish | &i 100 BENYINCK, METCALFE, AND MACAULAY and the tea monopoly, which Parliament abolished in 1833, the Company had to insist that Indian revenues pay the cost of Indian administration entirely. The Company could galify for the continued government of India only if the inances of the Company were sound. Bentinck welcomed the abolition of the Company's commercial monopoly, wh the Company struggled to maintain, but, though he kept his opinion to himself, he did not think the Company's govern- ment of India was essential. His policy of retrenchment, thus, was not designed necessarily to preserve the Company. Government, he believed, should he as inexpensive as possible, so that taxes might be lowered and so that money ht be available for progressive reforms, So he worked ‘a the Conservative Company for somewhat different ends.! ‘With peace and retrenchment assured, Bentinck is associates could pursue those reforms which were the essence of their economic, social, and political conception of India, ‘The application of such reforms was persistent and vigorous, though not so complete as Liberal, Evangelical, and humanitarian attitudes might have required, Bentinck and his associates only partly fulfilled the demand for religious changes in India. The traditional Con- servative policy had been non-interference in Indian religion, and Conservatives had insisted that the maintenance of Indian religious and social customs was necessary to the peace and order of society. The reformers could not look at Indian religion with this perspective. Auckland’s comment about the protection which the Government provided to Indian religious institutions and practices was characteristic of the current viewpoint: ‘They are protected’, he wrote, ‘23 you would protect a prostitute from robbery or a brothel from burglary. ...'* Even with this antipathy of Utilitarians and Evangelicals towards Indian religion, Hentinck and his associates were cautious in their interference. He obtained the outright and swift abolition of sati in British dominions, Lord “llenborough, 4 Political Diary 1828-1830 (2 vols, Londen, 1881), i. 307. Bentlnek MSS, Fllenboroagh to Beniinck, 19 May 1839) ‘Metcalfe wo Bentinck, 11 Oct. 1829; Raventhaw to Bentinck 9 Dec. 183e- # Add. MSS., 36473, p. 105, Auckland to Hobhouse, 17 Nov. 1836. PEACE, RETRENCHMENT, AND J but after that very litle else, In’ 1833, under the guidance’of the younger Charles Grant, the Boatd of Control ordered the abolition of pilgrim taxes and ended all governmental parti cipation in the religious ceremonies of Indians. The pilgrim| taxes of Juggemath weie ah atailiema to the Evangelicales they represented a political support to superstition and idolatry, Charles Grant's orders, however, were a long time in being Applied. Bentinck had other’ more important measures. His successor Auckland felt that too much ‘mis- guided zeal’ was involved in this Evangelical project. Neither Governor-General felt that existing circumstances Justified a sweeping transformation of Indiai religion.) The abolition of slavery, Which was ariother great project of Charles Grant and the humanitarians in Britain, also be- came delayed in application. The same impulse that made the British Parliament abolish slavery in the British colonies 1839 urged Charles Grant to advocate the outright aboli- tion of slavery in India, Since the problem of slavery in India seemed to be connected with caste and religion, under the pressure of Conservatives for caution, Parliament included 4 the Government of India Act of 1833 only a strong recom- mendation that slavery be abolished. Thereafter, a commis- sion of Indian officials slowly studied the problem and also advised caution, Macaulay sought to attain the virtual abolition of slavery through the provisions of his penal code, but this code was not adopted for years.? Then the problem of Indian slavery became entangled with the recruitment of ies as plantation Iabour in Mauritius and the West Indies. In the late 1830"s, under the pressure of the West Indian sugar interests and moved by laissez-faire considera. tions, Charles Grant, by then the Colonial Sccretary, allowed free coolies to be, shipped overseas. At the outset, this 2 Aijatie Journal, jexi. 87-138, debates at the Th 1830. The Timen 16 Match 1837. Add. Ms “dispatch, 20 Feb. 1853, Bentinck MSS,, Grant to hentach, tt Nee 1833. Commonwealth Relations Offce, Indie Library, Leuor iss the Ea Tadis Company tothe Board of Control i 2-26, 1" Jan 184. * 3 Hansard, xv 46, 15 June 1833. Bendnck M Bentinck, 25 Dec. 133. T. B. Macaulay, WPords (Albany ei London, 1858), ix. 65. PP. 1841 (Ses 1}, xwvii9, ex 3838; pp. 35-9, minute, C. H. Cameron, 1 Feb. 1859, A House, 22 Sept. 37709, pp. 168-70, extract tet, rt JuneOTE 9 BENTINCK, METCALFE, AND MACAULAY ere to contribute to the dawn of a new era in India, a improvement in the intellectual level of society, the groweh of Western liberty, the modernization of law, and the estab- -hment of an orderly and rational government on Utili- tarian lines would be necessary. Bentinck and his associates not only had great faith in the benefit of such measures as these, bt also put their main effort into such reforms. Social and economic changes, which had not been very well ful- led, would follow these intellectual and political reforms, The aims of a Liberal education had already been well outlined by James Mill prior to the decade of reform. Macaulay’s task in India, when he went as the legal member of the Supreme Council, was to fit these aims in a practical programme. Macaulay hed a gift for persuasive language, and, as k's critics claimed, a talent for exaggeration. Though he had less knowledge of the needs and character of Indian education than some Anglo-Indian authorities, he had the capacity to represent the Liberal programme and he had the confidence of the home authorities. His minute on education, ‘written in 1835, was this Liberal programme, According to Macaulay, the frst task of the Indian Government was to educate a class of people who had the leisure, social status, and wealth to benefit from Western knowledge. Since the Government had limited funds, it would have to educate the few rather than the masses, and then expect this Western knowledge to percolate to the rest of India. The missionaries, of course, had endeavoured to educate ail classes of society, and their educational efforts were far ahead of the Government's. Munro and Eiphin- stone, also, had outlined plans for mass education, and in the 1830's the Bengal Government authorized William Adam, 2 missionary, to make a survey of vernacular mass education and suggest a rather broad programme. Macaulay, however, would ‘not sanction such a programme, Only a few, he be- lieved, were ready for Western education, and the public money should be spent on them.t lk MSS. Macauley to Bentinck, 7 Feb. 1835. Revenve, Judi Committee, Miscellaneous’ Papers, IX, Auckland to Acai, T.B. Maceulay, Minucec on Edvcetion iv India (Celeaten, 26 June 183 1862), pp. G10, 46, 110-15, ‘THE CULMINATION wt In his recommendations, secondly, Macau: urged the Indian Government to cease encouraging Hindu and Mus- lim education. He challenged the merits of this traditional learning in a celebrated passage of rhetoric, which revealed, as much as anything, the Liberal reliance on science and utilitarian knowledge as the basis of learning, Macaulay wrote: The question now before us is simply whether, when ie ‘power to teach this language, we shall teach languages in which, by universal confession, there are no books on any subjece which deserve to be compared to our owns whether when we can teach European science, we shal teach systems which, by universal confession, when= ever they differ from those of Europe differ for the worses and whether, when we can patronize sound philosophy and true history, we shall countenance, at the public expense, medical doctrines, which would sgrace an English farrier—astronomy, which would move laughter the girls at an English boarding-school—history, abou ings thirty feet high, and reigns thirty thousand years long—and geography made up of seas of treacle and seas of buster.» Macaulay's proposal to let oriental ship all into complete neglect was largely accepted, Ben realized that the Indian Government had already committed itself to aid oriental scholarship, and this commitment had to be continued. Aside from this, however, Bentinck agreed that ‘all the funds appropriated by government to the pur- poses of education ought to be employed on English educa tion alone’ Such a programme met with the approval of Hobhouse at the Board of Control, which suppressed a pro- test from the directors about the abandonment of India’s traditional education. H. H. Wilson, a distinguished oriental scholar a the service of the Company, speclly objected to the direction of the new policy. Hee feared that it would destroy India’s individuality as well as its literature. He censured what he called a policy of making ‘a whole people dependent on 2 remote and unknown country for their ideas and for their very words’; he believed that this 1G. O. Trevelyan, The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay (2 vols, London, 1931), i. 291 EF * Bentinck MSS, draft of @ regulation in Macaulay's handwriting and corrected by Bentinck, 7 March 1835. Yfe 472 BENTINCK, METCALFE, AND MACAULAY policy would make Indians incapable of aspiring to intellec- tual distinction. Wilson's objections were meaningless to the Liberals, who saw no distinction in India’s traditional learning and no likelihood that a continued study of this Ieatning would lead to distinction. Western literature and learning, the Liberals believed, was the only way to pre- pare Indians once again to become a creative people, So Macaulay's programme was approved. But it never was put into effect to any great extent. With the coming of the Afghan War in 1838 funds were not available for the pro. motion of much Western education The establishment of a free press in India was a reform designed to supplement the work of education and 2 practi. cal expression, in addition, of the regard Liberals had for civil rights, Sir Charles Metcalfe, who was responsible for establishing a free press in 1836, had for years advocated this reform, Like other authorities, he had seen that the press, even when subject to censorship, was an instrument improvement. The loose control over the press which of Bentinck maintained convinced Metcalfe that even. that much control was unnecessary. As Macaulay expressed the point, the press, having been allowed a substantial measure of fecedom, ought to be ‘called free’. The principles of free. dom, as well as their substance, would have to be acknow- ledged.* ‘The practical advantage of a free was in serving a good Government. There had to be a spirited and informed public opinion if governments were ever to promote the -velfare of society; this public opinion had to be {ree to express its views; hence it must be free to criticize the Government, to sort out the good from the bad in any measure of British administration. Moreover, the Govern. ment needed more information about the wants and desires of the people. AA free press would bring Indian opinion to the attention of Government and necessarily contribute to he passage of good laws, This seemed to have been the role ress, to these Liberals, 2 Asiatic Fournal, xvi. (Jan. 1836). 1-16, letter, H. HL, "5. lay, Legislative Minus Teter Pee Lae ‘THE CULMINATION 73 Britain; so the same principle had to be 4 india. Phat what of the dangers of a free press that so many of Metcalfe’s contemporaries had stressed? Others had asserted that Indians, encouraged by a free press, might overthrow British power. Metealfe did not se aay such tendency in the Indian language press up to his departure in 1837. He saw Justa few vernacular newspapers having a very minute cireu- lation, By the time these Indian newspapers might become influential, he reasoned, India’s Liberal development would have been well along its way to fulflment. Moreover, he reasoned, even ifthe extension of knowledge and thedevelop- ment of India along Western lines through a free press were new dangers, and he could not confidently predict the con- trary, he insisted that these were ‘altogether unavoidable’ ® Metcalfe's abolition of censorship in 1835 aroused con- siderable opposition in Britain. Both the directors of the Company and the British Cabinet thought the move a rash one. But they did not rescind the action, perhaps because Liberals such as Macaulay had justified the act and because, once done, it would be unwise to reverse the measure. Auck~ land went to India instructed to reimpose Gensorship, but he became convinced the measure was proper.* So the Liberal in pursuit of Westernizing India, had created one of the ways in which this could be attained. Of course, as with education, a vigorous Indian press and an effective Indian publi opinion took years to develop. The Liberals had just com- menced the process. : ‘The Liberals were also concerned, as much as possible, in introducing Western political and’ legal institutions into India. According to the Utilitarians, representative govern- ment was the best sort of government; but, as James Mi testified to the House of Commons, since India was not * J. W. Kaye, Selection from the Pepers of Lord Metcalfe (London, 1855), P. 31% minute, Metcalfe, 2g Dec. 2828, P-P. 1834, vl Append, pp. 4 52 minute, Metcalfe, 6 Sept. 1830. Margarit Batns, he Tadier: Prest (London, 1940), pp. 209-18. Macaulay, Legivevice Minats, pp. 150-2. Asiatic Fourtal, iv (Jane 1858). 72-5 67, Auckland to Ceraac, 17 “italt), vii. 1063-76, 1 Feh. t | 1-4, Diecs PEN LUNUA, MEICALKE, AND MACAULAY 'y for representative government, the next best solution had to be provided, good government, To the Liberals, this implied two things: the administration must be simple, in- expensive, and conscientious; laws must be siviple, humane, . uniform, “sad“enforceable. Many different measures were tried.in order to approach those standards, ly Bentinck endeavoured to reform the judicial and Fevenue system of Bengal according to the principles of Sir Thomas Munro. Such a policy meant adapting and utilizing stitutions and employing Indians as much a8 pose je in the administration. In following Munro, Bentinck made sure, wherever possible, that the property law and the collection of révenue followed the principles of ryorwari; to insure effective settlement of revenue disputes, Bentinck ave magisterial and police power to collectors; and in the lower level of the courts and revenue establishments, Bere tinck increased the number of Indians employed * OF these administrative reforms, Liberals and humani- tarians especially approved of the increased employment of Indians in the administration, In the Government of India Act of 1833 the Liberals proclaimed the principle that all offices must be open to Indians from the lowest to the highest and that Indians must be given an opportunity to aspire to important political offices. Of course, as some Liberals recognized, this part of the Act was a rather ‘barren assertion of ; because, with all the desire ‘to advance and employ’ Indians in the public service, the home authorities doubted if Indians were ready for stch posts. Still, Bentinck. Grant, and Auckland were encouraged to appoint Indians to Haileybury College where they might be trained for the covenanted Civil Service. Until Indians were trained, how. ever (and that would not be for Peat, British oficals would have the chief responsibi bringing good governmen: aeg ponsibility of bringing good government * Bentinck MSS, Financ 828; pp. 297-303, 4 Sept and Revenue Mingtes, pp. 4: re 27808 So 1835 Atel co etch 0 Jn. 189% Ben lucker, rz May 1834; Bentinck to Grant, 13 May 184. Stokes, Engl Utilitarians aed India; pp. 10-63 Eee gee Add. MSS., 36487, pp. 328-9. Bentinck MSS., Grant to Bentinck, 35 Dec. 1833, THE CULMINATION , 175% To further good governmentin India along L »..,.ines, the British Parliament made an extensive study in'1849, when the Company's government was renewed, of the pos sible future structure of this government. The study centred around two proposals: the possibility of introducing repre- sentative institutions into India and the establishment of a uniform legal code. The outcome of this study revealed how Liberal attitudes could only be partially applied to India. ‘The most controversy surrounded the possibility of a legislative assembly for India. British residents in Inaia had always been dissatisfied with the rather authoritative powers of the Governor-General and his council, Like other colonials these Britons, even though they lived as a small minority in a vast population of Indians, wanted their rights as English- men, and a representative legislature was one of those cherished rights, When Parliament sought information about the future government of India, these British residents demanded 2 colonial legislature consisting of the judges of the crown courts, barristers in Calcutta, represenitatives of British merchants and planters, and the Bishop of Calcutta, in addition to the Governor and his council.t In challenging this proposal, a radical Anglo-Indian, formerly an official in India, proposed that 2 council of Indians should be estab- lished as 2 body to advise the Governor and council on the passage of laws? Neither proposal was acceptable. Both would have seripusly limited the powers of the Governor- General and the home authorities, and the most influential Liberals such as James Mill and Bentinck advised against the proposals, Mill desired a philosopher on the Supreme Council. Bentinck supposed that 2 highly qualified Indian, if there were one, might be added to the council, but no one lsc. Except for adopting Mill's proposal, Parliament was clined to experiment with a representative legislature. Parliament felt that Indians were not ready and denied Cal- cutta’s British residents a representative legislature for quite obvious reasons. Though these British residents claimed t be the pul ion which should gu ide legislation, they were obviously the public opinion of five hundred who had 1 P.P., 1831, vi, 54-7, views of Sir C. Grey, 2 Oct. 1829, 2 PP 276, Robert Rickards, 14 May 1830. ayfe 176 BENTINCK, METCALFE, AND MACAULAY pothing in common with Bengals fifty million and who would hardly legislate for the benefit of Bengals millions. Thus repre- sentative institutions were to be postponed for many years. The British were prepared to offer only a promise that representative institutions sometime would be forthcoming. ‘The framing of an Indian code of laws, in the absence of representative institutions, was necessary for good govern- ment in India. The Benthamites had agitated for a legal code in Britain for years and they considered India had an even greater need for this reform. Indeed, in 1833, The Times asked why in sixty years of rule the British Government in India had not ‘methodized’ its laws.* Thus in the 1833 Act, Parliament established a law commission headed by Macau | to carry out the function of digesting and codifying Indian lawr, Once in India, Macaulay proceeded to write a penal code for that country incorporating the most up-to-date Utili- tarian principles. The result, in fact, was all that the Utili- tarians could desire: it included, as Auckland complained in approving the code, perhaps too much Benthamism. Why should Western law and legal philosophy be applied to India? In writing the preface to his penal code, Macaulay explained that while law-makers could not ignore the long accepted usages of country, he and his commission could aot find any code in India which either represented the deep- seated aspirations of the people or which ‘an enlightened znd humane government’ could possibly consider. Penal lag n India being backward, or worse, Macaulay and his col- | leagues had to innovate a new code based largely on ad- vanced principles. and practices. These had to be Utilitarian : the code must be simple and comprehensible; it smust treat all the people of different races, creeds, and colour in the same way; it must be humane in its application, In writing this code, Macaulay thus offered the principle j-al| of equality under the law as a way of challenging the in- ra pp, 1831, 100-2, Bentinck, 10 Oct. 1829. P.P,, 1831-2, ie. 46-7, GS James Mil, 20'Feb. 1852. Macaulay, LeghlerieeStimee, prospect 2g Apel 1833, # Macaulay, Work ix. 4-8. Add. MSS., 36475, pp. 155-8, Auckland to ow May 18375 p. 172, Auckland to Hobhouse, 14 fuly 1837. yh which would subject British residents outside of Cal f |. WuSupreme Court o ee Ge THE CULMINATION equalities of the Indian caste system and the special privi- leges which Britons tended to enjoy. Of course, Macaulay did not apply the principle with complete consistency, He could not recommend that the treatment of British and Indian prisoners be the same. He felt that it would be in- humane to imprison Europeans for long terms in India; he thought that the imprisonment of Britons of criminal character in the degrading toils of a jail would add litle respect to British character; he recommended the banish- ment rather than the imprisonment of such British criminals, Aside from this exception, however, Macaulay would put Britons and Indians under the same law, and his views on this matter raised a furore among the British population in India. In 1837, the Indian Government passed the Black "7 cutta to the jurisdiction of the Company’s courts, where jndges might preside, instead of, the Britich-style F Calcutta, ‘British residents of Caleurta protested vehemently, sent a petition to the British Parlia- Indian inquiry into the subject. In opposition to Macaulay's Liberal Principles, these Calcutta residents had no desire for equality with Indians. They showed an essential antipathy towards Indians—a sort of racial prejudice that appeared when colonial peoples interacted with native populations.’ The Liberals in Britain and India such as Macaulay, Sir John Hobhouse, and John Stuart Mill, resisted the pressure of the Caleutta residents. Macaulay made the point that, in coming to India, British citizens must expect to obey the laws of @ foreign land rather than suppose that their own laws accom- panied them. The British Government, moreover, had a responsibility to the Indian population, he insisted: ‘The real question before us is whether, from fear of the outery of 4 small and noisy section of the society of Calcutta, we will abdicate all those high functions with which parliament hat entrusted us, for the purpose of restraining the European settlers and of protecting the native population. 2 Trevelyan, Mecanlay,j 350-2. Add. MSS., 36467, pp. 339°" 36468, PP. 361-6, 26 Jan. 1838. ‘® Macaulay, Legisiacioe Minates, p. 178, minute, 28 Marc. pgesment objecting to the Black Act, and incited a parliamentary ee.