During the 18th and 19th centuries, Britain has colonized plenty of countries all over the world and ultimately the British Empire, an empire on which the sun never sets, was constructed. Historians over time argued British Empire from positively to negatively that it established formal governments and infrastructures for other regions out of England; however, later historians pointed out that it stripped the original and indigenous people in its colonies. This trend can also be seen in literature that writers gradually focused on the evildoing of British Empire more than its positive effects toward its colonies. And, they specifically criticized the racism about the empire.
The interpretations of the British Empire change over time from positive and praiseful to negative and critical in literature, which means writers started to focus on its horrible action to the colonies rather than its contribution to the colonies. In The White Man’s Burden (1899), written by Rudyard Kipling, he appealed to “Take up the White Man's burden — Send forth the best ye breed — Go bind your sons to exile”. He encouraged the White Men who live in Europe to send themselves and their next generations to the colonies in order to meet the local people’s need in its colonies and regard the colonization as the White Men’s responsibility, which means he absolutely support the colonization because he thought they “Bring all your hopes to nought”, in other words, he considered them as the helpers and the saviors of the colonies. However, after this poem, in Burmese Days (1934), written by George Orwell, when Ellis, the master, hearing his servant Butler spoke pretty and fluent English, he said “We shall have to sack this fellow if he gets to talk English too well. I can’t stick servants who talk English”, which shows that British were unwilling and averse to indigenous people in colonies who spoke English very well. It indicates that although the British Empire certainly spread civilization to the colonies in particular, they were unhappy to see that the local people truly progressed by their education. Therefore, it criticized British Empire for its superficial help to colonies and its real purpose to enslave the local people. In Excerpts from the short story “Rain” (1921) by W. Somerset Maugham, Mrs Davidson said that they should cut down the dancing because she thought “It's not only immoral in itself, but it distinctly leads to immorality”. However, at that time, myriads of British people were also eager to dance. The sentence is trying to tell that the dance of British people was elegant and fantastic while the dance of the natives was dirty and unbearable. Thus, from the three works, it is clear to see the interpretations in literature changed from positive to critical.
The writers criticized the British Empire for the racism to the local people lived in colonies. For British people, they thought they were superior to the local people and did not want those people to be as good as them. In Burmese Days (1934), written by George Orwell, when Ellis knew that Macgregor brought a black man to the European Club, he said “Here we are, supposed to be goveming a set of damn black swine who’ve been slaves since the beginning of history”. He thought the black men were used to be their slaves in history and now they should be ruled by the white people too. What’s more, he also said that Flory’s best friend who is a black man has studied two years “at an Indian so-called university”. It also shows Ellis, as a British man, was disrespectful to black man and thought the university in India was not a definite university, it just called university and was much worse than theirs. In addition, in A Passage to India (1924) E.M. Forster, Mrs Turton said ““You’re superior to them, anyway. Don’t forget that. You’re superior to everyone in India except one of two of the Ranis, and they’re on an equality” to Mrs Moore, a British woman. It can also indicate the superiority of British women above the Indian ladies and only few nobilities were as equal as them. When they got the Indian ladies knew Paris, Mrs Turton said “They pass Paris on the way, no doubt” as if she was describing the movements of migratory birds. This sentence demonstrates the disrespect of Indian ladies by dehumanization that Indian ladies were like the birds just passing there. Additionally, this excerpt illustrates that English and Indian cannot be friends because of the obstacles, which are caused by colonization of the British Empire. Therefore, the British Empire was criticized by its racism.
Overall, the writers cared more about the negative action taken by the British Empire instead of its positive effects on the colonies over time, and they mainly criticized it because of its racism. Although the British Empire provided the colonies with formal government, law, systematic education and comprehensive infrastructures, it also did myriads of evildoings to the colonies: it enslaved plenty of black men to work laboriously for them, killed millions of indigenous people lived in their original land, like American Indian. So, the writers gradually concentrated on its evildoing because it was much more critical than its contribution.
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