Friendship And Cultural Discourse During Colonial India Essay

In the memoir, “By Any Other Name,” Santha Rama Rau explores the British attempt to replace Indian culture with the “superior” British culture and her resistance to this change. The speaker depicts this man vs. society conflict by sharing the story of a culture clash she experienced at a British run day school. The conflict is first seen when the headmistress decides to change the girls’ names, as indicated when she states, “Suppose we give you pretty English names” (Rama Rau 35). By calling English names pretty, the headmistress is implying their Indian names are not pretty, and thus inferior to British names. She said it was because Indians cheat…So I don’t think we should go back to that school. Another instance where the conflict is evident

“The Inconvenient Indian” speaks to a general audience and particularly to US and Canada. The book is organized into chapters and each chapter refers to a variety of themes. Some of these themes are history, culture, politics, and laws. By incorporating all these themes,

Beginning in the sixteenth century, Europeans made the voyage to a “new world” in order to achieve dreams of opportunity and riches. In this other world the Europeans came upon another people, which naturally led to a cultural exchange between different groups of people. Although we commonly refer to European and Indian relations as being between just two very different groups of people, it is important to recognize this is not entirely true. Although the settlers of the new world are singularly referred to as Europeans, each group of people came from a different nation and with different motives and expectations of the new world. Similarly, the Indians were neither a united group nor necessarily friendly with each other. Due to the

“Englishmen.. have given the people of India the greatest human blessing - peace.” (Dutt). Merely coming to India in the 1600s to trade, the British East India Company established trading outposts. After ridding of French influence in India during the Seven Years’ War and having Indians mutiny against British rule, Britain gained full control of India. India has been under the imperialist control of the British until their independence in 1947. British imperialism caused some negative effects on India through poverty and persecution, but retained more of a positive impact due to its massive improvements in the modernization of India and the overall improvement of Indian civilization.

Another social conflict underlined in this book was the conflict between the Irish-American citizen and the citizens of Indian origin. Typically, Irish people looked down upon the Indian citizens. The writer notes that the Irish people were slowly forgetting their own fate of how they too were the subject of discrimination and callous victimization in the

2. Early Colonial Indian relations were an uneasy mix of cooperation and conflict. On the one

Confrontations and conflicts between White American and Native American during the late eighteen hundreds become increasingly one sided. From ritual practices and beliefs to land ownership and government policy; Native Americans and there white contour parts differed greatly. Between 1865 to 1900 the "White man" and Native American relationships in western United States could be characterized as a horrible and miss leading rampage of white man destroying foreign customs and peoples. In 1862 Congress had granted western settlers their two greatest wishes, the Home Stead Act, promising ownership of 160 acre tract of public land to a citizen or head of a family who had resided on/ or

The Anglo considered Indians “animals” (Almaguer 113). When Anglos encountered Indians, just a few “recognized” them as human beings” because of the difference in cultures (Almaguer 108). The first and pivotal thing the Anglos noticed about the Indians was the different color of skin. Indians “sported tattooed bodies and scarred faces and wore little more than animal skins and grass shirts,” which was seen as uncivilized (Almaguer 107). Their skin color was their main disadvantage. Indians were referred to as “‘chocolate brown,’ ‘dark mahogany,’ or simply as ‘very dark’ or ‘black’” (Almaguer 112). The color of their skin made them appear dirty. Because the Indians were not white, they were not considered human.

The introduction of the sport Cricket was much more complex than simply just a new game for people to play. Cricket played a profound role in political relationships in South Asia between 1880 to 2005 by easing tensions and restrictions of caste members, athough sometimes intensifying British-Indian rivalry, as well as increasing religious tensions between Hindus and Muslims. Cricket played a huge part in lessening social divisions, a constant problem in almost all of civilization’s history. Prince Ranjitsinhji, photographed in London’s paper, planned to visit England and join the Sussex team, who are glad to have him (Doc. 2). This is evidence that despite English likely believing they are superior to Indians, because of the game of cricket, they are glad to incorporate a talented player even if he is Indian.

Examining the complex relationship between Indians and early English colonists, Karen Kupperman notes that English writers on colonization described Indian societies as viable civilizations and regarded economic prosperity in the New World as a viable option. Potential colonists saw the native peoples as potential trading partners and friendly and receptive to European settlements. This positive view, however, contrasted with other descriptions of savagery that grew out of cultural assumptions and misunderstandings about gender roles, matrilineal societies, clothing, diet, religious worship, and most critically, notions of individual property ownership and land use. The English and the Indians each viewed one another through their own frames of reference and understandings of how human societies should function. All of this contributed to the marginalization of Indians from English colonial society. In light of the conflicting nature of English-Indian relations, the decimation of the Indian population through disease, and the increasing difficulty and expense of indentured servants, the English eventually turned to African slaves for

One question I have on the topic of Britain’s reign over India is why Indians were discriminated against. On page 42, a young British girl says to Vidya at the airport, “Don’t touch me, blackie! Look where you’re going, you crow!” On page 38 Vidya’s father scoffs sarcastically, “Only white people have the brains to be officers. We are too stupid, of course.” Why did Britain hate the citizens of the country they had taken over? Was it to keep them in line, to say if they dare go against them the discrimination would get worse? If the British thought the Indians were so horrible, why did they take over their country, take their resources and take volunteers to fight on their side of the war? It made no sense that Britain would occupy their country

So what does it mean to be Indian in the late nineteenth and early twentieth? They had a separation of categories mainly the name of anomalies, as for the book the figure illustrates “Red Cloud Woman” this was a figure for the american culture and society (Deloria, 5). As for expectations, expectations are almost invariably raced, classed, and gendered. They can be colored by religious practice and by regional location touched by sexuality, transformed by national difference and global exchange (Deloria, 7). The role of Indians was very complicated, expectations, ideology, discourse and power shaped Indians in American

Impact of British Colonization Exposed in A Small Place, A Passage to India, and Robinson Crusoe

A Passage To India by E. M. Forster is a rich, postcolonial novel delving into the possibility of sustaining a personal friendship between an English person and an "Indian" person. This topic is being discussed in the beginning of the novel at the home of Hamidullah, "... they were discussing as to whether or no(t) it is possible to be friends with an Englishman. Mahmoud Ali argued that it was not, Hamidullah disagreed, but with so many reservations..." (Forster 7) Aziz, who the novel centers around, has the disposition to just shut them out and ignore them and all will be jolly. Of course, later, we find Aziz does not shut them out and rather

E.M. Forster’s classic novel “A Passage to India” tells the story of a young doctor, Dr. Aziz, and his interactions with the British citizens who are residing in India during the time of the British Raj. Throughout the novel, the reader gets many different viewpoints on the people and the culture of India during this point in history. The reader sees through the eyes of the Indian people primarily through the character of Dr. Aziz, and the perceptions of the British through the characters of Mr. Fielding, Adela Quested, and Mrs. Moore. Through the different characters, and their differing viewpoints, the reader can see that Forster was creating a work that expressed a criticism that he held of the behavior of the British towards their Indian subjects.