The ghost of Rudyard Kipling lives on in neocolonialist blog Arma Virumque (thanks, Saheli and many others):
… this third-world feminist of color should get down on her knees and thank Siva that her country was the beneficiary of British colonialism. Without it, she would never have heard of feminism or even of the third world, since the very concept depends upon the freedom, education, and language that the West brought to savages [sic] countries in the 18th and 19th centuries. India is such an economic powerhouse today because of the legacy bequeathed by her former colonial rulers… everywhere that Britain went—I cannot think of a single exception—it left better off.
The right-wing blog Power Line chimes in:
It’s great to see someone standing up for colonialism, especially British colonialism.
The author, Roger Kimball, picks the wrong deity and only gets lamer from there. This hapless duffer who calls himself an American patriot is arguing against American independence, which happened precisely because the crown raped its colonies and kept its boot upon the throat of political freedom. And in crediting the Brits with everything, despite their focus on their own economic interests, he falls prey to the classic fallacy of correlation vs. causation. It’s the one made famous by animism and sports superstition: ‘I wore a cap one day, I won, therefore my cap caused the victory.’
For Kimball to give the Brits all credit requires projecting an artificial stasis in India for 200 years. If you flash-freeze hundreds of millions of people and put them into deep hibernation for two centuries, that they’ll end up relatively poor is a tautology. You have to project India along the political, developmental and educational trajectories of similar regions not under colonial rule. Otherwise you’re reduced to a bogus argument: that absent the British, India would never have built a railroad, regional highways, river ports or seaports. Even the smallest and poorest of nations have managed that, if for no other reason than the economic interests of their kleptocrats.
Absent Ford, someone still would have popularized the automobile. Absent Microsoft, someone still would have popularized an operating system. And absent the British, India still would have had transport.
Indeed, Indians built infrastructure during the Raj using their own laborers and their own capital. The London Jagannath stole vast amounts of capital and raw material; you’d add that massive attack back into the model. Getting elites bootstrapped on English turned out serendipitous because of the unexpected success of a 13-state British colony that roared. But in most other areas of development, the thievery was a net hindrance.
If the British sinned, it was not because of their colonial rule, but because of the failure of nerve that led them to withdraw too precipitously… Had Britain had the courage to face down Gandhi and his rabble a few years longer, the tragedy that was the partititon [sic] of India might have been avoided.
‘Had Britain had the courage to face down Washington, the tragedy that was the Civil War might have been avoided.’ Kimball doesn’t grasp even the basics of history: Britain intentionally divided colonies upon retreat to keep them warring and pliable, and Gandhi was the one against Partition. Divide and rule was the basis of British strategy both coming and going. So where does this argument come from? What modern-day situation could possibly motivate conservatives to argue against withdrawing rapidly from an invaded country? Thinking… thinking… wait, it’ll come to me…
I wonder when these neocolonialists will welcome a Chinese invasion of the U.S. mainland so they can bequeath to us their bullet trains, their high-tech factories and their shiny new cities. I wonder when neocolonialists will send their kids to elite schools in Beijing to learn Mandarin, the dominant language of the 21st century, and look down on English speakers as natives with sawdust for brains. I wonder when neocolonialists will say, ‘If tens of millions are killed under Chinese rule, so be it, it’s for the national good. Who knows how backward we’d be had the Chinese not developed us.’
Regarding the neocolonialists’ swish style, their fetish for festooning themselves in Latin names (Arma Virumque) and Greek classics (Victor Hanson) is hilarious because they don’t want anything to do with swarthy people today. Like the Victorian-era German intellectuals obsessed with the Upanishads and the Vedas, they want the patina of classicism to rub off on them from a safe distance.
Kipling’s own paternalistic wet dream, his quasi-religious self-absolution as his countrymen were murdering unarmed civilians, starving peasants, stealing money to build London’s banks and generally sucking the country dry, went something like this:
Take up the White Man’s burden…
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child…
Take up the White Man’s burden—
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better
The hate of those ye guard—
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah slowly) to the light:
“Why brought ye us from bondage,
“Our loved Egyptian night?”
Sepia Mutiny: reporting controversy a week after it happens ;)
See also: Crooked Timber, Obsidian Wings, Digby, Majikthise, India Uncut, LGM, Geomblog, Vegacura, Apostropher, Grammar.police, Catalyst, Ed Cone, Catching Flies, Cinematic Rain, Atrios
Still fighting a losing battle for the Tories: ADC, Logical Meme
Update: Zoo Station has some very interesting comments.
Update 2: Grammar.police says:
… [Kimball is] sampling on the dependent variable… one might suggest that the British immediately be persuaded to conquer the entire world, given all the benefits that subjugation to the queen confers; applying his thesis along another axis, one might suggest world domination by both the Nazis and Soviets as well, since many if not all the countries formerly conquered by these Empires are doing very well today… Following the time variable backward, in fact, it’s hard to come up with a single historical instance of brute imperialism that hasn’t made the world a better place!
