Outline Lecture Thirteen—Britain’s Moral Impasse PDF

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Chang Winter 2017...

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Outline Lecture Thirteen—Britain’s Moral Impasse 1) How did the British Empire try to reconcile its “moral” burden of civilization with its economic objectives? 2) What pivotal role did opium play in the British Empire? I) The Moral “Burden” of Imperialism a) “What redeems it is the idea only” (Conrad 20) i) What did Marlow mean by this? ii) E.g. Self-duplicity in Kurtz’s “civilizing mission” b) Britain’s Economic Interests in India i) Dominant role of the British East India Company (EIC) ii) British colonial expansion in Indian subcontinent in the 18th century iii) Sepoy Mutiny 1857 (1) Massacre in Cawnpore iv) Shift to Direct Imperial Rule 1858 (1) Colonial policies of the British Raj c) The Challenges of Religious Tolerance i) Sati: The custom of widow-burning or concremation ii) Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s appeal in 1820 iii) William Bentinck, Governor-General of EIC (1) What is moral vs. what is politically/economically expedient? (2) A hypocritical “cost-benefit” approach to moral conscience (3) Official ban of sati in 1829 (a) Conveniently reconciled empire with “a purer morality” II) The Economic Mainstay of Empire: Opium a) “The Knife of Sugar”—“Sakar ki Churi” i) Dadabhai Naoroji’s 1871 characterization of the British empire in India ii) Benefits vs. detriments of British rule b) Opium as a “Keystone” Commodity i) Pivotal economic role of opium for British Empire (1) Chief export from India to China (2) Revenue from opium bankrolled other capitalist and imperialistic ventures (3) Trocki: “Without opium, there would have been no empire” c) Managing the Opium Monopoly i) Subtle methods of labor coercion and extortion (1) System of debt extortion and cash dependency in Benares and Bihar (2) Labor-intensive work/Cheap prices ii) Controlling the competition of Malwa opium (1) Autonomous cultivation and distribution of Malwa opium iii) Global consequences for the opium market (1) Case of highly “elastic” demand d) The Moral Conundrum i) Rationale for a monopoly

ii) Where’s the “compassion” in underwriting and benefitting from a devastating drug addiction of millions? iii) The most powerful drug cartel in modern history?...