Empire - A Taste for Power
It was the empire on which the sun never set, or, as some said, on which the blood never dried. At its height, Britain ruled over a quarter of the world's population. Much of the Empire was built on greed and a lust for power. But the British came to believe they had a moral mission, too a mission to civilise the world. !he builders builders of Empire Empire were were bold. !hey were were adventurous. adventurous. "ome were ruthless. And some were #ust a bit unhinged. !he sheer sheer e$panse of of British rule rule was breathta%i breathta%ing. ng. It stretched from the wilderness of the Arctic... ..to the sands of Arabia... Arabia... ..and the islands of the &aribbean. There was a time when Britannia really did rule the waves. And it's a memory which has never wholly faded. Once, the Navy imposed blockades, sank enemy vessels at will, suppressed slavery, mapped the world's uncharted oceans and generally forced Britain's will onto foreign governments. That heritage helped heritage helped Britain to believe she's still entitled to a place at the top table in world aairs. (ow did such a small country get such a big head) "o much that shaped the e$traordinary story of the British Empire was born here... ..in the comple$, timeworn e$panse of India. It was here the British learned the art of imperial power. *et, *et, it was a treaty treaty signed thousands thousands of miles miles away that that determined determined the fate of of India.
In +ebruary -/, the great European powers were meeting in 0aris to end years of war and to divide the world between them from &anada to the 0hilippines. Britain's representative at the peace tal%s was the 1u%e of Bedford, a stubby, arrogant little man, who'd never been to any of these places. In fact, his gout made it di2cult enough for him to get to 0aris. But the Bedfords did pretty well out of the summit. !he 1uchess 1uchess was given given an 344piece 344piece porcelain porcelain dinner dinner service service by the 5ing 5ing of +rance, +rance, and the 1u%e) 1u%e) !he 1u%e 1u%e got India for the British. British. !he technologicall technologically y advanced countries of Europe Europe were eyeing up foreign foreign lands for future conquest. conquest. And Britain had a head start. India was decisive it gave Britain the resources, the mar%ets, the manpower and the prestige to build a worldwide empire. In the years to come, they wor%ed feverishly to secure that pri6e.
+irst, Britain too% control of the Mediterranean. !hen they too% the &ape of 7ood (ope at the bottom of Africa, then Mauritius in the Indian 8cean, then &eylon now "ri 9an%a, of course. And :nally, "ingapore. A web of strongholds right across the globe. !his was the beginning of Britain's time as the undisputed top dog of the world. *et, the whole thing was built upon something decidedly fragile. A small island li%e Britain couldn't by itself :nd the manpower to hold on to this vast new territory. "o, they came up with a system that would become a cornerstone of Empire they paid local soldiers to :ght for them. British o2cers would now lead Indian troops. !he colonised would provide the :ghting force of colonialism for centuries to come. (E "(8;!" 8<1E<"
!he Madras
It's spent most of its e$istence :ghting not for independent India, but for Britain. It doesn't bother &aptain 1ilip "he%har that his regiment helped to build the Empire. (ere are the battle honours we won under the British. 8n the left, you can see these are outside India, li%e... &hina, Afghanistan, Burma... 5iliman#aro> *es. !hat's in the +irst ?orld ?ar, in East Africa, isn't it) *es. !hese are battles that you fought... +or Britain in India. -=@ of your honours are when you're part of the British Army. *es. ?hat do you thin% about that) !hat's great. You were on the wrong side then, from an Indian nationalist point of view you fought for the British. ?e were soldiers. And a soldier does not %now whose region it is he's :ghting for. !omorrow, I have a :ght with any other country, and I'm told to :ght with that country I don't have any personal grievance. 1o you thin% the British being here was a good thing or a bad thing) ?hat happened in history is history we should not be going into that, but, yes, they have done good for us, and even bad to us. But you're... It's a good thing they're not here, isn't it) 8h, yeah.
But all the troops you could hire could never control such a huge country. !he British needed a political system to %eep them in power, and they found it in the Indian 0rinces.
In the mid344s, the British invaders signed a treaty with the local ruler here, the Mahara#a of odhpur. !hey promised him he could go on running his %ingdom #ust as before, but he'd have to pay !(EM for the privilege. !his protection racket would be repeated all over India. +antastic goal there. !hey have :nally wo%en up, ladies and gentlemen. In time, the ruling classes of the two peoples would become entwined. British customs and British dress became part of the trappings of Indian court life. !he present Mahara#a is the product of both cultures. !his is the family palace, designed for them by a British architect. ;nderstated little place. Morning, sir. ?elcome. 7ood morning, good morning. But, as the British e$tended their grip on India, they tore up the treaty they'd made with the Mahara#a's ancestor. !hey stripped the Mahara#as of their power, but let them %eep their palaces. !his way. !his is your drawing room, is it) !his is my drawing room, yes. !his is where we've tuc%ed ourselves into a little corner of the palace. All these chaps on the walls, they're all ancestors, are they) *es. !hat's my father behind you. And... 7reat great great grandfather. "plendid beard. *es> !he :rst question is, what should I call you) Bab#i. ?hat does that mean) Everyone calls me Bab#i. Bab#i is a term of endearment, as well as a term of respect. ?hat does it mean) 9iterally it means...Bab, which means +ather.
i is li%e an honori:c. But even as a child you were called Bab#i) *es, absolutely. *our own involvement, of course, in Britain is considerable, isn't it) *ou were sent away to school in England.
0rep school, yes. 0rep school to &othill, then Eton, then 8$ford. "o, you were really brought up as an English child) EnglishCIndian boy. !(E* 9A;7( But I would switch. Is that good) I would switch being what I was being an English man, and then become an Indian when I came home. ?hen you loo% bac% at that original treaty, how do you feel about the British reneging on it) My ancestor at that time, he was very unhappy. +irst of all, to sign that treaty in the beginning, because he had no options left. It was selfpreservation. But then he was very unhappy with it. ;ntil the period came when we learnt how to use their presence... to our advantage. 7et the best out of the system. And, at that point, it becomes unclear who's pulling whose strings. *es> Duite tric%y.
At the heart of British authority was a gigantic con:dence tric%.
It wor%ed for as long as the illusion could be maintained. Take Government House in Calcutta. It was the seat of British power in India. It's still the headquarters of the
!hese ones didn't go through, but in other places, you can see the balls have gone straight through the wall. And that down there, I thin%, is what was the banqueting hall, but during the course of the siege became used as the hospital, and was absolutely pac%ed with the wounded, obviously, but also the sic%, because inevitably what happened was all the latrines :lled up and overGowed, and there were corpses rotting in the heat everywhere, so cholera bro%e out, and it was the #ob of many of the small children to wipe the Gies o the faces and the wounds of the in#ured inside the hospital there.
It must have been an absolutely appalling scene. After four and a half months, British relief forces arrived. As they fought their way into the stin%ing ruins, they showed no mercy. In the story of Empire, rebellion always met with savage retaliation. 8ne British commander alone e$ecuted ,444 men. Elsewhere, he Gogged suspected mutineers, made them lic% blood from the slaughterhouse Goor, and then hanged them. In other cases, mutineers were tied to the ground, branded with hot irons, told to run for their lives, and, when they did so, were shot dead. It was not enough merely to punish an e$ample had to be made. !he psychological impact of the conGict was massive each side now %new how very thin was the veneer of civilised coe$istence, that with the right provocation they could unleash hell on each other. ,444 men, women and children had perished in the siege. !he pretence of British rule had been shattered, the blu called. And, when peace returned, British attitudes hardened. !he poet
?hat do you thin% of all the statues #ust down here) I'm afraid we're some of the occasional white men, but what...do you %now what happened here) Hot very interested) !here's one relic of the British
ictoria was Empress, mother, virtual god. In the years following the mutiny, over =4 statues of her were commissioned and shipped out from Britain. !he Mahara#a of Baroda for e$ample paid J=,=44 for a solid marble statue. And, at the feet of it, Gowers were regularly laid and every wee%, it was given a shampoo to %eep the old queen loo%ing spruce. ictoria had plenty to smile about. A mi$ of enterprise and cunning, brutality and pomp had turned India into the biggest, richest and most signi:cant colony in the Empire. By the closing years of ictoria's reign, India formed the heart of an empire that stretched from &anada in the west to Australia in the east. It was time to celebrate. ictoria's 1iamond ubilee, on nd une 3F-, was the grandest showing o of Empire Britain would ever see. If the Indian durbars were designed to cow the Empire's sub#ects, the ubilee was a piece of theatre meant to :re the British public with imperial fervour. A vast cavalcade made its way across the capital to the socalled 0arish &hurch of Empire, "t 0aul's &athedral. !housands of troops had been summoned from all over the Empire &anadian (ussars, Indian 9ancers, &ypriot 0olicemen wearing fe66es, amaicans in white gaiters, there were (ong 5ong 0olicemen, Australian &avalrymen, 1aya%s, Maoris,
!han% you. +or many years, Egypt was run quietly from this building now the British Embassy.
And this was the man who ran it, ruling Egypt for over 4 years and perfecting the strange machinery of British power in the Middle East -ir velyn Bearing. 82cially, he was #ust &onsul 7eneral, rather than &olonial 7overnor, but, with ,444 troops stationed ne$t door, there was no doubt who was in charge. It wasn't #ust his si6e that gave him the nic%name 8verBearing. Bearing was an imperialist through and through. (e regarded the Egyptians, and indeed most foreigners, as children. And he treated them accordingly, with occasional concern and permanent disdain. It earned him their profound resentment. Bearing allowed the Egyptian elite to imagine they were still running the country. !he British are easy to deceive, said one Egyptian politician, but when you thin% you've deceived them, they give you the most tremendous %ic% in the bac%side. Bearing was a man who li%ed to e$ercise power behind the throne. (e did not give commands but, it was said, advice which had to be ta%en. (ere the wor%ings of Empire had become almost invisible. !he British found a word for it Egypt was not a colony, it was a %protectorate. Bearing allowed himself two hours each evening to e$ercise at the 7a6ero "porting &lub. As they did all over the Empire, British o2cials in &airo repaired to the club at the end of the wor%ing day. *ou can be so mean in croquet, can't you) And it is in many countries now. It is many countries, yes. (E "0EA5" A
?ere you glad to see the English go) +or sure. (E 9A;7(" ?e weren't all bad, were we) ?e weren't all bad) All %inds of imperialism is bad. But was there nothing good that the British did here) Hothing was good.
All the time they were here, -4 years, and it was all... More than -4 years. *es did they do nothing good) I thin% no. (ow many times do you come to Egypt) 8h, I've been three or four times. +our times) *es, about that, I thin%. *ou are most welcome here. ?ell, it's very nice of you, than% you very much, particularly in light of our history. !his is one of the good things which imperialism did. !here you are, you found one thing> !he temporary intervention in Egypt the bit of Empire that never was would last into the middle of the 4th century. Bearing himself, the invisible man, left in F4- to retire to Bournemouth. Bearing's last carriage #ourney, from the British (eadquarters to the railway station, was mar%ed by what one witness called a chilly silence.
I don't suppose he'd have cared that much, he wasn't here to be loved, but I wonder what he would have made of the fact that, even generations later, there were Egyptians travelling to England to spit on his grave. As the 4th century dawned, Britain's sense of its role in the world had given it dangerous delusions about what it could do. ?orld ?ar and its aftermath would e$pose these delusions in a merciless fashion The irst /orld /ar stretched far beyond the mud and trenches of Horthern Europe. It reached into the streets and deserts of 0alestine and the Middle ast. 8nce again, Britain feared for its %ey strategic asset, its lifeline to India the -ue( Canal. It had to be protected. !he region was ruled by Britain's war enemy, !ur%ey. In their desert conGict with the !ur%s, the British needed allies. !he Bedouin tribes of the Arabian 1esert %new this arid land and they %new how to survive in it. If they could be encouraged to rise up against the !ur%s, they might prove invaluable. But who could unite them) !his is the edge of the "inai 1esert. It was here that a young man came on a secret mapping mission for the British Army. It was disguised as an archaeology :eld trip, and it was the beginning of a long love aair with the desert and with the Arab people. !hat love aair created one of the most romantic :gures in the history of the British Empire Thomas dward &awrence, &awrence o* ra$ia. 9awrence, the illegitimate son of an Irish baronet, scholar, archaeologist, linguist, was #ust the man to charm and inspire the Arabs into a desert revolt. !he story of an Englishman leading an e$otic army across the desert caught the public's imagination. In contrast to the mud and murder of the ?estern +ront, here was a sweeping campaign fought in bla6ing sunlight. And here, too, was a dierent %ind of imperialist romantic, idealistic, dashing... and slightly nuts.
9awrence had a passion for the Arabs and their way of life. (is ability to live li%e them impressed them. "o did the gold from the British treasury he brought to pay them. "hu%ran. And he gave them something more, a belief in themselves as an Arab nation. As his masters in 9ondon had hoped, he coa$ed them into :ghting with the British with the promise of their freedom once the war was over.
1o you thin% he was a good man) *eah. ?hy) (e was a real man, yeah. 1o you thin% that the promises that he made were ever %ept) '9awrence promised his Arab :ghters freedom from foreign rule. '!hey believed 0alestine would be theirs. '!here would be many more promises made 'and #ust as many bro%en.' !he war in the desert :nally brought Britain a string of heady victories. Imperial troops from India, Australia and Hew Kealand as well as Britain swept across the region. By the winter of F-, the ultimate pri6e was within their grasp. The Holy City itsel*. And so was born the dangerous conviction that the interests of the British Empire and the will of 7od might be one and the same. +or &hristians, erusalem was sacred as the site of the &hurch of the (oly "epulchre, venerated as the place where &hrist's body was laid. But erusalem was sacred to other faiths, too. A thousand years before &hrist, it was the capital of the ews. -haring the city with the 2ews in relative peace were the ra$s, *or whom 2erusalem was one o* the holiest cities in #slam. +or the British 0rime Minister, &loyd George, the Empire now began to feel li%e a divine mission. Most British political leaders had been brought up on the Bible. !hey were steeped in its geography. And as for its history, well, 9loyd 7eorge claimed, as a boy, he %new the names of the %ings of Israel long before he %new the names of the %ings of England. At noon on 1ecember F-, British forces entered erusalem. In a show stagemanaged from 9ondon for this imperial victory, the trappings of power were discarded. &ommander in &hief General dmund llen$y dismounted from his horse and entered the city on foot. !o a watching world, Allenby was proclaiming that he came not as a conqueror but as a pilgrim.
Behind him, in borrowed army uniform, was a #ubilant 9awrence. But his #oy would prove shortlived. 8n the walls of the city, Allenby ordered a solemn proclamation from the British 7overnment to be read out. (e %new, he said, that the place was sacred to three great religions, that its soil had been sancti:ed by prayer and pilgrimage, and he promised to preserve it. But for all his :ne words, Allenby had been handed a tic%ing timebomb. +or, bac% in 9ondon, the British 7overnment had #ust gone even further. !he ews of Europe, scattered for centuries, had been made a remar%able oer. In the Bal*our 3eclaration, the British +oreign "ecretary committed Britain to helping the ews ma%e a home in 0alestine. 0laying 7od in the (oly 9and was an astonishing gesture. !he British had come to feel they were agents of destiny. !hey had become powerful enough, and you might say well meaning enough, to believe they could solve the problems of the world. !he promised land had now been promised once too often.
8ver the ne$t decade, as more and more ews arrived in 0alestine, tension between them and the Arabs rose. It came to a head at the ?ailing ?all in the heart of 8ld erusalem. In FF, riots bro%e out here at the site sacred to both ews and Arabs. !he riot spread and later Arabs murdered ews in their homes. !he British police were completely outnumbered and the British authorities decided that, from now on, all Arab outrages would be met with real aggression. !he British want peace at any price. !hey try to restore order, search everybody. !hey act as if both sides are equally guilty. !o the Arabs, the British had bro%en the promise of freedom made to them by 9awrence. Instead, the Arabs were having to give up their land to the ews. !he ews felt the British were failing to honour the terms of the Balfour 1eclaration, and the promise of a national home for them. Both sides made their case with gelignite. Both sides committed appalling atrocities. 0alestine became a posting from which many never returned. !he 0rotestant cemetery on Mount Kion is full of British graves. Many belong to soldiers, policemen and civilians who died trying to %eep apart two peoples who had previously lived relatively peaceably together. After a while, you begin to notice one date %eeps reappearing. uly FL. It was in the wing on the right of the picture that the terrorists placed their e$plosives. !he hotel housed the British Army headquarters and the 0alestine 7overnment o2ces, and casualties were very heavy. F people were %illed including L Arabs, 3 British, and - ews.
"ara Agassi was - at the time. "he was a member of the team of militant ews who bombed the 4ing 3avid Hotel. 0retending she was #ust attending a dance, she scouted the hotel for the terrorists, deciding where the bomb should be placed. "o they came down here with the bombs and then what happened) !o the... !o the place... Ho, it's not here, there. !hrough there) 8f course. It was open. *ou recognise it) *eah, of course. ?e came from here. !his was the place that you had been loo%ing at when you came dancing that day) *es, here. (ere was the bar and here was the orchestra and all this was very big. +or dancing, it loo%ed... &hairs and, ah, tables, beautifully... lamps and everything was very beautiful. How, where were the bombs put) Into these, ah, columns. !his is one of the columns that supports the whole hotel, I guess. *es, yeah. It's not one. 8ne, two, three, but four, :ve. +ive columns, :ve bombs) *es.
?hat was your reaction when you heard the bomb go o) ?hat did you thin%, what did you feel) I was satis:ed. *ou were satis:ed) *es, it was a mission. *ou've never been worried about what you did) 8f course I was worried to succeed. But you...you...your... your sense of morality, your conscience, hasn't bothered you since) Ho, no. Ho, we :ght for our... to have a medinah. !o do something against the British. ?hat do you thin% about it after all this time) !his is over 4 years ago now. (ave your views changed) Ho. Ho. 1o you not feel any than%s at all to the British) I mean, without the Bal*our 3eclaration, there would have $een no 2ewish homeland in this part o* the wor ld. "ure. !he motive is neither here nor there. I mean, whatever the motive was, do you not thin% that the Balfour 1eclaration, the right of the ews to have a homeland in 0alestine... It was a good start. !hat was a good thing, wasn't it) *es.
Are you not grateful to the British for that) It was now a lot less li%e the promised land than hell on Earth. !ommies go home, someone daubed on a wall, and beneath it a despairing squaddie wrote, I wish we fuc%ing well could. ?hat 9awrence called the British love of policing other men's muddles had proved a disaster. !he British Empire is gone from the Middle East but everyone still lives with the consequences of Britain's presence in 0alestine. 1ivided peoples and a divided land. !he Middle East taught the British a lesson that all empires have to learn sooner or later, that, though you may begin with ambition and come to believe you'll last forever, one day you will have a headon collision with reality. In the end, and there is no disguising this fact, the British ran away. 9A"! 08"! 09A*" 8H B;79E It was May FL3. 8ne departing o2cial commented bitterly, It is surely a new technique in our imperial mission to wal% out and leave the pot we placed on the :re to boil over.
The $lu5 o* British omnipotence had $een called. It would be called again and again over the ne$t few decades. !he empire that had lasted more than 44 years would be dismantled in scarcely 4. !he British were beginning to lose interest. !he battered country that emerged from the "econd ?orld ?ar was more concerned with bettering the lives of its citi6ens than anything else. An American politician later remar%ed that the British people had decided they preferred free aspirins and false teeth to a role in the world. But it hasn't entirely turned out that way. In fact we've done anything but climb into the bac% seat. The mpire may $e over $ut imper ial ha$its linger on. In the last three decades, Britain has embar%ed on seven foreign wars. !here were arguments aplenty for :ghting any one of them. But you can't help wondering if, without the memory of Empire, Britain would have plunged in quite so readily. #t6s as i* we can6t 7uite let go o* who we once were. "till to come (ow Britain grew rich on pro:ts from the drug trade, and from the tra2c in human beings. (ow it brought &hristianity to Africa, and the gospel of sport to the world.
And ne$t time, how British men and women made themselves at home in the farGung colonies of Empire. !o order a free 8pen ;niversity poster e$ploring the legacy of Britain's Empire, go to 8r call "ubtitles by
