Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 June 2009
Throughout the vast literature on British and general imperialism, the emphasis is largely upon the winning, then subsequent loss, of political control by the imperial power in colonial settings. Consequently, debate about the accession to that power has revolved largely about the great triad of considerations: economic necessity, strategic calculation, and civilising zeal. Similarly, discussion of emergent nationalist movements has hinged upon remarkably similar lines: Was the leadership of those movements motivated solely by ideologically inspired desires for independence, by the ambition to command the new sources of economic wealth developed under imperial rule, or by a simple thrust for political power to protect other interests? These are generalisations certainly, but, to take India as a case in point, much of the modern historiography has been concerned to demonstrate either how Britain “lost” or how the Indian National Congress “won” that power. But among such generalisations upon the British imperial experience, one interesting question has gone begging.
1 Compare Low, D. A., ed., Congress and the Raj: Facets of the Indian Struggle, 1917–47 (London: Heinemann, 1977);Google ScholarGallagher, Johnet al., Locality, Province, and Nation: Essays on Indian Politics, 1870–1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973).Google Scholar Alternative views are now being promoted in the Subaltern Studies series of essays edited by Guha, Ranajit (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984–).Google Scholar
2 For the Indian Civil Service, Malley, L. S. S. O', The Indian Civil Service, 1601–1930 (London: Cass, 1965);Google Scholar Sir Blunt, Edward, The ICS: The Indian Civil Service (London: Faber, 1937);Google ScholarSpagenberg, Bradford, British Bureaucracy in India: Status, Policy, and the I.C.S. in the Late Nineteenth Century (Delhi: South Asia, 1974).Google Scholar
3 There is an enormous literature on imperialism generally and British imperialism particularly. One especially provocative work so far as this article is concerned, however, is Maunier, René, The Sociology of Colonies: An Introduction to the Study of Race Contact, 2 vols. (London: RKP, 1949).Google Scholar
4 For examples of colonial planning, Preston, R. A., Defence of the Undefended Border: Planning for War in North America, 1867–1939 (Toronto: McGill University Press, 1978);Google ScholarPreston, Richard A. and Wards, Ian, “Military and Defence Development in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand: A Three-Way Comparison,” War and Society, 5:1 (05 1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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6 For the origins of the nation language theme, Braithwaite, Edward, “The African Presence in Caribbean Literature,” Daedalus, 103(Spring 1974);Google Scholaridem, History of the Voice: Development of Nation Language in Anglophone Caribbean Poetry (London: New Beacon, 1984);Google ScholarPubMed and Thiong'o, Ngugi Wa, Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (London: Curry, 1986).Google Scholar
7 The role of sport is invariably overlooked in general studies on British imperialism, but one small exception is in Hyam, Ronald, Britain's Imperial Century, 1815–1914: A Study of Empire and Expansion (New York: Harper and Row, 1976).Google Scholar A limited set of essays is Mangan, J. A., The Games Ethic and Imperialism (London: Viking, 1986).Google Scholar
8 See, for example, Gramsci, Antonio, The Modern Prince and Other Writings (New York: International, 1975);Google ScholarFemia, Joseph V., Gramsci's Political Thought: Hegemony, Consciousness, and the Revolutionary Process (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981);Google ScholarHoffman, John, The Gramscian Challenge: Coercion and Consent in Marxist Political Theory (Oxford: Blackwell, 1984);Google ScholarLears, T. J. Jackson, “The Concept of Cultural Hegemony: Problems and Possibilities,” American Historical Review, 90:3 (06 1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar For some cautionary remarks, see the interview with Eric Hobsbawm in Abelove, Henryet al., Visions of History (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1983).Google Scholar For some applications to sport, see Parry, J., “Sport and Hegemony,” Journal of Spon Philosophy, 10 (1984).Google Scholar
9 For examples, Bourdieu, Pierre, “Sport and Social Class,” Social Science Information, 17:6 (1978),CrossRefGoogle Scholaridem, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984);Google ScholarHall, Stuart and Jefferson, Tony, eds., Resistance through Rituals (London: Hutchinson, 1976).Google Scholar
10 See discussion of works by Adorno, Theordore and Benjamin, Walter in Held, David, Introduction to Critical Theory: From Horkheimer to Habermas (London: Hutchinson, 1980).Google Scholar A good example of the influence of this general work on sports analysis is Hargreaves, John, Sport, Power, and Culture: A Social and Historical Analysis of Popular Sports in Britain (New York: St. Martin's, 1986).Google Scholar
11 For a review, Sadiford, Keith A. P., “The Victorians at Play: Problems in Historiographical Methodology,” Journal of Social History, 15:2 (Winter 1981).Google Scholar For a case study of cause and effect, Mandle, W. F., “Games People Played: Cricket and Football in England and Victoria in the Late Nineteenth Century,” Historical Studies 15:60 (04 1973).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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13 The main work in this area is Mangan, J. A., Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian Public School: The Emergence and Consolidation of an Educational Ideology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).Google Scholar
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