Edmund Burke and India: Political Morality and Empire (Pitt Series in Policy and Institutional Studies)

Edmund Burke And India Is The First Thorough Treatment Of Burke's Views On India, Even Though The Affairs Of The British Indian Empire Occupied More Of Burke's Attention - And Occupy More Space Among His Writings And Speeches - Than Any Of The Other Causes To Which He Devoted Himself During His Long Public Career. Relating Burke's Views On India To Ideas Expressed In His Other Writings, Whelan Offers A Comprehensive Assessment Of Burke's Political Theory As A Whole. Burke Appears Here As One Of The Few Classic Political Thinkers In The Western Canon To Have Made A Serious And Sustained Effort To Understand A Non-european Society And Culture. Map Of India In The 1770s-1780s -- 1. Opulent Oppression: Empire, India, And Reform -- 2. Charges: Corruption -- 3. Charges: Despotism -- 4. Necessity, Despotism, And Law -- 5. Political Philosophy. Frederick G. Whelan. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 311-356) And Index. Edmund Burke and India' is the first thorough treatment of Burke's views on India, even though the affairs of the British Indian empire occupied more of Burke's attention - and occupy more space among his writings and speeches - than any of the other causes to which he devoted himself during his long public career. Convinced of corruption and tyranny in the Indian empire, Burke led a campaign to reform its administration and bring the offenders to account. Relating Burke's views on India to ideas expressed in his other writings, Whelan offers a comprehensive assessment of Burke's political theory as a whole. Burke appears here as one of the few classic political thinkers in the Western canon to have made a serious and sustained effort to understand a non-European society and culture.