The Aga Khan is a charitable man, and it goes against his grain to speak ill of others. The only occasion on which he betrays bitterness is when he dwells on the behavior of our British countrymen in their dealings with the inhabitants of the countries in which in one way and another they held a predominant position -- in Egypt and India and in the treaty ports of China.
During the 80's relations between British and Indians were in general easy, amiable and without strain, and had they continued to be as they were then, he writes, "I greatly doubt whether political bitterness would have developed to the extent it did, and possibly something far less total than the severance of the Republic of India from the imperial conection [with Britain] would have been feasible." It is a disquieting thought.
He goes on as follows: "What happened to the Englishman has been to me all my life a source of wonder and astonishment. Suddenly it seemed that his prestige as a member of an imperial, governing race would be lost if he accepted those of a different color as fundamentally his equals. The pernicious theory spread that all Asiatics were a second-class race, and 'white men' possessed some intrinsic and unchallengeable superiority."
According to the Aga Khan the root cause of the attitude adopted by the ruling class was fear and a lack of inner self-confidence. But another cause was the presence in increasing numbers of British wives with no knowledge of or interest in the customs and outlook of Indians.
They were no less narrow and provincial when some 40 years after the time of which the Aga Khan writes I myself went to India.
These women for the most part came from modest homes in the country and, since taxation was already high, had at the most a maid of all work to do the household chores. Now they found themselves in spacious quarters, with a number of servants to do their bidding. It went to their heads.
Keeping Them at Arm's Length
I remember having tea one day with the wife of a not very important official. In England she might have been a manicurist or a stenographer. She asked me about my travels, and when I told her that I had spent most of my time in the Indian States, she said: "You know, we don't have anything more to do with Indians than we can help. One has to keep them at arms'lenght." The rest of the company agreed with her.
The clubs were barred to Indians till through the influence of Lord Willingdon some were persuaded to admit them.
But so far as I could see, it made little difference since even then white and colored kept conspicuously apart.
When I was in Hyderabad the Crown Prince asked me to lunch. I had spent some time in Bombay and was then on my way to Calcutta.
"I suppose you were made an honorary member of the Club when you were in Bombay," he said, and when I told him I was, he added: "And I suppose you'll be made an honorary member of the Club at Calcutta?"
"I hope so," I answered.
"Do you know the difference between the Club at Bombay and the Club at Calcutta?" he asked me. I shook my head. "In one they don't allow either dogs or Indians; in the other they allow dogs."
I couldn't for the life of me think what to say to that.
In China, Too
But it was not only in India that these unhappy conditions prevailed. In the foreign concessions in China there was the same arrogant and hidebound colonialism, and the general attitude toward the Chinese was little short of outrageous.
"All the best hotels refused entry to Chinese, except in wings specially set aside for them. It was the same in restaurants. From European clubs they were totally excluded.
"Even in shops a Chinese customer would have to stand aside and wait to be served when a European or an American came in after him and demanded attention."
Lord Cromer was the British Resident when the Aga Khan went to Egypt. He found the British were not merely in political control of the country, but assumed a social superiority which the Egyptians appeared humbly to accept.
"There was no common ground of social intercourse. Therefore inevitably behind the façade of humility there developed a sullen and brooding, almost personal, resentment which later on needlessly, bitterly, poisoned the clash of Egyptian nationalism with Britain's interests as the occupying power.
Legacy of Hatred
Now that the foreign concession in China exist no more, now that the last British soldiers are leaving Egypt, now that, as the Aga Khan puts it, British role in India has dissolved and passed away like early-morning mist before strong sunlight, the British have left behind them a legacy of hatred.
We too may ask ourselves what happened to Englishmen that caused them so to act as to to arouse an antagonism which was bound in the end to have such untoward consequences.
I am not satisfied with the explanation which the Aga Khan gives. I think it is to be sought rather in that hackneyed, but consistently disregarded, aphorism of Lord Acton's: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
It is no good crying over spilt milk, so the determinants tell us, and if I have dwelt on this subject it is with intention.
In the world of today the Americans occupy the position which the British so long, and for all their failings not ingloriously, held. Perhaps it would be to their advantage to profit by our example and, avoid making the errors that have cost us so dearly.
A brown man can fire a Sten gun and shoot as straight as a white man; a yellow man can drop an atom bomb as efficiently.
The British wanted to be loved and were convinced that they were; the Americans want to be loved too, but are uneasily, distressingly, conscious that they are not.
They find it hard to understand. With their boundless generosity they have poured money into the countries which two disastrous wars have reduced to poverty and it is natural that they should wish to see it spent as they think fit and not always as the recipients would like to spend it.
Gratitude Is Not Easy
It is true enough that the man who pays the piper calls the tune, but if it is a tune the company finds it hard to dance to, perhaps he is well-advised to do his best so to modify it that they find it easy.
Doubtless it is more blessed to give than to receive, but it is also more hazardous, for you put the recipient of your bounty under an obligation and that is a condition that only the very magnanimous can accept with good will. Gratitude is not a virtue that comes easily to the human race.
I do not think it can be denied that the British conferred great benefits on the peoples over which they ruled; but they humiliated them and so earned their hatred. The Americans would do well to remember it.
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