By the early decades of the twentieth century, the British Empire covered a staggering 30 million square kilometers, and contained a population of 400 to 500 million people – then roughly a quarter of the world’s inhabitants. Making it, in effect, the most extensive area under one country’s rule in human history.
And while stories of the horrors perpetuated by the realities of British colonization are legion, one of the most tumultuous chapters in the history of the British Empire was undoubtedly its control and subjugation of the Republic of India.
The epoch known as the British Raj, which lasted from 1858 when the rule of the British East India Company was transferred to the Crown until 1947 when the independence of India was granted, was one of great cultural upheaval and change for both nations. Its influence resonating down the years to the present day.
To say that Britain and India have had a troubled past over the last 200 years would be something of an understatement. Prior to being under British control, India already had in place a highly developed pre-capitalist economy, one that produced a large social surplus, particularly in agriculture. It was famed throughout the world for its art and music and was considered one of the most exotic and richly dense cultures in history.
Whilst initially, the British went to India with the supposed aim of fostering trade alliances beneficial to both countries, in actuality they stayed on to rule or misrule, as was undoubtedly the case with the control exerted by the now infamous East India Trade Company prior to the crown taking control in 1858, with near catastrophic results.
British capitalism conquered India in order to appropriate the country’s vast agricultural wealth, opening up the Indian market to British manufactures. This in turn resulted in the competition from cheaper, British manufactured goods all but destroying India’s large artisan class, dramatically transforming in the process, the once rich and vibrant landscape of Indian existence on political, economic and social levels.
With Queen Victoria’s assuming the title of “Empress Of India” in 1877, it seemed as though India would forever be under the yoke of British colonialism, with India losing more and more of its cultural significance with each passing year. With Britain in turn failing to enrich itself by taking in little of the vast and diverse culture it was seeking to absorb into itself.
Having said all of this, despite the historical tragedies already described, on a more positive note, a careful examination of both Indian and British life as they stand today evidences examples of positive influences upon the two nations through the clash and combination of such diverse cultures.
Perhaps the most widely known arena of cross-cultural fusion between Britain and India would be in the area of cuisine. Britain has a particularly strong tradition of Indian cuisine that takes its origins directly from the British Raj. At this time there were a few Indian restaurants in the wealthier areas of London that catered for British officers returning from their duties in India. Nowadays, however, one would be hard pressed to walk down any major shopping street in England without being made fully aware of how influential Indian food has become to British gastronomy. Astoundingly, the very popular chicken tikka massala is not a traditional Indian dish, but more so a symbiosis of both British and Indian tastes. While chicken tikka is indeed Indian in origin, the massala sauce was added to satisfy the British fondness for having their meat dishes smothered in gravy!
So too, the introduction of tea as a drink of choice in India came about directly through English influence, the latter culture adopting the beverage from the Chinese and exporting the habit to their Indian counterparts. Indian food is now such a staple of the British diet that in many ways it can be forcefully argued that Indian food can quite rightly be regarded as part of the core of British national cuisine.
Another key area of the successful cross-cultural exchange between Britain and India can be seen in the world of film. No where is this more evident than in the decades long collaboration between the filmmakers Ismail Merchant & James Ivory, who between them form one of the most successful film partnerships in cinematic history. In the now classic film Heat and Dust the duo successfully brought to Indian and British audiences alike the harsh realities and enormous changes brought about by British influence in India on both cultures in both an historical and modern context to a western audience.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, the enormously successful Bend It Like Beckham directed by Indian Gurinda Chadha and noted by one critic as ‘the best British film since Bridget Jones Diary brought to the collective conciousness the state of modern Anglo-Indian youth. Its main character Jesminder, a young girl torn between her desire to be a free thinking soccer mad teenager and her parents desires for her to be a traditional Indian daughter.
Notably, in 2003, Britain was exposed to a maelstrom of Indian influence beginning with the arrival in the West End of Andrew Lloyd Webbers Bombay Dreams starring a cast of Indian origin actors – a first for English theatre. That year, the British Film Institute announced a tour of over 150 Indian films around Britain; a retrospective of Hindi Film posters was put on display at the Victoria & Albert museum; and channel 4 television screened for the first time a Bollywood Women film series.
Significantly, also in 2003 England’s Secretary of State for culture and media Tessa Jowell led a large delegation of British film specialists to the Frames 2004 conference held in Delhi, primarily with the aim of forming collaborations and co-productions between the British and Indian film industries.
On British soil, the world renowned Thames Festival held in London, featured a strong programming link with India. Working in partnership with the famous arts group Kinetika, craftsmen for Calcutta were invited to work alonside Uk artists in the creation of Din Sharu, an colourful and jam packed Indian carnival .Highlights of the event included a 7 metre long boat commisioned in West Bengal and shipped to Britain that was composed entirely of lightbulbs. And the Sing for Water choir composed of over 1500 adults and children and performing to raise much needed funds to provide safe sources of drinking water for communities in rural India. These and other initiatives all being significant indicators of the growth in Anglo-Indian relations taking place in recent times.
So what next? As we see more and more influence of Indian culture in British art, music, literature and fashion, and vice versa, to name but a few, where does this convergence of two very disparate cultures stand to end up? In a universe of infinite possibility, surely the bilateral nature of this long established relationship will become a classic example of 21st century globalisation.
To check out one example of this cultural exchange CLICK HERE to see what the British Council is promoting as the best of the UK and Indian culture.
