Reading Empire Speeches Dr. Sindhu MenonAssistant ProfessorDept. of EnglishUniversity of Hyderabad.Research Area.There are a number of speeches related to the creation, continuation and dismantling of the Indian empire by British politicians and thinkers. This project aims to interpret those speeches and texts as the rhetorical foundations of imperialism, often riddled with contradictions but nevertheless rhetorically powerful. The most significant and analyzed texts of this genre are Burkes speeches on the impeachment of Warren Hastings. These are looked upon as a paradigmatic case, but there are other speeches by Macaulay, Charles Wood, Lord Elgin, Disraeli, Churchill etc. to name a few which also require the same kind of interpretation. Some of these are available in print or online, but others require archival research of documents to be compiled and studied. Interpreting these texts will demonstrate how English functioned as rhetoric and discourse in the process of empire. Research Questions a. Is there relevance and scope for a reading of imperial speeches and documents from an Indian perpective?b. What will such a reading add to our perception of these very significant contributions to the discourse of Empire?c. Is it possible to reread and recuperate some of the speeches, Burkes for example that have been studied and deconstructed?d. Can multifaceted interpretations be brought to coexist with each other given the polyvalence of the texts and their concrete functions? Scope of Study.The study is viewed as interdisciplinary, bringing in the disciplines of Literature, History Political Science Ethics and Jurisprudence.Hypothesis.A compilation of these speeches and their interpretation is indeed necessary. The study will display the ambiguities in the speeches which function not as rhetorical flaws but as concrete entities built into the very framework of empire. They were rhetorically powerful while structural ambiguities fracture the discourse and practice of imperialism.

Review of Literature.Lord Clives Speech in the House of Commons in 1772 on East India affairs make a good starting point. In this speech Clive talks of the finances of Bengal, the merits and demerits of company rule and of the reform of abuses. In his 1773 speech, Clive defends his actions in Bengal and asks the House to Take my fortune, but save my honour.The speeches made by especially Burke but also Fox and Sheridan at the impeachment of Warren Hastings are the crux of this study. Burkes rhetoric has been analyzed several times but I believe a further reading is possible and necessary to see if conduits can be found between opposed interpretations despite their digressions. An account of some readings of Burke are given below as a sample.Sara Suleris The Rhetoric of English India(1992) focuses on paradigmatic moments in Burkes speeches where women, human nature etc lend a choric quality to Burkes peroration but do not provide any coherence. The complicit nature of the trial with imperialism is a primary preoccupation.Nicholas B.Dirks in his The Scandal of Empire (2006) carries this argument further, presenting Burke and Hastings as collaborators in establishing imperial rule more securely.Uday Singh Mehta in Liberalism and Empire (1999) argues that for Burke, the British Empire, especially in India, was nothing less than a revolution with all the psychological naivet and theoretical arrogance that he associated with the revolution in France. (159). This bringing in of the French Revolution widens the scope of the argument. Sunil Agnanis Hating Empire Properly (2013) carries on this dimension of the French Revolution and also yokes the West and East Indies together, bringing in further geographical spaces as coloring Burkes world view. There is the suggestion that Burke held a tradition, so that he could hate it properly. There are also several articles which take up the issues in Burkes speeches from literary, ethical and legal points of view.Macaulays two speeches in Parliament - on East India Company affairs in 1833 and the Gates of Somnath speech in 1842 - are significant documents which influenced company policy especially when readin connection with his Minute on Indian education.Sir Charles Woods speech on the East India Bill in 1853 is a monumental document. The question of native representation is raised but rejected outright.Sleeleys lectures later published which talk of empire being acquired in a fit of absence of mind were immensely popular.Moving on we have the later speeches of Lord Elgin, Benjamin Disraeli, Royal speeches at the Exhibition inauguration, and towards the end of empire, Winston Churchills speech refusing to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire along with a whole gamut of India related speeches in between form a composite whole.Many of these speeches have to be retrieved from archival sources and studied together belonging to one genre The Indian Empire Speeches.Argument.I argue that a reading of these speeches in conjunction with each other (and in the case of much studied orators like Burke, a fresh reading and a look at the studies themselves) will provide an interpretation which offers a coherent discourse despite ostensibly different intentions.The colossus of Imperialism is cracked and the cracks stood together with the colossus, maybe they even enabled it to stand. The ambiguities in Burkes speeches are an illustration of this. But these should not be seen as rhetorical flaws or weaknesses, but as structural elements built into the very integral framework of imperialism. They carry out their rhetorical function powerfully while enabling a different concrete discourse to operate.The genre itself requires the kind of study that has been undertaken on Burkes impeachment speeches.This study will stretch to encompass different strands of imperialism where rhetorical deconstruction is not the point and stress the need for a historicized perspective on rhetoric and spectacle in their time and ours. Burke can thus serve as a paradigm case for many rhetorically strong but functionally enabling anti-discourses of imperialism and pro-empire speeches which are also ambivalent in nature.Methodology.This study has begun with a few cardinal speeches available in print or online, in some cases only excerpts and a reading of some studies on Burkes speeches. More will be added after the speeches are accessed and compiled which will require contacting parliamentary archives for digital resources. After compilation the method will largely be that of close reading and interpretation. Only select items currently accessible to me in print have been listed in the bibliography. Online documents will be added later after thorough exploration. Outcome.It is hoped that this study will enable a better understanding from an Indian perspective on the seminal imperial epoch and of the speeches as texts which can be further decoded. It is hoped that it will be a contribution to the Indian perception of how English as discourse and rhetoric operated in the process of imperialism.Bibliography.Agnani, Sunil M. Hating Empire Properly. New York: Fordham University Press, 2013. Print.Burke, Edmund. Speeches on the impeachment of Warren Hastings. 2 vols. New Delhi: Discovery Publishing House, 1987.Carnall, Geoffrey. Ed. Impeachment of Warren Hastings: Papers from a Bicentenary commemoration. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989. Print.Dirks, Nicholas B. The Scandal of Empire. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2006. Print.Mehta, Uday Singh. Liberalism and Empire. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1999. Print.Suleri, Sara. The Rhetoric of English India. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1992. Print.Vishwanathan, Gauri. Masks of Conquest. London: Faber and Faber, 1989. Print.