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Anna Baumann
Sonal Khullar
Art H 312
Feb. 6, 2018
The British East India Company entered India with Imperial ambitions. They saw
themselves as righteous in ‘civilizing’ this culture. Along the way, many British East India
Company officials came to appreciate and appropriate Indian culture into their own lives abroad.
While the British always saw themselves as superior to Indians, they also marvelled at the
traditions that have arisen out of India. Their imperial ambitions were their main goal, however.
English citizens began adopting Indian customs, but only to a certain extent because a threat to
British ‘purity’ would not be tolerated. The push-pull contrast between appreciating India while,
at the same time, exploiting it lead to an interesting framework of study wherein cultures co-
mingled, both influencing each other, however one culture was at a distinct disadvantage. Out of
this framework arose a type of painting, which both glorified and devalued India, sometimes at
Spiridione Roma’s painting of The East Offering its Riches to Britannia from 1778
painting depicting female representations of India and China handing their wealth willingly over
to Britain. It was commissioned by the East India Company and was painted on the ceiling of the
Revenue Committee room in the East India House offices in London. Painted by the British, for
the British, this painting sought to justify the invasion of India, with all the moral quandaries and
resource depletions that came along with such an action. Britannia is represented as a virtuous
young maiden, sitting on a rock, with cherubs behind her and a wise river god by her feet. She is
placed above both India and China in the painting, as if these countries’ allegorical
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representations were her citizens, and she their queen. India, China, and two other Asiatic figures
are proceeding towards Britannia to display their wealth. Mercury, the god of mischief, stands on
their side of the painting, ushering the Asian allegories forward. India and China are not reluctant
to hand over their riches. They seem content, as if they knew they were giving their riches into
the more deserving hands of their new rulers. That they do not protest this action shows how
England saw herself in this time. They thought of themselves as gentle parents, guiding India
towards civilization and helping them to flourish. The orient were the lands in Asia which were
fascinating, valuable, new, and just waiting to be discovered, and civilizing them was a part of
This image helped confirm a “solidly British image” maintained by the East India
Company while they were living abroad in a very different culture. The Britannia painting was in
the same room as the painting of Robert Clive receiving the grant of Diwani from the Mughal
king. The ‘safe’ British image of gentle leadership and India’s willing acquiescence was
drawing comparisons with the Roman Empire through Mercury and the river god, Britain further
justifies it’s colonization. They are another mighty power, come to conquer, who should be
admired for their actions. India was fascinating and valuable, but that fascination also made it
While clearly an image with imperial overtones, the painting of Britannia, India and
China also conveys a certain amount of reverence and admiration for the countries that the
British were colonizing. The fact that China and India have wealth and beauty to offer means
that at least part of their culture were admired by the British. Tea, porcelain, textiles and, perhaps
1
Richard Davis, 161.
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to a lesser extent, jewels, were all made, crafted by the citizens of the countries which England is
now invading. This being said, it is clear that Britain strongly disapproved of many cultural
aspects which differed widely from their own moral/religious beliefs and felt themselves justified
in taking those aspects which they found of value without properly compensating those from
whom they had taken it. This painting is an example of a British work where certain elements of
Indian culture are cherished, yet their worth does not put India on equal ground with Britain.
As British officials entered India, they adopted certain customs of the land in which they
now lived. Joshua Reynolds painted Captain John Foote in 1765 self-styling as a nabab, a type
of British governor in India. He is dressed in a turban and robes with Indian patterns on them.
His stance is powerful and commanding of authority. To wear such robes willingly, he, as well
as other who did like him, must have appreciated India textiles and patterns. Nawabs were Indian
rulers who acted as governors in different Indian territories. When the British arrived, officials
went to different courts and became “advisors” to kings or rulers, while actually trying to gain
power from the ruler. Eventually, some of these officials became a new class of governors, called
nababs, a position literally appropriated and then changed by the British. Many images of British
officials watching nautches (dances), smoking hookahs, and dressing in native clothing were
created. Britain enjoyed and took part in these aspects of Indian society. The British, in
becoming nababs, transformed and took over the original Indian position and turned it into a
new, colonial occupation. This was part of the wider net of appropriating Indian cultural
traditions and modifying them to suit British needs. This painting would have been viewed both
by Indians and by European settlers in India. It would have hung on a wall, probably in Foote’s
Indian residence, which was a new tradition for India. It shows the appreciation British officials
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had for Indian textiles and customs, but it also shows the appropriation occurring on the side of
Uneasy tension on both sides ran underneath the surface relations between the two
countries. This is shown well in Tilly Kettle’s painting of Shuja-ud-Daula with sons, General
Barker and Military Officers from 1772 which depicts British East India officials entering the
territory of a king to watch over him, monitor his actions, and slowly take over his power,
turning him into a figurehead. In this image, we see Shuja-ud-Daula greeting General Barker and
gesturing towards his kingdom. His sons are standing behind him, holding on to one another.
They, along with their father, look stressed and nervous, they can sense what is to come and are
limited in their methods of preventing it. England sees Shuja-ud-Daula’s territory as valuable
enough to take over, and they feel they have to right to do so because of their perceived moral
superiority.
Shuja-ud-Daula is not depicted as less than General Barker, but he is also not depicted as more
powerful. Shuja-ud-Daula may have commissioned this piece to show that, just as Britain can
claim some Indian customs and reform them to suit their needs, so can India. We do not know if
this exact scene actually occurred or if it is a construction of a historical event, painted to please
both Shuja-ud-Daula and the British. The painting is a testament to the exchange of artistic
traditions that occurred between the British and the Indians, with Indians commissioning oil
paintings from the British and the British commissioning water colours from Indian artists. This
image would have hung on a wall, a completely new tradition for India, which previously drew
on tapestries or compiled books of paintings. It shows a colonial event, but it also shows how the
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Indian artistic culture is already changing because of British occupation, even in the early years
of colonization.
Many British officials adopted Indian culture to such an extent that they took on
unofficial wives, or Bibis, while in India. They formed multicultural families with mixed race
children. Men would get circumcised to please their Muslim Bibis.2 Many officials, however,
were weary of these changes, and the sense of urgency to maintain a “pure” British society grew.
Indians and mixed race children from the governor and military offices. When corruption
occurred in the government, it was blamed on the company’s assumption of Indian political and
social practices.3 England wanted to experience India, but too much exchange would result in
England loosing the assumed moral superiority they used to invade India in the first place. They
wished to change India, but not change themselves. In this, however, they failed; as both
countries were transformed by the Indian occupation, with new artistic styles emerging on both
Britain wished to own India. This means that they saw India, or at least certain aspects of
it, as valuable, beautiful and unique, as worthy of spending time, resources and money on. This
can be seen in a variety of landscape paintings that emphasize the wild and exotic beauty of India
and its monuments. Thomas Daniell’s Composition Piece, a Capriccio of Indian Architecture
from 1799 especially highlights this. India was part of the orient, the new, undiscovered land of
riches often marked by classically “foreign” markers such as processions with elephants, banyan
trees, or unusual rock formations. Sure enough, we see a procession in the middle of this
painting. It is also an example of the picturesque style, a style meant to emphasize the wildness
and unpredictability of nature, and human’s miniscule role in controlling it. The picturesque style
encouraged travel and exploration to discover new landscapes to draw.4 In picturesque paintings,
we see a dark foreground, a monument and some miniscule humans in the middleground, and an
open sky in the background. This painting fits into these criteria almost perfectly. On the left, a
Hindu temple can be seen, a tall building that seems to radiate the gold from the sky. A human
procession with an elephant is occurring directly before the Hindu temple’s facade. Behind a
pond near the back, the Taj Mahal, a great burial structure built for the wife of a Mughal king,
can be seen. This was thought to be the greatest architectural feature to be found in India. This is
not an accurate depiction of India, it is a memory, an imaginative painting. It was painted after
Daniell had already returned home to England. He was imagining those things that were most
memorable on his trip through India. The Taj Mahal is located in northern Indian, while the
Hindu temple is south Indian. On the hills in the background, a Buddhist cave temple from West
India can be seen. This is a painting, which shows all the riches and joys of India in one place,
England wished to possess the wealth and magnitude of India. They were fascinated with
the cultural traditions and the people. Feeling themselves to be morally superior, they justified
colonizing India in the name of modernization and civilization. While always valuing their own
culture more, the English found India fascinating, beautiful and complex as well. This
contradictory framework led to an interesting collection of paintings which both degrade and
value India.
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