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ABSTRACT
This article examines the ‘afterlife’ or posthumous reputation of Warren Hastings, one of the most important and controversial figures in the foundation of British India. Exploring a wide range of sources, it argues that Hastings was a symbolic figure through which generations of imperial commentators vented the political and moral concerns of their own day. Accordingly, it uses his afterlife as a key indicator of the rise and fall of imperial sentiment and confidence in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Britain. Hastings’s afterlife can be divided into three distinct phases. In the first, between 1818 and 1890, the image of Hastings as a flawed hero – an empire-builder who committed crimes – was propelled into popular memory. In the second, between 1890 and 1915, Hastings was transformed into an untouchable imperial icon. Driven by contemporary concerns, a group of ex-Indian officials attempted to vindicate Hastings’s actions and exculpate his ‘crimes’. The third section explores the apotheosis of Hastings’s reputation amidst the growing uncertainty over the future of British India between 1915 and 1947. Following the elevation of a deeply controversial figure into an imperial hero, this article explores the methods and motivations behind the propagation of heroic reputations, demonstrating that our understanding of imperial figures has been mediated through the vagaries of contemporary politics.
Acknowledgements
I am extremely grateful to Dr John McAleer, who supervised this research as an undergraduate dissertation at the University of Southampton. I am also grateful to the Duke of Wellington for awarding it the Wellington Prize, and to the History of Parliament Trust for awarding it their dissertation prize. I should also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions and insights.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Marshall, “Hastings, Warren.”
2 Ferguson, Empire, 49–50.
3 Ibid; Smylitopoulos, “Portrait of a Nabob,” 17; Lawson and Phillips, “Our Execrable Banditti,” 239; Nechtman, “Nabobs Revisited,” 654; Nechtman, “Mr Hickey’s Pictures,” 188; Nechtman, “A Jewel in the Crown?,” 79–80; Flood, “Correct Delineations,” 47–78.
4 Nechtman, Nabobs, 21, 102, 138.
5 Marshall, “Cornwallis Triumphant,” 69; Bayly, Imperial Meridian, 160.
6 Marshall, “Hastings, Warren.”
7 See, for example: Travers, Ideology and Empire; Feiling, Warren Hastings; Marshall, The Impeachment of Warren Hastings; Sen, “Warren Hastings,” 59–81.
8 MacKenzie, “Heroic Myths of Empire,” 109–12; MacKenzie, “Afterword,” 969–70; Jones et al., “Decolonising Imperial Heroes,” 789; Livingstone, “Popular Imperialism,” 81–2.
9 See, for example: Kennedy, The Last Blank Spaces, 233–60; Pettitt, Dr Livingstone, I Presume?.
10 See, for example: Maylam, The Cult of Rhodes; Sèbe, Heroic Imperialists in Africa; Livingstone, Livingstone’s ‘Lives’; Coutu and McAleer, “The Immortal Wolfe,” 29–57; Goebelt, “The Memory of Lord Clive,” 136–52; McAleer, “Exhibiting the ‘Strangest of all Empires’,” 25–45.
11 W. Dalrymple, “Robert Clive Was a Vicious Asset-Stripper. His Statue Has No Place on Whitehall,” Guardian, June 11, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/11/robert-clive-statue-whitehall-british-imperial.
12 Marshall, “The Making of an Imperial Icon,” 1–16.
13 Jones, “What Should Historians do with Heroes?,” 439–40.
14 Ibid., 444.
15 Thompson, The Empire Strikes Back?, 4–5; MacKenzie, Propaganda and Empire, 97; Porter, “Empire, What Empire?,” 258; Porter, The Absent-Minded Imperialists, 182.
16 Larkins, “General Summary of News,” 135; “The Late Warren Hastings,” Morning Post, February 17, 1820, 4.
17 Sutton, The East India Company’s Maritime Service, 163; Larkins, “General Summary of News,” 135.
18 Larkins, “General Summary of News,” 136.
19 Ibid., 138.
20 Ibid., 139.
21 Larkins, “Warren Hastings,” 193.
22 Selections from the Asiatic Journal, 409–12.
23 “Statue of Warren Hastings,” 128; “Royal Academy,” The Times, May 20, 1828, 3.
24 “Monument to the Memory of the Right Hon. Warren Hastings,” Morning Post, January 16, 1829, 3.
25 Coutu, Persuasion and Propaganda, 304.
26 Ibid., 271, 304–5; Groseclose, British Sculpture, 108.
27 “Debate at the East-India House,” 264.
28 Ibid., 265.
29 Ibid., 269; Tait and Brown, “Jackson, Randle.”
30 “Debate at the East-India House,” 273, 276–8.
31 Ibid., 269.
32 Impey, Memoirs of Sir Elijah Impey, 290.
33 “Debate at the East-India House,” 279.
34 Ibid., 280.
35 Ibid., 288.
36 Archer, “The East India Company,” 407; Coutu, Persuasion and Propaganda, 290–1; McAleer, Picturing India, 193.
37 “Friday’s Post,” Ipswich Journal, December 20, 1823, 2; Archer, “The East India Company,” 401–2; Coutu, Persuasion and Propaganda, 290–1.
38 Coutu, Persuasion and Propaganda, 290–1; Archer, “The East India Company,” 402; McAleer, “Displaying its wares,” 204.
39 Lawson, The Private Life of Warren Hastings, 239.
40 Gilmour, The British in India, 14.
41 Majeed, Ungoverned Imaginings, 149.
42 Mill, The History of British India, 2:336, 379.
43 Ibid., 684.
44 Mill and Wilson, The History of British India, 4:367.
45 Gilmour, The British in India, 14; Majeed, Ungoverned Imaginings, 127–8; Hall, Macaulay and Son, 207.
46 See, for example: Stephen, The Story of Nuncomar, 2:149, 272; Strachey, Hastings and The Rohilla War, vii, xiv.
47 “London,” The Sunday Times, October 8, 1826, 2.
48 “Correspondence of Edmund Burke,” The Times, September 12, 1827, 2.
49 Gleig, Memoirs, 1:xi, 3:528, 531.
50 Ibid., 3:526.
51 See, for example: Stephen, The Story of Nuncomar, 2:272; Strachey, Hastings and The Rohilla War, vii, xiv.
52 The Letters of Thomas Babington Macaulay, 3:361–2.
53 128 Parl. Deb. H.C. (3rd ser.) (1852–53) col.751.
54 The Letters of Thomas Babington Macaulay, 3:362–3.
55 Hall, Macaulay and Son, xii, xv, xxvii.
56 Ibid., 226.
57 Macaulay, Critical and Historical Essays, 814.
58 19 Parl. Deb. H.C. (3rd ser.) (1833) col.522.
59 Macaulay, Critical and Historical Essays, 832, 895.
60 Ibid., 896.
61 Hall, Macaulay and Son, 247.
62 “Warren Hastings,” Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, May, 1841, 656.
63 “Warren Hastings,” Morning Post, September 28, 1850, 6.
64 Impey, Memoirs of Sir Elijah Impey, vii, ix, xiii.
65 “Statues in the Houses of Parliament,” Morning Post, October 15, 1845, 5. 121 ‘distinguished persons’ were proposed by the Fine Arts Commission (which included Palmerston, Macaulay and Prince Albert). List A (unanimously selected) included Burke and Clive. List B (majority selected) included Hastings.
66 “British Association for the Advancement of Science,” The Times, September 12, 1846, 3.
67 “London,” The Times, September 5, 1853, 6.
68 James, Raj, 278, 291; Bender, The 1857 Uprising, 5–6.
69 147 Parl. Deb. H.C. (3rd ser.) (1857) cols.523–4.
70 Bender, The 1857 Uprising, 28; James, Raj, 281–3.
71 “The Indian Mutinies,” Glasgow Herald, September 2, 1857, 6.
72 “An Old Map of India,” Aberdeen Journal, September 23, 1857, 8.
73 “The Indian Mutinies,” Belfast News-Letter, October 2, 1857, 4.
74 “The Indian Relief Fund,” Standard, September 29, 1857, 5.
75 James, Raj, 292.
76 Ibid.; Bender, The 1857 Uprising, 42.
77 Randall, “Autumn 1857,” 3, 10. See also: Bates and Carter, Mutiny at the Margins, 137; Williamson, “State Prayers,” 121, 147; Stanley, “Christian Responses,” 278–80.
78 “Day of Humiliation,” The Times, October 8, 1857, 6.
79 “The Day of Fasting and Humiliation,” Bristol Mercury, October 10, 1857, 6.
80 “British and Foreign Bible Society,” Huddersfield Chronicle, October 10, 1857, 5.
81 “The British Conquest and Government of India,” Leeds Mercury, October 8, 1857, 2.
82 J. H. Stocqueler, “India,” The Sunday Times, November 8, 1857, Sporting and Agricultural Supplement, 1.
83 J. H. Stocqueler, “India,” The Sunday Times, November 15, 1857, 7.
84 “History of the British Empire in India,” Illustrated London News, November 28, 1857, India Supplement, 542.
85 “Reviews of Books,” Reynold’s Newspaper, December 6, 1857, 2.
86 James, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire, 192.
87 “The Months. – August,” Every Boy’s Magazine (UKP), August 1, 1862, 425.
88 Raikes, “The Englishman in India,” 592, 596.
89 “How to become Great Men,” Boys of England: A Magazine of Sport, Sensation, Fun, and Instruction, June 1, 1867, 28.
90 Livingstone, “Popular Imperialism,” 83.
91 Smiles, Self-Help, 151.
92 Ibid., 158–9.
93 Mill and Wilson, The History of British India, 4:369.
94 Ibid., 5:199.
95 Marshman, The History of India, 1:341.
96 Ibid., 345.
97 Trotter, Warren Hastings: A Biography, iv.
98 Ibid., 1, 380.
99 “The New India-Office,” Morning Post, December 27, 1867, 6.
100 Stephen, The Story of Nuncomar, 1:3, 267.
101 Ibid., 2:149, 272.
102 Ibid., 1:25.
103 “The Trial of Nuncomar,” The Times, July 13, 1885, 8.
104 Beveridge, The Trial of Maharaja Nanda Kumar, 1, 312.
105 Lyall, Warren Hastings, 235; Prior, “Lyall, Sir Alfred.”
106 Lyall, Warren Hastings, 234.
107 “Warren Hastings,” Pall Mall Gazette, January 24, 1890, 3.
108 Marshall, “The Making of an Imperial Icon,” 1.
109 Forrest, Selections from the State Papers, 1:vi.
110 Forrest, Selections from the Letters, 1:iii.
111 Forrest, The Administration of Warren Hastings, iii.
112 Trotter, Warren Hastings and the Founding of the British Administration, 215.
113 Strachey, Hastings and The Rohilla War, vii, xii–iv.
114 Ibid., xix.
115 J. Strachey, “Warren Hastings,” The Times, December 6, 1932, 10; Redford, “The Shaping of the Biographer,” 38, 41.
116 Malleson, Life of Warren Hastings, vii; Lloyd and Falkner, “Malleson, George Bruce.”
117 Malleson, Life of Warren Hastings, 438.
118 Lawson, The Private Life of Warren Hastings, v.
119 Birdwood, “Prefatory Note,” 40; Chirol and Prior, “Birdwood, Sir George.”
120 Birdwood, “Prefatory Note,” 40.
121 “Warren Hastings,” The Times, February 15, 1890, 15.
122 “The Truth about Warren Hastings,” The Times, November 15, 1890, 15.
123 “Books of the Week,” The Times, February 25, 1892, 4.
124 “Macaulay and Warren Hastings,” Morning Post, April 19, 1892, 6.
125 “Warren Hastings,” Morning Post, June 23, 1892, 2.
126 “Warren Hastings,” Graphic, February 16, 1895, 190.
127 “Warren Hastings,” Daily News, December 10, 1894, 7.
128 “Warren Hastings,” Daily News, October 31, 1895, 6.
129 Strachey, Hastings and The Rohilla War, vi.
130 Strachey and Holderness, India, 300.
131 “Warren Hastings,” The Times Literary Supplement, March 31, 1910, 113.
132 Maine, “India,” 505, 507–8.
133 Quoted in Strachey and Holderness, India, 299.
134 Draft of address to Moseley Institute, NC 4/3/8, The Papers of Neville Chamberlain, Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham.
135 Ferguson, Empire, 190, 213–4.
136 “Mr. Lecky on the Imperial Idea,” The Times, November 21, 1893, 3.
137 “Mr. Selous on the Matabele War,” Morning Post, March 14, 1894, 6; O’Halloran, Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute, 262, 274.
138 “The Chartered Company and the Cape Colony,” The Times, December 27, 1890, 9.
139 James, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire, 264.
140 “Hastings to Rhodes,” Fun (UKP), May 12, 1896, 187.
141 “Mr Warren Hastings,” Bristol Mercury, May 15, 1896, 5.
142 51 Parl. Deb. H.C. (4th ser.) (1897) col.1171.
143 MacKenzie, Propaganda and Empire, 200.
144 “Farm to Royal Court,” Boys of England: A Magazine of Sport, Sensation, Fun, and Instruction, September 6, 1895, 250–1.
145 D. Ker, “A Bold Climber; Or, For an Empire,” Boy’s Own Paper, March 3, 1900, 338, and March 17, 1900, 370.
146 Dunae, “Boys’ Literature,” 105, 110; MacKenzie, Propaganda and Empire, 202.
147 MacKenzie, Propaganda and Empire, 102.
148 “India and Ceylon Exhibition, 1896,” Standard, May 21, 1896, 9; Gregory, “Staging British India,” 152.
149 Gregory, “Staging British India,” 153.
150 “India and Ceylon Exhibition,” Standard, 9.
151 Official Catalogue & Guide of the India and Ceylon Exhibition, 18–9.
152 Empire of India Exhibition, 56; “India and Ceylon Exhibition,” Standard, 9.
153 Official Catalogue of the Empire of India Exhibition, 63–4; Birdwood, “Empire of India Exhibition, 1895,” 89–90; Empire of India Exhibition, 7.
154 “Mr. Chamberlain in the City,” Morning Post, May 14, 1896, 2.
155 Cooper, The Outdoor Monuments of London, 149.
156 James, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire, 204.
157 Gilmour, Curzon, 164.
158 Ibid., 136, 144–5; Curzon, British Government in India, 2:66, 103.
159 Raleigh, Lord Curzon in India, 53.
160 Ibid., 55.
161 Curzon, British Government in India, 2:147.
162 Gilmour, Curzon, 218, 282.
163 Curzon, British Government in India, 1:131, 144.
164 G. N. Curzon, “Historic Memorials in India,” The Times, October 26, 1912, 9.
165 G. W. Forrest, “Hastings House, Calcutta,” The Times, October 30, 1912, 7.
166 43 Parl. Deb. H.C. (5th ser.) (1912–13) col.716.
167 12 Parl. Deb. H.L. (5th ser.) (1912–13) cols.946–8; Davis, “Milnes, Robert.”
168 G. N. Curzon, “The Commemoration of Lord Clive,” The Times, April 8, 1907, 6.
169 “Lord Curzon on The True Imperialism,” The Times, December 12, 1907, 11.
170 13 Parl. Deb. H.L. (5th ser.) (1912–13) col.191.
171 “Warren Hastings,” The Times, March 5, 1913, 7.
172 Grier, The Letters of Warren Hastings to his Wife, 6; Grier, The Great Proconsul, 428.
173 Grier, The Great Proconsul, 429.
174 Hastings, A Vindication of Warren Hastings, iii; Goldman, “Hastings, George Woodyatt.”
175 Forrest, Selections from the State Papers, 1:vii.
176 “Warren Hastings,” The Times Literary Supplement, 113.
177 Forrest, Selections from the State Papers, 1:viii.
178 Cotton, “Hastings, Warren,” 58–9.
179 Ferguson, Empire, 221–2.
180 Monckton Jones, Warren Hastings in Bengal, 319.
181 Roberts, “The Impeachment of Warren Hastings,” 312.
182 Weitzman, Warren Hastings and Philip Francis, 201.
183 Muir, “Introduction,” xxviii.
184 R. Muir, “Proconsuls of India,” The Times, November 17, 1921, India Supplement, xiii.
185 Thompson and Garratt, Rise and Fulfilment of British Rule in India, 77, 133.
186 Davies, Warren Hastings, 436, 511.
187 Ibid., 451.
188 Davies, Warren Hastings and Oudh, xiii–iv.
189 F. G. Bettany, “World of Books,” The Sunday Times, September 15, 1918, 4.
190 “Philip Francis and India,” The Times Literary Supplement, February 13, 1930, 111.
191 Bowyer, “Warren Hastings,” 402, 407–9.
192 “Festival Theatre, Cambridge,” The Times, October 11, 1930, 10.
193 “Wyndham’s Theatre,” The Times, April 24, 1929, 14.
194 Blair and White, “Warren: A Play consisting of Prologue and IV Acts,” 114.
195 R. J. Minney, “The Men Who Made India,” Daily Mail, February 7, 1935, 10; R. Straus, “Wars and Warriors,” The Sunday Times, October 20, 1935, 9.
196 James, Raj, 523, 532; Roberts, Churchill, 341.
197 “Trusteeship in India,” The Times, December 5, 1932, 14; “Trusteeship of India,” Times of India, December 6, 1932, 8.
198 “Warren Hastings,” The Times, December 7, 1932, 11.
199 Ibid.; “Warren Hastings Bi-Centenary,” Observer, November 20, 1932, 10; “Warren Hastings Bicentenary,” Daily Telegraph, December 7, 1932, 15.
200 “The Warren Hastings Bi-Centenary,” United Empire, 35.
201 Ibid., 36.
202 “Warren Hastings,” The Times, December 7, 1932, 11.
203 Dodwell, “Warren Hastings Bi-Centenary,” 121.
204 Ibid., 122; May, “Kerr, Philip Henry.”
205 “Warren Hastings,” The Times, December 3, 1932, 12; “Warren Hastings,” Observer, 10.
206 British Museum Standing Committee lxiii, 10 December 1932, 4926, Central Archive, British Museum (hereafter BM), London; “Warren Hastings,” British Museum Quarterly, 101; Warren Hastings Exhibition: British Museum, December 1932, 1, British Museum Trustees’ Original Papers, 1933, BM.
207 “Warren Hastings,” British Museum Quarterly, 101.
208 British Museum Standing Committee lxiii, 14 January and 11 February 1933, 4935, 4943, BM; “Warren Hastings,” The Times, December 28, 1932, 6.
209 “Warren Hastings’ Bicentenary,” Times of India, December 13, 1932, 5.
210 272 Parl. Deb. H.C. (5th ser.) (1932–33) cols.1433–4.
211 “The Warren Hastings Bi-Centenary,” United Empire, 37; 274 Parl. Deb. H.C. (5th ser.) (1932–33) col.629; Reese, The History of the Royal Commonwealth Society, 139.
212 274 Parl. Deb. H.C. (5th ser.) (1932–33) col.629; “Political Notes,” The Times, May 20, 1933, 12.
213 P. E. Roberts, “Warren Hastings – A Great Administrator,” Listener, December 14, 1932, 855–6.
214 Cotton, “Warren Hastings,” 642, 644.
215 K. Feiling, “The Maker of an Empire,” The Times, December 5, 1932, 13.
216 J. Marriott, “The Man Who Saved India,” Daily Telegraph, December 6, 1932, 10.
217 “Warren Hastings,” Manchester Guardian, December 6, 1932, 8.
218 Speech on India by Lord Halifax, 28 January 1944, FO 371/38553, The National Archives, Kew.
219 “Warren Hastings Bicentenary,” Daily Telegraph, 15; The Indian Empire Society, 1930, CHAR 2/174/6, The Papers of Sir Winston Churchill, Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge.
220 Roberts, Churchill, 341–2, 348; James, Raj, 532.
221 James, Raj, 533; Fleming, “Diehard Conservatism,” 347, 349, 352.
222 W. Churchill, “The Priceless Legacy of Warren Hastings,” Daily Mail, December 6, 1932, 10.
223 “Public Opinion on India,” The Times, January 14, 1933, 10.
224 Moon, Warren Hastings, 1.
225 Marshall, The Impeachment of Warren Hastings, xiv.
226 Marshall, “Warren Hastings as Scholar and Patron,” 243, 254; Marshall, “The Making of an Imperial Icon,” 14. For a recent example of this sympathetic interpretation of Hastings, see: Dalrymple, The Anarchy, 311–3.
227 See, for example: Robins, The Corporation That Changed the World, 142.
228 Marshall, The Impeachment of Warren Hastings, xiii–iv.