Oxford and Empire: The Last Lost Cause?

396 Pages·1986·36.884 MB·English

by  Richard Symonds (auth.)

OXFORD AND EMPIRE
By the same author
THE MAKING OF PAKISTAN
THE BRITISH AND THEIR SUCCESSORS
INTERNATIONAL TARGETS FOR DEVELOPMENT (editorl
THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE POPULATION QUESTION (with Michael Cara
OXFORD AND EMPIRE
The Last Lost Cause?
Richard Symonds
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-1-349-18241-1 ISBN 978-1-349-18239-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-18239-8
© Richard Symonds 1986
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1986
All rights reserved. For information, write:
St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Published in the United Kingdom by The Macmillan Press Ltd.
First published in the United States of America in 1986
ISBN 978-0-312-59362-9
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Symonds, Richard, 1918-
0xford and empire-the last lost cause?
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. University of Oxford-Faculty-Attitudes-History.
2. University of Oxford-Alumni-Attitudes-History.
3. Great Britain-Colonies. 4. Colonial administrators
Great Britain-Attitudes-History. I. Title
LF509.S95 1985 378.425'74 85-11870
ISBN 978-0-312-59362-9
For Ann Spokes Symonds
Contents
List of Plates ix
Preface and Acknowledgements xi
List of Abbreviations xvi
Note on Oxford Terminology xvii
Introduction
PART I THE PERCEPTION OF EMPIRE
1 The View from the Senior Common Room 9
2 Prophets, Classics and Philosopher Kings 24
3 Historians and Sentinels of Empire 47
4 The Round Table and their Friends 62
5 Professors, Prigs and Pedants - the Critics of Empire 80
PART II A GREAT IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY?
6 Benares on the Isis- Indian Studies and the Indian
Institute 101
7 Muzzled Lions - the Scientists and Empire 123
8 Suburbs of the Celestial City - Geopoliticians,
Anthropologists and Others 140
9 Rhodes and the Imperial Athens 161
PART Ill OXFORD OVERSEAS
10 A Share in the Appointments 184
11 The Missionaries 203
12 The Oxford of the Southern World and Education in
the Empire 228
13 Nursing Mother of the Elect 257
14 Epilogue 284
15 Conclusions 294
VIII Contents
Appendix: Statistics on Oxford Men and Women who
Worked in the Empire 306
Notes 313
Select Bibliography 340
Index 355
List of Plates
1 Sir William Jones (memorial in University College, Oxford)
2 Benjamin Jowett
3 Lord Curzon as Viceroy of India
4 Sir George Parkin
5 Lord Milner
6 Cecil Rhodes as an undergraduate
7 Goldwin Smith
8 Milner's young men in South Africa
9 J. C. Patteson, Bishop of Melanesia (memorial in Merton Col
lege)
10 Stained-glass window to James Hannington, Bishop of Eastern
Equatorial Africa, StPeter's College, Oxford
11 Weather-vane on old Indian Institute, Oxford
12 Mahatma Gandhi, boss in Church of StMary the Virgin, Oxford
13 Sir Monier Monier Williams
14 Rt Hon. Friedrich Max Mueller
15 Photograph from the album of Vincent Smith, I.C.S.
16 Sir William Osler
17 Cartoon of Sir E. Ray Lankester by Max Beerbohm
18 Sir William Schlich
19 Sir Halford Mackinder
20 Henry Balfour examining the first candidates for the diploma in
social anthropology
21 Kingsley Fairbridge as a Rhodes Scholar
22 Revd Alek Fraser
23 S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike as an undergraduate
24 J. H. Hofmeyr
25 Margery Perham on safari
26 Somerville College group, 1890
27 Sir Ralph Furse
28 Dripstop of Sir Kenneth Wheare and kangaroo on Bodleian
Library
ix
X List of Plates
The author and publishers should like to thank the following for
permission to reproduce photographs:
Plates 1 and 7: the Master and Fellows of University College, Ox
ford; Plate 2: the Master and Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford;
Plate 3: Lady Alexandra Metcalfe; Plates 4, 5, 21 and 24: the Warden
of Rhodes House, Oxford; Plate 6: the Rhodes Trustees; Plate 8: the
Editorial Committee of The Round Table; Plates 9 and 17: the
Warden and Fellows of Merton College, Oxford; Plate 10: the
Master and Fellows of St Peter's College, Oxford; Plates 13 and 15:
the Indian Institute Library, Oxford; Plate 14: the Warden and
Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford; Plates 16 and 25: the Bodleian
Library; Plate 18: Commonwealth Forestry Review; Plate 19: the
Oxford University School of Geography; Plate 20: the Pitt Rivers
Museum, Oxford; Plates 22 and 23: the Royal Commonwealth So
ciety; Plate 26: the Principal and Fellows of Somerville College,
Oxford; Plate 27: the Imperial Forestry Institute, Oxford.
Photographs for Plates I, 4, 5, 7, 10, 21 and 24 were provided by
John Falconer; for Plates 2, 9, 14, 17 and 28 by Thomas Photos,
Oxford (copyright); for Plates 11 and 12 by Oxford and County
Newspapers (copyright); and for Plates 6, 13, 15, 16 and 25 by the
Bodleian Library (copyright).