Benign colonialism

Last updated May 7, 2019

*Benign colonialism is a term that refers to an alleged form of colonialism in which benefits outweighed risks for indigenous populations whose lands, resources, rights and freedoms were preempted by a colonizing nation-state. The historical source for the concept of benign colonialism resides with John Stuart Mill who was chief examiner of the British East India Company dealing with British interests in India in the 1820s and 1830s. Mill’s most well-known essays (1844) on benign colonialism are found in “Essays on some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy.” Mill’s view contrasted with Burkean orientalists. Mill promoted the training of a corps of bureaucrats indigenous to India who could adopt the modern liberal perspective and values of 19th century Britain. Mill predicted this group’s eventual governance of India would be based on British values and perspectives. For a discussion of Mill’s arguments see Doyle (2006).

Those who adopt benign colonialism as a truth claim argue that education, health, housing and employment possibilities improved conditions for indigenous peoples as settlers, merchants and administrators also brought new industries, liberal markets, developed natural resources and introduced improved governance. The first wave of benign colonialism lasted from c. 1790s-1960s. The second wave included neocolonial policies exemplified in Hong Kong (Liu 2003), where unfettered expansion of the market created a new form of benign colonialism. Political interference and military intervention (Doyle 2006) in independent nation-states, such as Iraq (Campo 2004), is also discussed under the rubric of benign colonialism in which a foreign power preempts national governance to protect a higher concept of freedom. The term is also used in the 21st century to refer to American, French and Chinese market activities in countries on the African continent with massive quantities of underdeveloped nonrenewable envied resources. Literature that challenges the assumptions of benign colonialism, claiming the colonialist project as it actually unfolded, placed First Nations, Inuit and Métis at higher risks of vulnerabilities to catastrophes, to social exclusion and human rights abuses, have not been as widely publicized.

Notes

I uploaded the following in 2005 as part of a list of key concepts I was including in my writing.

Benign colonialism refers to a commonly held belief among Canadians that the early explorers, those involved in the fur trade (the Hudson’s Bay Company), early police forces (the Royal Canadian Mounted Police), missionaries (Anglican, Roman Catholic and Moravian), and bureaucrats had a benign or beneficial effect on Inuit culture since the Inuit were perceived as being part of a culture that was already doomed to extinction through the unavoidable expansion of the modern capitalist and democratic systems.

Current debates on colonization and human rights (Falk 2000) raise questions about the notion of benign colonialism. The dominant language, culture and values of colonizers imposed on colonised peoples is often narrated as salutary. Dominant social and cultural institutions contributed to faciliating the entry of indigenous peoples trapped in unsustainable subsistence economies. Previously colonised peoples claim that the colonization process resulted in a parallel process of the colonization of the minds of indigenous peoples. The process of decolonization of memory (Ricoeur 1980), history and the spirit is crucial for the social inclusion (OECD) of indigenous peoples and nations within nations, such as Canada.

I uploaded this entry above* to Wikipedia on February 19, 2007 as a new article “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benign_colonialism” that was absorbed a few months later into a section of an article, now named Analysis of Western European colonialism and colonization, that was the product of a grad student project. The Wikipedia article updates the topic of benign colonialism to include research undertaken since 2007. Since some of the content I originally uploaded uses the exact phrasing of this blog, I am licensing this blog post as Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. BY-NC-4.0  This “license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.”

References

• Campo, Juan E. 2004. “Benign Colonialism? The Iraq War: Hidden Agendas and Babylonian Intrigue”. Interventionism. 26:1. Spring.
• Doyle, Michael W. 2006. “Sovereignty and Humanitarian Military Intervention.” Columbia University.
• Kurtz,Stanley. 2003.”Lessons from the British in India.” Democratic Imperialism: A Blueprint. Policy Review.
• Liu, Henry C. K. 2003. “China: a Case of Self-Delusion: Part 1: From colonialism to confusion.” Asia Times. May 14.
• Mill, John Stuart. 1844. “Essays on some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy.”
• Mill, John Stuart. “A Few Words on Nonintervention.” 1973. In Gertrude Himmelfarb, Ed. Essays on Politics and Culture. Gloucester: Peter Smith. pp. 368-84.

I think I added the following sections later and did not include them in the Wikipedia article.

Benign colonialism in Canada

There is a widespread Canadian mythology that First Nations, Inuit and Métis are among those who benefited from settler colonies preempting, improving, managing and governing aboriginal lands, resources and educating, training, developing, serving, monitoring and governing its peoples. Those who adopt benign colonialism as a truth claim argue that education, health, housing and employment possibilities improved conditions for the indigenous peoples since the arrival of settlers. Literature that challenges the assumptions of benign colonialism, claiming the colonialist project, as it actually unfolded placed First Nations, Inuit and Métis at higher risks of vulnerabilities to catastrophes, to social exclusion and human rights abuses, have not been as widely publicized. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) addressed these claims but the term benign colonialism is still a convenient truth for many. Celebratory and one-sided social histories of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the RCMP, and various government leaders such as John A. MacDonald or civil servants such as Indian Agents, northern adventurers, when viewed through the lens of settlers while ignoring the perspective of First Nations, Inuit and Métis contribute to on-going dissemination of distorted histories. Museums, maps and census contribute to these distorted histories by grave omissions.

Related citations

Here Doyle is referring to John S. Mill’s concept of “benign colonialism”, cited in “A Few Words on Nonintervention” in Essays on Politics and Culture (1973).

“Today, Mill’s most controversial case would be benign colonialism. His principles of nonintervention only hold among “civilized” nations. “Uncivilized” peoples, among whom Mill dumps most of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, are not fit for the principle of nonintervention. Like Oude (in India), they suffer four debilitating infirmities – despotism, anarchy, amoral presentism and familism — that make them incapable of self-determination. The people are imposed upon by a “despot… so oppressive and extortionate as to devastate the country.” Despotism long endured has produced “such a state of nerveless imbecility that everyone subject to their will, who had not the means of defending himself by his own armed followers, was the prey of anybody who had a band of ruffians in his pay.” The people as a result deteriorate into amoral relations in which the present overwhelms the future and no contracts can be relied upon. Moral duties extend no further than the family; national or civic identity is altogether absent. In these circumstances, Mill claims, benign colonialism is best for the population . Normal relations cannot be maintained in such an anarchic and lawless environment. It is important to note that Mill advocates neither exploitation nor racialist domination. He applies the same reasoning to once primitive northern Europeans who benefited from the imperial rule imposed by civilized Romans. The duties of paternal care, moreover, are real, precluding oppression and exploitation and requiring care and education designed to one day fit the colonized people for independent national existence. Nonetheless, the argument also rests on (wildly distorted) readings of the history and culture of Africa and Asia and Latin America. Anarchy and despotic oppression did afflict many of the peoples in these regions, but ancient cultures embodying deep senses of social obligation made nonsense of presentism and familism. Shorn of its cultural “Orientalism,” Mill’s argument for trusteeship addresses one serious gap in our strategies of humanitarian assistance: the devastations that cannot be readily redressed by a quick intervention designed to liberate an oppressed people from the clutches of foreign oppression or a domestic despot. But how does one prevent benign trusteeship from becoming malign imperialism, particularly when one recalls the flowery words and humanitarian intentions that accompanied the conquerors of Africa? How far is it from the Anti-Slavery Campaign and the Aborigine Rights Protection Society to King Leopold’s Congo and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness?”