Adolescent Empire: Moral Dangers for Boys in Britain and India, c.1880–;1914

Abstract

This chapter analyses the attempts of the British, through a common consensus about the correct path to civil manhood, to educate and build a moral empire. India in particular, the brightest jewel in the British crown and in many ways a testing ground for British policies in the wider empire as well as at home, is a crucial object of study. It served as a significant site of contestation and negotiation, defining important questions related to morality and gender and class (caste) norms and who was allowed to define them in religiously, socially and ethnically diverse locations, far from the métropole. This was especially true after the Rebellion of 1857, which provoked a rethinking of British social and religious policies in India to prevent further civilian disquiet and to change moral codes, in addition to the more concrete institutional and formal consequences usually cited, such as the termination of the East India Company’s charter and the imposition of direct government of India from London under the Raj (1858–1947)? The more informal and indirect responses to the fallout from the Rebellion have remained rather neglected in comparison and are the focus of this chapter. These changes had a direct role to play in increasing efforts in education, with moral education at the centre. Growing nationalist sentiment among Indians also encouraged the British to emphasize moral education to keep the threat at bay.