Review: Sex in the Empire

Reviewed Work(s): Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience by Ronald Hyam
Review by: Gautam Sen
Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 26, No. 26 (June 29, 1991), pp. 1601-1603
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
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 the elevated capacity for human love, freely
Se
given, etc, notwithstanding. The attempt to
restrict prostitution expresses itself in higher
Gautam Sen prices rather than superior moral conduct.
The significant question then is the
Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience by Ronald Hyam;
absence of similar markets for male hetero-
Manchester University Press, 1990; pp IX + 234, 35.00. sexual prostitution. The fundamental answer
RONALD HYAM's study combines insight conquerors and subject people the missing is a basic mismatch in supply and demand,
in is race, a feature which Hyam recognises i e, there is an excess supply of sexually
and latent (and not-so-latent) prejudice link
a nostalgic account of sexual mores and as an explanatory factor but does not inte- available males and an obverse shortage of
practices in the British empire and grate its in the detailed analysis. The feminist females. According to Kinsey, ". . .only about
resonance in domestic opinion and events. view of race is distinguished chiefly by its two per cent of men are not interested in sex,
These are issues which enduring prudery, banality, just as Hyam's nostalgia about em- the proportion of women, with a weak res-
and reductionism and economism in the pire makes him predictable in another way. ponse is nearer thirty per cent" (quoted by
social sciences have conspired to obscure. The notion of serious conflicts of interest Hyam, p 7 and ft n 24). The exact causes
between subject peoples and their masters of this phenomenon and its durability are
This has seriously understated the range and
complexity of motivation in human conduct,is left only to the reader's imagination, not material to explaining why men are seek-
Hyam reserves his own for the minutae o( ing to buy and/or coerce sex from women,
satisfying, paradoxically, one aspect of this
sexual behaviour. This is a story for the boys. children and other men. Such an underlying*
motivation itself: sexuality and apprehension
of it. Another issile addressed by Hyam is the explanatory factor does not preclude the
Largely hidden from the 'intersubjective' causes of prostitution in general and its scale potency of subsidiary historical and con-
in the empire in particular. Hyam is scep-
discourse is the place of sexuality, in the ful- tingent reasons, including imperial domi-
tical, of the view that poverty is a significant
ly, fleshed out (so to speak) story of imperial nance (see, for example, p 172) and the ex-
conquest. Along with booty, pillage and reason although he accepts the fact that it ercise of power in general, poverty and even
murder, conquerors have shown a universal is undoubtedly a permissive factor. He then individual career preferences. The history of
and immediate interest in the* women of the proceeds to make the extraordinary claim sexuality in the empire is primarily about
conquered people. The women of the losing prostitution and in a situation where markets
that the prevalence of child prostitution
refutes economic causation (p 137)! I fear (indeed most markets) operate in the shadow
side provide, in addition to labour, sexual
this inference is only, revealing of authorial of
services,1 initially through rape and abduc- ; imperial political and military power
tion and then through adaptive institu- prejudices. I would have thought that the rather than the mundne forces of supply
deployment of children as vehicles for sexual and demand alone.
tionalisation to create a sustainable modus
gratification (as in the contemporary Philip-
vivendi in parallel with other longer term Hyam's study gives wide coverage of the
colonial and imperial relationships: "Thepines) leads to money changing hands and British empire, in India and Africa and
evidence of the pervasive significance of pro-it is the one type of prostitution' (a mis- elsewhere, often unashamedly drawing atten-
stitution for the British Indian army alertsnomer since it lacks the possibility of adult tion to taboos and taboo subjects. His com-
the historian to what may be a central voluntarism) which is eminently of an ment on the self-limiting nature of con-
feature of the expansion of Europe ^as economic
a character; However, be that as it cubinage in Africa, "since African women
whole. . . as much a system of prostitutionmay, it is possible to conclude that the ex- were mostly unattractive to look at" high-
networks as it was (in Kipling's famous planation for prostitution is in fact basically lights a brutal and widely-held prejudice
phrase) a web of submarine cables" (pp 133 economic, but the exact process is both sur- (p 177). He also interweaves the analysis of
and 212), prisingly simple and also contrary to the the sex life of empire with sexual behaviour
Hyam is dismissive of feminist analyses poverty/economic equation frequently at home in Britain and changing moral
in offering explanation for sexuality in the : posited. The latter obfuscation arises codes. Hyam's approval of sexual licence in
empire, except at a high and thoroughly opa- because a market for human intimacy the empire (exclusively between white men
que level of abstraction, at best, or as a form challenges fundamental notions about socie- and non-European women) is fully reflected
of unilluminating blanket condemnation. ty and women (especially) and it provides, in a converse distaste for the so-called Purity
He quotes the sheer implausibility of Susan in addition, an agreeably progressive and Campaign, launched in Britain in 1869.
Brownmiller's generalisation about all men transitory cause. Some of the aversion to the latter is under-
at all times which substitutes rage for cold There are many immediate causes for the standable if merely because the ethnocen-
analysis. But Hyam then proceeds to tell a extent and types of prostitution but, as trism of its presumptions was unselective in
story that easily provokes anger, a story of Hyam correctly points out, since it has intent if not practice. But Hyam extends his
cynical exploitation of non-European always existed in time and space and at every reflective distance to describing the medical-
women by white men. It is also exceptional, level of society, it cannot be poverty alone ly and psychologically devastating practice
contrary to Hyam's conviction, for feminists that drives women to it. The only other con- of clitoridectomy in Kenya on pragmatic
to assert that lesbian love is the only legiti- ventional reason can be coercion (many grounds: because "the outcome of the con-
mate sexual relationship (p 17). Where prostitutes disagree) and patriarchy, the frontation over clitoridectomy was a sharp
feminist analysis fails is not in its justifiable weakness of which as an explanation is itsreminder to the pretensions of Protestant
outrage but in oversimplifying. American apparent ability to explain an excessivelymissionaries that the customary sexual order
(the bulk) and European feminist analysis, large number of diverse phenomena. With-in Africa was not lightly to be interfered
to which many Third World feminists pay out rejecting the relevance of power in social with, still less derided" (p 196). The
obeisance in the same way Third World relationships altogether because patriarchy missionary view that the practice was not
Marxists do to their inviolable imported could still be regarded as informing if not dissimilar to the Hindu custom of suttee was
texts, suffers from the ethnocentric arro- accounting for prostitution, it is necessaryless "quixotic" (pp 191 and 196) than Hyam's
gance of its origins, denying the legitimacy to ask a different question. The fact thatrelativism in "approving" the sexual oppor-
of other societies, except as backward ob- female prostitution exists can, given its im-tunities provided by empire..
jects of inquiry awaiting their intellectual mense longevity, be regarded as a not very The account of the sexual activities of
and political attention. On the question of interesting tendency for markets to form inempire-builders from the time of Clive of
sexual interaction in the empire between the virtually all things in response to demand, India and Clive himself was one of virtually

Economic and Political Weekly June 29, 1991 1601

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unlimited opportunity and an inexhaustible
supply of women of empire, suggesting more
than mutual attraction, unless the widely
held view that non-European women are
over-sexed proves accurate. Builders of em-
pire, from Clive down to the commonest
soldier, from India and China to the Hudson
Bay Company, indulged every possible sex-
ual whim, sometimes through marriage but
more generally through mass prostitution
and concubinage. The easy taking and
discarding of concubines, making real the
ultimate male fantasy of sexual paradise. To
be an attractive Asian or African boy, even
a rather small one, was also unsafe. But if
the imperious British male had any prefer-
ences, it was .to begebt with a white woman,
fuck with an Asian female (have her keep
house) nd sodomise Pathan boys when
possible. The empire was sexual opportunity
itself for the individual as much as booty
for the mother country: "The girls were
cheap and sensuous. If the army had any
doubts about their cleanliness, then an of-
ficer could burn their huts and restock with
Japanese" (p 108).
The authorities, when not themselves in-
volved in the fray, were concerned about VD'
(that is among the soldiery) and opinion at
home, which from the 1870s increasingly
sought to ensure racial purity and social
distance for an endangered imperial race of
rulers. The obsession with sexual behaviour
in Britain itself, especially the licentiousness
of the working clss (and the widespread
prevalence of incest) arose partly from fears
provoked by the poor condition of army
recruits. It was this anxiety which spilled
over into empire. Already by the 1790s mix-
ed marriage had been ended by Cornwallis
in India and social distance was further en-
trenched by Wellesley in the aftermath of the
tremors of rebellion in the French San
Domingo and execution of all whites by the
mulatto Dessalines (pp 116-7). But sodomy
and concubines continued to flourish. It was
the arrival of wives that finally put an end
to the native mistress. By the early twentieth
century, the Smuts' purge of prostitution in
South Africa began the "reversal of the trend
towards turning the whole world into the
white man's brothel. . (p 148). The mem-
sahib has, in fact, been wrongly credited with
causing the downfall of empire by some by
". . . making it impossible to meet Indians as
friends" (p 119). Protecting the memsahib
from the threat, however remote, of the black
male was an imperative (see p 106 for evi-
dence of the contrary situation in actuality).
It is this issue which Hyam addresses in
the conclusion to his rich, sometimes
perverse, study of sex jn the empire: "one
thing is certain.. Sex is at the very heart of
racism. ... there are many other factors but within 14 days of publication of this notiqe, intimating his views on the proposal and in-
the peculiarly emotional hostility towards dicating the nature of his interest therein.
black men which i t has so o fren engendered
requires a sexual explanation. From New
Orleans to New Guinea, from Barbados to
Bulawayo, from Kimberley to Kuala Lumpur,
the quintessential taboo to be explained is Dated 27.6.1991 MANAGING DIRECTOR
the white man's formal objection to intimacy
1602 Economic
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VAM ORGANIC CHEMICALS LTD.
NOTICE
We hereby notify for the information of the public that Vam Orsanic Chemic
proposes to make an application to the Central Government in the Departmen
pany Affairs, New Delhi, under Sub-Sectin (2) of section 22 of the Monopolies and
tive Trade Practices Act, 1969, for the approval to the establishment for a ne
taking/unit/division. Brief particulars of the proposal are as under:
1 . Name and Address of the Applicant:
Vam Organic Chemicals Ltd.,
3rd Floor, Skyline House,
85 Nehru Place, NEW DELHI - 110 019.
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c) Paid up 516.26 38.50
3. Management structure of the appl
directors including managing directo
The company is managed by the Bo
1. Shri M.L. Bhartia - Chairman
2. Shri S.S. Bhartia - Managing Director
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4. Shri U.S. Bhartia - Director
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and Political Weekly June 29, 1991
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between black men and white women" anxious to oblige and please, that a personIndia;
1 and finally he sums up the Arab
after being accustomed to their society:ontribution
(p 203).2 It is with this deep-seated anxiety < to the making of modern
that modern feminism has found an shrinks from the idea of encountering themathematics.
i Through all the countries that
unspoken resonance in the contemporary whims or yielding to the fancies of an tie
] takes us he provides a fascinating list of
Englishwoman" (quoted in Hyam p 117).real
hysteria over the black rapist and mugger i and original examples and problems,
and the religious fanatic. The social Marxist opinion on racism still finds itselfwith
i their solutions, from each mathematical
powerlessnes of the black male3 in racist rabbiting on unstoppably about class i tradition. After reading only a part of this
white society if accurately reflected in hostili-oppression. I book and taking note of all the forgotten
ty towards his sexuality, provoking, in turn, Notes 1 non-Western mathematicians, along with the
abandonment by women of his own commu- scholarly references that Joseph cites, one
1 Plus reproductive roles in some cir-
nity, to which his violently conservative reac- is both angry and perplexed as to why so
cumstances; also see pp 160-61, 171-79 and !
tion corresponds. The attendant counterpart little of non-Western mathematical tradition
passim.
feminist urge to liberate the black woman 2 Also see p 216, footnote 7. 1 is known by the educated public both inside
and outside the West. Could it be that the
finds a historical echo of white male interest
3 This powerlessness extends from complete
in the 'pretty ethnic*, now the rage in men's powerful custodians of the Western scholarly
loss of control over his own sexuality (and
magazines. In the words of Magistrate family life) under slavery, to the role establishment
of 1 prevent it from being known
Samuel Sneade Brown of the 1830s ICS, the catamite in conditions of socio-economic too widely, in case the entire historicj
native woman: ". . . so amusingly playful, so subordination (also see p 98). rationale at the heart of the notions of
Western intellectual supremacy is threatened

West's Unacknowledged Debtideas?

by an alternative view of the history of
One senses that Joseph has certainly
understood and grasped the significance of
Buijor Avari the marked reluctance and evasiveness of
Western
The Crest of the Peacock: Non-Western Roots of Mthematics by Georgescholar^ in acknowledging their in-
tellectual debts.
Gheverghese Joseph; I Tauris, London, 1991.
In perhaps the most important chapter of
WE live in an age dominated by the scien- evidence about the unique African heritage;
the whole book, the very fst one, which is
many specialist institutions are promoting
tific and .technical ideas of the Wst. In every called The History of Mathematics:' Alter-
corner of the globcWise men and women an understanding of the movement of ideas native Perspectives', Joseph .touches the
pay homage to the intellectual superiority and, through the efforts of distinguishedheart of the matter when he explains the
of the West. It is the dream of every aspir- Western scientists like Joseph Needhammathematical
of signposts and transmissions
ing and ambitious student in the so-called Cambridge, a more balanced evaluationacrossof the ages through the means of tra-
Thir World to travel to places such as the the non-Western contributions in science,jectories. The clasSicEurocentric trajectory,
US, Britain and Germany in order to learn such as those of China, is beginning to take
dealing with mathematical heritage, is that
more techniques aind skills. The Westplace. which sees Greece as the fountain of all
has The real successes will only be scored
when the intellectuals of the non-Western
come to be accepted as the unchallenged wisdom and which then traces the course of
possessor of the secrets of science. It is world
the begin to take their heritage more this wisdom through such vicissitudes as the
place where pilgrims, in search of secular seriously and embark on systematic Dark Ages and then flourishing through the
knowledge, come to learn the mysteriesresearches.
of Renaissance into the sunlit plains of modem
physics, mathematics, engineering, micro- European intellectual history. An amended
It may be that the non-Western intellec-
computers. and a host of other sciences. version of this trajectory would acknow-
tuals will have to have a long acquaintance
It was not always like that, however. Un- ledge, only marginally, the inputs of Egypt
with the West before thy are sufficiently
til just two centuries ago the West was aaroused
net and Mesopotamia and the role of the Arabs
to look into the hidden by-ways of
importer of ideas rather than the giver. Some as preservers, storers and translators of
the history of ideas. George Gheverghese
of the most creative concepts came from Greek mathematical texts during the Dark
Joseph is one such person who has just
places which were far away from the West. Ages. Joseph convincingly demolishes the
published a path-breaking book on the
Unfortunately this has all been forgotten in case for both the classic Eurocentric trajec-
history of mathematical ideas and their
the last two hundred years. The world-wide
transmission. Born in Kerala, incidentally a
tory and its amended version. Instead, he
domination of the West, the unparalleled proposes his own multinational, multi-
great centre of Indian mathematical
prosperity the West came to achieve andwisdom,
the cultural trajectory, in whjch mathematical
although hardly thought of as such
sheer pressure that the events of Western knowledge and heritage pass on in history
in the West, and brought up in Kenya,
history came to exert over the course of through the filter of many lands and
George Joseph acquired his higher education
world history- all these ^forces obliterated
in the West and has worked at Manchester peoples. Under this scenario, the modern
accurate knowledge about the history of West received the best of the mathematical
University, since the 1960s. He is at home ideas of India, China, Greece, the Hellenistic
ideas and their transfer. No one bothered to
both with the history of mathematics and
remember or acknowledge th intellectual world, etc, only through the efforts of
modern mathemaics, and that makes his
intellectuals and thinkers who lived in such
debts of the West. Western ^scholars were
book convincing and credible.
quite prepared to bask in the notion .that they cities as Jund-i-Shapur in Sassanian Iran,
were the inheritors of some unique and In the book The Crest of the Peacock (the Baghdad of the Abbasid Caliphate, Fatimid
title is taken from an ancient Indian
superior wisdom, a wisdom whose roots they Cairo, and Cordova and Toledo in Muslim
aphorism dating back to 500 years Spain.
traced back to classical Greecfc and to the before
Greek genius, .and non-Western scholars Christ) Joseph takes us through a grand Joseph's historical analysis is convincing
historical tour of mathematics in the non-
either rested content in the ignorance of their not least because of the meticulous care he
own heritage or were too much under Western
the world. He starts with some of the has taken over the veracity of his evidence
earliest mathematical notions from
thrall of the glitter of the West to seriously and data. His clear and rational unearthing
challenge the West's understandingequatorial
of Africa and South and Central
of intellectual history of mathematics must
intellectual history. America. He then moves on to discuss the be considered as the only approach that will
critical contributions of Egypt and
Now things ' are beginning to improve, remotely have a chance of successfully
however slightly. The UNESCO, for exam-Mesopotamia to Greek mathematics. Next challenging the entire fortification built
he looks at some of the highly originalaround the legitimacy of Western intellecr
ple, has taken a lead in presenting to the
mathematical thinking from China andtual triumphalism.
intellectual world hitherto unacknowledged

Economic and Pitical Weekly June 29, 1991 1603

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