Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition, with Some Early Nineteenth Century Documents c5.s3.22

c5.s3.22

This feeling about the lack of legitimacy prevailed throughout British rule and was shared by men as different and separate in time as Robert Clive, Thomas Munro, John Malcolm and Charles Metcalfe. 1857 made it even more apparent. The fundamental maxim for British rule in India, according to Clive, was that ‘our influence and possessions were acquired, so they must be maintained by force; and that the princes of the country are only to be kept in order by fear.’³⁷ Fifty seven years later, Charles Metcalfe did not feel any differently; in fact he was more explicit. In a minute in 1829, he remarked: