Rabindranath Tagore, 1916, courtesy of the Library of Congress; John William Graham, 1926, courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery
Empirical evidence: Joanna Dales has a lesson from history
‘Graham’s prejudices would not allow him to appreciate the values informing the Indian way of life.’
by Joanna Dales
23rd April 2021
At a time of soul-searching about British, including Quaker, involvement in the slave trade, it is timely to consider historical questions about Quaker attitudes to the imperial project itself. How free are we now from supposing that Europeans have the right, even the duty, to impose on others our creeds, our norms, our systems of law and government? I have been studying the life and thought of a Quaker from the recent past, and find his developing views on British rule in India pertinent to these questions.
