The Jewel in the Crown: Racialism
 

[CENTER][B]“Color is the oldest trick in the game; to say color doesn’t matter. It does matter. It is basic. It matters like hell.” (Merrick)[/B]

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The [I]fundamental barrier[/I] between the [I]English and the Indians[/I] was the barrier of ‘colour’, created and nourished by the European whites through their colonial rule. The white skin culture was the result of British Imperialism. The English brought with them an abhorrent quality, their [I]inability to love[/I] the black Indians when arrived India to rule. They were unable to treat the Indians on an [I]equal footing[/I] with them.

A line was drawn between the [I]white skin and the black skin[/I], [I]between the rulers[/I] and [I]between the cities[/I], in which the Indians lived and the new built cantonment where the white lived, putting signboards outside their Gymkhanas banning the entry of Indians and dogs. They pretended to be civilized and philanthropist but had an extremely [I]prejudiced[/I] [I]and superiority complexed[/I] approach towards the Indians.

[CENTER][B]“The Mayapore Church was not open for the Indian's dogs and Indians not allowed”[/B]
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The British always considered the Indians as [I]down rated and degraded[/I] nation. This view of Indians was quite [I]ironic[/I]. As what happened in these clubs and gymkhanas was the show off of their [I]degeneration and degradation.[/I] Even Miss Daphne expressed her hatred for these clubs:

[CENTER][B]“I have never liked the Mayapore club.”[/B]
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The whites spread an [I]invisible barbed wire[/I] around them, which could not be jumped over or crossed by the Indians, which always existed and was only lifted when the crown with a jewel was lifted.

One of the major causes behind Gandhi’s “Quit India” campaign was the [I]aloofness[/I] of the whites in their colonies. They little bothered to learn Indian language. Their [I]‘white superiority’[/I] kept the natives at a distance. [I]Financial[/I] [I]dishonesty and racial discrimination[/I] combined when the British doctor in India treated only the British and refused to treat the Indians as they refused to ‘admit equality’. British rulers looked down extremely hatefully on the Indian natives who were forced to avoid any probable mixing with the white. Even the bathrooms were marked separately as the ‘British Toilet’ and ‘Indian Toilet’.

The [I]irony[/I] was that whosoever went color blind or tried to cross the boundaries of the color distinction, [I]suffered[/I]. Both, Miss Crane and Daphne Manners, violated the line of demarcation and suffered. The tragedy of both ladies was due to this wide gap between both the races.

Miss Crane viewed everything from [I]human point of view,[/I] not from that of the English. She was very [I]honest[/I] [I]to her profession[/I] and considered India her home but it proved only to be an [I]illusion[/I]. She faced the reality with a [I]shook[/I]. She was an [I]ardent supporter[/I] of free India. Her love for India is obvious when she refused to go back to England with Mr. Smith. While asking her to come with him, he said:

[CENTER] [B]“You would be with blacks and half-castes cut off from your own kind British people.”[/B]
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[LEFT] But she received the [I]worst shock[/I] of her life when Mr. Chaudhuri was killed by rioters while saving her life. She was unable to see this gap between the races and committed suicide.

The [I]sexual union[/I] in the beginning of the novel is [I]ironical[/I]. It showed the spectacles of two nations in violent conflict who were locked in ‘Imperial embrace’ and never know whether they loved or hated each other. In fact ‘Imperial embrace’ was [I]sterile, a brutal rape, a treachery[/I] to a promise that followed a gradual process of mutual understanding where the white and the black were forced to patch up their quarrel and came together in a complete harmony.

The [I]prejudice and the superiority[/I] of the English race were very vividly expressed in the basic law:
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[CENTER] [B]“A white man could make love to a black girl; the black man white girl association was still a taboo.”[/B]
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Miss Daphne was another victim of color blindness. There is gradual change in Daphne’s point of view of Indians. Firstly, she was only a victim of ‘superiority complex’:

[CENTER] [B]“I lost my temper and snatched away the blouse the tailor named Hussain, was doing his best of
copy. I couldn’t bear to see him holding it up, examining it, touching it with his black fingers.”[/B]
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But her love with Hari [I]changed her[/I]. She [I]violated[/I] all the limits and her sexual union with Kumar brought her tragedy. Her [I]hatred[/I] for Indians changed into [I]philanthropy[/I] when she said after her gang rape:

[CENTER][B]“I doubt it was Indians.”[/B]
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The [I]color distinction[/I] again was the cause of her sufferings. She was at the [I]ape of humanity[/I] when she decided to give birth to an Indian child, despite severe criticism from the British community. Daphne exposed the [I]hypocrisy[/I] of the Englishmen when she said:

[CENTER] [B]“Of course I was not a virgin. My first lover was a friend of my brother David. My second, a man I met
in London during the time I was driving the ambulance … … We made love but weren’t in love.”[/B]
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Merrick was a [I]staunch believer[/I] of color discrimination. His treatment of Hari Kumar, while he was in jail, gave evidence to the kind of civilization the whites wanted to bring India. Merrick was the true representative of imperialism who took sadistic delight in humiliating his victim. Kumar’s punishment at the hands of Merrick showed the treatment of the white people to their Indian subject.

[CENTER][B]“The true corruption of English is their pretence that they have no contempt for Indians, and our real degradation is our pretence of quality.”[/B]
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But all the racial barriers were not made by British. Similar and equal barriers were raised on the Indian side also. They had separate drinking places on the railway stations, divided into ‘Hindu pani’ and ‘Muslim pani’. So the racial prejudice existed also between the Hindus and the Muslims.

Mr. Robin White, the Deputy Commissioner of Mayapore, always had a pro-Indian view for most of the members of the ruing class. He was, like, Merrick, at all against black skin. Sister Ludmila lived above all prejudices and hatred against the colored human beings. The group of human beings knew:

[CENTER][B]“Whosoever hated the human beings, a milestone be put around his neck and be drowned into the water of the river.”[/B]
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The [I]color discrimination[/I] is the basic [I]theme[/I] and the most obvious cause of hatred between the English and the Indians. The English, being rulers, never tried to bridge this gap and whosoever had done so, faced tragic results. There was only a hypocritical relation between the Indians and the Englishmen. [I]Imperialism[/I] was the [I]religion of the Englishmen[/I]; the [I]empire was their church[/I]. They thought that they had a [I]divine sanction[/I] to rule the inferior subjects. As the time passed, the Englishmen's relationship with Indians slammed and proved that it was based upon [I]violation, hatred and disguise[/I]. So, the ‘white skin’ and ‘black skin’ culture resulted in opposite violation and left unhealthy effects of the rulers on the ruled.