#Colonialism Quotes

“Since trade ignores national boundaries and the manufacturer insists on having the world as a market, the flag of his nation must follow him, and the doors of the nations which are closed against him must be battered down. Concessions obtained by financiers must be safeguarded by ministers of state, even if the sovereignty of unwilling nations be outraged in the process. Colonies must be obtained or planted, in order that no useful corner of the world may be overlooked or left unused.”

“Here Churchill repeats with approval a statement he had first made in January, 1930 "at a meeting at the Cannon Street Hotel." "Sooner or later you will have to crush Gandhi and the Indian Congress and all they stand for."”

“I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes.”

“I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.”

“Luckily ... there were Zulus and Afghans, also the Dervishes in the Soudan. Some of these might, if they were well-disposed, 'put up a show' some day.”

“I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas... I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes... It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gases: gases can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected.”

“Small islands, not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.”

“There is something absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.”

“Our minds were circumscribed within narrow limits by an habitual belief that it was our duty to be subordinate to the mother country.”

“If we were to drive out the English with the weapons with which they enslaved us, our slavery would still be with us even when they have gone.”

“[Patriotism] ...is a word which always commemorates a robbery. There isn't a foot of land in the world which doesn't represent the ousting and re-ousting of a longline of successive "owners" who each in turn, as "patriots" with proud swelling hearts defended it against the next gang of "robbers" who came to steal it and did -- and became swelling-hearted patriots in their turn.”

“I said there was nothing so convincing to an Indian as a general massacre. If he could not approve of the massacre, I said the next surest thing for an Indian was soap and education. Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run; because a half-massacred Indian may recover, but if you educate him and wash him, it is bound to finish him some time or other.”

“Our non-co-operation is with the system the English have established in India, with the material civilization and its attendant greed and exploitation of the weak.”

“The cottage industry of India had to perish in order that Lancashire might flourish.”

“As the elephant is powerless to think in the terms of the ant, in spite of the best intentions in the world, even so is the Englishman powerless to think in the terms of, or legislate for, the Indian.”

“I must fight unto the death the unholy attempt to impose British methods and British institutions on India.”

“Is it, perhaps, possible that there are two kinds of Civilization-one for home consumption and one for the heathen market?”

“My plea is for banishing the English language as a cultural usurper, as we successfully banished the political rule of the English usurper.”

“If any Englishman dedicated his life to securing the freedom of India, resisting tyranny and serving the land, I should welcome that Englishman as an Indian.”

“A general belief seems to prevail in the colony that the Indians are little better, if at all, than the savages or natives of Africa. Even the children are taught to believe in that manner, with the result that the Indian is being dragged down to the position of a raw Kaffir.”

“Through its imperialist system Britain brought about untold suffering of millions of people. And this is an historical fact. To be able to admit this would increase the respect, you know, which we have for British institutions.”

“The Indian is but a sketch in red crayon of a rudimental manhood. To the problem of his relation to the white race, there is one solution: extermination.”

“If the English educated neglect, as they have done and even now continue, as some do, to be ignorant of their mother tongue, linguistic starvation will abide.”

“It was not through democratic methods that Britain bagged India.”

“Indeed, the Englishman's history of New England commences only when it ceases to be New France.”

“On the first day of school, my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name and said that from thenceforth that was the name we would answer to in school. This was the custom among Africans in those days and was undoubtedly due to the British bias of our education.”

“No one in my family had ever attended school [...] On the first day of school my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name. This was the custom among Africans in those days and was undoubtedly due to the British bias of our education. That day, Miss Mdingane told me that my new name was Nelson. Why this particular name I have no idea.”

“Englishmen must learn to be Brahmins, not banias.”

“I call the Lancashire trade immoral, because it was raised and is sustained on the ruin of millions of India's peasants.”

“Ours is one continual struggle against a degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir whose occupation is hunting, and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with and, then, pass his life in indolence and nakedness.”

“It took Britain half the resources of the planet to achieve its prosperity; how many planets will a country like India require?”

“Personally I crave not for 'independence', which I do not understand, but I long for freedom from the English yoke.”

“India is less manly under the British rule than she ever was before.”

“If we were strong, self-respecting and not susceptible to frightfulness, the foreign rulers would have been powerless for mischief.”

“If Britain were honest, which I dispute, she would then embrace all nations on terms of equality.”

“You got black people in an all-white country and they don't know nothing about themselves.”

“Some of the mission groups that have been responsible for our education have not been part of the government. In fact, they acted contrary to what the government had planned to do.”

“All the territorial possessions of all the political establishments in the earth--including America, of course-- consist of pilferings from other people's wash. No tribe, howsoever insignificant, and no nation, howsoever mighty occupies a foot of land that was not stolen.”

“Last night I had a dream. When I got to Africa, I had one hell of a rumble. I had to beat Tarzan's behind first, for claiming to be King of the Jungle.”

“The Britisher is the top dog and the Indian the underdog in his own country.”

“It would be a sad day for India if it has to inherit the English scale and the English tastes so utterly unsuitable to the Indian environment.”

“No nation being under another nation can accept gifts, and kick at the responsibility attached to those gifts, imposed by the conquering nation.”

“If more Africans had eaten missionaries, the continent would be in better shape.”

“I was always curious. I always wondered why Tarzan is the King of the Jungle in Africa, he was white.”

“That Cabot merely landed on the uninhabitable shore of Labrador gave the English no just title to New England, or to the United States generally, any more than to Patagonia.”

“The English peace is the peace of the grave.”

“A smattering of English is worse than useless; it is an unnecessary tax on our women.”

“It was our love of foreign cloth that ousted the wheel from its position of dignity.”

“No nation keeps another in subjection without herself turning into a subject nation.”

“I think that the farmer displaces the Indian even because he redeems the meadow, and so makes himself stronger and in some respects more natural.”