Author Description

This is a study of the emergence of Utilitarianism as a new political language in Britain in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It describes the relationship between this language, defined by Jeremy Bentham and James Mill, and the complexities of British Imperial experience in India at the time. Majeed concentrates on the role which the formulation of aesthetic and linguistic attitudes played as components of British views on India. These attitudes were related to the definition of cultural identities, with which both Utilitarianism and the conservatism of the time were preoccupied. This was also a major preoccupation in the work of Robert Southey and Thomas Moore, which has generally been neglected and misunderstood. By placing their work in the context of the attack by Utilitarianism on the conservatism of this period and its influence on British policy in India, the complexity of the issues which were dealt with in this body of literature is revealed.