Colonialism - Book Report/Review Example

The British referred to the land area covered by all these countries as India). The three pieces discussed here-Robert Clive's speech on India to the British House of Commons in 1772, Dadabhai Naoroji's first address to the British House of Commons (1892) and George Orwell's essay Shooting an Elephant (1936) -all refer to colonialism, but deal with the subject in different ways. The differences arise on account of the immediate contexts and audiences for the pieces, as well as the historical setting for each-in other words, the specific point of time in the history of British Imperialism and of India, when these pieces were written.

The differences are those of content itself, language and tone. Clive's and Naoroji's are addresses to the House of Commons, separated by a hundred and twenty years. And Orwell's is an essay written both to entertain as well as to serve as a vehicle for conveying the writer's views on subjects ranging from human nature to Imperialism. The language of each of the pieces bears the stamp of its times, which is something to be expected. The earliest one-Clive's speech-is written with some elaborately long sentences, as per the fashion of the day.

For instance, a sentence like "It (Bengal) not only abounds with the necessaries of life to such a degree, as to furnish a great part of India with its superfluity, but it abounds in very curious and valuable manufactures, sufficient not only for its own use, but for the use of the whole globe"(Clive, 1772) conveys to us that this is not a modern piece, but one written a couple of centuries back, especially if we analyze its grammatical construction. The sentence has five clauses, each one carefully separated by a comma.

Erudite writing and speech was much valued in those times. A formal tone is also established by such language constructions. Clive's speech, we must remember, is part of his defense before the British Parliament, which enquired into the source of his inordinate wealth, after his Indian stint. Clive was the person, who had successfully established British control over India and had become a hero of Imperialism. But after his return, his actions in enriching himself was the subject of scrutiny, and he was viewed as having indulged in corrupt and criminal activities.

That must have been a terrible come down for him, and caused the depression which led him to take his own life two years later, in 1774. Naoroji's speech is also formal, but closer to speeches of today. Naoroji uses the first person singular (I) construction throughout, without reducing the formalness of the speech. The use of the 'I' brings to it a certain degree of warmth and spontaneity, which he must have felt on the occasion. It was the first time that an Asian was addressing the House of Commons as a full-fledged member.

In Clive's speech the second paragraph consists of sentences using 'I' as the subject. However, he does not continue in that vein, shifting to a more distant tone in the third paragraph, which starts with the plural construction "Let us take a view."(Clive, 1772). Orwell's essay, being of an anecdotal and reminiscing nature establishes a closer rapport between the reader and himself, by using the pronoun 'I' throughout. However, it is not a chatty or conversational style, probably because that kind of