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"Ash Wednesday" is the first long poem written by T. S. Eliot after his 1927 conversion to Anglicanism. Published in 1930, this poem deals with the struggle that ensues when one who has lacked faith in the past strives to move towards God.
Sometimes referred to as Eliot's "conversion poem", Ash-Wednesday, with a base of Dante's Purgatorio, is richly but ambiguously allusive and deals with the aspiration to move from spiritual barrenness to hope for human salvation. The style is different from his poetry which predates his conversion. Ash-Wednesday and the poems that followed had a more casual, melodic, and contemplative method.
Ash Wednesday verse 1. Poetry by TS Eliot, art by Mary Boyd-Ellis, music by Roy E. Howard.
Ch. 14 The Height of Imperialism 1800-1914
Section 3 British Rule in India
Colonial Rule
Benefits of British Rule
Costs of British Rule
After 1858, Parliament set up a system of colonial rule in India called the British Raj. A British viceroy in India governed in the name of the queen, and British officials held the top positions in the civil service and army. Indians filled most other jobs. With their cooperation, the British made India the “brightest jewel” in the crown of their empire.
British policies were designed to incorporate India into the overall British economy. At the same time, British officials felt they were helping India to modernize. In their terms, modernizing meant adopting not only Western technology but also Western culture.
Vocabulary Builder
overall—(oh vur awl) adj. total
An Unequal Partnership
Britain saw India both as a market and as a source of raw materials. To this end, the British built roads and an impressive railroad network. Improved transportation let the British sell their factory-made goods across the subcontinent and carry Indian cotton, jute (a long, soft, shiny vegetable fibre that can be spun into coarse, strong threads), and coal to coastal ports for transport to factories in England. New methods of communication, such as the telegraph, also gave Britain better control of India. After the Suez Canal opened in 1869, British trade with India soared. But it remained an unequal partnership, favoring the British. The British flooded India with inexpensive, machine-made textiles, ruining India’s once-prosperous hand-weaving industry.
Britain also transformed Indian agriculture. It encouraged nomadic herders to settle into farming and pushed farmers to grow cash crops, such as cotton and jute, that could be sold on the world market. Clearing new farmlands led to massive deforestation, or cutting of trees.
Population Growth and Famine
The British introduced medical improvements and new farming methods. Better health care and increased food production led to rapid population growth. The rising numbers, however, put a strain on the food supply, especially as farmland was turned over to growing cash crops instead of food. In the late 1800s, terrible famines swept India.
On the positive side, British rule brought some degree of peace and order to the countryside. The British revised the legal system to promote justice for Indians regardless of class or caste. Railroads helped Indians move around the country, while the telegraph and postal system improved communication. Greater contact helped bridge regional differences and develop a sense of national unity.
The upper classes, especially, benefited from some British policies. They sent their sons to British schools, where they were trained for posts in the civil service and military. Indian landowners and princes, who still ruled their own territories, grew rich from exporting cash crops.
Checkpoint
How did British colonial rule affect Indian agriculture?
Reading Check
Examining
How was British rule degrading to Indians?
An Indian Nationalist Movement
During the years of British rule, a class of Western-educated Indians emerged. In the view of Macaulay and others, this elite class would bolster British power. As it turned out, exposure to European ideas had the opposite effect. By the late 1800s, Western-educated Indians were spearheading a nationalist movement. Schooled in Western ideals such as democracy and equality, they dreamed of ending imperial rule.
Indian National Congress
In 1885, nationalist leaders organized the Indian National Congress, which became known as the Congress party. Its members believed in peaceful protest to gain their ends. They called for greater democracy, which they felt would bring more power to Indians like themselves. The Indian National Congress looked forward to eventual self-rule, but supported Western-style modernization.
Muslim League
At first, Muslims and Hindus worked together for self-rule. In time, however, Muslims grew to resent Hindu domination of the Congress party. They also worried that a Hindu-run government would oppress Muslims. In 1906, Muslims formed the Muslim League to pursue their own goals. Soon, they were talking of a separate Muslim state.
Checkpoint
How are the origins of Indian nationalism linked to British rule?
Reading Check
Summarizing
What were the two goals of Mohandas Gandhi?
Colonial Indian Culture
Reading Check
Comparing
How did the nationalist movement parallel cultural developments in India?
Section 4 Nation Building in Latin America
Nationalist Revolts
Prelude to Revolution
Reading Check
Describing
How did Napoleon's wars affect Latin America?
Revolt in Mexico
Revolts in South America
Reading Check
Evaluating
How did the French Revolution affect Mexico?
Difficulties of Nation Building
Rule of the Caudillos
A New Imperialism
Persistent Inequality
Reading Check
Describing
What were some of the difficulties faced by the new Latin American republics?
The United States in Latin America
Revolution in Mexico
Reading Check
Describing
What was the United States' role as a colonial power?
Economic Change in Latin America
Reading Check
Evaluating
What caused the growth of a middle class in Latin America?
Chapter 15 East Asia Under Challenge 1800-1914
Fascinating facts about the Forbidden City.
Timeline of China's dynasties.
See treasures from the Ming dynasty.
Timeline of Chinese dynasties.
Causes of Decline
Reading Check
Examining
What factors led to the decline of the Qing dynasty?
The Opium War
Reading Check
Summarizing
What did the British do to adjust their trade imbalance with China?
The Tai Ping Rebellion
Reading Check
Summarizing
What social reforms did the Tai Ping Rebellion demand?
Efforts at Reform
Reading Check
Explaining
What was China's policy of "self-strengthening?"?
The Advance of Imperialism
Mounting Pressures
Internal Crisis
Reading Check
Identifying
What countries claimed Chinese lands between 1880 and 1900?1880 and 1900? Cf. Browse a photo archive of China during the 1890s.
Opening the Door to China
Reading Check
Analyzing
Why did the United States want an Open Door policy in China?
The Boxer Rebellion
Explaining
How did the Boxers get their name?
The Fall of the Qing
The Rise of Sun Yat-sen
The Revolution of 1911
Reading Check
Evaluating
What changes did the Revolution of 1911 actually produce in China?
An Era of Civil War
Reading Check
Explaining
Why were there rebellions in China after General Yuan Shigai became president?
Chinese Society in Transition
Reading Check
Evaluating
How did the arrival of Westerners affect China?
China's Changing Culture
Reading Check
Describing
What effects did Western culture have on China?
Section 3 Rise of Modern Japan
Take a tour of the Japanese city of Edo
Interactive tour of Osaka Castle
Zoom in on a painting of the siege of the castle
Find out more about Hideyoshi.
Timeline of Japanese history
This is the trailer for what is acclaimed as one of the greatest films ever made, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. Warning: Language, do not view if you are offended by a bit more than PG-13 language.
Kurosawa's film was the inspiration for a classic Western: "The Magnificent 7" (1960), 3:10.
Film trailer for this classic Western starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Charles Bronson, Horst Buchholz, Brad Dexter and Eli Wallach.
Reading Check
Identifying
What benefits did the Treaty of Kanagawa grant the United States?
Resistance to the New Order
Reading Check
Identifying
What events led to the collapse of the shogunate system in Japan?
The Meiji Restoration
Transformation of Japanese Politics
Meiji Economics
Building a Modern Social Structure
Daily Life and Women's Rights
Reading Check
Explaining
How was Japan's government structured under the Meiji constitution?
Joining the Imperialist Nations
Beginnings of Expansion
War with Russia
U.S. Relations
Reading Check
Explaining
Why did Japan turn itself into an imperialist power?
Culture in an Era of Transition
Reading Check
Describing
What effect did Japanese culture have on other nations?
Empire Builders
Lord Frederick Lugard, a British empire builder, tried to justify imperialism in Africa with these words:
“There are some who say we have no right to Africa at all, that ‘it belongs to the natives.’ I hold that our right is the necessity that is upon us to provide for our ever-growing population—either by opening new fields for emigration, or by providing work and employment . . . and to stimulate trade by finding new markets.”
Note Taking
Reading Skill: Recognize Multiple Causes As you read the section, make a chart like the one below showing the multiple causes of imperialism in the 1800s.
In 1871, Indian nationalist Dadabhai Naoroji (dah dah by now roh jee) criticized British rule in India:
“[Indians] call the British system ‘Sakar ki Churi’ (sa kur kee choo ree), the knife of sugar. That is to say, there is no oppression, it is all smooth and sweet, but it is the knife notwithstanding.”
Learn
Focus Question
How did Britain gradually extend its control over most of India, despite opposition?
Ch. 14 Resources
Take a virtual tour of the Forbidden City.
Fascinating facts about the Forbidden City.
Timeline of China's dynasties.
Timeline of Chinese dynasties.
Interactive time line of 20th century China
Take a tour of the Japanese city of Edo
Interactive tour of Osaka Castle
Zoom in on a painting of the siege of the castle
Find out more about Hideyoshi.
Timeline of Japanese history
The Clash, performing their song, "The Magnificent Seven," live on the Tom Synder Show 1981; this is the first public performance of the song, 5:00.
"The Magnificent Seven" is a song and single by the English punk rock band The Clash. It was the third single from their fourth album Sandinista!. It reached number 34 on the UK singles chart.
The song was inspired by raps by old school hip hop acts from New York City, like the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five. Rap was still a new and emerging music genre at the time and the band, especially Mick Jones, was very impressed with it, so much so that Jones took to carrying a boombox around and got the nickname 'Whack Attack'. The song was recorded in April 1980 at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, built around a bass loop played by Norman Watt-Roy of the Blockheads. Joe Strummer wrote the words on the spot, a technique that was also used to create Sandinista!'s other rap track, "Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice)". "The Magnificent Seven" represents the first attempt by a rock band to write and perform original rap music, and one of the earliest examples of hip hop records with political and social content. It is the first major white rap record, predating the recording of Blondie's "Rapture" by six months.
The song is viewed as a critique of excessive consumption which includes a nod to the inexpensive goods produced in Asia.
Thematically, "The Magnificent Seven" is somewhat similar to the punkier "Career Opportunities", in that it takes the drudgery of the working life as its starting point. Unlike "Career Opportunities", however, in stream of consciousness fashion it also deals with consumerism, popular media, historical figures, and addresses these subjects with great exuberance and humor. The first verses of "The Magnificent Seven" follow a nameless worker (narrated in the second person) as he wakes up and goes to work, not for personal advancement but to buy his girlfriend consumer goods:
Working for a rise to better my station / Take my baby to sophistication / She's seen the ads, she thinks it's nice / Better work hard, I seen the price
The nameless worker then goes off for a cheeseburger lunch-break, and the lyrics devolve into a blur of fleeting images from television, movies and advertising:
Italian mobster shoots a lobster / Seafood restaurant gets out of hand / A car in the fridge or a fridge in the car? / Like cowboys do in TV land!
Finally, the song takes historical figures, including Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Richard Nixon and Socrates, and places them in modern America, before asking sarcastically whether "Plato the Greek" or Rin Tin Tin is more famous to the masses.
An exclaimed "newsflash" near the end of the song, "Vacuum Cleaner Sucks Up Budgie!", was in fact a headline in the News of the World newspaper at the time of the song's mixing in England, according to Joe Strummer.
Gimme Honda, Gimme Sony
So cheap and real phony
Hong Kong dollars and Indian cents
English pounds and Eskimo pence. . . .
Karlo Marx and Friedrich Engels
Came to the checkout at the 7-11
Marx was skint - but he had sense
Engels lent him the necessary pence
What have we got? Yeh-o, magnificence!!
Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi
Went to the park to check on the game
But they was murdered by the other team
Who went on to win 50-nil
You can be true, you can be false
You be given the same reward
Socrates and Milhous Nixon
Both went the same way - through the kitchen
Plato the Greek or Rin Tin Tin
Who's more famous to the billion millions?
News Flash: Vacuum Cleaner Sucks Up Budgie
Lyrics reproduced here for educational purposes only; copyright remains in the hands of the copyright holder.
HW email to gmsmith@shanahan.org
1. p. 434, Questions, #4-6, 8.
