THE RHETORIC OF ENGLISH INDIA The Sodhees have in general an evil reputation for immorality, intoxication, and infanticide, the latter being justified by them on the ground that it is impossible to marry their female children into ordinary Sikh families. . . . The subject of the photograph resides at Lahore. He has lost an eye, which is covered by an ornament pendant from his turban; and it is a strange peculiarity of this person, that he dresses himself on all occasions in female apparel. From The people of India (1868-75) THE RHETORIC OF ENGLISH INDIA Sara Suleri THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS Chicago and London The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 1992 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 1992 Paperback edition 1992 Printed in the United States of America 00 99 98 97 96 5 4 3 ISBN (paperback): 0-226-77983-1 Published with the assistance of the Frederick W. Hilles Publications Fund of Yale University. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Suleri, Sara. The rhetoric of English India / Sara Suleri. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Indic literature (English)-History and criticism. 2. Anglo Indian literature-History and criticism. 3. English literature Indic influences. 4. English language-India-Rhetoric. 5. Imperialism in literature. 6. British-India-History. 7. Colonies in literature. 8. India in literature. I. Title. PR9484.3.S8S 1992 820.9'32S4-dc20 91-13014 CIP Frontispiece courtesy Field Museum of Natural History, Neg. # A1116S4, Chicago. e The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. For my father Contents Acknowledgments ix 1. The Rhetoric of English India 1 2. Edmund Burke and the Indian Sublime 24 3. Reading the Trial of Warren Hastings 49 4. The Feminine Picturesque 75 5. The Adolescence of Kim 111 6. Forster's Imperial Erotic 132 7. Naipaul's Arrival 149 8. Salman Rushdie: Embodiments of Blasphemy, Censorships of Shame 174 Notes 207 Index 221 Acknowledgments THIS BOOK HAS RECEIVED MORE SUPPORT THAN I FEAR IT MAY DESERVE. My FIRST thanks I must proffer to my students, whose energies have kept me buoyant through many a long hour of writing. While it would be impossible to list the friends and colleagues at Yale who have wittingly or unwittingly come to my intellectual rescue, lowe particular gratitude to timely comments on my writing by Michael Holquist, Patricia Meyer Spacks, Christopher Miller, David Bromwich, Akeel Bilgrami, and Peter Brooks. The editorial collective of the Yale Journal of Criticism deserves equal thanks for its enabling interest in the work of each of its editors. Furthermore, this work was both impelled and impeded by the constant encouragement of such friends as Dale Lasden, Nuzhat Ahmad, Jamie MacGuire, and Anita Sokolsky. My thanks to them. I am grateful to Yale University for providing me with a Morse Fel lowship to conduct research on this project, and to the Griswold grant that allowed me to travel to India and Pakistan. My research in both countries was greatly aided by Kum Kum Sangari, Sheherezade Alam, and Zarene Shafi. Earlier segments of the chapters on V. S. Naipaul and Salman Rushdie have appeared in the Yale Journal of Criticism and the Yale Review: both journals must be thanked for their permission to reprint. The brief afterword to chapter 8 (p. 218, note 19) first appeared in Transition 51 (1991). Finally, I am happy to acknowledge the imaginative patience of my edi tor, Alan Thomas, and his remarkable capacity to justify to me the expansive possibility of deadlines. His professional commitment to my writing has been nicely tempered by my siblings' somewhat impatient refrain, "Get it done." My one regret is that I did not "get it done" before Nuzhat Suleri could have taken pleasure in the text's reality. If on this earth, however, she would be the first to agree that my ultimate thanks should go to Fawzia Mus tafa, whose astonishing friendship provides the periods for each sentence I may write.