“Ireland, India And Empire”: A Conversation Between William Dalrymple And Jane Ohlmeyer

🌠"I spent six months studying the wills of members of the East India Company. Everyone was told to make a will when they were in India. People wrote incredibly honest accounts of their lives,” William Dalrymple recalled. “Eventually, I realised that one in three Englishmen was leaving all his goods to an Indian or an Anglo-Indian woman. This meant that strategic marriage alliances were successfully incorporated to expand the Empire,” he said. Dalrymple, a renowned Scottish historian, was speaking at an event organised on November 25, by the Irish Embassy and the British High Commission jointly. He was in conversation with Irish historian Jane Ohlmeyer on the topic “Ireland, India and Empire.” The lively session between the two stalwarts was moderated by Indian historian Swapna Liddle.

♈In their discussions on the complex historical relations between the Empire, Ireland and India, Dalrymple and Ohlmeyer highlighted the significance of marriage alliances in understanding the history of racism. Both the historians explained how racism could be traced in the Empire’s history by looking at the records of inter-racial marriages, which bred hybridity. Ohlmeyer also pointed out how women were key figures in this history. “The British saw them as ‘civilisers’ who would civilise the barbarous Irish.”

💖Through the course of the conversation, Ohlmeyer also mentioned how she came to write about Ireland’s relationship to the Empire. She stated that her latest book “Making Empire: Ireland, Imperialism, and the Early Modern World”— which also had its Delhi launch at the event— materialised at the height of people-led movements like “Statues Must Fall” and “Black Lives Matter.” Her motivation behind writing this book was to interrogate how Ireland was made by the Empire. Ohlmeyer claims that the Irish have historically been both victims as well as active perpetrators of imperialism. “To understand the Empire today, it is important to go back to its birth. I look at Empire through the prism of Ireland,” she said.

🐟According to her, the language of racism that was born in the Irish context was taken by the Empire across the world. She pointed out that the most important part of Ireland’s relation to the Empire was its human capital— not just land, but also labour. “The Irish served as indentured labour in the Caribbean, while the whole economy of Ireland was restructured to feed the Empire,” Ohlmeyer stated.

🅷At the event—held at The Leela Palace, New Delhi— the Ambassador of Ireland, Kevin Kelly spoke about the complexity of India and Ireland’s relationship. He emphasized the need to understand it beyond a mere imperial framework, owing to the fact that the Irish people both resisted as well as contributed to the British Raj (Empire). The British High Commissioner, Lindy Cameron addressed the importance of looking backwards to chart a way forward, in terms of the relations between India and UK as well as UK and Ireland. She acknowledged that the event with the historians was organised with this agenda in mind.

✱The enthralling conversation between the two historians ended with Ohlmeyer’s opinion that there is a need to come to terms with the legacy of the Empire. She said that many steps were being taken towards this, as academics proceed towards looking at materials that were plundered by the Empire, such as manuscripts and texts. To this, Liddle added that Indian scholars and historians must also be a part of the process of examining these plundered objects and contributing to it with their expertise. Ohlmeyer agreed and stated, “History in the wrong hands can be a very dangerous political weapon. But in the right hands, it can lead towards understanding and healing.”