Early American Views on India
Early Indian Immigrants to North America:
After the Independence of America in 1776, it would take several years until 1794, for the commercial treaty with Britain to be finalized. The American economy was in shambles after the war and George Washington was desperate to trade with India. By 1798, Elias Hasket of Salem, MA had secured several ships and was actively trading with India. The trade was only with the East India Company. The Americans had several disadvantages in trading in India as they were unfamiliar with the culture and the inland trading routes. To address this, the US Government finally established a Consular Office in 1792. After the conclusion of the commercial treaty with Britain, the US Consular Officer would reach India, but the reception was lukewarm, and Britain never formally recognized the American Consular Office in India. The American trade continued to grow slowly and by 1807 the US trade with India far exceeded that of all the nations in Europe. The Americans were also trading via the established ports of other nations such as France, the Dutch, and Denmark in India.
Napoleon emerged as the major force in Europe in the early 19th century and 1896 he announced that France would block any ship coming from Britain or its colonies. This had a major impact on US trade with India and by 1815 the trade had declined significantly.
Commerce alone was not the main reason for the American’s interest in India and missionary work, preaching the gospel of God to liberate the lost souls of India to convert them to Christianity was also part of the agenda. Some American missionaries were active in India before the American Civil War. In 1812 the first American missionary came and lived in Calcutta with his family. This trend continued in Mumbai, Lahore, Assam, Myanmar, and Punjab and this eventually led to the conversion of thousands of people to Christianity.
By 1860, the US population had exceeded 30 million owing to increased immigration and fertility rates and the trade-focused internally rather than externally. Everything changed with the outbreak of the Civil War in the 1860s. The Civil war itself was fought predominantly by White Anglo-Saxons on either side who had their differences in terms of how they viewed slavery, but at the same time, they were united in their religion and their belief in the superiority of the White Anglo -Saxons.
William Henry Seward the U.S. Secretary of State right after the Civil War had the typical Anglo-Saxon mindset – Those who are not white are less civilized and the only way they can be liberated is through proselytization. He was aware that the Hindus came from one of the oldest civilizations but at the same time, they were not capable of self-governance. This attitude would prevail among most of the American leaders and would be the cornerstone of the US attitude towards India for several decades.
While the Americans were happy to be free from Britain, the racial and cultural bond with Britain was still present and when the US President Ulysses Grant visited India, he exulted at the bond between the members of the Anglo-Saxon races who happened to be on different continents.
Theodore Roosevelt was greatly influenced by Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The White Man’s Burden”. The essential theme of the poem was that there is an explicit and implicit social order in the world with the White Man at the top. Being at the top does come with its responsibilities which means liberating the uncivilized brown and black-skinned natives through the western ideals and Christianity.
