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ORNAMENTALISM
One very marked feature of the empire was the system of honours, awards and titles given to very select members of indigenous society.
For example, the "Most Excellent Order of the British Empire" (or the "OBE") was instituted in 1917 by King George V to reward contributions to public service.
(Right & above: The Order of the British Empire)
The word "Ornamentalism" was coined by the historian David Cannadine in his book by the same name. He argued that the British people saw class, rank and status as more important in the empire than race.
By the conferring of such "ornaments" on the local subject peoples, the British were able to reward loyalty and deliberately cultivate a large middling group of men whose decorated existence depending upon their continued collaboration with the colonial administration.
Numerous men and women all over the empire were "ornamented" in such manners.
While it may be argued that such recognition was sought after by the local subject people in order to validate and affirm their growing status, the act of honouring was in itself a powerful strategy to entrench colonial rule.
(Sir Song Ong Siang, who was awarded the OBE in 1927 for services rendered in the colony of Singapore)
Read more about Sir Song Ong Siang here.
The case of Sultan Idris Shah,
ruler of Perak, British Malaya
In September 1913, the British government decided to honour the native ruler of the Malayan state of Perak, Sultan Idris Shah, who they regarded as amiable, accomodating and progressive.
In the investiture ceremony, the Sultan would be awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Victoria Order (GCVO), the highest ever conferred upon a Malay Sultan at that time.
The event itself, according to the political scientist and historian Farish Noor, was brilliantly orchestrated and "one of the most elaborate, overwrought and overstated spectacles played out during Malaya's colonial era."
Noor has gone on to articulate, quite persuasively, the deeper significance of the whole episode:
“This incorporation of the native Colonial subject was clearly a forceful one for it required the colonised native subject to be first reduced to an instrumental fiction, to suit the ideological needs of a dominant discourse that was about to reconfigure him. It was, in short, a spectacle which incorporated the native while disabling him at the same time by reducing him to the status of passive recipient. In this way the Anglophile Sultan Idris stood inert, seemingly paralysed in his exotic native splendour, to receive his knighthood from a global power which had descended upon the native land and ‘civilised’ it in turn. As he stood to receive the GCVO, Sultan Idris Shah was undoubtedly aware of the fact that he was receiving an award from a superior political power that he could neither match nor resist.”
(Farish A. Noor, “The Sultan who could not stay put: the extraordinary life of Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor,” in The Other Malaysia: Writings on Malaysia’s Subaltern History)
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HILL STATIONS
By the late Victorian century, European societies in the colonies found themselves vastly outnumbered by the great multitude of people over whom they ruled. It became very overwhelming for them to live in the tropical climates which were so hot and humid and so full of mystery.
(Above: Cross Street, in Singapore; typically crowded, noisy and confounding to the colonial ruler.
(Right: Europeans often ruled the empire from a position of superiority)
For them, many Asian rituals, habits, temperaments and vices remained unknown and difficult to understand. It was always far easier to rule and administer the masses from afar rather than from among them; to remain separate from the natives rather than to “go native.”
(Left: Cameron Highlands, in Malaysia, developed as a hill-station in the 1920s for homesick Britons)
Europeans preserved their prestige by maintaining among themselves a higher standard of living than that enjoyed by other ethnic groups, and by staying aloof from the alien world all around. Separateness was a technique of dominance.
(Right top: The Olde Smokehouse, still a beloved part of Cameron Highlands today.
(Right below: The Tanglin School students and teachers in Cameron Highlands, 1950s)
One result of such increasingly introspective socialising was the growth in the number of hill-stations.
In Malaya, the British often resorted to these places for rest and recreation. Short stays in these stations, located at Fraser’s Hill, Cameron Highlands and Maxwell Hill were sought after for escape from the perceived health hazards of the lowlands.
The tropical climate, it was thought, had a negative effect on the English constitution and would lead to mental and physical disabilities.
Since regular trips back to England were too costly, tours of duty in Malaya were punctuated by retreats to these increasingly popular hill-stations.
In effect, the imperial hill-stations, or "belvederes" were essential features for colonial society to retreat and recuperate from the psychological and emotional effects of ruling such a large, perhaps even burdensome, empire.
(Left: English mems having tea at home in Malaya)
Here is what the historian Margaret Shennan has to say about the salubrious effects of hill stations on the British, in her book Out in the Midday Sun: The British in Malaya 1880 - 1960 - :
"Nostalgia was a powerful sentiment. The hill stations left some visitors ‘feeling caught between two worlds. For many, however, the reminders of England were good for morale, and the sight of familiar features in the Asian landscape filled emotional needs. They loved the English gardens, English houses, English-looking churches. By calling their houses ‘The Cottage’ or ‘The Nest’ or after familiar place, Lomond, Dulverton or Claughton, the British felt themselves nearer home."
BOTANICAL GARDENS
Take a walk through the historic sections of any large city in the Commonwealth, and you will invariably stumble into the enchanting delights of a well-manicured swathe of green grass, fringed by the most luxurious trees, plants, fronds and shrubs.
(The Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, since 1816)
Welcome to yet another endearing imprint of empire - the Botanical Gardens.
(Left: The Singapore Botanic Gardens, since 1859)
These gardens, painstakingly laid out by expert curators shipped out from England, were highly anticipated as the hallmark of a mature and deserving colony.
These gardens have endured till today, virtually all of which remain the pride of post-colonial cities.
(Right: The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, since 1864)
Botanical gardens served numerous purposes, most of which served the empire! They were cool and shady havens, providing respite and refreshment for hot and bothered expatriates.
These gardens, immaculately laid out in English-style, were vivid reminders of "Home." However, the gardens also served as natural repositories, which in turn fuelled the scientific research necessary for colonial governments to exploit local resources for financial benefit.
(Right: The Taiping Lake Gardens, since 1880)
In his book Nature's Colony: Empire, Nation and the Environment in the Singapore Botanic Gardens, historian Timothy Barnard explains how colonial gardens were not only places of repose, but fast became "contested ground in conflicts involving administrators and scientists that reveal shifting understandings of power, science and nature in Singapore and in Britain."
Find out more about how botanical gardens helped shape the British Empire.
Hill Stations
Gardens - "nature's colonies"
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