Colonial rule was framed as a moral civilizing improvement despite being undemocratic.

Evidence

The historical process of constructing a humane secular society, it is said, has aimed at eliminating cruelties. Thus it has often been claimed that European rule in colonial countries, although not itself democratic, brought about moral improvements in behavior—that is, the abandonment of practices that offend against the human. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 530

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

Related

• Colonial rule was justified as abolishing cruel indigenous practices (similarity 0.93)
• Colonial studies centers reason and Enlightenment principles as foundations of rule. (similarity 0.81)
• Colonial power operates by strategically separating law from morality. (similarity 0.81)
• Colonial schools selectively reinforced African morality while replacing it where it clashed (similarity 0.80)
• French colonial schooling classified African morality as barbaric and replaced offending local norms (similarity 0.80)
• Colonial-era elites adopted European civilizational decline discourse to claim independence (similarity 0.79)
• French colonial policy professed gradualism to justify preserving rather than destroying African customs (similarity 0.78)
• Colonial policy persisted despite clear evidence of its failure (similarity 0.78)