Despite the shared conviction among many Britons and Americans that Islam stood in inherent antagonism to Christianity and the sentiment among some that it should be destroyed, Britons in India…

Despite the shared conviction among many Britons and Americans that Islam stood in inherent antagonism to Christianity and the sentiment among some that it should be destroyed, Britons in India – especially those serving the government – remained conflicted about how to proceed. Although some of its servants viewed Muslims as antithetical to Company aims, the EIC preferred to minimalize Christian missionary activity, concerned that resulting antagonisms might disrupt commerce. Detecting this, Buchanan wrote in 1807 to the governor-general of India and alleged that the Company was ‘hostile to the progress of Christianity.’ The Bengal government justified itself to the Court of Directors through allusion to the principles of toleration practiced in England toward minorities, notably Jews and Catholics.

Evidence

Despite the shared conviction among many Britons and Americans that Islam stood in inherent antagonism to Christianity and the sentiment among some that it should be destroyed, Britons in India— especially those serving the government—remained conflicted about how to proceed. Although some of its servants viewed Muslims as antithetical to Company aims, the EIC initially preferred to minimalize Christian missionary activity, concerned that resulting antagonisms might disrupt commerce. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 167 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

Related

• British commercial interest checked missionary zeal in colonial India (similarity 0.89)
• Colonial commerce interests tempered missionary zeal against Islam in India (similarity 0.86)
• Commercial self-interest initially tempered Anglican missionary zeal in British India (similarity 0.86)
• The East India Company suppressed missionary activity to protect commerce with Muslims. (similarity 0.84)
• British government policies directly promoted Christian missionizing in India. (similarity 0.82)
• The view of this inherent, ultimate conflict persisted into the twentieth century (and longer), especially in British India where missionaries from throughout the Anglo-American world labored. The… (similarity 0.81)
• Britons in India, unlike Americans, faced an active (if exaggerated) Muslim threat to their political order, yet both shared convictions regarding Islam’s coercive proselytizing and violent spread. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Commercial self-interest initially tempered Anglican missionary zeal in British India #corroborates (0.85) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 167
• Meanwhile James Owen of the British and Foreign Bible Society contended that government should promote the Bible because ‘the sooner it supersedes the Shaster and the Koran, the sooner will the… #responds-to (0.70)
• Thomas Twining, a senior merchant for the Company in Bengal, argued that either the conversion of India’s people should be left to god or British efforts would be met with unrelenting hostility. #responds-to (0.70)
• Although Britons in India differed from Americans because of the active (if exaggerated) threat to their political order, both shared a conviction regarding two alleged qualities of Islam that… #expands (0.60)
• British colonial ideology consolidated the essentialized idea of Islam as a homogeneous threat #expands (0.60) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 40
• The successful resistance of Muslims to conversion and flourishing Islamic proselytizing seemed twin roadblocks to the cherished goal of Christianizing humanity. Without any apparent sense of… #exemplifies (0.50)