Imperialist statesmen openly asserted that Easterners never showed self-government.
Evidence
Arthur James Balfour, who famously penned the Balfour Declaration recognizing Zionists’ claim for a state in Palestine, put it this way in 1910: … First of all, look at the facts of the case. Western nations as soon as they emerge into history show the beginnings of those capacities for self-government … having merits of their own … You may look through the whole history of the Orientals in what is called, broadly speaking, the East, and you never find traces of self-government. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 361
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- SHARE: A striking archival quote from the Balfour Declaration’s author, useful for anyone writing about the ideology behind the Balfour Declaration and British rule in Palestine.
Related
- Balfour denied Orientals any capacity for self-government in 1910 (similarity 0.92)
- Balfour claimed Orientals never developed capacities for self-government (similarity 0.85)
- Balfour denied Orientals any history of self-government (similarity 0.83)
- British colonial officials claimed Orientals were incapable of self-government (similarity 0.83)
- Balfour’s 1910 speech exemplifies the knowledge-power nexus of British empire (similarity 0.81)
- Balfour framed Oriental civilization as incapable of self-government (similarity 0.80)
- Colonial discourse recasts Western self-government as a capacity Orientals lack (similarity 0.79)
- The 1917 Balfour Declaration committed Britain to a Jewish homeland in Palestine. (similarity 0.78)