Tuesday, February 20, 2018

The Political Bandits Assailing the Saviour of India

Only two years after talk of impeachment began and a year after the trial’s opening statements, popular support decisively switched from Burke to the Company. Exemplifying the switch of opinion, James Gillray, one of the most famous political cartoonist of the age, drew a cartoon in favor of Hastings and the Company titled The Political Bandits Assailing the Saviour of India. In the cartoon Hastings rides a camel, that more closely resembles a majestic war horse. Hastings is dressed in flowing Indian garbs.73 Hastings and his steed look down in contempt at Burke, caricatured, who is firing a musket, point-blank with bullets labeled “Charges”, at Hastings’s golden “Shield of Honor”. Behind Hastings, a caricatured Lord North stabs Hastings in the back while his comrade, possibly Pitt or Burgoyne, steals a bag labeled Indian tax revenue. Hastings holds a rolled parchment titled “Territory Acquired by Hastings”. 
Richard Newman এর The Dangers of Corporate Champions: The East India Company's Devastating Impact on Britain থেকে

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