British Scholar: Hyam - "Empire and Sexuality"

Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience
Ronald Hyam, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1991), 234 pages

The vital role played by sex in the building of the British Empire is a topic that Ronald Hyam believes is
often ignored and, when scrutinized, greatly misunderstood. The purpose of the book is to
systematically analyze the use of sex as a key component in the everyday lives of Britons engaged in
empire-building. With Hyam’s book, an archive-based history of the position of sex within the British
Empire has been made available.

Hyam begins his seminal work by explaining that sexual needs can be an imperative component of life
for many individuals and they will, in turn, go to extraordinary lengths to satisfy them, even to the point
of putting their careers on the line. Moreover, he argues that the people who made the most
significant contributions to empire were either asexual or incompetent in their love lives (including
Cecil Rhodes and Robert Baden-Powell in the former category and Frederick Lugard and George
Goldie in the latter). Hyam states that the lonely life of a British colonial officer made seeking comfort
with native women a necessity if mental problems were to be avoided. Additionally, sexual interaction
with native women was a means to increase knowledge of indigenous affairs. The compilation of
affective knowledge was promoted by the East India Company during the late 18th century as a way
to gain insight into Indian affairs. Its administrators believed that the taking of Indian wives by British
civil servants would increase the numbers of Anglo-Indians available for service in the army. Beyond
the taking of indigenous wives, which soon fell into disrepute among senior colonial administrators,
Hyam explains that the British created regimental brothels filled with native girls to aid the mental well-
being of colonial armies. In the words of Viceroy Elgin the absence of prostitutes would mean that
colonial society would be faced with “even more deplorable evils” than currently existed. For Hyam,
sex was a necessary and natural component of the British Empire.

Hyam’s mission in his book is to bring sex back in to any discussion of the major factors involved in
the proper functioning of empire. Overall, the book is cogently argued and extremely well-written.
Although sex remains a taboo subject for many people to discuss, including imperial historians, Hyam
brilliantly shows that sexuality played a critical role in the functioning of the empire. He also proves
through archival sources and private journals that Britons involved in empire did not run from sexuality
but embraced it as an integral part of life (even after the Purity Movement of the 1880s). The
questionability of the work does not lie with the sources or the style of presentation, both of which are
excellent, but with the overzealousness that defines Hyam’s approach to the subject. Hyam obviously
feels quite strongly about the importance of sex to the British Empire but his wholesale dismissal of
feminists as “hysterical radicals” whose work offers nothing to historians is rather short-sighted.
Despite Hyam’s assertions to the contrary, it remains difficult to believe that feminist scholars would
completely dismiss sex as irrelevant to the sustainability of empire. However, extreme passion in an
academic is a rare trait indeed, and if given the choice I would hope that more intellectuals could write
with the same sense of devotion to their subject.