SOURCE: "The Literary Treatment of Indian Themes in the Works of Edward Carpenter," in The Durham University Journal, Vol. LXXX, No. 1, December, 1987, pp. 77-81.

In the following essay, Rahman makes use of From Adam's Peak to Elephanta to present Carpenter's views on Western imperialism.

D.K. Barua and Tsuzuki have both called Edward Carpenter an anti-imperialist. The latter has, however, confined himself to Carpenter's stand against the Boer War but the former has also dealt with his views on India at some length.¹ He has brought out that Carpenter understood the aspirations of the Indian people and hinted at the possibility of British withdrawal from the country. 'To hold such views in the 1890s, when the enthusiasm for the Empire was at its highest pitch, was highly provocative',² of course, and Carpenter was dismissed as a crank or regarded as an enemy of the 'Raj'. Newspapers were quick...