Unit 1 Discussion

What does Cannadine understand as “ornamentalism” and how does he apply this concept to the British empire?

Cannadine uses “ornamentalism” to describe how the British viewed their own empire. From the mid-nineteenth century, through Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1896, and ending with Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation in 1952, Britain experienced overseas expansion and imperial domination through which imperial hierarchy expanded across the growing empire. I think the social construct of British hierarchy forms the basis of how Cannadine understands ornamentalism.

A layered social hierarchy allowed the British to bestow titles, awards, peerages, and honors on natives of conquered dominions and colonies and on British governors, viceroys, and wealthy citizens. Canada, for example, held an exaggerated regard for British traditions, had a layered and established social structure, and maintained notions of rank and respectability (29). For their part, the British saw an eagerness for hereditary distinctions and honors as vital to the new settler colonies and dominions. In India, the British took what they considered an established social order based on class, and preserved and promoted a similar hierarchy to their own (41). There, too, honors were a way to promote and encourage traditional hierarchy. That India was generally village living and princely-led fit right in with the established social hierarchy in Britain (45).

It was in India were ornamentalism took on an even more exotic meaning. In pomp and circumstance ceremonies in India far-exceeded British rituals. The image of India as glittering, ceremonial, layered and traditional was protected and projected by the British (51). Cannadine uses descriptions like ostentatiously ornamental, brilliantly displayed, splendor, and pretentious to describe India’s ordered and ornamental regime and ceremonies.

Sort of on a tangent, I would like to mention Britain’s continued ornamentalism in the form of modern rituals. The wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William was broadcast around the globe, and I can hardly think of another ceremony more ornamented than their wedding. The pomp, pageantry, uniforms, etc. all carry forth Britain’s ornamentalism even though the British Empire as it once was is no longer in existence. Kate and William’s son, George, was born on the same day as my son (July 22, 2013). When they were born, I read where if you had a child born on the same day in England the royal couple sent silver pennies to your family. I wanted a penny so badly even though I live in Texas!