La “Misión Civilizadora” como discurso político de justificación al proceso de colonización británica en la India

Abstract

The phenomenon of decolonization aroused a generalized interest in the academic community to comprehend the consequences of the practice of colonialism; studies that attempt to address the several dimensions that were affected by colonial governments have dealt with the economic, social and cultural spheres of this era. The aforementioned studies have been written either in French or in English, and therefore the diffusion and availability of this knowledge in the Spanish language is very limited; hence, the present research aims to analyze if the motivation of a “civilizing mission” can explain the colonization of India by the British Government. For that purpose a historical research approach has been privileged, in which different events from the XVIII century until mid XIX century are analyzed; and that seeks to proof that motivations did not obeyed altruistic reasons such as the “improvement” of the non-European peoples.