Editing Edmund Burke (section)

==India and the impeachment of Warren Hastings==
{{main|Impeachment of Warren Hastings}}
For years, Burke pursued impeachment efforts against [[Warren Hastings]], formerly Governor-General of Bengal, that resulted in the trial during 1786. His interaction with the British dominion of India began well before Hastings' impeachment trial. For two decades prior to the impeachment, Parliament had dealt with the Indian issue. This trial was the pinnacle of years of unrest and deliberation.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Siraj |last=Ahmed |title=The Theater of the Civilized Self: Edmund Burke and the East India Trials |journal=[[Representations]] |volume=78 |date=2002 |page=30 |doi=10.1525/rep.2002.78.1.28}}</ref> In 1781, Burke was first able to delve into the issues surrounding the [[East India Company]] when he was appointed Chairman of the Commons Select Committee on East Indian Affairs—from that point until the end of the trial, India was Burke's primary concern. This committee was charged "to investigate alleged injustices in Bengal, the war with Hyder Ali, and other Indian difficulties".<ref>Russell Kirk, ''Edmund Burke: A Genius Reconsidered'' (1988), 2.</ref> While Burke and the committee focused their attention on these matters, a second secret committee was formed to assess the same issues. Both committee reports were written by Burke. Among other purposes, the reports conveyed to the [[Maharaja|Indian princes]] that Britain would not wage war on them, along with demanding that the East India Company should recall Hastings. This was Burke's first call for substantive change regarding imperial practices. When addressing the whole House of Commons regarding the committee report, Burke described the Indian issue as one that "began 'in commerce' but 'ended in empire'".<ref>Elizabeth D. Samet, "A Prosecutor and a Gentleman: Edmund Burke's Idiom of Impeachment", ''[[ELH]]'' 68, no. 2 (2001): 402.</ref>

On 28 February 1785, Burke delivered a now-famous speech, ''The [[Nabob of Arcot]]'s Debts'', wherein he condemned the damage to India by the East India Company. In the province of the [[Carnatic region|Carnatic]], the Indians had constructed a system of reservoirs to make the soil fertile in a naturally dry region, and centred their society on the husbandry of water:
<blockquote>These are the monuments of real kings, who were the fathers of their people; testators to a posterity which they embraced as their own. These are the grand sepulchres built by ambition; but by the ambition of an insatiable benevolence, which, not contented with reigning in the dispensation of happiness during the contracted term of human life, had strained, with all the reachings and graspings of a vivacious mind, to extend the dominion of their bounty beyond the limits of nature, and to perpetuate themselves through generations of generations, the guardians, the protectors, the nourishers of mankind.<ref>McCue, p. 155.</ref></blockquote>

Burke claimed that the [[Company rule in India|advent of East India Company domination in India]] had eroded much that was good in these traditions and that as a consequence of this and the lack of new customs to replace them the Indian populace under Company rule was needlessly suffering. He set about establishing a set of imperial expectations, whose moral foundation would in his opinion warrant an overseas empire.<ref>McCue, p. 156.</ref>

On 4 April 1786, Burke presented the House of Commons with the ''Article of Charge of [[High Crimes and Misdemeanors]]'' against Hastings. The [[Impeachment in the United Kingdom|impeachment]] in Westminster Hall which did not begin until 14 February 1788 would be the "first major public discursive event of its kind in England",<ref name="Mukherjee2010"/>{{rp|589}} bringing the morality of [[imperialism]] to the forefront of public perception. Burke was already known for his eloquent rhetorical skills and his involvement in the trial only enhanced its popularity and significance.<ref name="Mukherjee2010"/>{{rp|590}} Burke's indictment, fuelled by emotional indignation, branded Hastings a "captain-general of iniquity" who never dined without "creating a famine", whose heart was "gangrened to the core" and who resembled both a "spider of Hell" and a "ravenous vulture devouring the carcasses of the dead".<ref>Piers Brendon, ''The Decline and Fall of the British Empire: 1781–1998'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 2007), p. 35. {{ISBN|978-0-224-06222-0}}</ref> The House of Commons eventually [[Impeachment of Warren Hastings|impeached Hastings]], but subsequently the [[House of Lords]] acquitted him of all charges.<ref name="Mukherjee2010">{{cite journal|last=Mukherjee|first=Mithi|title=Justice, War, and the Imperium: India and Britain in Edmund Burke's Prosecutorial Speeches in the Impeachment Trial of Warren Hastings|journal=Law and History Review|volume=23|issue=3|year=2010|pages=589–630|issn=0738-2480|doi=10.1017/S0738248000000584|url=http://125.22.40.134:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1922/1/Justice_War_and_the_Imperium_India_and_B.pdf|jstor=30042899|s2cid=145641990|access-date=22 May 2020|archive-date=28 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128161607/http://125.22.40.134:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1922/1/Justice_War_and_the_Imperium_India_and_B.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Brian Smith, "Edmund Burke, the Warren Hastings trial, and the moral dimension of corruption." ''Polity'' 40.1 (2008): 70–94 [https://www.brianandrewsmith.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/2008-Polity-Burke-Hastings-and-Corruption.pdf online].</ref>