臺灣東亞文明研究學刊 - 東亞經典與文化研究計畫 - 國立臺灣大學

164 Taiwan Journal of East Asian Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Iss. 8), Dec., 2007
extinguish industry or repress occasional exertion, may be taken as a characteristic
of the whole people." 32
The jeremiads of James Mill and Mountstuart Elphinstone on the topic of
Hindu character resonated before the appearance of the heroic male culture driven
by Macaulay, Bentinck, and, of course, Kipling. But already the hosannas to Indian
culture had subsided: the great fashioners of costly luxuries would no longer escape
censure. This was not a tolerant society, since everyone now knew that the widow
of a Brahmin must perish on his funeral pyre. For the time being, none spoke of
splitting Hinduism off from Islam: Indian society could be individualized to a
certain degree, as sexual right replaced national character. It was now the femininity
and the very lives of Hindu women that needed to be protected. But a certain
continuity could not be extinguished: the Hindu remained the other of British
society, a partner with whom consummation would forever be postponed, a partner
whose commercial cunning could infect, a partner whose love of luxury and of a
life of ease threatened the people of Britain. ♦
32 Ibid., pp. 370-371.
♦ 責 任峌 編 輯杧 : 林 沛 熙庰 。
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