The Competition Wallah

Trevelyan's fascinating and often controversial 'letters' combine recognition of cultural relativity, the dangers of racial prejudice, and an affirmation of the Liberal imperialist's duty to govern for the 'benefit of the inhabitants of India', spreading justice, education and Christianity in the years following the conflict of 1857–1859.

Sir George Otto Trevelyan's Competition Wallah was published in 1864 after previous serialisation in Macmillan's Magazine. Consisting of a series of letters from Henry Broughton, an imaginary young civil servant fresh from Cambridge, to a friend, the work was well-received in Britain and India, although it raised controversy in the Anglo-Indian community for its exposure of the attitudes of the British settlers to the Indian people in the wake of the Mutiny of 1857–1859. Extraordinary and courageous for its time, this book examines society in India, exploring the gulf of misunderstanding and racial prejudice, and attempting to bridge the gap between the early nineteenth-century reformist attitude and the defensive militarist imperialism of the latter half of the century. It is also notable for containing the first full publication in the west of the highly influential 'Minute on Education' of 1835 by Trevelyan's uncle, Thomas Babington Macaulay.