“The Foreign Element”: Newcomers and the Rhetoric of Race, Nation, and Empire in “Oxbridge” Undergraduate Culture, 1850–1920

Abstract

The Oxford and Cambridge man has long inspired fascination both in Great Britain and abroad. Many have, in fact, acquired an illusory understanding of these enigmatic university students through various caricatures and representations created in literature and film. Yet, despite an apparent level of popular interest, relatively few attempts have been made to understand the culture of male undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge in a systematic and scholarly way. With the exception of Sheldon Rothblatt's work on student life in the early nineteenth century, J. A. Mangan's skillful exploration of the cult of athleticism's impact on the ancient universities, and some select studies of individual student societies and organizations, we know very little about the ways in which undergraduates lived their lives, saw their worlds, and viewed those who were traditionally excluded from these milieus. We know even less perhaps, despite the existence of Richard Symonds's examination of the relationship between Oxford and empire, about the ways “Oxbridge” undergraduates saw themselves as Britons and leaders of an imperial and “superior” English race. The conflation of English and British is intentional here. Applying English attributes to Britons did not generally present many problems for university men, even those from Scottish, Welsh, and Anglo-Irish backgrounds. “Britishness” and “Englishness” were often applied interchangeably by Oxford and Cambridge undergraduates although, as others have observed, uses of the term “English” tended most often to refer to the admired attributes or “personal” and “communal” traits of Britons, particularly those among the elite.

Why place matters: imaginative geography and international student mobility

“…Equally there was a clear understanding among the participants of the ‘best’ places to study in the UK. Cambridge and Oxford, in particular, are considered by students as being elite institutions and very clear centres of power and cultural heritage (Deslandes ). Sachin, an Indian student, noted that:

in India … when you say ‘British Universities’ there are two main categories.

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The King of Sports: Polo in late Victorian and Edwardian India

“…This, he argues, was used as evidence of a perceived 'distinction between British efficiency and leadership and perceived foreign deficiencies in these areas'. 78 Nationalism, on the other hand, did colour the commentary as in the concluding remarks on polo which noted: 'In conclusion it is most gratifying to reflect that in the Durbar Tournament of 1902 no British team even reached the semi-finals, whereas in 1911 the ultimate verdict rested between two British cavalry Regiments.' 79 Racial generalizations were not completely absent from polo commentary; they were simply balanced by frequent compliments of the more cerebral and moral aspects of the game's best Indian players.…”

Critical Race Theory and Islamophobia: challenging inequity in Higher Education

“…However, there exists a long history in elite Western higher education of a culture of white, male privilege that has actively sabotaged efforts at diversification and demonized racial and religious 'others'. Examining historical records from Oxford and Cambridge universities, Deslandes (1998) shows that the super-privileged, white 'Oxbridge' university men of the mid-nineteenth century were deeply fearful of diversity in general and of racial and religious 'foreigners' in particular, whose presence they saw as demeaning and detrimental to the character of the university. For example, an 1870 Cambridge publication titled 'Moslem in Cambridge' responded to the abolition of some Anglican religious tests by depicting the university as having become invaded by Muslims and foreigners and made it absolutely clear that diversity of this sort would negatively alter the 'ancient and grave University' (ibid.…”