cold climes and colonial capitals
It was more than just the heat in hot colonised countries that dictated the creation of old colonial capitals. Even in cases where History dictated the site there was always a colder summer capital . Simla superseded New Delhi in lots of ways. Old colonial wars in the Middle East were controlled from Simla I remember reading in " A Peace to end all Peace, a book about the colonial creation of the Middle East, The middle east, as we know it now. The middle east whose borders are again being redrawn by neo colonials.
It wasn't just that New Delhi summers were too hot for ' mad dogs and Englishmen'.Or that they simply needed a summer escape and a comfortable retreat for their women. Or they needed Sanatoriums to keep their sanity in India's maddening heat. There was another reason, it now seems. A far more insidious one. One that had to do with Race and the reinforcing of racial roots, One about sustaining superiority. White racial superiority.
Bracing colder climes were seen as necessary to sustaining white superiority. Preventing the "degeneration" that tropical climes were thought to harbour. I remember that new bloodlines had to be regularly imported from England to keep the Ooty foxhounds baying. The voices of the Indianised generations of hounds were not as loud, it seems . They seemed to loose their "voice" over the generations. Even in the bracing cold of Nilgiri Mountains.
Read this and laugh ! Or seriously scream at the depth of the racial history of colonial capitals.
The history of the world shows that cold climates have produced the greatest geniuses, all of whom were born north of a certain degree. Take the sons of some of the greatest men of the world and put them in a hot climate like Tumut or Albury [two of many spots being considered, while O'Malley himself was a champion of chillier Bombala, the place he felt God had chosen for the city] and in three generations their lineal descendants will be degenerate.''
The truth is that Canberra is up here in a sometimes Siberian spot, because mountain air was thought good for our health but also and especially because history seemed to show that people bred here would be a credit to our (white, Anglo-Saxon) race.
Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/capital-idea-for-coldclimate-city-20120812-242nw.html#ixzz23P5qyUbX
Canberra . Kingston is one of the older suburbs in this cold colonial capital.
It wasn't just that New Delhi summers were too hot for ' mad dogs and Englishmen'.Or that they simply needed a summer escape and a comfortable retreat for their women. Or they needed Sanatoriums to keep their sanity in India's maddening heat. There was another reason, it now seems. A far more insidious one. One that had to do with Race and the reinforcing of racial roots, One about sustaining superiority. White racial superiority.
Bracing colder climes were seen as necessary to sustaining white superiority. Preventing the "degeneration" that tropical climes were thought to harbour. I remember that new bloodlines had to be regularly imported from England to keep the Ooty foxhounds baying. The voices of the Indianised generations of hounds were not as loud, it seems . They seemed to loose their "voice" over the generations. Even in the bracing cold of Nilgiri Mountains.
Read this and laugh ! Or seriously scream at the depth of the racial history of colonial capitals.
The history of the world shows that cold climates have produced the greatest geniuses, all of whom were born north of a certain degree. Take the sons of some of the greatest men of the world and put them in a hot climate like Tumut or Albury [two of many spots being considered, while O'Malley himself was a champion of chillier Bombala, the place he felt God had chosen for the city] and in three generations their lineal descendants will be degenerate.''
The truth is that Canberra is up here in a sometimes Siberian spot, because mountain air was thought good for our health but also and especially because history seemed to show that people bred here would be a credit to our (white, Anglo-Saxon) race.
Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/capital-idea-for-coldclimate-city-20120812-242nw.html#ixzz23P5qyUbX
Canberra . Kingston is one of the older suburbs in this cold colonial capital.
posted by Satish Sharma at
11:56
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