Marx on the Empire

SIR – I wonder how many of the 58 Oxford academics who criticised Nigel Biggar, professor of moral and pastoral theology at Christ Church, on the grounds that his views of the British Empire “rest on very bad history” and are “politically naive” (report, December 20), know that he echoes the view of Karl Marx.

Writing on “The future results of the British Rule in India” (New York Daily Tribune, August 8 1853), Marx noted that: “From the Indian natives, reluctantly and sparingly educated at Calcutta, under English superintendence, a fresh class is springing up, endowed with the requirements for government and imbued with European science… The railway system will therefore become, in India, truly the forerunner of modern industry…

“Ample proof of this fact is afforded by the capacities and expertness of the native engineers at the Calcutta Mint … At all events, we may safely expect to see, at a more or less remote period, the regeneration of that great and interesting country.” Paul Trewhela

Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

SIR – Gyles Brandreth (Letters, December 23) omits the most powerful civilising gift from the Empire that the Chinese and Russians also lack: cricket.

Bembridge, Isle of Wight