Beginning in the late 1830s, a coalition of non-conformists, abolitionists, free traders, and disenchanted East India Company proprietors began to vocally challenge the exploitative policies of the colonial state in British India. Led by lecturer George Thompson, these reformers pursued a rhetorical strategy of associating groups who were converted into ‘mere tools’ by the Company abroad and the aristocracy at home. These monopolistic entities degraded Indian peasant cultivators, the British working classes, and princely sovereigns alike through forms of ‘virtual slavery’ that persisted in the post-Emancipation empire. In staging these protests, reformers ran up against an adversarial Board of Control and Court of Directors who obstructed their efforts to mobilize public opinion. Probing their agitation reveals the existence of a particularly combative strain of liberal imperialist thought that defied the political status quo.

中文翻译：

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“关于英国正义的污点”：印度改良主义和虚拟奴隶制的言论

从 1830 年代后期开始，一个由不墨守成规者、废奴主义者、自由贸易商和心怀幻想的东印度公司所有者组成的联盟开始大声挑战英属印度殖民国家的剥削政策。在讲师乔治·汤普森（George Thompson）的带领下，这些改革者奉行一种修辞策略，将在国外被公司转变为“纯粹工具”的群体与国内贵族联系起来。这些垄断实体通过在解放后帝国持续存在的“虚拟奴隶制”形式贬低了印度农民、英国工人阶级和君主君主。在举行这些抗议活动时，改革者遇到了一个敌对的控制委员会和董事会，他们阻碍了他们动员公众舆论的努力。