ABSTRACT
The actual causes of the upsurge of imperialism during the second half of the nineteenth century remain a subject of debate among historians. The continuing debates about the nature of imperialism naturally lead us to examine colonial literature in the explanation and justifications which it offered for the practices of imperialism. Certainly colonial fiction spent an inordinate time justifying imperialism. The novel Oakfield by 'Punjabee' (W. D. Arnold) published in 1853 and G. O. Trevelyan's semi-fictional Competition Wallah of 1864 both show the growth of idea-centred justifications of British rule in their precarious relation to commercial arguments. It was in this spirit that Arnold had launched into his moral justification of imperialism. The first casualty of this shift of emphasis was any belief in imperialism as an orthodoxly Christian activity. German colonial fiction was outspoken in its attacks on the Missions. In revising Christian belief colonial fiction very often attacked its other-worldliness and asceticism.
