In the extract from the essay ’’The new empire within Britain’’ Salman Rushdie, an Indian born Briton and author, explores the subjects of institutional racism, the subconscious racist nature of the English language and the stains that the time of imperialism has left on the British mentality. To gather Rushdie’s main thesis, one need only to look at the title: “The New Empire within Britain”. Rushdie states: “It sometimes seems that the British authorities, no longer capable of exporting governments, have chosen instead to import a new empire, a new community of subject peoples to whom they think, and with whom they can deal in very much the same ways as their predecessors thought of and dealt with’’ (p.1, ll.4-9) The Britons once dominated
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He calls it a new freedom movement and then continues to draw a parallel between this movement, and the freedom movement in India led by Mahatma Gandhi. He is making an allusion to a historical figure and the events that caused India to gain independence. This causes the audience to subconsciously associate Rushdie’s agenda with the freedom movement in India. Mahatma Gandhi is someone most people respect, thus bringing the same respect to the author.
If one were to make a general judgment of Salman Rushdie’s essay, you could say that he is quite persuasive. This is due to his use of intellectual language such as ‘’declension’’, ‘’virtuous’’ and ‘’insidious’’. His sarcasm, dark humour and passionate tone make it easy for the reader to sympathize with his opinions.
But unfortunately, Rushdie throughout makes a rather weak argumentation. His arguments are filled with fallacies, vague postulates and assumptions.
Yet, the essay is convincing. The author has a very strong authority due to the fact the he himself is a black immigrant. Rushdie gets away with committing a large amount of fallacies due to his strong ethos
He calls it a new freedom movement and then continues to draw a parallel between this movement, and the freedom movement in India led by Mahatma Gandhi. He is making an allusion to a historical figure and the events that caused India to gain independence. This causes the audience to subconsciously associate Rushdie’s agenda with the freedom movement in India. Mahatma Gandhi is someone most people respect, thus bringing the same respect to the author.
If one were to make a general judgment of Salman Rushdie’s essay, you could say that he is quite persuasive. This is due to his use of intellectual language such as ‘’declension’’, ‘’virtuous’’ and ‘’insidious’’. His sarcasm, dark humour and passionate tone make it easy for the reader to sympathize with his opinions.
But unfortunately, Rushdie throughout makes a rather weak argumentation. His arguments are filled with fallacies, vague postulates and assumptions.
Yet, the essay is convincing. The author has a very strong authority due to the fact the he himself is a black immigrant. Rushdie gets away with committing a large amount of fallacies due to his strong ethos