Arthur & George deals with the imprisonment of an innocent civilian named George Edalji. He was a victim of a ‘miscarriage of justice’ and served three years in prison. The Edalji’s were Parsee and this unnerved the officials. There were still sentiments that mixing blood between races made criminals, etc.
This becomes even more clear when Sir Doyle talks to the Chief Constable. The Chief Constable believed that marrying a Parsee was inadvisable and that George’s mother’s family, who is not Parsee, made a mistake letting her marry into a Parsee family. “A deplorable business, it has to be said. A series of mistakes. It could all have been nipped in the bud so much earlier…The families. That is where it all went wrong. The wife’s family…Doyle, really: your niece insists upon marrying a Parsee cannot be persuaded out of it-and what do you do? You give the fellow a living … here…And then to introduce three half-caste children into the neighborhood.” (pg. 327-328). The Chief Constable believes, even almost outright says, that George Edalji should not have been born. The whole ‘businesses could have been ‘nipped in the bud’ if the family had not allowed them to marry and hadn’t allowed George to come into being. He also believed that the mixing of blood “produces a tendency, a susceptibility under certain extreme circumstances, to revert to barbarism. To be sure, many half-castes live perfectly respectable lives.” (pg. 339-340.)
Edalji does not believe this case is one of racial discrimination. He makes several points to Sir Doyle when he asks him why he thinks this way: but it boils down to the fact that he doesn’t have concrete proof of any racial bias or discrimination. Edalji has been raised to believe in his rights as a British citizen and because he sees himself as a British civilian first, then a solicitor ,and then Parsee, he does not see why the case would be involved with his ethnicity. Edalji sees himself as any other citizen in the British empire so he sees no reason why he would be treated any differently. However, from the outside looking in it is easier to see the differences which is why Sir Doyle is able to spot it immediately. However, Sir Doyle is not relieved from bias. He too has his own beliefs about 'half-caste' individuals and it is clear that he believes he is supposed to be a 'savior' figure because he is better than them.
Racial discrimination works on different levels. For Edalji it worked on many different levels: on an institutional level where it failed to protect him from a sentence that he was innocent from, and also those who built up beliefs about him and his race without really knowing him. He was failed across the board. Although he failed to see this, there were certain sentiments that worked against him that made sure that he was convicted and ruined his life. Britain did not seem him as a citizen, though he saw it as his land.
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