Gender, morality, and race in Company India, 1765-1858 / Joseph Sramek.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sramek, Joseph, 1976-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

East India Company.

British--India--History--18th century.

British.

British--India--History--19th century.

British--India--Public opinion--History--19th century.

East India Company--History.

Colonial administrators--India--History.

Colonial administrators.

Imperialism--Social aspects--India--History.

Imperialism.

Masculinity--Social aspects--India--History.

Masculinity.

Moral conditions.

Masculinity--Social aspects.

History.

Imperialism--Social aspects.

Public opinion.

India--Race relations.

India.

Race relations.

India--Moral conditions.

India--Politics and government--1765-1947.

Politics and government.

Physical Description:

xiii, 250 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Summary:

"Between 1765 and 1858, British imperialists in India obsessed continuously about gaining and preserving Indian "opinion" of British moral and racial prestige. Weaving political, intellectual, cultural, and gender history together in an innovative approach, Gender, morality, and race in Company India, 1765-1858 examines imperial anxieties regarding British moral misconduct in India ranging from debt and gift giving to drunkenness and irreligion and points out their wider relationship to the structuring of British colonialism. Showing a pervasive fear among imperial elites of losing "mastery" over India, as well as a deep distrust of Indian civil and military subordinates through whom they ruled, Sramek demonstrates how much of the British Raj's notable racial arrogance after 1858 can in fact be traced back into the preceding Company period of colonial rule. Rather than the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 ushering in a more racist form of colonialism, this book powerfully suggests far greater continuity between the two periods of colonial rule than scholars have hitherto generally recognized"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Colonial beginnings, ca. 1600-1793

Trying to rule India without Indians, 1793-1831

Honor, racial prestige, and gentlemen sepoys, 1757-ca. 1830

"If the natives were competent, from their moral qualities" : race, paternalism, and partial indianization, 1813-1857

Martial races, caste-ridden sepoys, and British fears of losing control : the British and their Indian armies in late Company India.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780230116931

0230116930

OCLC:

701019975