Sir John Malcolm and the Creation of British India

by J. Harrington

Overview

Through his writings, the leading East India Company servant, Sir John Malcolm helped to shape the historical thought of British empire-building in India. This book uses his works to examine the intellectual history of British expansion in South Asia, and shed light on the history of orientalism and indirect rule and the formation of British power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230108851
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	01/19/2011
Series:	Palgrave Studies in Cultural and Intellectual History
Edition description:	2010
Pages:	253
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

JACK HARRINGTON has a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, UK. He is a senior education officer in the charitable sector and continues to write and research on the history of British India.

Table of Contents

Abstract ix

Acknowledgments xi

List of Abbreviations xii

Introduction 1

Analyzing Sir John Malcolm as an Ideologue of the British Empire 8

1 Sir John Malcolm and the British Empire in India 15

2 The Political History of India and the Creation of an Historiography of Imperial Conquest 39

Acting in History: "Send Malcolm!" 40

The Political Context for the Sketch of the Political History of India 46

The Sketch of the Political History of India as a Book 56

Conclusion 67

3 Sir John Malcolm and the History of Modern Asia 71

The Literary Society of Bombay, Orientalism, and Information Gathering 72

The History of the Sikhs 75

The History of Persia 83

Sir John Malcolm and Orientalism during the Napoleonic Wars 94

Conclusion 97

4 Sir John Malcolm's Memoir of Central India: The Historic Case for Indirect Rule 99

Sir John Malcolm and the Postwar Reconstruction of Central India 101

The Report on the Province of Malwa and The Memoir of Central India 106

The History of Malwa as a Hindu Province 107

"The Anatomy of Central India" 120

Conclusion 125

5 Sir John Malcolm and the Government of India after 1818 129

The Significance of the 1820s for Sir John Malcolm's Writings 131

Writing about the Government of India 135

The Government of British India 141

British Armies in India 149

The Native States: Direct British Rule as "the Master Evil" 152

Conclusion 157

6 The History of the East India Company II: The Life of Robert, Lord Clive 161

The Life of Robert Lord Clive as a Book 163

The Context for a Life of Clive: "Confounding the Calumniators of His Memory" 164

Malcolm's History of Clive and the Founding of the British Empire in India 169

Macaulay's Review of the Life of Robert Lord Clive 183

Conclusion 185

Conclusion: British India before 1857 and the Writings of Sir John Malcolm 189

Notes 199

Bibliography 235

Index 251