Beschreibung:
This accessible cultural history explores 400 years of British imperial adventure in India, developing a coherent narrative through a wide range of colonial documents, from exhibition catalogues to memoirs and travelogues. It shows how these texts helped legitimize the moral ambiguities of colonial rule even as they helped the English fashion themselves. An engaging examination of European colonizers representations of native populations Analyzes colonial discourse through an impressive range of primary sources, including memoirs, letters, exhibition catalogues, administrative reports, and travelogues Surveys 400 years of India s history, from the 16th century to the end of the British Empire Demonstrates how colonial discourses naturalized the racial and cultural differences between the English and the Indians, and controlled anxieties over these differences
This accessible cultural history explores 400 years of Britishimperial adventure in India, developing a coherent narrativethrough a wide range of colonial documents, from exhibitioncatalogues to memoirs and travelogues. It shows how these textshelped legitimize the moral ambiguities of colonial rule even asthey helped the English fashion themselves.* An engaging examination of European colonizers'representations of native populations* Analyzes colonial discourse through an impressive range ofprimary sources, including memoirs, letters, exhibition cataloguesadministrative reports, and travelogues* Surveys 400 years of India's history, from the 16thcentury to the end of the British Empire* Demonstrates how colonial discourses naturalized the racial andcultural differences between the English and the Indians, andcontrolled anxieties over these differences
Acknowledgments vii1 Introducing Colonial Discourse 12 Travel, Exploration, and''Discovery'': From Imagination to Inquiry12Imagining Multiple Worlds: The Fantasy of''Discovery'' 18The Narrative Organization of Discovery 29''Inquiry'' and the Documentation ofthe Others 41Conclusion: ''Discovery'' and Wonder''Contracted and Epitomized'' 493 The Discourse of Difference: Constructing the ColonialExotic 55The Colony and Imperial Wealth 57The Exotic in English Culture 59The Colonial Exotic: Aesthetics, Science, and Difference60The Sentimental Exotic 62The Scientific Exotic 79Conclusion: From the Indian to the Colonial Exotic 954 Empire Management: From Domestication to Spectacle104The Domestication of Colonial Spaces 106Administering Colonial Spaces 121''Raising the General Credit of theEmpire'': The Spectacle of Empire 140Conclusion: Imperial Improvisation and the Spectacle1455 Civilizing the Empire: The Ideology of Moral and MaterialProgress 161England's Age of Improvement 164Discipline and Improve 170Imperial Lessons 174The Salvific Colonial 178Rescue, Reform, and Race 183Conclusion: From Improvement to Self-Legitimization1946 Aesthetic Understanding: From Colonial English to ImperialCosmopolitans 201The Self-Fashioning of the Scholar-Colonial 204Antiquarian Aesthetics and Colonial Authority 213''Consumption, Ingestion, andDecoration'': Colonial Commodities 219The ''Empire City'': Pageantry andEmpire 226Conclusion: From Colonial English to ImperialCosmopolitan 229References 235Index 260