Empire News: The Anglo-Indian Press Writes India (Suny Series in the History of Books, Publishing, and the Book Trades)

Shortlisted for the 2022 George A. and Jeanne S. DeLong Book History Book Prize presented by the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing Winner of the 2021 Robert and Vineta Colby Scholarly Book Prize presented by the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals In Empire News , Priti Joshi examines the neglected archive of English-language newspapers from India to unpack the maintenance and tensions of empire. Focusing on the period between 1845 and 1860, she analyzes circulation—of newspapers and news, of peoples and ideas—and newspapers' coverage and management of crises. The book explores three moments of colonial crisis. The sensational trial of East India Company vs. Jyoti Prasad in Agra in 1851 as the Kohinoor diamond is exhibited in London's Hyde Park is a case lost but for colonial newspapers. In these accounts, the trial raises the specter of Warren Hastings and the costs of empire. The Uprising of 1857 was a geopolitical crisis, but for the Indian news media it was a story simultaneously of circulation and blockage, of contraction and expansion, of colonial media confronting its limits and innovating. Finally, Joshi traces circuits of exchange between Britain and India and across media platforms, including Dickens's Household Words , where the empire's mofussil (margin) appears in an unrecognized guise during and after the Uprising. By attending to these fascinating accounts in the Anglo-Indian press, Joshi illuminates the circulation and reproduction of colonial narratives and informs our understanding of the functioning of empire. Contents 6 List of Illustrations 8 Note on Usage and Transliteration 10 Acknowledgments 12 Introduction Circulating Crisis: Colonial Newspapers and Print Culture 18 Chapter 1 Bibliographical, Periodical, and Imperial Codes 46 An Archive—With Many Gaps 46 Materiality: Communicating through Form, Format, and Organization 55 Facing Out: Typography and Appearance 57 Inside: Leaders and Divisions 63 Scissors-and-Paste Journalism 66 Readers and Writers; or Correspondence and Correspondents 75 Literature: Vernacular, Local, and Pirated 81 In Good Company: Colonial Critique and Imperial Certitude in the Mofussilite 88 Chapter 2 Through a Glass Darkly: The Great Exhibition and the Great Indian Contractor 104 Rocks in Paxton’s Glass Palace 107 “Full of Novelty and Interest”: The Great Exhibition Overtaken 115 The Trial in Many Mirrors 134 Chapter 3 The Uprising in the Anglo-Indian Press 144 Editorial Turbulence 146 Extracting News: Improvisation and Chaos 155 The Hindoo Patriot in the Balance 179 Chapter 4 Wanderings and Textual Travels 190 House Rules 195 Indigenizing Brand Dickens 209 Independent Wanderings 218 Coda: Wandering On 233 Conclusion Mofussil News 236 Appendix Press Regulations and Significant Events in Indian Press History, 1780–1857 246 Bibliography 250 Index 266 "Examines English-language Indian newspapers from the mid-nineteenth century and their role in simultaneously sustaining and probing British colonial governance"-- Provided by publisher