Gender, Morality, and Race in Company India, 1765–1858

This book examines the relationship between colonial anxieties about personal behavior, gender, morality, and colonial rule in India during the first century of British rule, when the East India Company governed India rather than the British State directly, focusing on the ideology of "The Empire of Opinion." "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 "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"-- NL-ZmNBD Front Matter....Pages i-xv Introduction....Pages 1-16 Colonial Beginnings, ca. 1600–1793....Pages 17-38 Trying to Rule India without Indians, 1793–1831....Pages 39-66 Honor, Racial Prestige, and Gentleman Sepoys, 1757–ca. 1830....Pages 67-95 “If the Natives Were Competent, From Their Moral Qualities”: Race, Paternalism, and Partial Indianization, 1813–57....Pages 97-126 Martial Races, Caste-Ridden Sepoys, and British Fears about Losing Control: Britons and Their Sepoy Armies in Late Company India....Pages 127-156 Conclusion....Pages 157-163 Back Matter....Pages 165-250