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Archives of Empire

Volume I. From The East India Company to the Suez Canal

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Book

Pages: 832

Illustrations: 28 illus., 1 map

Published: December 2003

Editors: Barbara Harlow and Mia Carter

A rich collection of primary materials, the multivolume Archives of Empire provides a documentary history of nineteenth-century British imperialism from the Indian subcontinent to the Suez Canal to southernmost Africa. Barbara Harlow and Mia Carter have carefully selected a diverse range of texts that track the debates over imperialism in the ranks of the military, the corridors of political power, the lobbies of missionary organizations, the halls of royal geographic and ethnographic societies, the boardrooms of trading companies, the editorial offices of major newspapers, and far-flung parts of the empire itself. Focusing on a particular region and historical period, each volume in Archives of Empire is organized into sections preceded by brief introductions. Documents including mercantile company charters, parliamentary records, explorers’ accounts, and political cartoons are complemented by timelines, maps, and bibligraphies. Unique resources for teachers and students, these books reveal the complexities of nineteenth-century colonialism and emphasize its enduring relevance to the “global markets” of the twenty-first century.

Tracing the beginnings of the British colonial enterprise in South Asia and the Middle East, From the Company to the Canal brings together key texts from the era of the privately owned British East India Company through the crises that led to the company’s takeover by the Crown in 1858. It ends with the momentous opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Government proclamations, military reports, and newspaper articles are included here alongside pieces by Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Benjamin Disraeli, and many others. A number of documents chronicle arguments between mercantilists and free trade advocates over the competing interests of the nation and the East India Company. Others provide accounts of imperial crises—including the trial of Warren Hastings, the Indian Rebellion (Sepoy Mutiny), and the Arabi Uprising—that highlight the human, political, and economic costs of imperial domination and control.

Praise

“It is hard not to get excited over the wealth o f material provided by The East India Company to the Suez Canal (vol. 1) and The Scramble for Africa (vol. 2), which will prove invaluable for both pedagogical and scholarly use.” - Jeanne Dubino , Nineteenth Century Studies

"Archives of Empire will undoubtedly stand as one of the best documentary collections in its field for some time."
- Daniel P. Becker, Itinerario

"[A]n ideal reference for short primary sources to supplement textbook or other readings. . . . [A]n extremely valuable teaching resource for faculty, and it should be read in combination with the other three volumes of the series in order to gain a more complete understanding of the ways in which political and cultural discourse produced and reproduced empire in Victorian Britain." - Brian Caton , Journal of Asian Studies

"[T]his is easily the richest single collection of primary source materials on British imperialism available in print. . . . The first two volumes of Archives of Empire supply us with a rich selection of source material on British imperialism in India and Africa, and when reinforced by the final two volumes, the completed project will provide an unrivaled resource to students of empire. And by its very existence this "reader" will stand as a monument to the remarkable efflorescence of interest in imperial and colonial studies in recent years." - Dane Kennedy, Journal of Colonialism & Colonial History

"This valuable collection of documents from and about the British Empire will prove useful to students and scholars." - Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"This volume offers much to the scholar seeking to gain a sense of the period he or she may be embarking upon as a first step to further research. To the general reader it is an invaluable book, well organised and signposted, showing, through the use of raw primary sources, just what was written by contemporaries without the embellishment of the many later interpretative works that have already been written on this period." - Tim Allender, Asian Studies Review

"Volume I provides a rich, sometimes eclectic mix of documents. . . . Archives of Empire promises to be a rich resource for scholars of British imperialism, of the impact of European colonialism, and of the role of empire in British political and popular culture. . . . [T]he first two volumes in the series offer a stimulating introduction to contemporary scholarship in imperial history and post-colonial theory." - Martin Thomas , History

"With selections ranging from company charters, missionary tracts, satirical cartoons, legislative records, to literary accounts, these anthologies present a fascinating glimpse of the many sides of imperialism." - Heidi Hanrahan , English Literature in Transition

“Archives of Empire offers a valuable and original intervention in contemporary studies of imperialism, providing a rich array of source material pertaining to the imperial project and the wide-ranging grounds for its critique.” - Anne McClintock, author of Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest

"Archives of Empire is a substantial and valuable project containing a generous sampling of key primary texts for understanding both the crucial events in and the debates around British imperialism in the nineteenth century.” - David Lloyd, coeditor of The Politics of Culture in the Shadow of Capital

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Author/Editor Bios Table Of Contents Rights Additional Information

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Barbara Harlow is Louann and Larry Temple Centennial Professor of English at the University of Texas, Austin.

Mia Carter is Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas, Austin. They are coeditors of Imperialism and Orientalism: A Documentary Sourcebook.

Table Of Contents

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Acknowledgments xix
General Introduction: Readings in Imperialism and Orientalism xxi
Volume Introduction: From the Company to the Canal 1
I. COMPANY TO CANAL, 1757-1869
INTRODUCTION: Adventure Capitalism: Mercantilism, Militarism, and the British East India Company 13
Chronology of Events 16
List of the Governors and Governors-General of India 17
List of the Newabs of Bengal 18
India under Cornwallis (1792) [map] 19
India under Wellesley (1799) [map] 19
India under Hastings (1832) [map] 20
India under Dalhousie (1856) [map] 20
G.A. (George Alfred) Henty, Excerpt from With Clive in India (n.d.) 21
“Agreement between the Nabob Nudjum-ul-Dowlah and the Company, 12 August 1765” 25
Anonymous, An Inquiry into the Rights of the East India Company of Making War and Peace (1772) 27
East India Company Act, 1773 31
James Mill, “The Constitution of the East India Company” (1817) 39
James Mill, Letter to Durmont (1819) 47
John Stuart Mill. Excerpt from Autobiography (1873) 48
Government of India Act, 1833 49
Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Lord Clive” (1840) 59
Samuel Lucas, “The Spoliation of Oude” (1857) 72
Sir Arthur Wellesley, “Memorandum on Marquess Wellesley’s Government of India” (1806) 81
II. ORIENTAL DEPOTISM
INTRODUCTON: Oriental Despotisms and Political Economies 89
Baron de Montesquieu, “Distinctive Properties of a Despotic Government” (1746) 92
Baron de Montesquieu, Excerpts from Persian Letters (1721) 92
Adam Smith, “America and the East Indies” (1776) 95
Robert Orme, “Of the Government and People of Indostan” (1782) 107
John Stuart Mill, Excerpt from The Principles of Political Economy (1848) 111
John Stuart Mill, Excerpt from “Considerations on Representative Government” (1861) 113
Karl Marx, “On Imperialism in India” (1853) 117
III. THE IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS
INTRODUCTION: Warren Hastings: Naughty Nabob or National Hero? 131
Warren Hastings, “Warren Hastings to the Court of General Directors, 11 November 1773” 135
Warren Hastings, Excerpt from Memoirs Relative to the State of India (1786) 137
Edmund Burke, “Edmund Burke on the Impeachment of Warren Hastings, 15-19 February 1788” 143
Westminister Hall during the trial of Warren Hastings (1788) [illustration] 146
Fanny Burney, Diary Selections (1788) 155
Edmund Burke, “From the Third Day of Edmund Burke’s Speech Opening the Impeachment, 18 February 1788” 160
Warren Hastings, “From the Address of Warren Hastings in His Defence, 2 June 1791” 163
Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Warren Hastings” (1841) 166
IV. THE CASE OF TIPU SULTAN
INTRODUCTION: Tipu Sultan: Oriental Despot or National Hero? 171
G.A. Henty, Excerpts from The Tiger of Mysore (189?) 173
“Tippoo Sahib at the Lines of Travancore” (1789) [illustration] 174
Major Diram, “Treaties of Peace, and Review of the Consequences of War” (1793) 175
Selected Letters between Tipu and Company Governors-General, 1798-1799 180
Wilkie Collins, “Prologue: The Storming of Seringapatam, 1799” (1869) 195
V. ORIENTALISM
INTRODUCTION: Orientalism: The East as a Career 203
Mary Shelley, Excerpts from Frankenstein (1813/1831) 206
Benjamin Disraeli, Excerpt from Sibyl, or the Two Nations (1845) 208
Definitions from the Hobson-Jobson Dictionary 209
G.W.F. Hegel, “India” (1822) 219
William Jones, “A Discourse on the Institution of a Society for Inquiring into the History, Civil and Natural, the Antiquities, Arts, Sciences, and Literatures of Asia” (1784) 223
Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Minute on Indian Education” (1835) 227
Max Muller, “The Aryan Section” (1876) 239
VI. LAWS AND ORDERS
INTRODUCTION: Ordering “Chaos”: Administering the Law 249
Robert Orme, “Of the Laws and Justice of Indostan” (1782) 251
Sir William Jones, Preface to “Institutes of Hindu Law: Or, the Ordinances of Menu” (1794) 261
Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Introductory Report upon the Indian Penal Code” (1837) 268
VII. THUGGEE/THAGI
INTRODUCTION: Decriminalizing the Landscape: Thugs and Poisoners 285
A thug “family tree” (1836) [illustration] 288
Thug depredations (1836) [map] 288
Thugs giving a demonstration of their method of strangulation (1855) [photo] 289
Captain William H. Sleeman, Excerpts from The Thugs or Phansigars of India: History of the Rise and Progress (1839) 297
Fanny Parks Parlby, “A Kutcherry or Kachahri” (1850) 307
Philip Meadows Taylor, “Thugs” (1877) 314
Philip Meadows Taylor, Excerpts from Confessions of a Thug (1837) 315
Captain William H. Sleeman, “Thug Approvers” (1833-1835?) 322
VIII. SUTTEE/SATI
INTRODUCTION: Sati/Suttee: Observances, Abolition, Observations 337
Colonel Henry Yule and A.C. Burnell, “Suttee” [definition] (1903) 340
Lord William Bentinck, “Bentinck’s Minute on Sati, 8 November 1892” 350
Sati Regulation XVII, A.D. 1829 of the Bengal Code, 4 December 1829 361
“The Duties of a Faithful Widow,” from Digest of Hindi Law (n.d.) 364
Raja Ram Mohan Roy, “Petitions and Addresses on the Practice of Suttee (1818-1831)” 369
G.W.F. Hegel, On Sati (1822) 374
Charles Dickens, Death by Fire of Miss Havisham (1861) 375
Jules Verne, “Fogg Rescues a Sati” (1873) 377
Maspero Jingle [advertisement for Maspero Egyptian cigarettes] 379
Ernest Renan, On Suttee (1893) 380
Flora Annie Steel, “The Reformer’s Wife” (1933) 381
IX. THE INDIAN UPRISING/SEPOY MUTINY 1857-1858
INTRODUCTION: The “Asiatic Mystery”: The Sepoy Mutiny, Rebellion, or Revolt 391
Chronology of Events 396
Rulers and Rebels: Some Major Figures 397
Excerpts from The Who’s Who of Indian Martyrs (1969-1973) 400
“Portrait of Nana Sahib” [illustration] 402
“Sepoys, 1757” (1890) [illustration] 406
“Attack of the Mutineers on the Redan Battery at Lucknow, July 30, 1857” (n.d.) [illustration] 406
“The Asiatic Mystery. As Prepared by Sepoy D’Israeli” (1857) [illustration] 407
“Proclamation to the People of Oude on Its Annexati

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Paper ISBN: 978-0-8223-3164-3 / Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-8223-3176-6 / eISBN: 978-0-8223-8503-5 / DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822385035

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