The Other Empire: Metropolis, India and Progress in the Colonial ImaginationThis is a detailed study of the various ways in which London and India were imaginatively constructed by British observers during the nineteenth century. This process took place within a unified field of knowledge that brought together travel and evangelical accounts to exert a formative influence on the creation of London and India for the domestic reading public. Their distinct narratives, rhetoric and chronologies forged homologies between representations of the metropolitan poor and colonial subjects - those constituencies that were seen as the most threatening to imperial progress. Thus the poor and particular sections of the Indian population were inscribed within discourses of western civilization as regressive and inferior peoples. Over time these discourses increasingly promoted notions of overt and rigid racial hierarchies, of which a legacy still remains.Drawing upon cultural and intellectual history this comparative study seeks to rethink the location of the poor and India within the nineteenth-century imagination. |
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The Other Empire: Metropolis, India and Progress in the Colonial Imagination John Marriott No preview available - 2009 |
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abolition argued attempt Bayly beggars Bengal bourgeois Brahman Britain British Empire Buchanan Calcutta caste Charles Grant Christian City civilization Clapham Sect colonial Colquhoun complex concern contemporary criminal dacoits degeneration dirt distinct diverse early East India Company economic eighteenth century emerged endeavour England English European evangelical evidence example forms Gazetteer heathen Henry Mayhew Hindoos Hindu Hinduism History human Ibid imagination imperial formation Indian culture Indian society influence inhabitants inquiry John John Marriott labour literary literature luxury Mayhew metropolis metropolitan poor mission modern moral narratives nation native nature nineteenth century observation orientalist Oxford Police political poor law popular population poverty problem progress published race racial reform religion religious reveal rogue literature Routledge savage seen sense Serampur slave slavery social streets survey theory thought threat thuggee Thugs tion trade travel accounts travel literature travel writings tribes urban urban explorers vagrancy Victorian vision William