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List of contents
Introduction to the Series. Acknowledgements. Maps. Preface. Note on Spelling. Chronology. PART ONE: INTRODUCTION. 1. BACKGROUND AND HISTORIOGRAPHY. PART TWO: ANALYSIS. 2. EMPIRES AND ENTREPRENEURS, 1700-65. 3. CONQUEST AND CONSOLIDATION, 1765-1857. 4. REBELLION AND RECONSTRUCTION, 1857-1885. PART THREE: ASSESSMENT. 5. THE LEGACIES OF EMPIRE IN BRITAIN AND INDIA. PART FOUR: DOCUMENTS. Glossary. Who’s Who. Further Reading. References. Index.
About the author
Douglas Peers teaches Indian and Imperial History at the University of Calgary. Previous publications include Between Mars and Mammon: Colonial Armies and the Garrison State in Nineteenth-Century India (1995), co-edited books on J.S. Mill and India and on India in the Victorian mass media, and articles on many different aspects of Indian military, literary and political history.
Summary
Between 1700 and 1885 the British became the paramount power on the Indian subcontinent, their authority extending from Sri Lankain the south to the Himalayasin the north. It was a massive empire, inspiring both pride and anxiety amongst the British, and forcing change upon and disrupting the lives of its Indian subjects.
Yet it is not simply a history of conquest and subjugation, or dominance and defeat: interaction and interdependency powerfully shaped the histories of all involved. The end result was a hybrid empire. India may have become by 1885 the jewel in the British crown, but by that same year a series of changes had occurred within Indian society that would set the foundations for the modern states of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. This book provides a concise introduction to these dramatic changes.
