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The book focuses on the phenomenon of predation during the closing decades of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century in Indias western littoral. It attempts a material history of piracy, locating its antecedents, its social context and its ramifications at a crucial time of political transition. It considers the possibility of studying piracy through the lens of law and resistance.
List of contents
- Preface
- Note on spellings and archival citations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Setting: Littoral Society in Transition
- Chapter 2 The Company at Sea: Petitions, Predation, and Reprisals 17901805
- Chapter 3 Towards an Ethnography of Piracy: Musings of a Resident
- Chapter 4 Docile Subjects and Subaltern Resistance: Piracy in the Age of Maritime Radicalism
- Chapter 5 Piracy in Retrospect: The Challenges of a Fragmented Archive
- Epilogue: Perspectives from the Littoral
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
About the author
Lakshmi Subramanian is Professor of History at Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.
Summary
The book focuses on the phenomenon of predation during the closing decades of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century in Indias western littoral. It attempts a material history of piracy, locating its antecedents, its social context and its ramifications at a crucial time of political transition. It considers the possibility of studying piracy through the lens of law and resistance.
Additional text
an insightful and valuable contribution to the field of pirate studies ... [Subramanian] widens the possibilities of the field and lights the way for future studies of piracy.
