04-22-2005, 03:35 AM
Book review in Telegraph, 21 April 2005
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<b>Forging the Raj: Essays on British India in the heyday of Empire By Thomas R. Metcalf, Oxford, Rs 575</b>
The essays in this book, arranged in a thematic manner, portray the evolution of Thomas Metcalfâs methodology on colonial India. <b>In a discussion on the changing dynamics of history-writing on British India, Metcalf dismisses the JNU historians as âsentimentalist Marxistsâ. The Subaltern historians also does not get much attention, even the post-colonial theories of the later Subaltern school.</b> Metcalf argues that though micro studies are welcome, generalization is a must. Most of the Indian scholars fall under Metcalfâs rubric of âliberal nationalist Marxistsâ. <b>In his view, it is the Cambridge school which has done most of the serious researches in Indian history.</b> Interestingly, C.A. Bayly and Sumit Sarkar do not figure in his tour de force.
On agrarian history, Metcalf has five essays, written in the Sixties and Seventies. In one, he chalks the career of the taluqdars of the United Province after 1947 â how the bigger ones vanished with the collapse of the raj, how the smaller ones ended up in urban slums while the Western-educated middling taluqdars prospered and continued to flourish in independent India.
During the Eighties, Metcalfâs interest shifted from agrarian society to public buildings of the raj. Both Foucault and Said seem to have had a far-reaching influence on him. Five essays of the volume deal with the relation between power projection and buildings of the Empire. While one group of British officials wanted to portray the raj as the successor state of the Mughal empire, another conceived the raj as a total break from the Indian past. <b>To establish continuity with pre-British India, the former group borrowed elements from Sultanate and Mughal architecture.</b> The latter group opted for the Graeco-Roman tradition but Indiaâs climate and the cost smothered their dream.
The last group of essays, written in the first decade of the new millennium, <b>deal with Indian sub-imperialism within the British imperial structure. Metcalf notes that administrative infrastructure and personnel were imported from India for structuring Britainâs overseas colonies. Few remember that when the raj was at its zenith, many Indians found employment in East Africa and south-east Asia as policemen and migrant labour. So transcontinental migration of labour and transfer of ideas across the oceans, the two concomitants of globalization, started long ago.</b>
The collection shows Metcalf as a prolific writer and a scholar with a wide range of interests. Metcalf also points out the necessity of cross-cultural comparative analysis while researching on British-India.
KAUSHIK ROY
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->LOOK BACK WITH LESS WONDERÂ
<b>Forging the Raj: Essays on British India in the heyday of Empire By Thomas R. Metcalf, Oxford, Rs 575</b>
The essays in this book, arranged in a thematic manner, portray the evolution of Thomas Metcalfâs methodology on colonial India. <b>In a discussion on the changing dynamics of history-writing on British India, Metcalf dismisses the JNU historians as âsentimentalist Marxistsâ. The Subaltern historians also does not get much attention, even the post-colonial theories of the later Subaltern school.</b> Metcalf argues that though micro studies are welcome, generalization is a must. Most of the Indian scholars fall under Metcalfâs rubric of âliberal nationalist Marxistsâ. <b>In his view, it is the Cambridge school which has done most of the serious researches in Indian history.</b> Interestingly, C.A. Bayly and Sumit Sarkar do not figure in his tour de force.
On agrarian history, Metcalf has five essays, written in the Sixties and Seventies. In one, he chalks the career of the taluqdars of the United Province after 1947 â how the bigger ones vanished with the collapse of the raj, how the smaller ones ended up in urban slums while the Western-educated middling taluqdars prospered and continued to flourish in independent India.
During the Eighties, Metcalfâs interest shifted from agrarian society to public buildings of the raj. Both Foucault and Said seem to have had a far-reaching influence on him. Five essays of the volume deal with the relation between power projection and buildings of the Empire. While one group of British officials wanted to portray the raj as the successor state of the Mughal empire, another conceived the raj as a total break from the Indian past. <b>To establish continuity with pre-British India, the former group borrowed elements from Sultanate and Mughal architecture.</b> The latter group opted for the Graeco-Roman tradition but Indiaâs climate and the cost smothered their dream.
The last group of essays, written in the first decade of the new millennium, <b>deal with Indian sub-imperialism within the British imperial structure. Metcalf notes that administrative infrastructure and personnel were imported from India for structuring Britainâs overseas colonies. Few remember that when the raj was at its zenith, many Indians found employment in East Africa and south-east Asia as policemen and migrant labour. So transcontinental migration of labour and transfer of ideas across the oceans, the two concomitants of globalization, started long ago.</b>
The collection shows Metcalf as a prolific writer and a scholar with a wide range of interests. Metcalf also points out the necessity of cross-cultural comparative analysis while researching on British-India.
KAUSHIK ROY
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