Bibliograph

The chaos of empire, the British Raj and the conquest of India, Jon Wilson

Type

Label

The chaos of empire, the British Raj and the conquest of India, Jon Wilson

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 505-544) and index

Illustrations

illustrationsmapsplates

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The chaos of empire

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

958083832

Responsibility statement

Jon Wilson

Sub title

the British Raj and the conquest of India

Summary

"Through the stories of administrators, soldiers and subjects, describes how the East India Company went from a trading company to a quasi-imperial government with over a quarter of a million troops, whose high tax on tea helped spark the American Revolution,"--NoveList"The popular image of the British Raj--an era of efficient but officious governors, sycophantic local functionaries, doting amahs, blisteringly hot days and torrid nights--chronicled by Forster and Kipling is glamorous, nostalgic, but entirely fictitious. In this dramatic revisionist history, Jon Wilson upends the carefully sanitized image of unity, order, and success to reveal an empire rooted far more in violence than in virtue, far more in chaos than in control. Through the lives of administrators, soldiers, and subjects--both British and Indian--The Chaos of Empire traces Britain's imperial rule from the East India Company's first transactions in the 1600s to Indian Independence in 1947. The Raj was the most public demonstration of a state's ability to project power far from home, and its perceived success was used to justify interventions around the world in the years that followed. But the Raj's institutions--from law courts to railway lines--were designed to protect British power without benefiting the people they ruled. This self-serving and careless governance resulted in an impoverished people and a stifled society, not a glorious Indian empire. Jon Wilson's new portrait of a much-mythologized era finally and convincingly proves that the story of benign British triumph was a carefully concocted fiction, here thoroughly and totally debunked"--Dust jacket

Table Of Contents

Preface: Facts on the ground -- Society of societies -- Trading with ghosts -- Forgotten wars -- Passion at Plassey -- New systems -- Theatres of anarchy -- The idea of empire -- Fear and trembling -- The making of modern India -- The legalization of India -- The great Depression -- Governments within governments -- Military imperialism and the Indian crowd -- Cycles of violence -- The great delusion

resource.variantTitle

British Raj and the conquest of India

Classification