Grass in their Mouths: The Upper Doab of India under the Company's Magna Charta, 1793-1830

Description

Scholarship on the pre-Bentinck period of Indian history has taken little notice of the inevitable dilemmas of colonial rule as they became visible in the districts. This book argues that the disdain the eighteenth-century Westminster parliaments expressed both for Indians and the East India Company induced the Bengal civil service to formulate for itself a corporate identity that, because of its distant and self-centered character, prevented it to acquire an executive hold on most levels of the Indian administration. The core of the book consists of superbly-detailed studies of the ways in which, in the Ganges-Jumna doab, villagers, revenue farmers, Indian policemen and revenue officials, bankers and judges struggled to overcome or profit from this feature of the colonial administration. Copyright Contents Preface List of Illustrations and Maps List of Abbreviations Introduction Chapter One The Cornwallis system and the Colonial Executive A charter for India Indian agents in matters of police The Benares system and its failure Looking for a police chain of command Intelligence and the goyanda issue The limits of reform The Magna Charta on the defence and in decay Chapter Two The Gujars of the Upper Doab Sharing the village of Chhalera A well-wisher of the sarkär The prelude to Dasahra 1824 Kunja, a Company 'work of slaughter' Contrasts: Shore versus Graham, Chodiala versus Kunja Chapter Three A change of system in Merath Opening up the police and the village The pursuit of Lakshmi at Merath Enter Francis Curwen Smith Under canvas and out of touch with Calcutta A betrayer of the constitution The issue of physical inhumanity Chapter Four Beyond Rules and Regulations: Dehra Dun under Frederick Shore The civil servant as civil engineer Indian agency: tourism and the labour market Indian agency: reclamation and village development Ruling alone Colonial experiments with truth Chapter Five How the Landhaura riyāsat was dissected The consolidation of an agrarian business venture Khādar versus bangar Ram Dayal Singh’s riyāsat The way the Landhaura cookie crumbled To settle or to farm Chapter Six Lawlessness and legal plunder in Saharanpur Sheikh Kallan's take-over bid Rani Dhan Kaur's counter-offensive The district contested Open confrontation The unbroken backbone of just rule Conclusion Glossary Bibliography Index