Martial Races The Military, Race and Masculinity in British Imperial Culture, 1857-1914

by Streets, Heather

• ISBN13: 9780719069635
• ISBN10: 0719069637
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-11-01
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

This book explores how and why Scottish Highlanders, Punjabi Sikhs, and Nepalese Gurkhas became identified as the British Empire's fiercest, most manly soldiers in nineteenth-century discourse. As 'martial races' these men were believed to possess a biological or cultural disposition to the racial and masculine qualities necessary for the arts of war. Because of this, they were used as icons to promote recruitment in British and Indian armies - a phenomenon with important social and political effects in India, in Britain, and in the armies of the Empire.

Author Biography

Heather Streets is Assistant Professor of British Imperial History at Washington State University

Table of Contents

General editor's introduction	p. viii
Acknowledgements	p. x
Introduction	p. 1
The transformation of the British and Indian armies in the Rebellion of 1857	p. 18
Highlanders, Sikhs and Gurkhas in the Rebellion	p. 52
The European threat, recruiting, and the development of martial race ideology after 1870	p. 87
Military influence and martial race discourse in British popular culture	p. 116
Martial races: the inter-imperial uses of a racially gendered language	p. 156
Representation versus experience: life as a 'martial race' soldier	p. 190
Conclusion	p. 225
Select bibliography	p. 229
Index	p. 236
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