Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780–1870

by C. A. Bayly

• ISBN13: 9780521663601
• ISBN10: 0521663601
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-03-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

In a penetrating account of the evolution of British intelligence gathering in India, C. A. Bayly shows how networks of Indian spies, runners and political secretaries were recruited by the British to secure information about their subjects. He also examines the social and intellectual origins of these informants, and considers how the colonial authorities interpreted and often misinterpreted the information they supplied. As Professor Bayly demonstrates, it was such misunderstandings which ultimately contributed to the failure of the British to anticipate the mutinies of 1857. He argues, however, that, even before this, India's complex systems of communication were challenging the political and intellectual dominance of the European rulers.

Table of Contents

List of maps	viii
Preface	ix
Glossary	xi
List of abbreviations	xiii
Introduction	1	(9)
Prologue: surveillance and communication in early modern India	10	(46)
Political intelligence and indigenous informants during the conquest of India, c. 1785--1815	56	(41)
Misinformation and failure on the fringes of empire	97	(45)
Between human intelligence and colonial knowledge	142	(38)
The Indian ecumene: an indigenous public sphere	180	(32)
Useful knowledge and godly society, c. 1830--50	212	(35)
Colonial controversies: astronomers and physicians	247	(37)
Colonial controversies: language and land	284	(31)
The information order, the Rebellion of 1857--9 and pacification	315	(23)
Epilogue: information, surveillance and the public arena after the Rebellion	338	(39)
Conclusion: `Knowing the country'	365	(12)
Bibliography	377	(24)
Index	401