Ideologies of the Raj The New Cambridge History of India, Volume 3, Part 4~ [Paperback]

Thomas R. Metcalf (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 13, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0521589371 | ISBN-13: 978-0521589376

Thomas Metcalf's fascinating study examines the ways the British sought to legitimate their rule over India. He demonstrates that the principles the British devised incorporated contradictory visions of India, yet together they made the authority of the Raj lawful. Students of modern India and the British Empire will find this book relevant and accessible.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The research of half a lifetime informs every page he writes--and he writes well. Ideologies of the Raj is consistently clear and fluent." The Times Literary Supplement

"This volume is an excellent survey of one aspect of this intellectual encounter....Metcalf at his best in elucidating the complex ideas that dominated British thinking in the late nineteenth century....The sure touch of an astute and well-read scholar is apparent as Metcalf discusses these issues and a wide range of individuals and intellectual movements." Lynn Zastoupil, Victorian Studies

"...this is a welcome addition to the growing scholarship on intellectuals and imperialism....These and other new studies complement Metcalf's fine book by helping to clarify that the intellectual encounter between rulers and ruled was a complex and multi-faceted one, in which ideas flowed in both directions and ideologies were jointly constructed by, and were mutually useful to, various groups in both Britain and the subcontinent." Lynn Zastoupil, Victorian Studies

Book Description

Thomas Metcalf's fascinating study examines the ways the British sought to legitimate their rule over India.He demonstrates that the principles the British devised incorporated contradictory visions of India, yet together they made the authority of the Raj lawful. Students of modern India and the British Empire will find this book relevant and accessible. 'The research of half a lifetime informs every page he writes - and he writes well. Ideologies of the Raj is consistently clear and flutent', Clive Dewey, The Times Literary Supplement.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (March 13, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521589371
• ISBN-13: 978-0521589376
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #544,628 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Discourse of Difference, May 18, 2000

By 

Nira Konjit Wickramasinghe (sri lanka) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ideologies of the Raj (The New Cambridge History of India) (Hardcover)

The original Cambridge History of India published between 1922 and 1937 did much to formulate a chronology for Indian history and describe the administrative structures of government in India. The New Cambridge History of India series, to which Thomas R. Metcalf's book belongs, is designed to take full account of recent scholarship and changing conceptions of South Asia's historical development. Ideologies of the Raj examines the ways in which the British sought to justify and thus legitimate their rule over India. Thomas Metcalf demonstrates eloquently that the British devised two divergent strategies to justify their authority: one defined essential characteristics which the Indians shared with the British themselves, while the other emphasized the presumed qualities of enduring 'difference'. Overtime, however, it was the differences - differences of history, race, gender and society -which embedded themselves most deeply in the British idea of India, and so became predominant. Since the British constructed few explicit ideologies of empire, the author explores the workings of the Raj through a study of its underlying assumptions as revealed in policies and writings. This timely book fills an enormous gap in scholarship as the author, drawing from his own research as well as from the writings of younger scholars in India and elsewhere, provides us with a synthetic view of the ideologies of the Raj during the years of uncontested British supremacy from 1858 to 1918.In short this is an excellent book, well argued and well written that will be useful for students and to the educated reader.