A Various Universe: A Study of the Journals and Memoirs of British Men and Women in the Indian Subcontinent 1765-1856 [Hardcover]

Ketaki Kushari Dyson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 7, 1979

The letters in this book are written by British men and women about their experiences in the Indian subcontinent, from the period when the East India Company began consolidating its powers to the eve of the Mutiny, form a part of the surge of travel literature which accompanied the commercial and political expansion of the British people.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This fine addition to our general knowledge of India ought to be in every South Asia and British Empire collection Choice ... the insights that Dyson offers as well as her recovery and sensitive treatment of some long neglected works will be of use to those who wish to fathom the culture of the early Raj. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History ... pleasant to read, and is enlivened by well-chosen and extensive quotations from her subjects. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Ketaki Kushari Dyson has published many titles in Bengali and English, covering genres from poetry, fiction, drama, and essays to literary translation and research-based books.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 418 pages
• Publisher: OUP India (June 7, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195610741
• ISBN-13: 978-0195610741
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,861,528 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good source for some generalized information, January 23, 2002

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bookjunkiereviews (India) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Various Universe: A Study of the Journals and Memoirs of British Men and Women in the Indian Subcontinent 1765-1856 (Hardcover)

This book by K.K. Dyson (a British scholar hailing from India, I understand) is an analysis of the attitudes, opinions and lifestyles of British men and women in India from the period of Clive's rule in India to just before the Mutiny. Why start at 1765? I am not really sure, except that this might have been the starting point of one of the diarists and memoirists.

The book draws upon some famous British figures - Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta and a minor poet; Eliza Fay, a contemporary of Warren Hastings; and Richard Burton, the travellor, author, and so forth. There are diaries and memoirs kept by military men, by administrators, by their wives, and by clergymen. There is considerably more material available post-1818, than for the period before then.

This review will confine itself to a general description. The book is not divided into time periods (as far as I could tell) but by the diarists and memoirists and the time they spent in India. Thus Fay comes early in the book, Heber in the middle, and Burton towards the end. Dyson does try to break up each section by analyzing not just the authors' impressions of India (the sights, the festivals, the people) but also their attitudes towards Indians and the growing Eurasian community. Some of this comes across more clearly than others, because of the nature of the material available.

The semi-chronological nature of the book allows the casual reader to understand how British views of India changed across time. However, this same method of analysis means that the views of different memoirists across time cannot be contrasted on a particular subject. For example, how did Eliza Fay's attitudes towards the status of native (Indian) women compare to the attitudes of male memoirists in the same period, or in a different period? That is not really addressed in this book, although Dyson does provide biographical sketches of the principal memoirists selected with some reference to their background, their education, and their expectations of India. [The attitudes of young society ladies visiting a relative in India was very different from the attitudes of a missionary's wife].

One problem I had with this book was a failure to provide an appendix listing all the major diarists and memoirists whose materials were used, together with biographical sketches. Given that Dyson provided two other appendices (of extracts from memoirs, letters and diaries), I might be asking too much. But this would have helped understand why some diarists were chosen and others omitted, and which diarists or memoirists made an impact on the reader back in England via publication.