Bøker i Cambridge Library Collection - South Asian History-serien

John Wilson (1804-1875) was a Christian missionary and philanthropist. He spent most of his working life in India, where he built churches and schools, and founded the institutions now known as Wilson College and the University of Mumbai. First published in 1878, this biography was compiled by George Smith (1833-1919), at the request of Wilson's son. As former editor of the Calcutta Review, Smith was an expert on Wilson's career, and having met him on his own travels to India, held him and his work in high esteem. The book traces Wilson's life from his childhood to his final days. It reveals his patient mediation between native Indians and their rulers, his groundbreaking and lasting influence on their lives, and his pivotal role in the British government's efforts to help India and its neighbouring countries. It remains of great interest to scholars of religious and Asian studies.

In this 1822 work, Lieutenant Adam White (1790-1839) of the Bengal Native Infantry reviews the state of India under British rule, presenting arguments for and against colonisation, the activities of missionaries and the freedom of the Press. He also discusses the Indian Army and its recent activities in Nepal and against the Mahrattas, as well as the civil government. He explains in his preface that, having spent twelve years in India, he had no plans to write a book and had not collected any material for it, but a chance reading of Prinsep's account of Warren Hastings' administration changed that. White set out to 'amuse his leisure on board ship' back to Europe by refuting Prinsep's account, and attempting to offer the British public an alternative view of Hastings' rule. White was posted as political agent to Upper Assam, and was later killed in action at Sadiya.

William Hay Macnaghten (1793-1841), of the Bengal Civil Service, published this work in 1825. It is a compilation of principles and precedents of Islamic law, focusing on family, inheritance and property law, including the status of slaves. Born in India and from a legal family, Macnaghten used his skill in languages as well as his legal training to produce this monumental work, and a similar two-volume treatise on Hindu law (1828-9). Quoting from both Sanskrit and Arabic sources, Part I discusses the principles of family law, inheritance, sales, wills, and slavery, while Part II offers precedents in all these areas, and an appendix gives details of the cases cited. Macnaghten was involved in political as well as legal work, and the disastrous First Anglo-Afghan War was begun largely on his advice. He was killed by an Afghan leader during negotiations outside Kabul in 1841.

Originally published between 1824 and 1853, these four pieces by James Silk Buckingham (1786-1855) illuminate the concerns of a broad-minded traveller and the problems of governing an empire. A newspaperman, social reformer and fierce critic of the East India Company, Buckingham published the Calcutta Journal until his expulsion from India in 1823 for attacking vested interests. The first and second pieces reissued here are his open letters, written anonymously in 1824, to the MP Sir Charles Forbes regarding press freedom and the expulsion, without trial, of himself and another editor. These are followed by an 1830 account of the reception of his public lecture tour on the East India Company's monopoly, and an 1853 outline for the future government of India. Together, these polemical texts provide great insight into contemporary colonial debates surrounding British rule in India.

When the Army officer and politician Francis Rawdon-Hastings (1754-1826) arrived in Calcutta to serve as Governor-General in October 1813, British India comprised three presidencies and was beset by problems relating to warring states, weakened armed forces, insufficient funds, and rebellious Gurkhas and Maratha chieftains. This brief first-person account discusses these problems, touching especially on the war against Nepal (1814-16) - after which the Governor-General was created First Marquess of Hastings - and the offensive operations against Pindari raiders and restive chieftains in the Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817-18). First published in 1824 to justify Hastings' political, military and financial conduct in office, this work offers direct insight into a colonial leader's mentality and the strategic thinking behind the expenditure of blood and money for the furtherance of British imperialism.

Written by General Sir George St Patrick Lawrence (1804-84) of the British Indian Army, this 1874 book is a memoir of his long and active service in India. The son of a distinguished officer in the army of the East India Company, he arrived in India in 1821, and was a participant in all the major military encounters of the period, including the Anglo-Afghan Wars, where he was involved in the 'Cabul disaster' and later narrowly avoided execution as a hostage, the Anglo-Sikh wars, and the Indian Mutiny, during which he and his family survived great danger. Lawrence, whose health had been undermined during the Mutiny, resigned from the army and returned to England in 1864. He entrusted his letters and diaries to William Edwards of the Bengal Civil Service, who compiled the work from these sources, and supplies a brief overview of Lawrence's career in his preface.

Sir George Campbell (1824-92) spent a number of years in the administration of India at a time when rule over the country was being transferred from the East India Company to the British Crown. In this 1853 work, he offers an outline of policy for a future government. He believes that India is capable of being the most civilised country in the world, and favours introduction of the western model of development to India. Campbell laments the lack of co-ordination among various agencies of the government, and finds executive efficiency in an inverse proportion to staff numbers, thus supporting the idea of a small government. He argues for the establishment of an authoritative central power to guide, direct and propel the local administrations. Some of the problems he identified and the remedies he suggested are as relevant to the governance of India today as they were then.

The craft of manufacturing cotton was learnt by the British in India, but the East India Company's drive for profits caused the development of a cotton-spinning industry in Britain, which grew enormously when mechanical processes were introduced during the industrial revolution. Subsequent protectionist legislation which forbade the export of anything except raw cotton meant that India's supremacy in the industry was lost to Britain in the nineteenth century. This 1867 work, edited by P. R. Cola, who owned the Arkwright Cotton Mills in Bombay (Mumbai), argues for investment in up-to-date machinery, and provides a blueprint for developing a host of industries such as cotton and other textiles, jute, sugar, oil and iron, which would bring prosperity to India. Containing illustrations and statistical data, the book gives useful insights into the early development of many industries in India and in some of the other economies of the East.

Soldier and military historian L. W. Shakespear (1860-1933), published this book on the north-eastern frontier of India and its tribes in 1914. He had served in the Assam Military Police Force, and this book, which is illustrated with photographs taken by the author, is 'an attempt to produce something useful and readable at least for those who care about that little known but very interesting corner of India'. The work begins with a review of the archaeology and history of the area, and is particularly concerned with the ethnography of the various border tribes, such as the Kachari, Ahom and Naga. The small beginnings, in 1823, of the tea industry, which still forms an important part of the region's economy, are described, and the work ends with a consideration of the strategic importance of the area, in the context of a widely expected 'awakening' and modernisation of China.

Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1842-1902) joined the Indian Civil Service in 1862. His career began in Bengal, first as an assistant magistrate and then as a secretary to the local government. His report Memorandum on the North-East Frontier of Bengal (1869) was welcomed as a valuable guide to political relations in the area for government officials. This book, first published in 1884, is the updated and developed version of that report. It was extensively researched by Mackenzie, using government records, and was considered to be authoritative on the political relations between the Government and the hill tribes of Assam, Cachar and Chittagong. Mackenzie dedicates a chapter to each tribe and details their response to British colonisation and any negotiations that took place. Relevant notes and reports by officials who had come into contact with the tribes are also included as appendices. Mackenzie's thorough work remains an authoritative historical source today.

This 1912 book by Angus Hamilton (1874-1913), a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, is an account of the British military expeditions to quell uprisings among remote tribes in north-eastern India in 1911-12. Famous for his earlier books on Afghanistan, the problems of the Middle East, and Somaliland, Hamilton gives a full account of the various phases of the 'Abor expedition' which resulted in a crushing defeat of the local tribes. The book begins with a survey of the geography of the area, and a description of the Abor people, explaining the turbulent background to the murder in March 1911 of two British officials. A highly detailed and illustrated account then follows of the murders, and of the punitive response of the government in Delhi, which sent an expedition both to bring the area back under control and also to carry out geographical surveys of a relatively unknown area.

The diarist Mrs Henry Duberly (1829-1902), born Frances Locke, came to public attention through her Journal Kept during the Russian War, an 1855 account (also reissued in this series) of her experiences accompanying her husband's regiment in the Crimea, often as the only woman present. Her descriptions of military action - including the cavalry charges at Balaklava - and the hardships and gossip of army life, made it a popular success, although a dedication to Queen Victoria was declined. This 1859 volume narrates the Hussars' subsequent posting to India during the Mutiny. Describing the practicalities and privations of a 2,028 mile march through Rajputana from Bombay, and culminating in an account of the battle of Gwalior, including the news of Rani Lakshmi Bai's suicide, it illuminates the nature of military life in this tense period of Indian history, as well as the role of women on both sides of the conflict.

Akbar the Great (1542-1605) is often regarded as the Mughal Empire's most accomplished ruler. This document on the workings of his empire was produced by Akbar's vizier, Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (1551-1602). Between 1783 and 1786, the scholar Francis Gladwin (1744/5-1812) produced an English translation from the original Persian. Reissued here is the two-volume edition that appeared in 1800. As the work's dedicatee and Governor-General of Bengal, Warren Hastings had seen the translation as illuminating the Mughal Empire's 'original constitution' and believed it would educate and inform Britain's colonial administrators. Gladwin's text would not be superseded for many decades, and it testifies to the quality of his scholarship and the contemporary concerns of the East India Company. Volume 1 explains the workings of the royal household and military offices, including details of the mint, treasury and harem, as well as building regulations.

In this 1895 survey of the life and works of James Rennell (1742-1830), the geographer and historian Clements R. Markham (1830-1916) describes him as 'the greatest geographer that Great Britain has yet produced'. The book was published in the 'Century Science Series', which narrated the lives and works of exemplars in each area of science, and Markham goes on to explain why Rennell should be the chosen representative of geography. 'He was an explorer both by sea and land, a map compiler, a physical geographer, a critical and comparative geographer, and a hydrographer.' Rennell is probably best remembered for the surveys of western Asia (also reissued in this series) in which he attempted to match modern to classical sites, but his professional career was spent as an army surveyor in India and Africa. Markham's account of Rennell's life concludes with an examination of his geographical legacy.

William Hoey (1849-1919) was a magistrate in Lucknow, India when this book was published by the American Missionary Press in 1880. At the time, Lucknow was the seventh largest city in the British Empire, and it was the capital of the province that had most recently come under British rule. Hoey's monograph captures the details of trade in the city and surrounding regions at this time of change. Part 1 outlines the prominent features of trade in the area and includes tables of imports and exports. Part 2 focuses on Lucknow specifically, and contains the author's discussion of the impact of British rule on the city. The third part is a detailed A-Z of every trade, including information on production, prices and profit, and the work concludes with an extensive glossary of Indian terms. The level of detail in this work makes it an invaluable historical document.

Born in Franconia, the son of a rabbi, Joseph Wolff (1795-1862) was baptised in 1812. Educated in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, he later studied Arabic, Syriac and Aramaic in Vienna, and Christian theology in Rome before being expelled from the city for his heretical views. He came to England, became a member of the Church of England, and then embarked on his missionary work. Though he met with limited evangelical success, the books he went on to publish made him well known at home. Reissued here is his 1835 account of travels in the early 1830s through the Middle East and Asia, during which he experienced robbery and disease, journeyed through the Himalayas, and was hosted by numerous royal courts. This tale, exotic and extraordinary, is a remarkable source for those interested in nineteenth-century orientalism and Christian missionary zeal.

This work of 1868 is a revised and expanded version of a series of articles contributed by G. B. Malleson (1825-1898) to the Calcutta Review. The author served in India for thirty years from 1847, retiring finally with the honorary rank of major-general. Drawing on his wealth of first-hand experience of Anglo-Indian military history, he wrote prolifically and with an accessible, vigorous style. This work on the history of the French in India from 1674 to 1761 reassesses the career and contribution of Joseph Francois Dupleix and other major figures in this period of the Franco-Indian empire. He sees the decline in French power as the result of a few extremely able persons being let down by their mother-country's lack of support. In this he contrasts the French with the English in terms of their Indian colonial history.

Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779-1859) was a colonial official who spent his career in India, eventually becoming governor of Bombay in 1819. Before that he was resident in Poona (Pune) during the final days of the Maratha empire. He was fluent in Persian and took an interest in the culture of the region. This report, however, published in 1821, is a political work. The report describes the western Indian territory that the British had acquired by 1818, and Elphinstone provides a geographical overview of the area and the people who lived there. He then gives a brief sketch of Maratha history before moving on to the crux of the work: how to administer the territory, with the question of how to raise more revenue being of especial importance. This report provides a first-hand example of the inner workings of the British Empire in India.

Henry T. Prinsep (1792-1878) was the son of a prominent East India Company servant, and like his father, he spent much of his life in the East. He left Britain for Calcutta in 1809, at the age of seventeen, and stayed in India, working in a variety of roles, until his retirement in 1843. He wrote a number of books about India: in this work, published in 1851, he turns to the north of the subcontinent. Prinsep draws from travel narratives of the few explorers who had been to this territory - which corresponds to today's western China and Mongolia - to illustrate the lives of the people there. Using sources ranging from the thirteenth-century account by Marco Polo to eighteenth-century reports by French missionaries, Prinsep brings information on what was then a little-known world to a wider audience.

Henry T. Prinsep (1792-1878) began his career in India with the East India Company in 1807 and worked in various posts, finally being appointed Persian secretary before retiring in 1843. Throughout his career, and into his retirement, he wrote a number of books about India. The present work, however, published in 1834, is a report taken from information gathered by the late political agent at Umbala, Captain William Murray, whose death made it necessary for other officials to ready the work for publication. The report looks at the history of the Sikh people and the rise of Runjeet (Ranjit) Singh (1780-1839). After Singh died, his empire began to weaken, and by 1845 the British were at war with the Sikhs. This work provides a view of the Punjab during a critical point in its history.

Henry T. Prinsep (1792-1878) was the son of a prominent East India Company servant, and like his father, Prinsep also spent much of his life in the East. He left Britain for Calcutta in 1809, at the age of seventeen, and stayed in India, working in a variety of roles, until his retirement in 1843. His brother James also lived in India and was a prominent scholar. Upon the latter's death in 1840, Prinsep found himself in possession of his brother's coin collection and a notebook, which became the basis of this work, published in 1844. Prinsep explains that the coins - which have inscriptions in both Greek and unknown languages - are valuable evidence of Alexander the Great's famous expedition to the east in the fourth century BCE. Prinsep also includes extensive illustrations of the coins, offering a fascinating view of an important archaeological discovery.

This 'sketch' by John Malcolm (1769-1833), covers a relatively small period - from the introduction of the India Bill in 1784 to the book's publication in 1811. The bill marked the beginning of increased government control over the East India Company, and Malcolm had arrived in India the year before it was passed and had an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of British influence and ambitions in India. In over five hundred pages, he examines governance in India, covering the administrations of Lord Cornwallis, Sir John Shore and Marquis Wellesley, all of whom he served under in increasingly important roles. Malcolm went on to write other books about India and Persia, where he also spent several years, and in 1827 became Governor of Bombay. His Sketch of India gives an insider's perspective on a crucial period in the consolidation of British authority in large areas of the subcontinent.

The purpose of this book, published in 1813 by Thomas Duer Broughton (1778-1835), is to provide an English audience with an accurate description of 'the character, manners, domestic habits and religious ceremonies of the Mahrattas'. Broughton, an army officer in the East India Company, first arrived in India while serving as a cadet in the Bengal establishment in 1795, and eventually rose to the positions of captain in 1805, major in 1816 and colonel in 1829. The book consists of a series of thirty-two letters addressed to his brother, and most of the letters describe the events and the environment of the Rajputana region, beginning with an account of a journey from Agra to Kerowli. The letters which follow all contain fascinating descriptions of festivals and other events, and cultural encounters of all kinds, painting a vivid portrait of life for the British in early nineteenth-century India.

Between 1827 and 1841, Samuel Sneade Brown (1809-1875), a colonial administrator, was stationed in India. Published in 1878, this is a selection of the letters he sent home to his family during that period. Brown describes his correspondence as 'a journal of my heart, rather than a diary of my actions', and his letters are both poetic and humorous, telling a personal history of the British Empire. Brown reveals the high cost of colonial living, lamenting to his mother the fact that he could not afford to marry and support a family either in India or England. He communicates his strong bond of affection to his native country and to those he left behind. Making the connection between home and abroad, private and public, the domestic and the Empire, the letters present an insight into the economic changes and political challenges of the nineteenth century.

The historian George W. Forrest (1846-1926) pays tribute to the legacy of Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779-1859) by bringing his writings together in this 1884 publication, which begins with a account of Elphinstone's life and the historical events connected with his career, providing important background information and context for the reader. Forrest provides a fascinating insight into Elphinstone's opinions on some of the leading questions connected with the government of British India. The statesman played a pivotal role in founding the system of state education in India, strongly supporting native education and the local administration of laws. As Forrest describes, he brought 'a liberal and highly cultivated mind' to discussions of Indian problems, and he saw the British task in India as equipping Indians for self-government as quickly as possible. This collection documents his challenges and achievements, and is an important historical record of a turning point in Indian history.

Charles Edward Trevelyan (1807-1886) published Education of the People of India in 1838. The work is a rigorous defence of the educational reforms that took place in colonial India during the 1830s, which led to a western-based curriculum replacing traditional Indian learning. The work is a response to the arguments of orientalists such as H. H. Wilson (1786-1860), recently retired from government office in India, but still advocating an orientalist educational policy. In this work Trevelyan puts forward his arguments for the moral and intellectual advantages of English as the principle language of instruction and defends the government's resolution of March 1835 that specified that Indians should be educated by the study of European literature, culture and science. It was one of the most influential Anglicist tracts of the Indian educational debates, and it gives valuable insight into the ideas behind what became standard government educational policy.

Scottish-born Alexander Mackay (1808-1852) spent most of his career as a journalist in Canada and the United States, though he had been called to the bar in 1847. In 1851 he was commissioned by the chambers of commerce of Manchester, Liverpool, Blackburn, and Glasgow to go to India and report on the cultivation of cotton there, especially around Gujarat. He stayed for a year and was on his way back to Britain - his return forced by ill health - when he died at sea in 1852. His Western India, however, was published the following year after it was revised by James Robertson. The book highlights the many impediments to further growth of the Indian cotton trade: the poverty of the cultivators, heavy taxation, outdated planting methods and poor infrastructure, as well as the problem of competition from the booming cotton exports of the United States.