Counterflows to Colonialism : Indian Travellers and Settlers in Britain
1600-1857/Michael H. Fisher. New Delhi, Permanent, 2004, xvi, 487 p.,
tables, maps, charts, images, $25 (pbk). ISBN 81-7824-154-4.
Counterflows to Colonialism : Indian Travellers and Settlers in Britain
1600-1857/Michael H. Fisher. New Delhi, Permanent, 2004, xvi, 487 p.,
tables, maps, charts, images, $25 (pbk). ISBN 81-7824-154-4.
Contents: Introduction. I. Pre-Colonial and Early Colonial Relations, 1600s-1790s: 1. Early interactions: Indians, Britons, and the Company, 1600s-1750s. 2. Indians in Britain as British colonial conquests begin: 1750s-1790s. II. Setting the Patterns, 1790s-1830s: 3. Indian scholars and teachers during early colonialism. 4. Indian seamen and the company. 5. Crossing identity boundaries. 6. Indian servants and slaves in early colonial Britain. III. Indian Communities Develop in Britain, 1830s-1857: 7. Indian delegations entering London. 8. Britain as site of pleasure and advancement. 9. Seeking honours, knowledge, profit, and justice. 10. Indian communities in Britain during the decades to 1857. Conclusions and beyond 1857. Bibliography. Index.
"Indians have been visiting or settling in England since the early 1600s. By the mid-nineteenth century several thousand Indian seamen, servants, scholars, soldiers, women and children, students, diplomats, royalty, merchants, tourists, and settlers were participating in British society.
The self-representations and activities influenced British attitudes and policies towards India generally. The context for these interactions and representations was colonialism and its processes, which powerfully altered what being 'Indian' meant, culturally and legally.
This book surveys and analyses Indians that ventured to Britain over 250 years, their reasons for travel, their diverse lived experiences, and their contrasting representations of colonizer, colonized, and colonial rule.
Written in jargon-free prose, this book will enthrall general readers as well as historians. Comprising diverse stories and telling anecdotes, eccentric personalities and peculiar lives, this is an unusually readable work by an eminent historian of India."