The Chaos of Empire: The British Raj and the Conquest of India

by Jon Wilson

Overview

The popular image of the British Raj-an era of efficient but officious governors, sycophantic local functionaries, doting amahs, blisteringly hot days and torrid nights-chronicled by Forster and Kipling is a glamorous, nostalgic, but entirely fictitious. In this dramatic revisionist history, Jon Wilson upends the carefully sanitized image of unity, order, and success to reveal an empire rooted far more in violence than in virtue, far more in chaos than in control.

Through the lives of administrators, soldiers, and subjects-both British and Indian-The Chaos of Empire traces Britain's imperial rule from the East India Company's first transactions in the 1600s to Indian Independence in 1947. The Raj was the most public demonstration of a state's ability to project power far from home, and its perceived success was used to justify interventions around the world in the years that followed. But the Raj's institutions-from law courts to railway lines-were designed to protect British power without benefiting the people they ruled. This self-serving and careless governance resulted in an impoverished people and a stifled society, not a glorious Indian empire.

Jon Wilson's new portrait of a much-mythologized era finally and convincingly proves that the story of benign British triumph was a carefully concocted fiction, here thoroughly and totally debunked.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541767935
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	03/06/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	592
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Jon Wilson was born in Leicester, England, educated at Oxford University and the New School for Social Research in New York, and has taught history at King's College London since 1999. He directs Historians in Residence, a project connecting history with public institutions in London. Alongside his historical research he comments in a range of media on contemporary British and South Asian politics and government.

Table of Contents

Preface: Facts on the Ground 1

1 Society of Societies 11

2 Trading with Ghosts 27

3 Forgotten Wars 56

4 Passion at Plassey 82

5 New Systems 121

6 Theatres of Anarchy 158

7 The Idea of Empire 193

8 Fear and Trembling 226

9 The Making of Modern India 266

10 The Legalization of India 293

11 The Great Depression 338

12 Governments within Governments 358

13 Military Imperialism and the Indian Crowd 392

14 Cycles of Violence 430

15 The Great Delusion 478

Notes 505

Bibliography 534

Acknowledgements 545

Index 548

Editorial Reviews

★ 11/14/2016
Wilson, senior lecturer in history at King's College London, ambitiously challenges the image of the British Raj as stable, unitary, and fully sovereign over the millions of Indians it claimed to govern. Tracing the history of British power in India from the founding of the East India Company and its claim to monopoly power over Asian trade to the cusp of Indian independence in 1947, Wilson paints a picture of an unruly, fragmented empire riven by violence and unrest. British officials shunned open engagement with Indian rulers, preferring to sequester themselves in Europeanized enclaves and churn out reams of paperwork that served to cover up the messy realities of British rule in India. Wilson's major intervention is to resist the temptation to take the Raj at face value. "In reality," he writes, "the British proclaimed their strength and purpose when their authority seemed the most fragile," rendering largely meaningless historians' preoccupation with analyzing the rhetoric of the civilizing mission and other justifications for empire. Puncturing myths about the Raj, Wilson may understate the material and epistemological transformations occasioned by imperial rule by limiting his definition of power to political power, but his bold claim is ably supported by deep research. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

A virtuoso takedown of cherished shibboleths of Raj mythology.” —Financial Times

“Marvelous…The point of Wilson's argument is a good one. Nostalgia has obscured the truth, and the truth is essential to understanding some of the complexities of India today…A neat and modern telling that feels as necessary as a bucket of water in the face after a dizzying trip to the bazaar.” —The Times of London

“A healthy corrective…Wilson provides an unsparing account of the exploitation, expropriation and racism that were fundamental to the imperial project…it presents, with impressive erudition and substantial flair, a comprehensive picture of the colonial experience of a conquered people…a thoroughly-researched, persuasively narrated account of the British Raj.” —India Today

“Puncturing myths about the Raj…Wilson's bold claim is ably supported by deep research.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“An original and interesting work…Wilson understands the complexities of India.” —Literary Review

“For any young scholar or writer wanting to know how to make history-telling an enjoyable enterprise, Jon Wilson's [The Chaos of Empire] should be a must read.” —The Tribune [India]

From the Publisher

09/15/2016
Most histories of the Raj emphasize either Britain's ruthlessness in ruling India or its economic exploitation of the subcontinent. According to Wilson (history, King's Coll. London), Britain didn't realize much economic benefit out of India, its oppressive policies born out of the fear that they would lose power. Britain didn't rule India because the colony made Britain wealthy or was important for the maintenance of British power elsewhere in the world. Rather Britain governed because a small number of British imperial bureaucrats and rulers wanted to maintain their privilege. Wilson asserts that Britain never really maintained sovereign authority over India and depended upon the country's structures and people to sustain what he calls an illusion of power. Militating against this thesis is the significant role that India played for Britain in World Wars I and II, which Wilson glosses over quickly. In fact, the book suffers from Wilson's decision not to examine the place of India in the larger British Empire, instead focusing exclusively on the nature of Britain's hold on the area. VERDICT Wilson's prose is rather dry, and most readers will be better served by Barbara and Thomas Metcalf's A Concise History of Modern India.—Michael Farrell, Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, FL

Library Journal

2016-08-10
A British expert in South Asian politics tackles the history of Britain’s conquest of India.As Wilson (History/King’s Coll. London) shows, while India may have been subdued, it was never really conquered. A people who existed in an age of negotiation and open discussion would gladly have adapted to the East India Company’s needs, as long as it suited them. India was a culture of diverse societies. The Mughals fostered harmony, not homogeneity, were careful not to impose the will of a centralized state, and felt that enemies could always become friends. The British were really policemen and railroad builders. Rather than intending to settle the subcontinent, they were there simply to make money. Though the East India Company was interested in trade only, not political power, they still ruled and did so without engaging citizens. They made paper a surrogate for authority, reducing lives to lines in an account. It was not until Queen Victoria was named Empress in 1876 that India was actually united with England. Wisely, Wilson focuses on the view from the Indian side rather than that of the Raj, and he carefully and thoroughly describes the people of India, their ties to Persia, and their social and political lives. The history before the English is intriguing, as towns and regions were separate but equal. Though enlightening and clearly written, the detail-dense narrative would be a great deal easier to follow with maps showing the political changes during the time period. Wilson deals forcefully with those who supposedly “formed” India, including Thomas Macaulay, who spent three years in India in the 1830s writing a code of penal law without ever engaging a local; Robert Clive, aka Clive of India, who served as commander in chief of British India; and Warren Hastings, the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal in the 1770s and ’80s. A rich, somewhat overlong history that should prove fascinating for students of Indian history.

Kirkus Review