The Indian Princes and their States: 6 (The New Cambridge History of India)
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 12/19/2003
EAN 9780521267274, ISBN10: 0521267277
Hardcover, 328 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm
Language: English
Although the princes of India have been caricatured as oriental despots and British stooges, Barbara Ramusack's study argues that the British did not create the princes. On the contrary, many were consummate politicians who exercised considerable degrees of autonomy until the disintegration of the princely states after independence. Ramusack's synthesis has a broad temporal span, tracing the evolution of the Indian kings from their pre-colonial origins to their roles as clients in the British colonial system. The book breaks ground in its integration of political and economic developments in the major princely states with the shifting relationships between the princes and the British. It represents a major contribution, both to British imperial history in its analysis of the theory and practice of indirect rule, and to modern South Asian history, as a portrait of the princes as politicians and patrons of the arts.
List of illustrations
General editor's preface
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Map
1. Introduction
Indian princes and British imperialism
2. Princely states prior to 1800
3. The British construction of indirect rule
4. The theory and experience of indirect rule in colonial India
5. Princes as men, women, rulers, patrons and Oriental stereotypes
6. Princely states
administrative and economic structures
7. Princely states
society and politics
8. Federation or integration?
Epilogue
Bibliographical essay
Glossary
Index.