Imperial Bodies: The Physical Experience of the Raj, c.1800-1947

143 Pages·2001·19.368 MB·English

by  E. M. (Lizzie) Collingham

IMPERIAL BODIES
The Physical Experience of the Raj,
c.1800-1947
E. M. Collingham
216 soz 2004/1974
II I IIII IIIII IIII II IIII IIIII II III IIIII IIIII II ll llll
45157681,6
Polity
Copyright © E. M. Collingham 2001
The right of E. M. Collingham to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Contents
First published in 2001 by Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers Ltd
Editorial office:
Polity Press
65 Bridge Street
Cambridge CB2 lUR, UK I! .
Marketing and production:
Blackwell Publishers Ltd
108 Cowley Road
Oxford OX4 lJF, UK
Published in the USA by
Blackwell Publishers Inc.
350 Main Street
Malden, MA 02148, USA List of Plates
Vll
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism
Acknowledgements
and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or lX
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
Glossary
or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Xl
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it Introduction 1
shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated
without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being PART I THE NABOB, c.1800-1857
imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
1 The Indianized Body 13
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Rule in an 'Indian idiom' 14
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Survival in an 'Indian idiom' 24
Collingham, E. M. (Elizabeth M.) The dangers of indianization 29
The physical experience of the Raj, c.1800-1947/E. M. Collingham.
The limits of indianization 36
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index. The depth of indianization 44
ISBN 0-7456-2369-7 (hb: acid-free paper) - ISBN 0-7456-2370-0 (pbk. acid-free
paper)
2 The Anglicization of the Body 50
1. British-India-Social life and customs 2. India-History-British occupation,
1765-1947 . 3. Body, Human-Social aspects-India. I. Title.
Rule in a British idiom 51
DS428 .C65 2001 The ban on the East 60
954.03-dc21 00-012194 Survival in a British idiom 80
Typeset in 10.5 on 12pt Saban by Kolam Information Services Pvt. Ltd, Pondicherry, India
Printed in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall 3 The Limits of Anglicization 93
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
The 'baba logue' 93
The bungalow 99
The household servants 103
v1 Contents
PART II THE SAHIB, 1858-1939
4 The Sahib as an Instrument of Rule 117 Plates
The competition-wallah and the ideal official body 118
Imperial ceremony and the symbolic body 128
The bureaucratic body 136
Prestige and physical violence 141
5 The Social Body 150
Social life and conformity 150
The fragility of domestic space 165
Prestige in the bathroom 174
Degeneration and the regulation of sexuality 177
Race and sociability 185
Plate 1 'A lady in a tonjon palanquin with attendants.'
Epilogue: The Dissolution of the Anglo-Indian (c.1830) Company drawing, Oriental and India Office
Body, 1939-1947 194 Collections. 17
Appendix 202 Plate 2 'The young civilian's toilet.' William Tayler,
Sketches Illustrating the Manners and Customs of the
Notes 204
Indians and Anglo-Indians. London, 1842, pl. 1. 23
Bibliography 240
Plate 3 'Sir Charles D'Oyly seated at a table smoking a
Index 270 hookah, his clerks seated nearby, watching opium being
weighed.' (1820s) Sir Charles D'Oyly's Sketchbook, £. 40.
Oriental and India Office Collections. 31
Plate 4 'Count Rupee in Hyde Park.' (1797)
H. Humphrey. Oriental and India Office Collections. 35
Plate 5 'Mr and Mrs Gladstone Lingham at breakfast with
their friends Colonel Austin Thompson and Captain Bailey.'
(1863) Oriental and India Office Collections. 68
Plate 6 Advertisements from The Englishman 10 April
1834, p. 1. 70
Plate 7 'Our station.' George Franklin Atkinson, Curry
and Rice on Forty Plates; or the ingredients of social life at
·our station' in India. 2nd edn, London, 1859, pl. 2. 83
Plate 8 'Rest, warrior, rest.' Allan Newton Scott, Sketches
in India; taken at Hyderabad and Secunderabad, in the
Madras Presidency. London, 1862, p. 40. Royal
Commonwealth Society Collection, Cambridge. 85
r
vm Plates
Plate 9 'The young Churchill Arthur Luck in the 1860s.'
Private collection. 94
Acknowledgements
Plate 10 'Taken to shew the servants. Arkonam 1904.'
Bourne Papers, Album 2, pl. 26a, Centre for South Asian
Studies, Cambridge. 107
Plate 11 'Group. Clerks and peon and police naik.
Belgaum. R. M. M. Ass. Collector, Belgaum.' (c.1906-13)
Maxwell Collection 14 10, Centre for South Asian Studies,
Cambridge. 125
Plate 12 'Major Lumsden lying in front of animal skins.'
(no date) E. Fullerton Collection, pl. 52a, Centre for South
Asian Studies, Cambridge. 126
Plate 13 'Durbar scene showing Wajid Ali Shah (King of
Oudh 1847-56) embracing the Governor-General, Lord
I have incurred many debts while writing this book and it is my
Hardinge.' (Lucknow 1847) Company drawing, Oriental
pleasure now to acknowledge them.
and India Office Collections. 130 The research for my Ph.D, out of which this book grew, was
Plate 14 'Presentation of H. H. The Nawab of financed by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Prince
Bahawalpur, Delhi Durbar 1903.' Curzon Collection, Consort and Thirlwall Fund, and the Holland Rose Fund. For their
Oriental and India Office Collections. 130 assistance I am indebted to the staff of the Bodleian Library, Oxford;
the University Library, Cambridge, where Terri Barringer enthusias
Plate 15 'The D.P. works revised and improved.' The
tically hunted out interesting material in the Royal Commonwealth
Delhi Sketchbook, 5 11 (1 November 1854), facing p. 1. 139 Society Collection; and the Oriental and India Office Collections,
Plate 16 'Lyle - camp Jan 1915 Headload camp.' Maxwell London.
Collection 13 I 1, Centre for South Asian Studies, In particular I would like to thank Louise Houghton and Kevin
Cambridge. 160 Greenbank at the Centre for South Asian Studies, Cambridge, for
making the photographic and archival collection fully available to
Plate 17 'Sompalle: Camp in Temple. 19 August 1900.'
me.
J. J. Cotton, Oriental and India Office Collections. 163 The late Master, David Crighton, and the Fellows who make up
Plate 18 'My drawing-room.' (c.1902-10) H. H. Davies the Society of Jesus College, Cambridge, made me very welcome and
Indian Album I, pl. 2, Royal Commonwealth Society provided me with a congenial working atmosphere in which to finish
Collection, Cambridge. 169 writing, for which I am very grateful.
Intellectually I am indebted to Partha Mitter and Carol Dyhouse,
Plate 19 'His Excellency and Lady Graham visit the whose inspirational teaching encouraged me to go into research.
Collector of Hyderabad and his family (Mr and Mrs N. T.
Chris Bayly was a fine supervisor and has continued to give me
Gholap) informally at their home.' (c.1936) Col. W. A.
unflagging support. He patiently read the many drafts which trans
Salmon Papers, Centre for South Asian Studies, Cambridge. 189 formed the thesis into a book and never failed to give generously of
Plate 20 'Tennis party including Col. Irwin, and Mrs his time and ideas. His criticism has always been constructive and I
Jacob and local dignitaries, Jaipur.' (1896) Oriental and cannot thank him enough.
India Office Collections. 191 Many friends and colleagues have given me helpful suggestions
and comments. I would like to thank Bridie Andrews, Susan Bayly,
Maxine Berg, Peter Burke, William Dalrymple, Clive Dewey,
r
x Acknowledgements
Rebecca Earle, Manuel Frey, Will Gould, Colin Jones, Polly O'Han
lon, Roy Porter, Rajit Ray, Anil Sethi, Robert Travers, Carey Watt
and Phil Withington. For their assistance and hospitality in London Glossary
and in India I am grateful to Aidan and Francesca Bunting, Rupert
and Emma Featherstone, John and Susan Gnanasundaram and their
family, Sue Lascelles, Matt Belfrage, Andrea and David Lowe and
Siva and Vatsala Sivasubramanian. For support and encouragement I
would like to thank John Cornwell, John Eaton, Peter and Irmgard
Seidel and Mary Burwood; for sustaining tea parties I thank Will
Gould, Geoff Harcourt and the other tea-party comrades, and Jude
and Jessie Sargent, without whom Haworth would have been very
lonely; for numerous dinners and light relief Rebecca Earle, David,
Gabriel and Isaac Mond, Brechtje Post, Maarten van Casteren, Shai
laja, Stephen and Edwin Fennell, Silke Secco-Gri.itz and Terry Roop
naraine. My god-daughter Thea Fennell has brightened many an
afternoon and weekend. Thomas Seidel has enriched both my intel abdar Servant responsible for cooling and serving drinks
lectual and my emotional life. Without him this book would never alkaluk A long coat with an embroidered bib
have been written and it is dedicated to him. ayah A lady's maid or nursemaid
baba logue Children
The author and publishers would like to thank the following for babu A respectable Bengali gentleman (although the term
permission to use the illustrations: Plates 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14, took on a pejorative tone when it was used to refer
15, 17 and 20 are reproduced by permission of the British Library. to Bengali clerks)
Plates 10, 11, 12 and 16 are reproduced by permission of the Centre banyan Trader or undershirt of Muslim
for South Asian Studies, Cambridge. Plate 19 is reproduced by kind basun Chick-pea"flour
permission of Colonel W. A. Salmon and the Centre for South Asian bhistee Water-carrier
Studies, Cambridge. Plates 8 and 18 are reproduced by permission of box-wallah Itinerant salesman when applied to Indians (it was
the Syndics of Cambridge University Library. Plate 9 is reproduced also used pejoratively to refer to Anglo-Indians in
by kind permission of Michael Luck. trade)
burra khana Big dinner
burra sahib Great master
chattah Umbrella, traditionally signifying royalty
chilumchee A brass or copper basin for washing the hands and
feet
chobdar Stick bearer, attendant on Indian nobles and Anglo
Indian officials of rank
chota haziri Early breakfast
conJee cap Starched nightcap
cutcherry Administrative office or courthouse
dak bungalow Rest-house for travellers
dak runner Post runner
dandy Boatman
darshan A viewing of an august or holy person
dastur Custom
r
xu Glossary Glossary xm
dhaye Wet-nurse shikar Sport, in the sense of hunting and shooting
dhobi Washerman sirdar bearer Head bearer
dhoti Man's waistcloth, worn folded, tucked and draped sowar Indian cavalry soldier
durbar An Indian ceremony involving the formal reception suttee Hindu custom whereby a widow immolates herself
of guests and the exchange of gifts on her husband's funeral pyre
griffin Newcomer terai hat A soft felt hat to protect the head from the sun
bar-carrier Garland carrier thugee The robbery of travellers by a specialized gang of
hookah Indian hubble-bubble pipe thieves
jama Surcoat with a full skirt and a fitted cross-over tonjon A sedan or portable chair
bodice zenana Part of the house reserved for the women of the
khadi Handwoven cloth family
khansaman Head servant
khelat Gift of cloth in a durbar ceremony, symbolizing the
incorporation of the recipient's body into that of
the donor
khichri Meal of rice, lentils and spices often eaten by the
poor
khidmutgar Head waiter
khurta pyjama Knee-length tunic and baggy trousers
kittesan bearer Umbrella bearer
laudal Probably a sweet-smelling liquid, similar to rose
water
mate bearer Assistant bearer
mofussil The provinces, country stations and districts
moorah Footstool
munshi A teacher of Indian languages, or secretary
mussack Goatskin water container
nautch Dance performed by dancing girls
nawab Title given to Muslim gentlemen of distinction,
originally a title given to a governor serving under
the Emperor
palanquin A covered litter for travelling in, carried by either
four or six carriers on poles across their shoulders
peishwaz Indian robe or gown
peon Footman
poshteen A skin coat worn over an alkaluk
pugri A turban, often with a piece of cloth hanging down
at the back to protect the neck from the sun
puja A religious ceremony or rite
pundit A learned man, usually learned in Sanskrit
satyagraha Passive resistance, as advocated by Gandhi
setringee Probably a low bench
shampooing Massage, particularly of the head and feet
r
Introduction
The British experience of India was intensely physical. From the
wretchedness of seasickness on the voyage out, to, on arrival, the
'itching, unsightly bumps' caused by the 'incessant bites of innumer
able mosquitoes'; the torture of prickly heat which made Ellen
Drummond feel as though 'a-hundred needles' were running into
her; the pain of the 'boils which break out when ... [prickly heat]
gets very bad'; the dry heat of northern India which 'developed
finally into an obsessive torture dominating thought and talk and
action' or the steamy heat of BengaCwhich 'takes all the strength and
the succour out of you like a vapour-bath', India proved a torment to
the British body.1 All the senses were assaulted by the heat, dust, i
dirt, noise and smells, which could be 'Vile, foul, penetrating, body
I
and soul-destroying' .2 Even worse than 'the petty annoyances of
the insect race, the destructive moisture, the obtrusive reptiles ...
[was] the slow, midnight, wasting fever, and the quick, mysterious
pestilence that walks in the noon day, and defies the power of
science'.3 The agonies of disease and the threat of a rapid death
were spectres which hung over every British colonist in India.
Lucretia West, after hearing of the death of a Mrs Newnham, who
had taken 'Tiffen here last Thursday, had an attack of fever that
night, expired last evening', was shocked to find that 'Here
people die one day, and are buried the next. Their furniture sold
the third, and they are forgotten the fourth.'4 Herbert Maynard
concluded 'Possibly there never was so strange and painful and
wonderful and uninviting an existence lived since the world began
to spin.'5
All Europeans, even if they escaped serious disease or death,
were believed to undergo a subtle constitutional transformation.
Introduction 3
2 Introduction
similar habitus. Thus the habitus acts as a bridge between personality
Throughout the nineteenth century the medical orthodoxy stated that
structure and social structure.
the heat of the Indian climate over-stimulated the organs of the body
Bourdieu's concept of habitus demonstrates that the values, atti
resulting in sluggishness and congestion. The altered state of the
tudes and ideologies of a society are literally embodied. 'Body size,
colonist's metabolism was made physically manifest in a ..s aJlow
volume, demeanour, ways of eating and drinking, walking and sit
skin and general lassitude, in the decline in fertility among European
ting, speaking, making gestures etc.' all reveal, consciously and
women, and in the sickly, querulous natures of children born and
unconsciously, the social structures as they are embedded in the
raised in India. The British body's physical deterioration was com
body.11 The body as an object of historical inquiry can therefore be
plemented by an idiosyncratic appearance. The loose trousers and
approached through the everyday practices surrounding it. In his
white waistcoats which made conspicuous those who returned to
innovatory essay 'Body Techniques', Marcel Mauss, following the
Britain from India in the early nineteenth century were replaced in
biography of an individual, mapped out a set of spheres of bodily
the later imperial era by the equally distinctive white flannels of the
practice from birth and the bodily techniques of infancy (e.g. suck
sahib. Besides an altered appearance, the colonist was said to acquire
ling and weaning), through adolescence to the activities of adult life
an 'Asiatic' arrogant manner, the consequence of the fact that 'He has
(e.g. sleep, rest, gait, posture and gesture, exercise), to reproduction
been so long accustomed to measure his own humanity by the
6 (e.g. sexuality}, care and adornment of the body (e.g. medical prac
standard of a conquered and degraded race.' The experience of
7 tices, washing, clothing), consumption (e.g. eating and drinking), the
India was thus perceived to be written on the Anglo-Indian phy
regulation of physical contact (e.g. touching, physical violence), fol
sique, from the boils, mosquito bites and the altered composition
lowed by illness and death.12 Mauss's spheres are neither exclusive
of the fibres and tissues of the body, to the colonist's characteristic
nor comprehensive but they provide a ground plan for the investiga
clothing and confident demeanour.
tion of the British body in India, widened by setting the body within
It is clear, then, that the body was central to the colonial experi-
the spatial context of urban and domestic space. The wide range of
ence, but the body, as the site where social structures are experienced,
spheres brought together by an investigation into the body opens up
transmuted and projected back on to society, is ill-defined as a
the possibility of identifying a coherence between these different
historical object. 1t is_ _~ -1i~~s~n~~etst.:h~l2jJus'_ which
spheres on the level of cultural structures.
has most influenced the conceptualization oT tne body, which 1s to be
The study of the British body in India traces the transformation of
found in this book. 8 The habitus can be understood as a set of
the early nineteenth-century nabob from the flamboyant, effeminate
schemas or dispositions, acquired through the processes of socializa
and wealthy East India Company servant, open to Indian influence
tion, which act as principles by which the individual organizes his or
and into whose self-identity India was incorporated, to the sahib, a
her behaviour.9 Through the habitus the structures of the class
sober, bureaucratic representative of the Crown. This shift from an
specific social world in which the individual finds him or herself
open to a closed and regimented body appears to reflect the emer
are transferred into the individual.
gence, between 1650 and 1900, of what might be termed a modern
European bourgeois body. Work on early modern Europe shows that
Adapting a phrase of Proust's, one might say that arms and legs are full
of numb imperatives. One could endlessly enumerate the values given the body in this period was conceptualized as open and in flux with
body, made body, by the hidden persuasion of an implicit pedagogy its environment.13 Rather than acting as an enveloping shell, separ
which can instill a whole cosmology, through injunctions as insignifi ating the internal and external worlds, the skin was thought of as
cant as 'sit up straight' or 'don't hold your knife in your left hand', and open and porous.14 Gradually this conceptualization of the body
inscribe the most fundamental principles of the arbitrary content of a altered until by the nineteenth century the body was visualized as a
culture in seemingly innocuous details of bearing or physical and verbal closed entity which needed to be preserved intact, separate from the
manners, so putting them beyond the reach of consciousness and expli-
environment. Among the bourgeoisie the body was bounded off from
cit statement.10 the environment in line with a withdrawal of many bodily practices
into the private sphere. Rituals of cleanliness were re-sited in the
In this way social structures are transformed into patterns of behav
private space of the bathroom, the black suit and the corset
iour, or lifestyles, shared by the other members of society with a restrained and disciplined men's and women's bodies, 15 and complex
r
4 Introduction Introduction 5
regimes of diet and exercise were developed which sought to train product of particular social groups with specific ends in mind. In this
16
and improve the physique. The result of this process of emotional way 'competing regimens and images of the body' can be integrated
21
regulation and discipline was the transformation of the open unaf into the discussion. It can then be acknowledged that discourse
fected body of the Georgian middle ranks into a tightly regulated does not always have the desired - or a homogenous - effect, and
Victorian bourgeois body. that individuals negotiate and draw upon a variety of discourses in
22
Michel Foucault and Norbert Elias explain this process as the the construction of their bodies.
consequence of the changing configuration of modern society. Setting While Foucault approaches the relationship of society and the
out to overthrow the idea that since the seventeenth century Euro body during the period of European modernization from above,
pean society had progressed towards an enlightened humanitarian Norbert Elias approaches the relationship from a different direction.
ism, Foucault argued in Madness and Civilization and The Birth of In his m_ajo~ work, The Civilizing !rocess,cl3ias argues that the
the Clinic that the medical gaze became increasingly intrusive and monopolization of power by developmg nation states, and the con
oppressive, defining the body through the medium of the clinical gaze sequent complexity of the relatedness, and intertwining, of the effects
as a passive object, the reality of which was prescribed by medical of individual acts, was linked to changes in the personality structure
discourse. In Discipline and Punish he charted the effects on indivi of individuals. The increasing complexity of society required the
duals of the intrusion of the gaze of the state into their lives. As the individual to act in a more differentiated way. Although social con
power of the monarch faded during the seventeenth century the state trol was imposed less and less by external powers, in order to succeed
23
shifted from using the body of an offender, during the ritual of public in a complex society the individual had to exercise self-restraint.
execution, as a symbol of its authority, to imposing discipline or The by-product of self-restraint was the construction of an 'affective
technologies of power, 'general formulas of domination', on all indi wall' between oneself and the bodies of others, as well as a distancing
viduals.17 Discipline was enforced through the regimentation of of oneself from one's own body, which was manifested in the refine
24
space and time. Space was subdivided into factories, schools and ment of many forms of behaviour, such as table manners. This
prisons, and within these institutions space was partitioned by allott display of regulated behaviour functioned as a means of social differ
ing each individual a particular area correspondent to the rank he or entiation.
she occupied within the hierarchy of the institution. Time was meted There are many areas of difficulty in Elias's argument: the reliance
out in hours, minutes and seconds. The more the actions of the body on etiquette books which specify behaviour but do not tell us how
were regimented within these time spans, the more exhaustively the people actually behaved; the emphasis on state formation, and the
body could be exploited. Discipline was founded on minute detail: it small amount of space which he gives to the discussion of the role of
treated the body like a machine and moulded it into a state of religion, the family, urbanization, the division of labour, population
18
aptitude or docility. The disciplining of the body as a machine growth, disease, and groups within society which attempted to
25
was combined with the regimentation of the body as a biological impose certain norms of behaviour on 'lower orders'. However,
organism through the construction of sexuality. The control of popu the essential aspect of his work is that he links social and economic
lations combined with the disciplining of individual bodies - ana change to changes in personality structure through the concept of
19
tomo-politics - to produce bio-politics. Thus, Foucault redefined 'figurations'. 'Elias's hypothesis is that firstly, there are non-inten
the body as the site where political power is exercised and announced tional interconnections between intentional acts, and secondly, that
the death of the subject. (at least up to now in history) these non-intentional interconnections
A Foucauldian approach to the body tends to conceptualize it as have prevailed over the intentional meanings fabricated by
26
.the passive object of discourses of power. Foucault's neglect of the people.' The behaviour of individuals takes place within a struc
body as the site where experience is felt and interpreted means that ture which is created by the actions of individuals but which has
he tends to ignore the self-consciousness of the individual. This leads implications and effects which are greater than those individual acts.
to the treatment of the body as an unchanging entity throughout Elias argues that these 'blind' structures have a dynamic of their own
history, always 'available as a site which receives meaning from, and and that patterns and directions can be detected within this
is constituted by external forces'. 20 The limits of Foucault's thinking unplanned process, although it is necessary to be careful not to
on the body can be escaped by adopting a view of discourse as the view the process as linear and inevitable.
Introduction 7
6 Introduction
On first reading, Foucault and Elias appear to be incompatible: questions of how to rule India and how to survive in the tropics. In
Foucault argues that the body is defined and controlled by external the early nineteenth century the British in India were able to draw
forces, while Elias argues that the configuration of modern society upon a wide variety of sometimes conflicting discourses about suit
encourages the internalization of restraints which gradually become a able conduct in India. As a consequence the bodily norms of;tµ~early
part of the individual's psyche.27 Both theorists were, however, con Company servants remained fluid, able to incorporate tensibrl.s and
cerned with the same problem - the increasing regulation of the the existence of competing sets of beliefs and attitudes. During this
individual as a result of the process of modernization. Their concep period the British were open to Indian influences, and aspects of
tualization of the body as the locus of power struggles brings their Indian practice were incorporated into the display of British power
arguments together. In fact Foucault's argument that bodies become and authority as the Company servants set about projecting an image
increasingly disciplined is perhaps more convincing if we view his of themselves as the new Indian ruling aristocracy. Traces of India
discourses of power as akin to the blind structures which Elias links can be found in Anglo-Indian ceremonial display, in their personal
to changes in personality structure.28 Elias's conceptualization of habits of eating, clothing, hookah-smoking and cleanliness, and in
figurations allows the balance of power to be seen as in a state of the Anglo-Indian household, which incorporated large numbers of
fluctuation, shifting and differentiated in its effect, rather than as a Indian servants and frequently an Indian mistress. Thus the British
body in India developed a set of distinctive norms which marked it
monolithic force.
I Despite the complexity of the theoretical literature on the body, out as different from the British body in the metropole. Some Anglo
and the quantity of research it has generated, there remains no study Indian norms such as those relating to cleanliness were even trans
of the European body within the colonial context.29 This study of ferred back to the metropole and incorporated into the cultural fabric
the British body in India sets out to explore the impact of colonialism of Britain.
on the bodies of its protagonists and the way in which power The transformation from nabob to sahib involved a process of
impacted on the bodies of those wielding it rather than its intended bodily closure which forms the main focus of chapter 2. The early
subjects. Members of the civil service form the core community history of British rule in India is fundamentally the history of the
under investigation as it was their bodies which formed the main interaction of structures of power as the British vied with the French,
focus of official and medical discourses about how the British should minor Indian princes, and the Emperor in Delhi in the process of
rule in India. The term 'Anglo-Indian' is used as a shorthand to refer establishing their dominion. As the British consolidated their hold on
to this official community in India. Evidence from other sections of India the Anglo-Indian body lay at the centre of a process of what
the British community such as the military, planters and businessmen might be termed 'state formation'. Elias's theory would suggest that
has not been ignored, but the lower orders of British society play a the increasing restraint which characterizes the transformation of
lesser part in the analysis due to their more shadowy role in the nabob into sahib can be linked to the concentration of power in
. f B .. h 30 India in the hands of the British. Lengthening chains of interdepend
expression o nt1s power.
Confronted by their physical transformation in India, as well as the ence stimulated the internalization of external restraints and the
manifestly different bodies the Indian climate and culture shaped, the creation of an 'affective wall' which distanced the British body
Anglo-Indians engaged in a process of defining what made a body from India, as well as from itself. The political shift towards utilitar
British. Britishness in the colonial context was, then, conceptualized ianism, changing ideas about disease and health, and the increasing
through a dialogue with difference.31 The Anglo-Indians were pro commercialization of Anglo-Indian society, created a dialogue
foundly affected by the processes of change within society in the between the state, the economy and the body which resulted in a
metropole, or home country, but the transformation from nabob to process of anglicization. In line with the political shift towards rule in
sahib in India was more complex than the playing out of European a British idiom, India was edged out of the bodily practices of eating
developments in an exotic setting. The following chapters demon and clothing. Metropolitan signifiers of respectability were subtly
strate that the Anglo-Indian body developed both its own distinctive transformed within the colonial context and reformulated as
distinctively Anglo-Indian signifiers of Britishness. A British
signifiers and its own momentum of change.
Chapter 1 looks at the way in which the body of the nabob (and environment for the body was sought in hill stations such as
'nabobess') was formed at the centre of debates surrounding the Simla, and medicine struggled to preserve the Britishness of the