Constructing the Colonial Encounter: Right and Left Hand Castes in Early Colonial South India / Edition 1

by Niels Brimnes

Overview

This book offers a systematic analysis of the violent clashes between the South Indian 'right' and 'left' hand caste divisions that repeatedly rocked the European settlements on the Coromandel Coast in the early colonial period. Whereas the Indian population expected the colonial authorities to intervene in the disputes, the Europeans were reluctant to get involved in conflicts which they barely understood. In the nineteenth century the significance of the divisions diminished, a development that has long puzzled historians and anthropologists. In addition, this study addresses the larger issue of the nature of colonial encounters. The rich material relating to these disputes convincingly demonstrates how Europeans and Indians, as they sought to incorporate each other into their own social structure and conceptual universe, participated in a dialogue on the nature of South Indian society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138991651
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/25/2019
Series:	Nordic Institute of Asian Studies , #81
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Conventions vi

Abbreviations vii

Acknowledgements viii

1 Introduction 1

2 South Indian Society: a Dynamic Interpretation 17

3 Madras 1700-20: Indigenous Leaders Competing for Honours and Commerce 58

4 Madras in the 1780s: Caste Disputes in an Expanding Colonial Context 81

5 Tranquebar in the 1780s: Suppremannia Chetti's Challenge to the Social Order 103

6 British-Occupied Pondicherry 1794: Unsettled Authority 125

7 Madras 1800-20: Caste Disputes in the 'Capital of Kingdoms' 139

8 Tranquebar 1815-25: Caste Disputes in a Nineteenth-Century Backwater 188

9 Madras Presidency 1800-50: Caste Disputes under Judicial Management 220

10 Conclusion 239

Appendix A Glossary 247

Appendix B Castes and Caste Names 255

Bibliography 261

Index 272

Illustrations

1 Temple car taken in procession by devotees frontispiece

2 The Madras Presidency 21

3 Map of Tranquebar 41

4 Madras c. 1710 60-61

5 Madras 1798 84

6 Processional temple cars 110

7 Tranquebar and the areas under Danish control c. 1840 191

8 Insignias of the Panchalar 196