1

Introduction
Seema A/avi

The eighteenth century in India was characterized by two critical

transitions which changed the structure of power and initiated
important social and economic reconfigurations. The first was
the transition in the first half of the century from the
Mughal
political economy to regional political orders. The second was
(1757)
the transition in the period following the battles of Plassey
economy as the English
and Buxar (1764) in the polity, society, and
East India Company steered its way to a position of political
prominence in north India. Both these phases have been
extensively studied by historians, who debate not only the nature
of change in the eighteenth century but also its
implication for
the establishment of early colonial rule in India.
of the
The controversy regarding the political decline
and
Mughals has triggered a debate on the nature of economic
political demise
social change in the wake of imperial collapse. The
of the first half
of the empire is the most important development
of the eighteenth century, The cataclysmic_event
www
has attracted
***
to debate
the attention of generations of historians who continue
the causes of Mughal decline; ppinions are sharply divided
between thoseiwho view the'decline as consequence of..
a

economic crisis and exploitation by the ruling classes and those

assertiveness
who regard the political turmoil in terms of regional

*Acknowledgement. Special thanks to the Series Editors' of the Debates in

Bhargava
Indian History and Society series and to Dilip Menon and Meena
for their detailed comments on the Introduction.
 CENTURY IN ÎNDIA
THE EIGHTEENTH

study af
economic prosperity: /1 he interest in the
triggered by the ecbnomy and society of the
decline brougnt
imperial
century under sharper his torical scrutiny: But if
eighteenth lecline were contested,
regarding Mughal imperial decine
explanations change.durine
understandin8.of the nature of. on
so too was the are divided
the most basic level, historians
this period. At century in theshadow.ofempire
examining the
the question ofcase has been built to view the period on its own
alone, astrong view see the century being
terms./Those who support this
reconfigurations that
characterized by economic and-social
emergence of regional political orders. Opposed
resulted in the imperial political
interpretation is the argument that
to the a process
as well.
of economic and social decay versus
collapse initiated
two divergent positions form the 'Dark Ages
These eighteenth.century
economic prosperitydebate on the
The second set of debates
centres around the late-eighteenth-
economy of India as
century transition in the polity, society, and
East India Company acquired political supremacy.
the English
Here historians have engaged with
the following themes. First,
commercial to a political entity
the Company's transition from a
explanations stressed the
has been variously explained. Earlier
political power,
primacy of trade as the driving force behind
while later works emphasized the political
imperative that pushed
trading interests. Second, the_theme.of.Company-
state-and-the.
economy has generated conflicting viewpoints. Under this
rubric,
historians have dealt with the following issues: the emergence
of regional economies; European trade and bullion imports into
India; the position of labour, merchants, and weavers; revenue
settlements and the introduction of agrarian capitalism.,Opinions
are sharply split over the roots of early colonial rule in the
indigenous economy and society. Some economichistorians argue
that colonial rule was a determining economic as well as political
disjunction. This view is contested by regional studies based on
local records which show that the English Company was sucked
into the vibrant indigenous political economies. In these studies,
the Company's success is attributed to its ability to structure
Itselt on indigenous trade and fiscal networks, which continued
to sustain it until the early nineteenth century.
 INTRODUCTION 3

The third important theme deals with the state and

governance. Here, issues regarding the making of the English
Company's administrative, military, and legal spheres are
discussed. New studies on these issues question the earlier
understanding that saw the Company's political sovereignty as
being carved in isolation from Indian society.
Finally, in view of the vast number of detailed regional
histories of the period now available and the opening up of the
non-economic dimensions of Company rule to historical scrutiny,
the ideological underpinnings of early colonial power have been
considerably revised. Here historians also join issue with,
historiography influenced by Edward Said's notion of
orientalism, which suggests binary polarity between a
a
monological mindset that supposedly shaped colonial power and
a homogeneously constructed Indian society. These issues are
discussed in the concluding section of this Introduction.

The First Half of the Eighteenth Century

Dark Ages versus Economic Prosperity

The early historians of Mughal India viewed the events of the

eighteenth century as being integral to political developments.in
the Mughal empire. Since the 'big event' of the century was the.
political collapse of the empire, it-was only logical that the
historiography of the period. was linked of that of imperiat,
decline. The early historiography of decline focused on the
administrative and religious policies ofindividual rulers and their
nobles. Both the British administrator-scholars and the Indian
nationalist historians of the late-nineteenth and twentieth
centuries assessed the empire in terms of,the character of the
ruling élite (Irvine, repr. 1971, 16, 19, and 24)(In-the-worksof Sir
Jadunath Sarkar the spotlight remained on Aurangzeb, the
emperor who oversaw the imperial downfall. His religious
policy, in particular, and later his Deccan campaigns were
identified as the chief dislocators (Sarkar, 1924, 1932), These
referents continued to provide explanations for the subsequent
 ENCHTENTHH
CEVTURY ININDIA
TH
A
stitutions,
institutions, and societySar.
Sarkat
societySarke
Mughal
economy, ultimately destro.N
ultimately destro;
decline of peasant rebellions that
characterized the Hindu reaction to Aurangza
a
political tability as 973/The
Mughalorthodoxy)(Sarkar, 197
policy of
he religious policy of sthe
Muslim explanátory point in the subsequens
subsequent
constituled the chief Ishwari Prasad as wo
rulers
studies of Sri Ram Sharma and eighteenth centur
Mughal repr. 1974).he mically crisis-prona tury
1940; Prasad, crisis-prone
(Sharma,
politically chaotic and economically
emerged as a 1950s, Marxist-oriented historians beca
late term
period. From the Mughal decline in materialist ms.
provide explanations of of the
to Chandra held the structural flaws in the working fiscal
Satish mansab responsible for the
institutions ot jagirand efficient
Mughal
seventeenth century. He argued that the
crisis of the late depended on the availability
two institutions
functioningofthese Mughal failure
of revenue and its collection and distribution. Ihe
functioning of these institutions became
to ensure the smooth
reign and was to herald
most pronounced during Aurangzeb's
the process of imperial
collapse (Chandra, 1959)
the 1960s onwards, some econonmic
historians, in
From
particular Irfan Habib, explained Mughal
decline and-ihe-
terms (Habib, 1963).
consequent political and social unrest in fiscal
Habib argued that the high rate of land revenue demanded by
Delhi caused large-scale rural exploitation, leading to peasant
migration and rebellion. This created an agrarian crisis that-
resulted'in the weakening of the empire's political edifice! Athar
MAliaccepted Habib's model of a fiscally centralized state, but
attribüted its decline not so much to the high land revenue
demand butrather toashortage of jagirs. The deficit was created
because of the political expansion of the empire into less fertile
lands especially in the Deccan. This increased the number of
nobles without a corresponding augmentation in jagir lands.The
shortage of jagirs generated an administrative problem, wvhich,
in its turn, fuelled the economic crisis (Ali, 1966):
However,lohn,
F. Richards' study of the Mughal administration in Deccan
challenged the idea that there was a shortage
of usable jagirs in
the region. His conclusion that the Deccan was not a deficit area
questioned the belief that be-jagiri
(the absence of jagirs) was a
major cause of the crisis
of empire (Richards, 1975).}
 ÎNTRODUCTION

In the 1980s, the later work of Satish Chandra once again

shifted the focus to the economic aspects of the politico-
administrative-imperial crisis. He argüed that as jagirs becáme
few and relatively infertile, the discrepancy between the
estimated Tevenuejanma) and actual yields (hasi) intensified. This
had an adverse impact on(the äbility ofstate functionaries to
ensure the regularity of revenue collection,A jagirdari.crisis with
distinct economic undertones finally undid Mughal stability.
(Chandra, 1982).
The downfall of the empire is also viewed as a 'cultaral
failureCulture-is-scen,in terms of technological,.intellectual
and economic.referentsfHere the economic crisis that underlined
the decline is attributed to the relative economic, technological
and intellectual rise of Europe in the period 1500-1700 as a centre
of world commerce! As Europe emerged as the principal market
for-luxurious' crats manutactures of the world, it attractedhigh
value products from the traditional Eastern markets.}This
increased the cost of luxury items in India and intensified the
financial difficulties of the ruling classesThis was compensated.
through intensified agrarian exploitátion. In.addition, the-
intellectual and technological aridity of India did not allow towns
to emerge as 'safety valves' for the people. There was, therefore,
no escape from the fiscal arm of the state. All these reasons made
1975;
the empire politically and economically vulnerable (Ali,
1978-9). The follies of imperial policy threw the empire out of
gear and paved the way for its eventual demise.
The predominant theme in the works surveyed.in the
preceding paragraphs, their differences notwithstanding, about
the withering of the royal diktats, projected-the eighteenth
century as a Dark Age, its hallmark being political chaos and
economic decline. The fixing of the historian's gaze on the
imperial centre alone took no cognizance of the diverse ways in
which Mughal *institutions were being modified and transtormed
at local and regional levels so as to pave the way for subtle
a
this
shift of power away from Delhi to the regions Indeed,
historiography.saw the emergence of regional outfits such as
a consequence
the Marathas, the Satnamis, and the Sikhs also as
of the support extended by the exploited peasantry
to thee
 INDIA
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY IN
THE
6
peasant leaders such as Banda
anda Bahadur,
Rol.
zanmindais, to De
all of whom eppe
Maratha as the satnamis,
sects such moDil1zaonWItnne-monotheis
the-monotheis
orto religious political nate analysis
ultimat
their rhetoric of social equality{In the analysis
Bhakti ideology of emergent regional polities of the the Mara
Maratha,
was arguedthatthe exploitative tendencies of thei.
heir
continued the
and the Sikhs Mughals. Thus regional political realignmenk
predecessor, the
the framework of the t.
functioning of the
were explained within alone. The focus remained on the
tho
Mughal 'agrarian system'
revenue extraction and not so much on other forme
structures of
or trade (Ali, 1978-9; Habib, 1982)
of production
existed alternate views on the
Alongside there also economyThese moved beyond the
eighteenth-century political
and the machinery of 'revenue
Mughal 'agrarian system' productions and
extraction' to other kinds of non-economi can
politico-ecomomicengineering-by Mughalfunctionaries. They
traced in the works of Hermann Goetz on eighteenth-century
be
1938), and in the American
music and architecture (Goetz, (Cohn, 1960).
anthropologist Bernard 5. Cohn's study of Banares
as.reflected-
Goetz documented.the.resiliene.of Mughal.society.
in the evolving musical and architectural styles in
the wake of
mperiatcolapser.Cohny on the other hand, pieced together the
efforts of Mughal functionaries, such as zamindars and amildars,
to manipulate both the imperíal and regional-level power
structures so as to carve out independent niches for themselves.
Tt was on these carefully crafted administrative.and fiscal
networks that English rule later structured itself. Both these
studies, though different in their objectives, offer similar
suggestive implications for understanding both the imperial
collapse as well as the emergence of regional powers/They
indicate the continued survival and growth of social ana
economic referents of the empire even when the edifice of its
revenue-extraction structure has collapsed; architecture, musie
fiscal institutions, and social groups emerged as the new
fulcru
of regional"state building. Such studies also provOke-
reconsideration of the.centralized nature of MMughal governa
Tt is
ce-
difficult to conceive of a centralized bureaucratic state
 INTRODUCTION
7
where economic and social markers of growth outlive political
decay.
J.C. Heesterman in his work
argues for the 'resilience and
"durability of Mughal society by explaining the
indian political forms through the self-explanatory overarching
organic
scheme of the rise, decline, and fall that characterized power
Hindu 'political theory'. Thus, according to Heesterman, the in
NMughal empire did not fall;
rather it was simply swallowed by.a.
larger political organism: a cyclical realignment rather
thana.
collapse characterized the change in the eighteenth century. But
Heesternman stands alone in his explanation of eighteenth-century
society with his emphasis on the_inevitability
of change that
derives from the insoluble dilemma within the Indian notion of
kingship: the tenuous link between power and authority. The
former is represented by the king as the coordinator of social
conflict and the latter by, the Brahmin in the role of.the
renunciator. One's order is the other's disorder. Both stand on
opposite ends from each other, with no mediating priesthood.
The 'illegitimacy of power in this abstract.notion of kingship
makes change cyclical and inevitable (Heesterman, 1978).
Scholars who produced regional studies were not convinced
by Heesterman's somewhat metaphysical argument. In contrast,
they emphasized a range of factors that fuelled imperial decline
and encouraged regional economic and political buoyancy. The
emphasis was on different non-agricultural strands that sustained
the local economieš.The regional economies-based on shifting
patterns of trade, movement of mercantile capital from centre to
periphery, war, pillage, and political manoeuvrings .by regional:
élites-were highlighted in the works of Ashin Das.Gupta,
B.R. Grover, Karen Leonard, Stewart Gordon, and Richard B.
Barnett
Ashin Das Gupta indicates that corporate.mercantile
institutions transcended political boundaries for overseeing the
transportation of goods and the provision of credit and insurance
services in the period of decline. Even though inland trade
increased, export-trade"and port cities suffered relative eclipse
intheface of European advances. The port city of Surat in Gujarat
 THE EIGIHTEENTH CENTURY IN ÎNDIA
8

declined around 1720, as did Masaulipatnam in a

Ma
cities such San
Dhaka in Bengal, whereas colonial port mbay
Bombay,
Madras, and Calcutta rose to prominence (Ashin Da Gupta,
1979).)
Grover maps a general picture of rural comma. erce
eighteenth-century north India. He concludes that the viciss in in
caused by foreign invasions, European and
English compe
in trade, and the ruination of the Mughal nobility and aristo
notwithstanding, local rural commercial production racy
tionfound new
avenues in the provincial markets within the subcontinent T
greatly compensated for the comparative loss
of foreign
foreign tr
with respect to handicrafts and cottage
industries (Grover,
trade
Moving from trade to the 1966
potential of merchant capital, Leonar.
emphasizes the movement of
mercantile from Delhi to
regional centres as being
critical to the buoyancy of th
the
political economy the latter
ers
and the relative decline or
shift of credit and
trade of great banking firms the former. The
centres was accompanied the to the regionat
by the emergence of a
class withrmultiple mobile service
revenue collection, functions: trade, accounting, as
Here well as
regional level is clearly the space for capital mobilization
suggested (Leonard,
1979).
at
War and pillage, and
their links with the
form the crux of arguments regional economies
and Burton Stein put forward by Stewart Gordon
Stein formulates
regarding the eighteenth-century
the notion of
extractiveand distributive military fiscalism transition.
process. involving as a revenue
argument is the
establishments
that in the context military/His
need to be maintained, of war, large military
of revenue which make the
collection an
ensured, in many even more regularity
pressing necessity.
parts of south
of the military in revenue India, by the active This 15
mobilization collection. involvement
Gordon advances
constitute the fulcrum Thus war and militar
of
state buildingchange (Stein, 1985
that hinges a model of
on an economy in the Malwaterritg
pillaging
by the Marathas sustained by the
commercialized as they 'marauding
rauding aánd..
elaborates polity (Gordon, integrate thee
on the complexity 1977). Frankregion into
into their
of the Maratha Perlin furtu
state buildingpro
 INTRODUCTION 9

by showing that its characteristic feature was.high commercial

activity and that.commercialization-was-not-a.function of state"
demand alone (Perlin, 1983). 1Barnett charts an entirely different
trajectory of.state formation in the Awadh region, where the
omy is sustained also by the sophistication with which the
nawabs bluff the British about their revenue resources (Barnett,
1980)
Studies highlighting regional-level changes in the period of
transition provoked a reconsideration among historians working
onMughal India as well. They are now making a strong case for
studying the eighteenth century on its own terms, as a phase
which saw th emergence of regional political orders (Alam, 1986;
Singh, 1991). In these region-based studies, the dissociation of
mm
theregion from the centre has been sfudied with a view to
understanding the nature of the-politicak-transformation-in-the
e1ghteenth century. The emphasis is that the nature ot.the.
eighteenth-century 'changes is rooted in the fluid, conflict-prone
functioning of empire where Delhi, rather than exercising
centralized control, plays a mere coordinating role between the
regions and social groups. As the spotlight is fixed on the regions,
both the interpretation of the nature of eighteenth-century
changes and the characterization of the functioning of empire
are substantially revised{ Both phenomena are explained in terms
of the increasing assertivëness of regional powers rather than in
terms of Mughal fiscal and administrative lapses alon. Here the
works of Muzaffar Alam and Chetan.Singh,.on.
i
the Awadh and
Punjab subas of the empire respectively, are pioneering studies.
Both concentrate largely on the agrarian. economies of the
regions; the themes addressed include land, production, revenue.
rights, and the tribal economies on the fringes of empire:
Muzaffar Alam's study of early-eighteenth-century Awadh
provides evidence of the remarkable economic growth and
prosperity which resulted in zamindari unrest in the region.
Economic prosperity was a consequence of increased
commercialization and the monetization of the economy that was
initiated in the heyday of the Mughals. The wealthy zamindars
took advantages of their newly acquired assets and refused to
 THE EIGHTEENTIH CENTURY IN INDIA
10

comply with Mughal commands/ As they rose in rebelli

Mughal subedar (governor) in theregion enhanced his
pow.ne
using the unrest as his bargaining chip with the emperor. It
under his aegis that regional assertion yltimately buoyed the
suba to political autonomy (Alam, 1986). In a later article on
eighteentlh-century Bihar, Alam reinforces his fiscal growt
argument with evidence from both regional and inmperiat Persia
literature and Urdu poetry; this materat, unlike the court
chronicles, touches on the lives of a multitude of social groups,
Based on this.material, Alam concludes that the eighteenth-centur
risis' is a far more complex 1SSue than the Delhi-centre
administrative and fiscal studies of empire have so far projected
Forthe-varied-vaices.of difterent.social-groupsas captured in
the regional Persian sources suggest that one's order was
another's disorder. Even within Delhi, the experiences of the
crisisi were varied (Alam, 1991)
ChetanSingh, following the general region-centric trend laid
out by Alam, suggests that the political unrest in some provinces,
such as the Punjab, was linked to.tensions generated between
the agrarian economy of the Mughalplains,. on.the. one.hand,
and fringe tribal societies as they moved towards a sedentary
existence, on the other The latter process altered the structure
of tribal societies and increased pressure on the
agrarian
economy, which was already under stress. Thus
the events of
the eighteenth century were rooted in the
economic processes
that shaped the-functioning of empire from its very inceptionn
(Singh, 1980, 1991).
The much neglected cultural dimension
of both the empire's
functioning as well as its eventual demise
is also now centre
stage central to the field of eighteenth-century
to discussions is the studies. Central
cultural interface between regions and
empire. In this context the essay by
V.Narayana Rao on theMughal.Deccan John F. Richards and
is pioneering (Richards
and Rao, 1980). They emphasize
the need to juxtapose Persian
with vernacular source material
to understand the and oral with written tradition.
complexity of Mughal functioning
level. Their study brings to at theloWes
light the centrality 'community
of

LLi
 INTRODUCTION 11

interaction with an interventionist state apparatus, as powerrul

a
analytical premise for explaining the working of the Mughalstate.
The linguistic component of this critical cultural interfacee
Between regions and empire is elaborated upon by Alam in a
more recent essay on the making of Persian as the 'imprial
language. Heshowsthatthetensions between region and empire
Were also expressed as friction.betweenPersianand the
vernaculars.Thus, like Richards and Rao, Alam also suggests
that evidence of resistance of Mughal rule may not be available
in-the Përsian material, but may lie instead in.vernacular..texts
and oral tradtions generated in the..region Yet Persian
documentation alone, both court chronicles and revenue records,
continue to constitute the research base of those who postulate a
centralized fiscal state model.
Even though the çcultural dimension.of.empire in the early
eighteenth century needs further exploration and the studies
are few and sketchy, a.rich corpus-of-studies-is-available on both
agricultural and non-agricultural production systems and.
patterns of trade.These. explain. variously the mushrooming of .
regional polities in the period: Awadh, Bengal, and Hyderabad
steered to autonomy by Mughal provincial.officials,
Sikhs, Marathas, and Satnamis by 'rebel' peasant leaders.
and the
Explanations are also proffered for the emergence of the
Rohilkhand and Farrukhabad nawabis, as well as for the
crystallization of the south Indian polities of Tipu Sultan and
those on the south-west coast of Malabar which had no or only
indirect Mughal influence. The evidence. from-most of these
regions indicates economic realignments.that ensured the
********
dissociation of the regions.from.imperial Control. These studies
thus considerably alter the notion of the eighteenth century as a
'Dark Age.
At the same time, these new studies also indicate that the
trajectories of regional dissociation from the centre were diverse,
even though some general features can be identified across the
board. The common attributes are articulated most clearly
the studies of C.A. Bayly. His richly textured social history,
in-
particularly Rulers, 1ownsmenandBazaars, suggeststhat regional
 CENTURY IN ÎNDIA
THE EHTEENTH
12
consequence of three imno.
a vibrant crossnt
crystallization was a
cross-Ccas
POlitical
the
emergence
tievtopmentsirst, and its involvemen
organization
of
ent in politice e
politics -the
farming mea.e
reantile the Mughal practice of revenue meant ae
roliferation of
agrarian interests,
resulting inthe
cOalescing o merchant and
Second,
of intermediarie.}$econd the
emergence of a new class
process, which brought together er aa class of scrib
scribe
gentrification groups that served he #h
accountants, and other Mughal serVice
locally and sank their feet deep into society, investino
sting
new powers the practice of militar
towns or qasbals Finally, ry
in the small ot large armies and thei
fiscalism, which meant the maintenance
deployment in revenue collectionyi neempnasis
in bayly's work
is on the rise of intermediaries,
complete with the trappings of
and fiscal institutione
royal power, drawing on Mughal military Lons,

and their emergence as new power

centres (Bayly, 1983). Thesa
power from
revenue-collecting intermediaries, who derived their
a variety of portfolios and who disappeared in the face of the
English Company onslaught later in the decade, are categorized
by C.A. Bayly and Sanjay Subrahmanyam asportfolio capitalists
Bayly and Subrahmanyam, 1988). Inhis more recent work, Bayly
shows the increased local control exercised on the Indian
information order' by regional polities, which resulted in the
increasing bureaucratization of its formal and informal networks
(Bayly, 1996).
But more importantly, Bayly's studies indicate that the
developments of eighteenth-century India were not exclusive to
India. They were part of a larger global picture, where regional-
powers in North Africa, South America,
and Russia were similarly
poised on the eve of their colonial
takeover by France, Spain,
and Czarist Russia respectively. In
each of these regions,'agrarian
patriotism and 'universal benevolence'
of long-term stability. became the guaranteeS
The former generated information on the
economic, social, and
cultural aspects of societies;
was the language
which benefited some and the latter
disadvantage of the
others, thus structuring
landholders to the
SOciety.Second,
the metropolitan a power relation
matched by non-European context of imperialism wa
empire building as
well. Between i/ 60
 INTRODUCTION 13

and 1830, the interaction of these two forms of colonization wa

central to the development of imperialism.
Bayly's writings triggered a range of studies on the non-
European state-building exercises in the eighteenth century. The
builders were regional élites who acted often in anticipation of
and in interaction with the forces of British imperialism. The
latter began to be seen as deriving from these indigenous state
forms. Studies intluenced by this new trend in history writing
areotten collectively referred at as.'revisionist' writings{They
have earned this general epithetsince they piece togetherapicture
of vibrant political economies of regional polities and thus
considerably revise the issue of 'crisis' posited by historians
working on the Mughal empire? Alongside, they also
considerably qualify the metropolitan-centred understanding of
British inmperialism.by.underlining.the.centrality. of the regional
political economics in sustaining British power
However, the revisionist position is far from coherent or
monologous. As different points of emphasis emerge in this
position, a clearer picture of landed interests, merchants, and
trading communities and their relationship with political power
is now available. This has prompted.Bayly.to. fine-tune his
argument about the centrality of intermediary groups in the
eighteenth-century transition (Bayly, 1992). The study of landed
magnates in Kajasthan and Awadh, in particular, has enabled
him to more clearly show the sources of gentry strength. It is
now more than evident that their power was linked to increasing
consolidation of landed power. The latter was being expanded
and strengthened as more and more people converted their state-
derived prebendal rights to private inheritable wealth (Singh,
1990; Bajekal, 1990).
A quick survey of some regions will be undertaken to see
how political power crystallized and the kinds of interests-
landed and others-that it represented. It will be clear that the
shift to regional power centres occurred differently in different
areas, and a variety of explanations are proffered to describe
these critical changes. At one level,these.explanationsindicate
the different points of emphasis in the so-called 'revisionist
 INDIA
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY IN
14

these studies have critically

critin.
position. At another level,political and economic ly altered
alt.
understanding of the profiles
our ofthe
regions.

Anadh
were in the forn
The earlier regional studies of Awadh
líves ofindi of
political narratives., They concentrated on the
nawabs, particularly Shuja-ud-Daula, and próvided'arichaeuaT
ovided'aricha
battles, and economic activities in the ntext
ofpolitical treaties,
of a lurking British threat to the region (Srivastava. 1933). 1939
However, local-level political, econonmic and social details were
not linked up to long-term processes of change that were
taking place in the region. In contrast, later works concentrated
trated
on effectively threading together the regional reconfiguration
ons
with political changes. What emerged was a shift toward
agrarian regimes, where the roles or soclal intermediaries, such
as merchants operating between state and society, were clearearly
demarcated.
Muzaffar Alam's work on Awadh is an important case in
point. He provides evidence of marked economic growth and
prosperity, the prevalence of a cash nexus, and monetization in
the region. This was a consequence of a long course of growth in
the wake of a developing cash nexus in agriculture in the
seventeenth century. Economic growth resulted in the emer8ence
of wealthy zamindars who refused to part with their revenue
and who rose in revolt against the Mughals (Alam, 1986), The
zamindari uprising increased the bargaining power of the Mughal
subedar posted in the region. He finally increased his power by
acquiring the additional offices of faujdar and amil. Thus was.
born the 'new' subedari in Awadh around which merchant'an
agrarian interests coalesced to ultimately
throw off the Mughal
yoke the region. Yet, as Michael H. Fisher has shown, tne
in
dissociation of the region was only in
the economic real
Culturally, the region remained very ror
remained the reference Mughalized. The e
point of legitimacy until the early
nineteenth century (Fisher, 1987). giona.
orientation of this erstwhile
suba of
But the increasing T
to t
e
the empire did lead
 INTRODUCTION 15

slow evolution of what later Lucknow commentators, such as

Abdul Halim Sharar, have called Awadhi culture. J.R.I. Cole has
demonstrated the eclectic overtones of the culture as it
accommodated the Shi'ite tenor of the ruling house with the
predominantly Sunni Turko-Afghan Mughal culture and the local
traditions of the Hindu landed classes (Cole, 1988).

Hyderabad
In the case of Hyderabad, the more recent studies-unfortunately
still very sketchy in sharp contrast to the earlier detailed histories
by historians such as Yusuf Khan-identify forces that lead to
the crystallization of a social basewhich gradualy pushed-the
region towards autonomy (Richards, 1975; Leonard, 1979). Here
Richards work on Golcond and Leonard's on the Hyderabad
polity are particularly insighttul. According to Leonard, the
Hyderabad polity was based on a patron-client relationship
the Nizam being the chief patron. He doled out military and
administrative favours and presided over a range of patronage
centres: nobles, vakis, the financial and military groups. Each of
these patrons was a mirror inmage of the Nizam. Like the Nizam,
the nobles' power also rested on their military and diplomatic
success. Their proximity to the Nizam was important as well.
Leonard shows that nobles employed vakils, who often
represented them in the various courts, including that of the
Nizam. In course of time, the vakils began to constitute a sub-
political culture. The Nizamalso benefited from the presence of
an active mercantile community: the Marwaris, the Agarwals,
the Jains, and the Goswamis. The coming together of the nobles,
vakils, and military and financial groups paved the way for the
Mughal subedar to move towards political autonomy. Yet the
emperor remained the high reference point of legitimacy.

Bengal
Bengal was the mainstay of the economy of empire since it had
experienced rich growth following its integration into the larger
world of precolonial commerce. As the European Companies
emerged as important centres of power-a point that needs
 THE EGTEENTH CENTURY IN INTA
16

special attention-the political profile of the regian

structured largely on the basis of profits derived from Eurata
wa
trade. Even historians such as Abdul Karim, who studied Mugfial
subedars such as Murshid Quli Khan, concentrated on his relatisrns
with the Companies (Karim, 1963). European trade and its
ramification and the profits derived from commerce were
sae
key to the understanding of Murshid Qui Khari's attermgt
t
carve out his sphere of political autonomy. Murshid Quli
Kan
combined the offices of Nazimate and LDiwani in 1717,This wasa
period when Delhi's finances were in the red. It was pertaps tte
hope of ensuring regularity of revenue collectiorn that promcte
the Mughal government to inadvertently sanction the areaticn
of a new subedari (Marshall, 1987).
Later studies shifted the politico-economic profile of še
region towards predominantly 'agrarian-based regimEE. The
consolidation of a class of big zamindars and the emergence cf a
range of other landed interests with administrative arnd juical
responsibilities remained the focus in early studies of the nawzci
(Sinha, 1965; Akhtar, 1982, 1979). But other studies indiczied
that 'agrarian regimes' did not work in isolatio. Imporiant
bankers and merchants put down roots into rural society. Ihis
created a new social order for nawabi power (Calkins, I970).
excellent illustration of this trend was the emergence at ie
Burdwan rajas, who began their careers as Khatri merchanis are
later administrative officials in the area (Mclane, 199). The
historiographical spotlight on the consolidation of an arar
order did not mean an end to the importance in historiograrhical
writing of Bengal's export trade in defining its economic ane
political profile. The writings of Om Prakash and
Chaudhury are significant in this respect.
Om Prakash's studies on the trade of the European
Companies, particularly the Dutch East India Company (VOC,
highlight the centrality of Bengal in the European export raie
in textiles and silk, resulting in considerable intlow ot bulior
into Bengal. He shows that the Maratha raids of the 17s
notwithstanding, the economic prosperity of Bengal continue
well up to the middle of the century (1760s), when the political
 17
ENTPOTRCTION

the bullion
conquest of Bengal by the English Company ended
1998).
for goods' equation (Prakash,
Sushil Chaudhury's recent work corroborates the
idea of an
that
economically stable and prosperous Nizamat, but one
European
derived its strength not so much from the profits of
the export trade
trade but from the role of Asian merchants in
carried on with the backing of the nawabs. He thus
posits a
in the cementing
strong link between merchants and royal power
1995).
of the Bengal Nizamat (Chaudhury,

The Sikhs
(1708), stood in
Punjab, after the death of Guru Gobind Singh
Awadh, Hyderabad,
stark contrast to the post-Mughal states of
and regional
and Bengal. Here the course of imperial decay subedar, but
autonomy did not take place under ihe aegis of the
experiment towards
under the local warrior aristocracy. The of the Sikh
autonomy was largely determined by the nature Bahadur.
movement lead by Guru Gobind's successor, Banda
regional
Irfan Habib explains Punjab's experiment towards leaders from
autonomny in terms of the support derived by local
under the Mughal
the peasantry suffering fiscal exploitation
regime. Ihus ihe VMughal agrarian
system and revenue extraction
eighteenth-
constitute the framework for analysing Punjab's
working of
century experiment.. Muzaffar Alam focuses on the
subedari
the Mughal administrative institutionsjagirdarnand
the role of merchants to explain regional developmenis. He
and Zakariya Khan, to
explains the inability of the Mughal subedar,
intricacies of NMughal
garner political unrest to his advantage; the
administrative functioning; the presence of big jagirdars in the
household; and
region; jagirs feeding the Mughal kitchen and
the Mughal
the absence of the Khatri merchants' links with
1986).
subedar due to trade being in disarray (Alam,
Later studies move beyond the Mughal administrative and
fiscal paradigms. They see regional developments also in the.
Context of the fringe tribal economies, trade connections with
region..
Persia and Central Asia, and ecological problems in the
Chetan Singh's work is pioneering as it paints the region's profile
 CENTURY IN INDIA
THE EIGHTEENTH
8
societies into is
integrating its hitherto neglected tribal
by radically alters the general
political economy. Singh's work
understanding of the region as well as empire. He.attributes- ne
late-seventeenth-century-Punjab-to-+h
economic instability of
on the trade
silting of the river ndus and the tribal disturbances
of Persia and Central
routes that linked theregion to.the markets
in the region.
Asia. Ecpnomic vulnerability fuelled peasant revolts
But Singh's point is that economic vulnerability was not a
consequence only of Mughal fiscal practicesSingh, 1991). Singh's
intervention undermined the argument about the effectiveness
of Mughal institutional centralization (Habib, 1961; Ali, 1966).
J.S.Grewal and Indu Banga highlight the agrarian and commercial
undertones of the region's profile. Their writings reveal.that
peasant leaders such as Banda Bahadur or later Kapur Singh
failed to consolidate their hold effectively, even though they
did try to create a revenue-cum-military system with the help of
compromises effected with the Mughal governor. Later leaders
were less willing to strike any deal with the Mughal governor
and took the path of social banditry. The emergence of regional
political autonomy had to wait until almost the early nineteenth
century (Grewal, 1995; Banga, 1978).

The Marathas
In contrast, the Maratha potentates, who emerged
as successors
of the Deccani sultans and the Mughal emperor, were
able to
consolidate revenue and profits from trade with far more
sophistication than the Sikhs/ Earlier studies,
such as those of
Habib, see the rise of the Marathas as
the consequence of the
exploitative streak in the Mughal agrarian
system and revenue
structure. They argue that the oppressed
peasantry rallied around
the Maratha zamindars to escape the
exploitative arms of the
Mughal state (Habib, 1982).
More recently, Mughal kingship
has been redefined outside
the exploitative ambit of the
structure. This has resulted Mughal revenue and agrarian
in the
Mughal expansion to explain creation of a new space within
empirically exhaustivestudies the rise of the Marathas. The
of André Wink locate the
Marathas.
 INTRODUCTION 19

within a novel model of Mughal kingship..Here kingship rests.

not so much on the exploitative revenue structures but on a maze
of conflicting and multiple alliances that reflect thelshifting
concurrent righits| that characterized Mughal.expansion. This
process of rights and alliances Wink calls fitna. Within this
network of agile rights anct privileges, the-Marathas are seen to
have constituted a zamindari tenure encompassed by the Mughal
empire. It is argued that they acquired stability because their
notion of svarjya (sovereignty)-compounded-the-absolute
authority of the emperor. In the eighteenth century, as Mughal
power was pushed upwards, its revenues were available for
localized agrarian expansion that lead to an intensification of
rights and conflict. A general involution of imperial dominion
resulted: the Maratha king, Shahu, played a mediatory role until
the conflict between the Marathas and the Citpavan Brahmins
brought the Peshwa to the fore (Wink, 1986)?
If Wink's study explains the rise of the Marathas within a
redefined Mughal kingship structure, subsequent studies
completely discard the formal fiscal and governance models of
Mughal functioningThey highlight the role played by the social.
intermediaries operating through formaland informal networks
befween state and society: traders, bankers, and-households.
***

This lent a unique economic profile to the region.Stewart

Gordon's work has emphasized the rise ofthe Citpavan Brahmins
as peshwas and the high level of bureaucratization, intensification
of trade, banking, and financial activities that followed. (Gordon,
1994). In his study of the great 'households' of Maratha revenue-
collectors and the processes by which they used their positions
as village headmen to weave their webs of kinship in the
countryside, Frank Perlin traces the local-level networks of
support spreading along primordial lines that sustained the
regional polity. He views with suspicion the more conventional
notion that the monetary economy and commerce in pre-colonial
India was dependent on and developed as a consequence of state
iaxation. Perlin's studies emphasize that "taxation regimes' in
Maharashtra operated in a wider economic context that included
formal and informal networks of credit and administration that
often transcended political frontiers (Perlin, 1983, 1985). Finally,
 ENGHTEENTH CENTURY N INDIA
THE
20

by Sumit Guha shows #h thattrade

insightful article
a recent
Maratha territories from ababout 1740-and
increased in the
credit flow
significantlyafd
icantly-affe
circulation.and
commodily consumption. Guha sharply rof efutes
village production and .
Marathas by arguing thats
of the rise of the the
Habib's thesis craftsmen
competition between merchants and andits
econ.
hectic political
such that the Maratha
impact on production was ment int
the landscape of human settlement into an
came to shape (Guha, 1996).
integrated social and political network

South Indian Polities

Following C.A. Bayly's influential framework,
some historianc
have provided models of regional state forms with roval
aspirations in south India as well. The general thrust has been to
explain the emergence of polities.by emphasizing the local drive
towards centralization, achieved through elaborate
bureaucracies.Burton Stein's argument ot. military-fiscaism
emphasizes the centralizing trend in eighteenth-century-polities,
Which resulted in the freeing of the state from the controfof the
local aristocracy, the putting together of an extensive tax-base
and a state organized around war (Stein, 1985). Similarly, Mysore
under Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan has been shown to be a
centralized state form, with elaborate tax-collecting bureaucracies,
a European-trained army, and with the ruler deriving his
egtimacy from a cultural world shared by Hindus and Muslims.
David Washbrook indicates the conflictual relationship between
the regional rulers, such as Tipu Sultan, and the privileged élites,
Sich as the mirasidarsand the jenmis, that resulted in considleraoe
gains for the lesser privileged and labouring
groups (Washbrook,
1993). The extractive nature of
the regional regimes is aib
hignlighted through their. exaction of
tribute from the syste
of agricultural commodity production that tied villages
expansive networks of commercial
process also called mobility and exchang a
tributary-commercialism' (Ludden, 190
Thepolitical profile of south been
intuenced by studies Indian polities has
argument about that follow from Heesterman and an
the state being a bu
mere ritual centre (5n
 INTRODUCTION 21

1985; Dirks, 1987). John F, Richard's Papadu or Sanjay

Subrahmanyam's Velugoti and Damarla clans drew upon the
Vijayanagar monarchical model of conspicuous gifting and.other
royal frills (Richard and Rao, 1980).
More recently, DilipMenon provides an alternate model for
regional state forms that emerged in the context of eighteenth-
century warfare in the Malabar region of the south-west Indian
coast. Here profits from trade rather than the more stable
revenue supply from the agrarian sector underlie the processOr
state formation, which was dependent on the reluctant allegiance
between the kings perched on the coast and the land-owning
households maintajning themselves through control over land
and people. There was also no existing model of monarchical
centralization or elaborate revenue-collecting structures. Here
ne attempts at state formation followed the invasion of Haidar
Ali and Tipu Sultan, who introduced the rudiments of a military.
labour market and made the initial efforts to introduce'revenue
assessment and collection. Menon's study shows that Mysore's
invasion generated_a new.space between the centralizing
Mysorean state and the constellation of multiple authorities in
Malabar. It was in this space that political entrepreneurs, such as
military labour contractors, structured themselves. They
combined the authority of the large Hindu households with
newer methods of recruitment and revenue collection. Monarchy
was a form rarely aspired for (Menon, 1999).

The Second Half of the Eighteenth Century:

The Transition to Colonialism

By the middle of the eighteenth century, regions such as Awadh

and Hyderabad stopped paying tribute to the Mughal emperor
and visibly enhanced their capacity for local economic integration
and military expenditure (Barnett, 1980; Bayly, 1983)) The Mughal
emperor****
was increasingly reduced to a mere reference point for
legitimacy. Remarkably, similar changes had taken place by this
time in order regions as well: Alivardi Khan in Bengal, the misl
22 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY IN INDIA

leadership in Punjab, Ali Muhammad Khan in Rohilkhand,

and
the Peshwa Baji Rao in his Maratha territory were all busy
consolidating their holdings.
The drive towards greater control of revenue collection
was
to a large extent necessitated by the pressing need to
set up a
sophisticated military apparatus to meet the political challenges
of the tinme. The late eighteenth century was characterized
by
constant political tlux: Maratha incursions, Persian
invaders led
by Nadir Shah (1739), and Afghan depredations under
Ahmad
Shah. The political dangers were aggravated
by the perpetual
threat, especially after 1757, of the English East India Company.
The lurking British threat became a reality
Buxar in 1764. The defeat of Shuja-ud-Daulah,
after the battle of
the Nawab of
Awadh, at Buxar, paved the way for British
expansion into north
India. One important aspect ot the
indigenous reaction to the
British triumph at Buxar was reflected
in the urgency felt all
over north India to maintain large infantry
regiments and use
them to garner greater control over revenue
resources. However,
despite these common attributes, different
varying means to intensify their hold over regions adopted
society, In regions
Such as Awadh, Bengal, and Hyderabad,
the 'commercialization
of royalpower, that is, merchant
participation in politics,
had begun under the Mughals and which continued which
into the
eighteenth century, intensified and provided
of the indigenous regimes. The the structural base
Marathas and the Sikhs continued
their early practice of incorporating
peasant castes, mercenaries,
and groups on the fringes of settled agriculture
to stabilize their
polities; the Rohilla Afghan adventurers,
the Mughals, consolidated their who received fiefs from
hold in
defeating the.local Rajput-brotherhoodsthe north-west regions,
lineage centres (Bayly, 1983; and occupying their
Hussain, 1994; Gommans, 1995).
However, the most contentious
the century has been the issue of the second half of
transition to early colonial rule (English
East India Company rule).
This
regarding the Company's successful has provoked discussion
the impetus behind rise to political dominance,
impingement of this
European expansion, as well as the
transition on the changing relationship
 INTRODUCTION 23

between state and society in colonial India. In this context,

historians have debated the issues under the following four broad
themes: trade and empire; state and economy (which covers
regional agrarian economy, trade and non-agricultural economy
and the introduction of agrarian capifalism);, military,law
governance and the Company; and state and ideology. It is
noteworthy that the 'revisionist' studies on regional political
economies, outlined in the previous 'section, are central to much
of the neW analyses on these issues. At one level, the early colonial
state is seen as being shaped by thereferents.Of indigenous
pölitical economies. On the other, these.w.orks.question the.
general conclusions that often eclipsed the critical role of the
Company state in introducing changes in Indian society and
economy. The contours of these debates are examined in the
following discussion.

Trade and Empire

Historians are divided over the reasons which lead to the
Company's transition to political powet/The older accounts of
British conquest view the English Company as being constrained
to transform itself into a territorial power because of the
insecurity caused by the collapse of the Mughal empire and the
emergence of a rival European threat to its trading areas from
the FrenchSome studies also attribute the movement from trade
to political dominion to the spurt in European production and
trade in the eighteenth century. As Indian textiles began to be
exported and paid for in bullion, the mercantilist critique of the.
drain of bullion intensified. Access to lndian revenue, was seen
as one way to solve the problem (Nightingale, 1970). Later works
emphasize the political gains that accrued to the priváte interests
in the Company, which thrust the political frontier, sustained by
revenue collection, well beyond the economic one of trade and
investments (Stokes, 1973). A later work of Marshall suggests
that British private trade undermined the stability of the Indian
regional states and thus had indirect influence on the Companiy's
expansion (Marshall, 1976)) On the issue of imperial expansion
in Awadh, he argues that the success of the British merchants
 24 THE EGHTEENTH CENTURY IN ÎNDIA

a
operating in the region facilitated the political crumbling of
state already weakened by its political obligations to the
Company. Thus both the political and economic frontiers of British
India appear to have been mobile (Marshall, 1975). R. Mukherjee
emphasizes the 'simultaneous nature' of British political and
economic expansion into Awadh. Economic penetration moved
hand in hand with growing British political control Thus trade
and the flag were interrelated in the period of mercantile
domination. He argues that it was not simply the desire to
establish trading monopolies that resulted in British territorial
expansion. The British were drawn into indigenous politics
because of the necessity of providing the military machinery
whereby they could enforce a monopoly, which inevitably led
to the need to provide the finance for such an infrasiructure
(Mukherjee, 1982).
If explanations regarding the Company's rise to political
supremacy are varied, so too are the reasons behind its impact
on the local society and economy. Exploring these themes from
the perspectives of trade and economy and the legal, military,
and cultural spheres, historians differ on whether colonialism
constituted a critical break with the pre-colonial past or whether
it marked.a.continuity with the.economy, society, and culture of
indigenous societies. In other works, did colonial economy,
society, and polity have indigenous origins?

State and Economny

Agrarian economies and the Company state:

continuity or change?
The earlier studies of economic historians, particularly R.C. Dutt
and Dadabhai Naoroji, view colonialism as an economic and
political disjunction (Dutt, 1903; Naoroji, 1901). Ranajit
Guha views
the introduction of the Permanent Settlement in Bengal
as an
indispensable measure to ensure private property right
in land.
Based as it was on a critique of the
earlier revenue policy,
particularly revenue farming, it was said to
have inaugurated a
clear break with the past (Guha, 1963).
 INTRODUCTION 25

Later, thesludies of B.B. Chaudhury and Sabyasachí

3hallacharya, withoul diluting the focus on the political
imperative of colonial rule, shift the discussion to the process of
economic change lhat carly British rule initiated. They argue
that early British rule initialedimportant changes both in the
agricultural as well as non-agricultural sectorsThe high.rate of
land revenue demand-culminating in the Permanent Settlement
.of 1793-set the tone for institutional innovatíons. Soon crucial
changes were evident in agrarian society; an increase in rural
credit and the sale of estates of the defaulting zamindars created
both a land market as well as changed the composition and
functioning of agricultural labours and sharecroppers. Whereas
earlier labourers were low-caste domestic servants and victims
of chronic indebtedness, now. their social base.expanded to
include people who had suffered loss of land or gradual
diminishing of per capita holdings, and impoverished sections
of small peasants (Chaudhury, 1982)At the same time, the tamine
of 1769-70 caused rural depopulation and a price rise, and added
to the declining trend of the economy (Bhattacharya, 1982)
The economic trends in Bengal became the basis of a more
general argument about the economic impact of early British
rule. Irfan Habib, for instance, argues that the English Company's
trading operations dislocated and disrupted indigenous
economies; the Company state was located external to the society,
it was exploitative in character, and the grant of the Diwani (1765)
or revenue rights over Bengal and Bihar reduced bullion inflows
into India, caused inflation and intensified the drain of wealth
from the Bengal province, and after 1813, caused large scale de-
industrialization (Habib, 1985). These developmenis constituted
a critical break with the past.
In contrast, in some other regional studies the political
economy of Indian states provides an explanation for the early
phase of British expansion. The point of emphasis is that the
English Company was sucked into politics by the internal logic
of the indigenous.systems.Thus-an-element.of.continuity, is
suggested in the trading, and administrative institutions pre-
of
*

colonial and early colonial India. It is argued that the critical

26 Ti BExkatUNTII CENTURY IN INDIA

Impingement of colonialim on Indian society began only by the

carly nlnetleenth century/ Bayly, Marshall, Stein, Washbrook, and
DAs CGupla through their regional studies on agriculture,
merehants, Iuropean trade, the military, and the legal dimensions
of Company rule respectively, attribute its success to the
remarkable ways in which it grafted itself over the networks of
the indigenous economy and infrastructure.They chart the long
but gracdunl process through which it evehtually established its
mastery over the system witlh increased sophistication. Lraders,
merchants, and the gentry, who had buttressed their positions
as imporlant inlermediary groups, drifted towards the Company
as traditional tracding centres declined and- the €ompany dug its-
feet into new towns such as Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. In
these new centres, a trading structure developed through
collaboration between the English and the Indians (Das Gupta,
1970). Thus the Company state ina.way marked a culmination-
of processes that characterized the eighteenth-century regional
political economies: revenue farming and military fiscalism.
The general emphasis on the resilience of the indigenous
political economies as the reference point of the Company's
political culture notwithstanding, the 'revisionist' position is also
marked by differences. For instance, Stein and Washbrook differ
on the centrality accorded to the English Company in defining.
the changing position of labour in the Mysore territory ceded to
the British in 1799. Stein identifies many features of continuity.
between_the Mysore.regime.of Hyder. Ali.and Tipu Sultan and
that put together by Thomas Munro in the ceded districts:
military.fiscalism, the elimination of the petty lordships (poligars),
and the clipping of their power by the employment of non-local
intermediary officials to link the state with agricultural society.
Maharashtrian Brahmins wereone such important group among
the new intermediaries( Stein argues that a
contradiction always
existed between the centralizing patrinmonial
regimes (such as
that of Tipu Sultan), which were 'universalistic'
and 'fiscally and
extractively-oriented , and the local lordships
were 'localistic', 'relativistic',
(poligartype) which
and 'redistributivist'. The
contradiction further sharpened with the
arrival of the English
Company.)This was because the Company,
while initially
 INTRODUCTION 27

operating within the indigenous political and fiscal paradigms,

possessed substantially more resources to deploy tor conquest
than the other pöwers. Thus the changes, such as thedecline in
the independence of labour consequent to Company rule, would
have occurred even if Tipu's regime had not been ousted. stein,
however, does point out that since the 'patrimonial sultanist
system was incompatible with the advanced economic forms
latent in Tipu's fiscal measures', the sulta's political order would
have been destroyed before the advent of these changes (Stein,
1985).
Stein's argument contrasts with that of Washbrook, who
attribütes critical shifts in the position of Tabour to the political
powerthat the Eompany.had. acquired.in-the region. He argues
that at one level; Company.rule exercised its monopolistic confrol
over the social and economic processes unleashed by the military
Fiscal state of Tipu but, at the same time, its efforts, at times.
**

ambivalent, regarding the introduction of modern capitalist

relationsin land affected the bargaining pasition and
independence of labour. In pre-colonial times, the struggle
between the contending regional polities caused economic and
political instability (decline of trade, dispersal of the artisanal
population, and destruction of irrigation works). These
conditions reflected a serious crisis in the profitability of capital,
a
which had to bear a heavier risk and distribute to labour larger
labour-increased
share of the surplus. The bargaining position of
build-ups, thus
as rulers such as Tipu involved labour in army
to workers to
bidding up the price of the inducements oftered
expanded due to
Shift their locations. As commercial production
were opened up
demand from the Company, new opportunitiesaway from land
for labour. The emergence of opportunitiesitself. But this statee
agriculture
improved labour's position within
took over and began to
of affairs ended when the Company
capital back into agriculture
look for ways to encourage 'private'
accommodation the privileged classes
and hence for the means ot were-restored, the less
(mirasidars and jenmis). As these. back to a position of
privileged labour groups were pushed The loss of labour's rights
economic and social subordination.
by either invoking tradition or
and independence was justified
 28 Hr EcIEENII CENTURY IN INDIA

by enacting modern laws of contract. Thus, for instance, in

response to the complaints of the local mirasidars that labour
was scarce, Madras army dismissed the Pariahs (low castes) from
its ranks on the grounds of upholding custom. At the same time,
the law courts ruled that agricultural wages ought to be
determined by the laws of supply and demand. All these factors
rendered unenforceable an enormous class of rights previously
possessed by labour (Washbrook, 1993).
Trade, non-agricultural production, and
the Company state:prosperity ordecline?
In the trading and non-agricultural production sectors, it is argued
that the Company established its monopoly over salt, opium,
and saltpetre. Theintroduction of the agency and contract system
in the 1770s and 1780s completely sidelined the middlemen and
brokers from industries such as. textiles. At the same time, it
used the surplus revenue of Bengal to purchase export goods.
This was not only. detrimental of Bengal's export trade butt.
also reduced bullion intlows trom Europe, causing- monetary
problems. Gradually, Indian capital was perforce mainly confined-
to internal trade, unorganizedbanking, servicing petty
commodity production in agriculture, and artisanal industry. 1 ne
stage was set for the subordination of indigenous capital to British
capital (Bhattacharya, 1982).
At the same time, studies on European trade and economy,
particularly that of the English Company, have brought to the
fore the regional variations in India's colonial encounter;
they
also question the element of generality suggested in the earlier
writings on Company trade that emphasize its disastrous
consequences for the indigenous economy.
Marshall argues that prior to the acquisition of
Diwani rights
and the official transfer of power, Bengal
was thrown into a
series of financial crises, which paved the.way. for
Bengal experienced an economic its takeover:-
slump, a decline in European
exports, and an increase in prices
from the 1740s onwards due
to the Maratha invasions, and
reduced bullion inflows as the
Company began to finance its trade
and settlements in Asia from
the revenues of Bengal.
According to Marshall, the economy
 INTRODUCTION 29

picked up only in the latter half of the century and the local
markets were responsive to the massive increase in Company
exports from the region. Both Marshall and Bayly argue that
despite the deterioration in the terms and conditions under which
the suppliers and the artisans were obliged to operate, the
structure of commerce and agricultural and manufacturing
production in the region showed no sign of crumbling and
continued to deliver even after the Company had acquired
political power (Marshall, 1987; Bayly, 1983, 1998).
However, all historians of trade do not share this perspective.
Sushil Chaudhury and Om Prakash argue for an economic crisis
in Bengal conseguent to the end of the 'bullion for goods era
that intensified after the Company takeover of Diwani rights in
1765. Their studies show that Bengal was economically
prosperous in the first half of the eighteenth century prior to its
conquest by the Company: While Om Prakash attributes this
prosperity to the export trade of the European Companies,
particularly the VOC, Chaudhury highlights the.role of the Asian
merchants in the export trade and the consequent advantage
this gave to the economy of the province (Prakash, 1998;
Chaudhury, 1995).
Recent studies on the late eighteenth-century economy, both
in Bengal and other regions, validate the general tenor of the
positions taken by Bayly and Marshall, but add different points
of emphasis. Rajat Datta's findings suggest that Bengali traders
and financiers actually increased their control.over the economy
and peasant production as a result of,.the.revenue squeeze
imposed by the Company following the Diwani management.
But as far as bullion supply and its links with prices and market
buoyancy are concerned, Datta's evidence substantially qualifies
the simple link between low bullion input atter the acquisition
of Diwani and the consequent price rise. He shows that the
reduction in bullion inflows had started prior to the acquisition
of Diwani in 1765. This was because the Company was bound by
charter to export British manufactures. worth at.least one-tenth
ofits trading capital in every-trading season. From thetomiddle
arrive
of the eighteenth century, although treasure continued
in lndia, the merchandise component saW a visible increase. This
 30 THE ERGPHTEENTH CENTURY IN INDIA

continued until 1784, when exports of treasure picked up again.

into India was once
he downward slide of treasure imported
again noticeable in 1793-4. There was thus no sudden stoppage
of bullion for trade after the acquisition of Diwanij (Datta, 1999).
n Rajasthan also, Dilbagh Singh shows that the privilege holders
and merchants gained in status as fiscal pressure on the state
ncreased (Singh, 1990). Again, for the Coromandel region,
Bhashwati Bhattaclharya's insightful essay shows that political
instability did not disrupt trade, commodity production, and
markets. These merely shifted to new centres such as Hindupur
and Walajahpet instead of being concentrated in Masaulipatnam
(Bhattacharya, 1998). Similarly, S. Arasaratnam shows an increase
in South East Asian commerce after 1760, which compensated
for the decline in India's Asian trade flowing eastward and
westward in the seventeenth century. The trade was largely in
the hands of private merchants (Arasaratnam, 1998).
With the emergence of more regional studies, the 'revisionist
position regarding the Company's success in grafting itself over
the existing fiscal and trading networks with relative ease and
uniformity is also being questioned. Recent studies indicate the
regional variations in the Company's 'appropriation' of
indigenous networks, Evidence from the west coast and south
India, in particular iLakshmi Subramanian's work on Surat,
indicates the complexities in the Company's efforts to manipulate
the local support networks of weavers and merchants.
Subramanian shows that the Company was resisted at various
levels as the opening up of job opportunities in East Africa otten
improved the weavers' bargaining position (Subramanian, 1996)4
Again, for south India, Prasannan Parthasarathi's work indicates
that the Company obtained support from only a
specitic type of
merchant; this was the disentranchized cloth merchants of the
region who had been squeezed out due to increased state.
monopolies in pepper and cloth established by local rulers such
as Martanda Verma in Malabar and Tipu Sultan
in Mysore
(Parthasarathi, 1996). These studies qualify the 'continuity' thesis
by indicating that the support of merchants and weavers
to.the.
Company was not across the board, nor was it due to the
declining strength of regional polities.
 INTRODUCTION 31

Revenue settlements, introduction of

agrarian capitalism, and the Engish Company
The 'continuity' and 'change' debate has influenced discussions
on the making of the Company's agrarian sphere as well. The
Permanent Settlement of Bengal (1793) and the nineteenth-
century attempt to introduce agrarian capitalism that earmarked
the Company s.agrarian.order have.been the focus of much"
controversy. Historians are divided over the question of
indigenous origins of these two important referents of Company
rule.
Ranajit Guha and Eric Stokes focus on the 'innovative'
character of the Permanent Settlement/ Stokes argues that it
derived from English Whig notions of recognizing private
property as the basic principle of government, and thus signalled
a clean break from the pre-colonial past; it introduced legally
sanctioned private property rights in land (Stokes, 1959)! On the
other hand, Guha highlights a maze of intellectual influences
that shaped the nature of the settlement: mercantilist,
physiocratic, and free trade advocates. It was held that the
principles of this settlement derived largely from French
physiocratic notions. Its implications were the creation of landed
estates, land markets, and the emergence of new zamindaris.
The new zamindars invested capital in the purchase of land, a
system of rural credit developed, and land inevitably began to
pass from debtors to creditors (Guha, 1963).
local records
In contrast, Ratnalekha Ray, on the basis of
from districts such as Rajshahi, highlights the limitations the
of
pre-
settlement in introducing any major transformation in the
of
colonial order. Changes were confined to the upper echelons
as well as the-
rural society; at village level both landholdings levels
agricultural base remained unaltered.. Even at the upper
of rural society, it was not land that
changed hands but rather
rights were
perpetual rights in revenue management. Proprietary
rights over
Conferred on zamindars who already held such
were thus given
revenue collection or land. Pre-colonial rights
case for continuity
exact definition. Ray thus makes a strong
(Ray, 1979). In a similar
within the traditional agrarian order
 32 THE ExATEENTH CENTUrI
BIA
vein, N. Mukherji and Robert Eric Frykenberg emphasize
continuity within the traditional agrarian order in the
implementation of the Ryotwari Settlermernt in south india, He
concludes that the direct dealings with the ryos may haveinitiaily
been disruptive in their effect. However, soom the sociai baiance
Was rectified, the traditional privileges of mirasidars, Kadim and
ulkudis were restored, and concessions were granted to rannins
(Mukherji and Frykenberg, 1979).. Neeladri Bhattacharya
emphasizes the need to keep in focus the changed political
structure of the late eighteenth century before pushing with the
continuity' thesis. He argues that Brítish agrarian settiement
generated definite changes within the social fabric of Indía. Yet
these changes were not merely the outcome of debates in Europe
over private property as the basic principle of govermment. In
contrast, the agrarian transition was embedded in and shaped
by the active 'social intervention of the indigenous Classes arnd
groups. The nature of the indigenous response defined the limits
within which the state could go ahead with its policies
(Bhattacharya, 1986). Thus changes were not initiated in abstraci.
Political exigencies determined that changes occurred with a
sensitive finger on the pulse of social reality. Moving away from
Bengal, the regional studies of upper India further
highlight the
complexities hidden beneath the apparent continuities
characterized the agrarian transítion in the eighteenth
that
century.
Meena Bhargava's work on Gorakhpur shows
that even though
the Company continued with the
pre-colonial agrarian
nomenclature of zamindar and madad-i-maash,
it consideraby
changed the nature and form of the
rights and privileges which
these terms connoted (Bhargava, 1993,
1999).
If the 'indigenous origin'
and the impact of colonial agrarian
settlement have been moot issues,
so too has the idea of the
development of agrarian capitalism
in the nineteenth cerntury.
Habib, the proponent of the
exclusively colonial phenomenon.
'change' thesis, views it as an
evidence of capitalist accumulation He argues that there is no
in pre-colonial India: the
leading to capitalist relations
payment of kharaj (land tax)
buttressed the growth of in cash
confined to the urban merchant capital, but it remained.
sector and was not cycled back
into the
 INTRODUCTON
33

rural sphere. I he parasitic relationship of towns with rural India

inhibited the profitable investment of merchant
capital into
agriculture or industry. This precluded the development of
capitalist relations. Moreover, the vibrancy of merchant
capital
came to an end with the late-seventeenth-century
agrarian crisis
and the revolts which disturbed the conduit of revenue in
cash
to the urban sector. But ultimately the English appropriation of
tribute and its investment outside India sounded the death knell
of merchant capital and reinforced colonial subjugation of the
agrarian order (Habib, 1985).
In contrast, the proponents of the 'continuity' thesis, Bayly.
Wink, and Subrahmanyam, locate the rudimentary beginning
of nineteenth-century agrarian capitalism in the political
economies of the pre-colonial polities. They argue that
eighteenth-century regional political economies were not in the
doldrums, nor had indigenous capital atrophied. In fact, it wvas
engaged in the internal bulk and luxury trade, albeit on new
routes, and in the financing of military and revenue machineries.
Regional political economies were characterized by an advanced
level of mercantile capitalism; commercial zones with merchant
and banking groups, international commerce, insurance, and
revenue demand in cash also encouraged merchant capital. The
new demands made on the agrarian order by the relatively more
interventionist eighteenth-century regimes, the greater control
over the peasantry, artisanal labour and inferior trading groups,
and extensive commerce and commodity production resulted in
a partial dissolution of community-centred relations; state officials
converted their state-derived prebendal rights into hereditary
entitlements. A 'new' class of gentry thus emerged, breaking.
the older community structure by extending the notion of private
inheritable wealth. Communitarian relations also received a jolt
when regional polities relied more on 'portfolio capitalists, who
derived their wealth from mixed portfolios: revenue farming
private trade, warfare, and loans. (Bayly and Subrahmanyam,
1988). Bayly and Subrahmanyam, in particular, suggest that the
agrarian capitalism of the nineteenth century developed as ar
Consequence of the interaction between these evolving indigenous
 INDA
ErGHEENTH CENTURY IN
HE
torces.of.colonial
the more powerful
capitalist relations and
capitalisnm
edition of Rulers, Townsmen and
n the epilogue to the
Indian articulates his viewe
5), Bayly
as Chapter
Araars (reprinted here formation in India more clearly. He believes
on the nature of class formation cannot confine itself onlv
class instance, whether
that the argument on of capital (for
type
to a discussion on the cementsrelations. Central-to-the.
or usurious) that
menantile
the specific features of Indianprocess-
social
discussion have to be case is one where the
the Indian
esses. In this respect,
inextricably jinked With the processes of
of class tormation is formation"Since private property and
aste and communitycommunity resources, the process of class
capital subsisted with emergence of communities
to blunted by the
tormation tended be possessing different degrees of
which were composed of people
and economic status) These were often divided along
wealth
as the regional polities sought
lines of caste and clan. Thús,
saliency of community
legitimacy in the Indian tradition, the
reintorced, even as the development of class formation in
was
its incipient stages took place. Class
formation, of course, had
community. The Company
the potential to weaken the bonds of
sensitivity
inherited this legacy and handled it with the utmost
(Bavly, 1992).
Companr state and gorernance
administration, the military, and the law
If the debate on Company state and economy has complicated
the study of colonial expansion, the discussion of its structures
of governance has further complicated the study of this critical
transition period. Here, historians examine the making of
Company administration and the military and legal spheres to
identify the different levels at which state and society interacted.
Frykenberg's work on Guntur set the agenda by proposing
that in the outlying districts of Madras between 1770 and 1830
British rule was supported by Indian district officials.connected
with the old clerisy (Frykenberg, 1965). Cohn and Stein describe
the resilience of the clan-holding structures of north India and.
the segmentary state structures of south India, respectively, from
 INTRODUCTION
35

the mid-eighteenth century (Cohn, 1960; Stein, 1985). More

recently, Anand Yang's work has demonstrated the persistence
of local power holders in the face of early colonial expansion
Yang, 1989). Bayly's more recent studies highlight the other
network of indigenous support on which the Company drew
the vibrant Indian iñformationrordercomprisingnews
informers
and scribes (Bayly, 1996). David Ludden emphasizes the role of
caste (that is jati) as localized clusters that crystallized in the
process of the opening up of new regions, often with the active
encouragement ot the state in early modern India (Ludden, 1996).
More recently, social historians working onthe-military
cultures of early colonial India have validated the 'continuity
thesis by detailing the making of the'Company state as a'garrison
state', which monopolized in sophisticated ways the pre-colonialL
practice of military fiscalism (Peers, 1995). Other works on the
Company's military culture dissect the complex processes of the
bedding down of the garrison state' into Indian society (Kolf,
1990; Alavi, 1995).{ Kolff's important study emphasizes the
Company's interaction with the indigenous military labour
market, while mine demonstrates the ways in which the Company
state derived its sustenance from and shaped itself in dialogue
with the 'native' sepoys Similarly, in the legal sphere, the
Company's rise to politicál domination has been explained in
terms of its strategies aimed at drawing upon the existing
normative codes-of rule, rank, status, and gender-even as it
sought to reshape them to suit its own political advantage (Singha,
1998). Indeed, all these works, each in its own way, highlight
the key'role played by the Company state in changing the existing
norms of rank, status, rights, and privilege while formulating its
political sovereignty./
If, at one level, this new body of literature has reinforced
the revisionist position, it has also complicated the argument by
making it more nuanced. Thus, even though it tends to argue
along lines that highlight the responsiveness of the indigenous
markets and society even after the Company's politicaltakeover
ofBengal, italsoimplicitly suggests that the critical changes which
Bayly located in the 1830s 'age of reforms prefigured in the
eighteenth century itself. This is a point which even Bayly's recent
 CENTURY IN INDIA
THE EIGHTEENTH
36

1998). Thus, despite the

essay takes into account (Bayly, realms that buoyed
continuity in the economic, social, and cultural
the works cited here in
the Company's rule to political power,
no way suggest that it was simply
another 'Indian state.ndeed,
indigenous.structures even
the Company continued to draw from
sovereignty.r
as it modified them to define its political
historian Van Leur's
Bayly'S recent essay, putting the Dutch
identifies three
essay on the eighteenth century in perspective, distinguished
areas of the Company's politicleconomy which
insistence on
it from that of the Indian states. First, its resolute
its own sovereignty and its exclusive
racial policy in the highest
on the principle that
echelons. The. Company state«was based
power could be delegated but not shared. This was principle
a
which operated also in its relations with the Indian subjects.
Second, the Company wished to maximize revenue collection
Without any intermediaries and co-sharers. If this did not always
happen it was for practical reasons; however, it never intended.
to drift towardsa co-sharing' tostate? Finally, the Company, more
than the Indian rulers, began make a distinction between the.
public and political sphere, on the one hand, and the private and
non-political sphere, on the other.
These significant points of difference between the Company
state and the Indian polities were bound to root its critical break
in the 1830s with the indigenous political tradition in the very
inception of its relationship with regional polities in the
eighteenth century.This was clearly evident in the military sphere
of its rule. Here my work indicates that the objective of the
s
Company drive.to political sovereignty was to ultimately erode
the military and political power of the regional polities and
circumscribe their authority, even as it continued to derive from
their military and political traditions. Thus, through military
recruitment, the Company, at one level, established its monopoly
of power throughout north India and attempted to break out of
the paradigms of legitimacy provided by the regional polities.
In the process, it introduced redefined notions of caste
and
community in society (Alavi, 1995). Similarly, Radhika Singha
has highlighted the tensions generated in chalking
out the
Company's legal sphere. These were triggered due to the
 INTRODUCTION 37

difference between the Company's political economy and that

of the regional polities. Onthe one hand-the.-Company-
emphasized its 'difference with the regional polities to assert
its legitimacy. On the other hand, it derived from the indigenous
politico-legal tradition when it suited its interest.Thus, for
instance, the development of its criminat law,its machinery, and
its procedure were tied up with the earlier indigenous institutions,
personal codes, and legal texts. But this did not mean that the
regional regimes were not portrayed as arbitrary despotisms.
In contrast, the Company projected itself as being 'bound by
law' (Singha, 1998).

Conclusion

In sum, the debate on the nature of the eighteenth century has

engaged both historians studying Mughal India as well as those
more interested in colonial studies. The former, as has been.seen
in the preceding discussion, debate the nature.of. the transition
in the Mughal economy and society in the first halfof the century.
Early Mughal studies view change in the shadow of the Mughal
political collapse and project the period as the 'Dark Ages'. In
these works, the Mughal political crisis is seen to be accompanied
by economic and social breakdown as well. However, later
studies make a plea to rescue the study of the period from the
narrow gaze of Mughal imperialism and examine it on its own
terms. As Mughal economy and society are scrutinized in regional
perspective, the century emerges as one marked by economic
prosperity that resulted in economic and political
reconfigurations. One consequence of the realignments of the
period was the assertion by regional powers that often resulted
in the crystallization of locally based polities.
But it is also now clear that there is no one pattern.of change
that characterized the century. Different regions followed their
own trajectories of development, even though some general
features are discernible across the board, a cas-in point being
the emergence of 'new' intermediary groups between state and
SOciety. The intermediaries. included merchants, traders, service
 38 THE EKGHTEENTH CENTURY IN INDIA

gentry, revenue farmers, and warriors, who often combined

different portfolios and provided the basis ot regjonal political
formations, Thus the studies on the first half of the century
suggest thatfar from being the 'Dark Ages', the period was
marked by significant economic and social change, resulting in
the emergence of regidnal polities even as the edifice of Mughal
imperialism collapsed.
While historians studying the first half of the century
concentrate on the transition from Mughal to regional political
formations, scholars of modern Indian history focus on the more
ritical transition to colonial rule that characterized the second
half of the century..These studies look variously at how pre-
colonial political economies related to the 'new' notions of power,
govemance, community, and legal and property rights that were
introduced by the merchants of the English East India Company
after their acquisition of political power. The major theme of
these studies has been the impact of colonial rule on the Indian
economy, society, and polity. Explanations have varied according
to the different conceptions of state-society relations that
informed the studies of colonial India. As has been seen in the
preceding pages, one set of positions views the colonial state as
being located externally to Indian society and tied to it only
through an economically exploitative relationship/These kinds
of suggestions view colonialism as a determining and defining
disjunction. The alternate view is that the colonial state was
effectively sucked into the regional political economies and
continued, with improvisations, many of their indigenous
economic and cultural referents. These two divergent expositions
constitute the "continuity versus change debate. The contours
of this debate range, as has been discussed, from the economic
to the administrative, legal, and military aspects of colonial rule.
It has been indicated here that the proponents of the
continuity' thesis are often labelled 'revisionists' because their.
views have considerably revised the notions of looking at.the
colonial political economy. However, the 'revisionists' by no
means constitute a homogeneous group. Different points of
emphasis exist within the 'revisionist' position. There are
disagreements regarding both the reasons for the Company's
 INTRODUCTION 39

successtul transition to a political power, as well as on the issue

of the impact of this transition on the Indian economy and society
and the position of certain groups, such as labour.
It has also been seen how the terms of the debate on the
eighteenth century have now moved beyond the fiscal sphere
where they were initially located. New works.on the military
and legal dimensions of the Company's functioning have, at one
level, valicdated the "continuity thesis. But at another level, they-
have also made it more complex, They have underlined more
emphatically. the. fact.that-the continuation.of pre-colonial.
institutions and nornmative codes in colonial India was a tension-
prone process. This is because the Company was not simply
another Tndian state/From the very beginning the Company
iwas determined tomark its 'difference' from Indian polities even
as it continued to derive from their political cultures.
Historical research on a century sandwiched between two
major empires-the Mughal and the British-is bound to create
structures.
ripples in the historiography of both these imperial
qualified
The writings of both Mughal and colonial studies stand
of themes in the debate
as a result of the opening up of a variety
reconsiderations
on the eighteenth century. One of the important century
have
that the regional studies on the first half the
of-
Mughal empire itself.
triggered is the issue óf thë nature of the
originated as a
Here the idea that "the regional polities and economy has
consequence of modifications in Mughal polity
of fiscal and institutional
led to the questioning of the idea of the Mughal
centralization of the Mughal state. Historians
the state as a process rather than"
period now increasingly view the regions to the
as a centralized political form that cemented
centre (Subrahmanyam, 1992).
far-reaching consequence of the debate on the
A more
realm of colonial studies. Here
eighteenth century has been in the
studies on the period have effectively questioned the
the new 'modernity' that have been
of 'tradition' and
reified notions in the study
most basic kinds of dichotomies assumed
among the Indian historiography, from
the
colonial encounter. not
of India's recent 'subaltern strand, has
nationalist down to the more
 40 THE EGHIEENTH CENTURY IN INDIA

escaped from this misleading trap. One of the most significant ant
ways in which the studies on the eighteenth century act as-a
corrective is by showing that colonial power: was mediated
through a continuous process of negotiations with pre-colonial
structures and notions of governance, authority, and normative
codes. The essentialized categories of "colonial (read modern
and 'indigenous' (read traditional) now stand collapsed. This
has far-reaching implications for the historiography of modern
India.
Finally, in view of the new studies on the eighteenth-centurv
transition to colonialism mentioned in the preceding discussion
the historiography of the ideologies that informed the
early Raj have also been considerably revised. The neatly
compartmentalized orientalist and anglicist ideological slots in
which Eric Stokes and later Thomas Metcalt clubbed the century
have been qualified by Bayly, in whose writings the ideological
underpinnings ofthe-transition have been identified as the
'rhetoric of benevolence in the name of universal religion-
deism-which could appease and integrate. native leaders and
soldiers into the empire. Alongside, 'agrarian patriotism-which
meant measuring, settling, and making the land
guarantee of the long-term stability of empire. These
pay-was the
were the
important means through which military defence
or expansion
could be maintained and the rule of benevolence
1992, 1998)./The debate
extended (Bayly,
remains a contentious one, with Eugene
F. Irschick's (Irschick, 1994)
work on Madras highlighting the
dialogue between the early colonial
administrator and indigenous
society as being crucial to the development
the Company Raj, and Bayly's
of the ideologies of
recent study on the functioning ot
an 'Indian information
order further developing this line of
argument.)
The récent works on the
Company rule highlight the
military and legal spheres of
interactive processes
Company and indigenous between the
society that diluted the Company's
intended ideologies of
power
peppered it with indigenous and governance, and pertorce
implicitly take issue norms of rule. These studies
with the works of literary
Edward Said, who
make a case for a monolithic critics, such
as
discourse on the
 INTRODUCTION 41

'orient' dictated by the superior power position of the colonizer.

They question also the construction of British-India and-a
colonized 'other as being merely narrative productions within
thediscourse of colonial domination. The colonial experience in
these works tends to be located in a more negotiable cultural
interface between Britain and India. In an interesting way, these
works tie up with the studies of other literary critics who
highlight the muliplicity ot British constructions on India that
differed from each in the ardour with which they were shaped
as the antonym of Europe. These studies indicate that the distance
between the 'self and the 'other' waxed and waned depending
pon the shifting political imperatives of Company rule in India
(Teltscher, 1995).

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1982.
Alavi, Seema, The Sepoys and the Company: Tradition and Transition in
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The Company Army and Rural Society: the Invalid Thanah 1780-
1830', Modern Asian Studies, vol. 27, no. 1, February 1992,pp. 147-
78.
Alam, Muzaffar, The Crisis of Empire in Mughal North India: Awadh and
the Punjab 1707-1748, Delhi, 1986.
The Pursuit of Persian: Language in Mughal Politics', Modern
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