Imperial Connections: India in the Indian Ocean Arena, 1860-1920 (Volume 4)

California World History Library

by Thomas R. Metcalf

An innovative remapping of empire, Imperial Connections offers a broad-ranging view of the workings of the British Empire in the period when the India of the Raj stood at the center of a newly globalized system of trade, investment, and migration. Thomas R. Metcalf argues that India itself became a nexus of imperial power that made possible British conquest, control, and governance across a wide arc of territory stretching from Africa to eastern Asia. His book, offering a new perspective on how imperialism operates, emphasizes transcolonial interactions and webs of influence that advanced the interests of colonial India and Britain alike. Metcalf examines such topics as law codes and administrative forms as they were shaped by Indian precedents; the Indian Army's role in securing Malaya, Africa, and Mesopotamia for the empire; the employment of Indians, especially Sikhs, in colonial policing; and the transformation of East Africa into what was almost a province of India through the construction of the Uganda railway. He concludes with a look at the decline of this Indian Ocean system after 1920 and considers how far India's participation in it opened opportunities for Indians to be a colonizing as well as a colonized people.

Genres: History, India, Nonfiction

280 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Thomas R. Metcalf is the Emeritus Sarah Kailath Professor of India Studies and Professor of History at the University of California.

Reviews

[Maggie Brandes · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important book, arguing that the British Indian government functioned as its own imperial center in the Indian Ocean World, exporting legal codes, technical expertise, labor, and military power to East Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Chinese treaty ports. Unfortunately, due to limitations in the available sources, Metcalf is not able to give much insight into the lived experiences of these overseas Indian communities, but it represents an advance in the field nonetheless.