From Contact to Conquest - Transition to British Rule in Malabar,1790-1805

From Contact to Conquest - Transition to British Rule in Malabar,1790-1805

Product ID: 11123

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Author: Margret Frenz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 209
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0 19 566321 7

Description

This study provides a new perspective on the transition from pre-colonial to early colonial rule in late 18th century Malabar. Making extensive use of Malayalam sources, it considers an important, largely neglected region of India, and offers a fresh approach towards the analysis of colonial encounters.

The book focuses on the construction and legitimation of rule by elite local groups in Malabar and the implications of British conquest. At the centre of the study is an exploration of the clash of sovereignty that occurred when two very different concepts of rule collided-that of the British, built on the Euro-centric notion of the state with an all-pervasive administration, and that of the Malabar elite, a complex indigenous idea of the state based on redistributive processes. In the face of the British drive for supremacy local rulers could either co-operate, as did Vira Vermma of Kurumpanatu, or rebel, like Kerala Varmma Palassi Raja of Kottayam who presented one of the most significant challenges to colonial domination.

A major contribution to academic literature on the region, this book combines detailed case study with broader ideas about the phenomenon of conflicting cultures and the resulting negotiation of new values within the spheres of politics, society, and economy. It will interest students and scholars of Indian history, politics, sociology, and anthropology as well as general readers interested in South India’s colonial experience.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

ONE: MEETING MALABAR

Malabar in the Eighteenth Century
Pre-colonial Social Order
Pre-colonial Land Law

TWO: LEGITIMATION OF RULE

Religious Legitimation
The Model of the Little Kingdom and Its Modification
Contact Zone as a Model of Interaction

THREE: IN SEARCH OF BLACK GOLD

Economic Attractiveness of Malabar
The Portuguese, the Dutch and the French
Initial Contacts with the British
The Invasions of Haidar Ali and Tippu Sultan

FOUR: CLASH OF SOVEREIGNTY

Maisurian Policy Meets Resistance in Malabar
British Policy Towards Malabar after 1792
Conflicts between the Local Elite and the Colonial Administration

FIVE: CONCEPT OF RULE

Kottayam-a Little Kingdom?
Contact Zone Malabar
The Aftermath in the Nineteenth Century

SIX: TRANSFORMATION OF RULE IN MALABAR

Notes on Sources and Transliteration

Appendix

Maps

Place Names

Glossary

Bibliography

Index