Ideologies of the Raj

Ideologies of the Raj examines how the British sought to justify their rule over India. The author argues that two divergent strategies were devised to legitimate their authority: the one defined characteristics which the Indians shared with the British themselves, while the other emphasised qualities of enduring 'difference'. In the end, however, the differences predominated in the colonial view of India. Since the British constructed few explicit ideologies of empire, the author explores the workings of the Raj through the study of its underlying assumptions as revealed in policies and writings. Students of modern India and the British Empire will find Thomas Metcalf's book relevant and accessible.

(Cambridge)

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'It is a tribute to the range of Metcalf's scholarship that he can write illuminatingly and with assured authority on so many different aspects of British India.' P. J. Marshall, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History

(Cambridge)

1. Introduction: Britian and India in the eighteenth century; 2. Liberalism and empire; 3. The creation of difference; 4. The ordering of difference; 5. Coping with contradiction; 6. Epilogue: Raj, nation, empire.

(Cambridge)