Ideology and British expansion in Bengal, 1757–72
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11944233 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert Travers (Schlumberger (Ireland), corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 7-27 |
| Publication date | 2005-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0308-6534 • E-ISSN: 1743-9329 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0308653042000329997 |
| OpenAlex | W2089786164 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
Accounts of the early stages of British expansion in India have tended to emphasise its unplanned and opportunistic character; they have often seen the motors of expansion lying within unstable Indian states or in the need of the East India Company to meet the costs of fast-growing armies. Reviewing the evidence from Bengal between 1757 and 1772, this article argues that a distinctive kind of frontier patriotism generated in the East India Company's Indian settlements constituted an important ideological context for its conquests. Company servants routinely derided Indian rulers as Asiatic despots, or ‘faithless’ Muslims. Their sense of Indian rulers as degenerate and corrupt both fuelled military aggression, and also made some Britons suppose that the East India Company could effect rapid reforms in Bengal, drawing out previously untapped surpluses from the agrarian base. At the same time, the need to forge alliances within the old regime encouraged some Company officials to adopt a more conciliatory tone, and to imagine that viable systems of political order existed within the traditions of the Mughal empire
Agrarian society · Agriculture · Ancient history · Archaeology · BENGAL · Context (archaeology · Economic history · Empire · Frontier · Human settlement · Ideology · Imperial unit system · Patriotism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East
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The British East India Company and the Great Bengal Famine of 1770
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| Unique citing works | 11 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.55 |
| Citation span | 2006 - 2025 (20) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |