A Fondness for Military Display
Conquest and Intrigue in South India during the First Anglo-Afghan War, 1839-40
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3638109 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Chandra Mallampalli (0009-0002-0616-3532, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 77 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 139-159 |
| Publication date | 2018-02-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Asian Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-9118 • E-ISSN: 1752-0401 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0021911817001280 |
| OpenAlex | W2782834626 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 12 |
As the East India Company prepared for its First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-42), its officials grew suspicious of a Muslim uprising within British India. They became convinced that itinerant Muslim reformers-mislabeled "Wahhabis"-were inciting princes of India's Deccan region to rebellion. This article describes how the very talk of this "Wahhabi conspiracy" not only triggered the interventionist impulses of the colonial state, but also inspired local intrigues associated with the downfall of two Indo-Afghan princes of the Deccan, Kurnool's Ghulam Rasul Khan and Udayagiri's Abbas Ali Khan. In both cases a preoccupation with the transnational Wahhabi operative masked local and sometimes petty interests, which drove the politics of these smaller regimes. The case studies of Kurnool and Udayagiri illustrate how news of events arising in one region of imperial conflict could "travel" to remote regions of India's Deccan, evolving into conspiracy narratives along the way. The discourse of conspiracy provided a pretext for military action and the annexation of territory. The story being told, however, is not simply about paranoid colonial officers who were all too eager to intervene, but is also about local entrepreneurs who knew how to exploit the situation toward their own ends
Afghan · Ancient history · Annexation · Archaeology · Art · Colonialism · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Pretext · State (computer science) · Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East
Saints, Goddesses and Kings
Islamic Revival in British India
The Muslims of British India
Document Raj
Fear of Small Numbers
Muslim Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Empire
The Making of Modern Afghanistan
An Open Military Economy
Return of a King
Fugitive Mullahs and Outlawed Fanatics
Pacification and Patronage in the Maratha Deccan, 1803-1818
| Highly cited | No |
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