Tod's Rajast'han and the Boundaries of Imperial Rule in Nineteenth-Century India

Bibliographic Data

ID3645877
AuthorsNorbert Peabody (University of Cambridge, corresponding author)
Year1996
Volume30
Issue1
Pages185-220
Publication date1996-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueModern Asian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0026-749X • E-ISSN: 1469-8099
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0026749x0001413x
OpenAlexW1997854381
LanguageEN
Citations received31
References cited28

This essay concerns the labile boundary between the familiar and the exotic in an early nineteenth-century Orientalist text, entitledAnnals and Antiquities of Rajast'han, by James Tod. Written by the first British political agent to the western Rajput states, Tod'sRajast'han, particularly the several chapters he devoted to the so-called 'feudal system' of Rajasthan, remained implicated in colonial policy toward western India for over a century. By situating Tod'sRajast'hanin the specific circumstances in which it was written and then tracing the fate of that text against a historical background, this essay aims to restore an open-ended, historical sensibility to studies on Orientalism that most critics of Orientalist writing have ironically forfeited in their laudable efforts to restore history to the indigenous peoples who have been the objects of Orientalist discourse

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