This thesis deals with the works of Philip Meadows Taylor, nineteenth-century British administrator and author of six novels on Indian themes. His works, published between 1839 and 1878, belong to the little researched early period of Anglo-Indian literature when popular fiction reflected the confidence and beliefs of British rule in India. Meadows Taylor worked in India as a political agent in various parts of Hyderabad from 1824 until his early retirement in 1860. His work, his close friendships with Indians, and his marriage to an Eurasian woman exposed him to various aspects of Indian life closed to many of his British contemporaries in India. This is reflected in his novels, of which the best known is his first, Confessions of a Thug, published in 1839. Subsequent works include Tippoo Sultaun: A Tale of the Mysore War (1841), Tara (1863), Ralph Darnell (1865), Seeta (1873), and A Noble Queen (1878). All these works present Indian scenery and Indian customs vividly and sympathetically, and are characterised by unusually liberal views on such things as interracial marriage, race relations and Indian religious practices; views at odds with those of many of his contemporaries. This thesis examines Meadows Taylor's works, and the connection between his portrayal of British conceptions of India and its people and the historical development of British rule in India. Ultimately Taylor's works illustrate his view that underneath the surface differences of race and religious creed lies a common human experience shared by both East and West, a view which differentiates him from other nineteenth-century writers on India. Other unusual thematic concerns include his use of Victorian concepts of domesticity in Indian settings, his presentation of strongly idealised Indian characters, and his frequent use as subject matter of "pre-colonial" Indian history.

La tesi investiga i Departmental ditties' di Rudyard Kipling. Il capitolo uno delinea in particolare la permanenza dell'autore in India come sub-editor' della Civil and Military Gazette, che tra il febbraio e l'aprile del 1886 pubblica la serie dei Departmental Ditties'. Il capitolo due esamina i dieci microtesti originari. Il capitolo tre discute le maggiori alterazioni testimoniate dalla sequenza poetica nelle sue prime quattro edizioni in Departmental ditties and other verses (1886, 1888 E 1890). / The dissertation investigates Rudyard Kipling's 'Departmental Ditties'. Chapter One refers in particular to Kipling's sojourn in India as sub-editor of the Civil and Military Gazette, which between February and mid-April 1886 published the 'Departmental Ditties' series. Chapter Two investigates the ten original poems. Chapter Three discusses the main alterations of the sequence by comparing its first four editions in the poetic collection departmental ditties and other verses (1886, 1888 and 1890).

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During the course of my dissertation I demonstrate the way in which Anglo-Indian women writers of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century diverge from the genre of the "feminine picturesque" as explained by Sara Suleri in her book, The Rhetoric of English India. I look too, at what Indo-English women use as a genre, instead of the "feminine picturesque". I also apply Spivakean ideas on representation to their writing in order to see the similarities and differences between my primary texts and the theory. I begin my dissertation by explaining what Sara Suleri means by the "feminine picturesque" and how I intend using it to better understand the primary texts I look at. I also explain Spivak's ideas on representation and how I intend using them to further my appreciation of Anglo-Indian and Indo-English writing of this period. I conclude my thesis by discussing my findings with regard to the theorists looked at, and how their ideas have been reflected in the four principal texts I examined. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.