Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This thesis aims to explore Indian forced migration to the Cape Colony from 1658 to 1834. The forgotten diaspora‘ of its title refers to the first Indians who had come to the shores of South Africa, long before the arrival—between 1860 and 1911—of the indentured Indians. This diaspora has been forgotten, partially because these migrants came as slaves. The author uses data extracted from the newly transcribed Master of the Orphan Chamber (MOOC) series and slave transfers which are housed in the Western Cape Provincial Archives and Records Service (WCARS). The Cape colonial data is considered among the best in the world. Earlier historians such as Victor de Kock, Anna Böeseken, Frank Bradlow and Margaret Cairns, have made us aware of their existence primarily through Transportenkennis and Schepenkennis (transport and shipping information) documents in the Deeds Registry. Not nearly enough, however, is known about these Indian slaves, especially about those who arrived between 1731 and 1834. These lacunae include the number of arrivals; their sex ratios; ages and origins; and the circumstances under which they came. This thesis aims to construct a census of Indian slaves brought to the Cape from 1658 to 1834—along the lines of Philip Curtin's aggregated census of the Trans- Atlantic slave trade, but based on individual case level data coded directly from primary sources. This is the first time the size of the creole population born at the Cape will be established.

This dissertation explores and analyzes anti-imperial sentiments in Britain throughout the long eighteenth century. During this period of major British state formation and imperial expansion, there were a surprisingly large number of observers who voiced notable and varied concerns and opposition towards numerous overseas ventures, yet who have not since received significant attention within the historical record. Indeed, many critics of British imperialism and empire-building, from within Britain itself, formed extensive and thoughtful assessments of their own nation’s conduct in the world. Criticism ranged widely, from those who opposed the high economic costs of imperial expansion to those worried that a divine retribution would rain down upon Britain for injustices committed by Britons abroad. Such diversity of anti-imperial perspectives came from a clearly enlightened minority, whose limited influences upon broader public opinions had little effect on policies at the time. Successive British administrations and self-interested Britons who sought their fortunes and adventures abroad, often with little regard for the damage inflicted on those whom they encountered, won the political debate over empire-building. However, in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, the perspectives of many of these individuals would increasingly become highly regarded. Later generations of reformers, particularly “Little Englanders”, or classical liberals and radicals, would look back reverently to these critics to draw inspiration for refashioning the empire and Britain’s position in the world. These eighteenth century ideas continued to present powerful counter-arguments to the trends then in place and served to inspire those, in the centuries that followed, who sought to break the heavy chains of often despotic colonial rule and mitigate the ravages of war and conquest.

This dissertation traces the life and afterlife of the short-lived, dismembered (and for several decades, disremembered) collection housed at the East India Company headquarters at Leadenhall Street in London—the India Museum. While much has been written on the amassing of objects and the building of colonial collections, little attention has been paid to the obverse act—dissolution. This study delves into the furor surrounding the India Museum’s fragmentation, examines its recharacterization during politically expedient moments, traces its legacies at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum, and explores parallels between colonial and contemporary (mis)interpretations of the collection. Centering this dissertation on the afterlife rather than simply the inception of the India Museum reveals that the collection retained its identity as a unified body in the British imagination decades after its dispersal. Questioning at what point a museum ceases to exist and how dissolved collections continue to circulate, this dissertation seeks to challenge conventional understandings of museum histories and proposes a longue durée approach for interpreting and engaging with these narratives. The opening chapter, Expanding the Narrative, offers a new perspective on the institution by foregrounding visual representations and incorporating historically overlooked accounts. This inclusive, image-centric approach aims to contribute a previously unconsidered angle to scholarship on the Museum. The second chapter, “All the Queen’s Horses and All the Queen’s Men”: The Dispersal of the India Museum, examines the critical yet under-theorized moment of the Museum’s dissolution. It applies an analytical lens to the collection’s fragmentation, explores the varying motivations behind the distribution of objects, and contextualizes the dissolution within the broader milieu of nineteenth-century collections in Britain. The third chapter, From “Hugger-Mugger” to “Tangible Monument”: Collective Memory and the India Museum, suggests that the India Museum retained its identity as a distinct entity decades after its absorption into South Kensington. This study demonstrates how the notoriously heterogeneous East India Company collection was reimagined in the early twentieth century as far more comprehensive and stable than it had ever been in its lifetime, and was ultimately reframed as being of critical import to the imperial project. The final chapter, Lingering Legacies: The India Museum Collection Today, examines the present-day manifestations of the dispersed collection, primarily at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum. It evaluates how effectively these institutions engage with the colonial context of their acquisitions and explores the collection’s framing in physical and digital spaces, including through consideration of discrepancies between gallery narratives and digital representations. The epilogue, The Specter of Empire, reflects on the evolving diplomatic, legal, and ethical positions surrounding the repatriation of Indian antiquities. The charged nature of returning objects from the India Museum collection is discussed in light of the continual reformulations of the colonial past in the former metropole and colony. Against the backdrop of imperial amnesia, rising nationalist sentiment, and the reevaluation of the colonial past in Britain and India, this dissertation highlights the necessity for academically grounded examinations of colonial-era collecting practices. This study suggests that only through a comprehensive understanding of institutional histories and complex object biographies can the circulation, interpretation, and potential restitution of these contested artifacts be effectively navigated in the present day.

Two images of British India persist in the modern imagination: first, an eighteenth-century world of incipient multiculturalism, of sexual adventure amidst the hazy smoke of hookah pipes; and second, the grandiose imperialism of the Victorian Raj, its vast public buildings and stiff upper lip. No art historian has focused on the intervening decades, however, or considered how the earlier period transitioned into the later. In contrast, Art in India's 'Age of Reform' sets out to develop a distinct historical identity for the decades between the Charter Act of 1813 and the 1858 Government of India Act, arguing that the art produced during this period was implicated in the political process by which the conquests of a trading venture were legislated and 'reformed' to become the colonial possessions of the British Nation. Over two parts, each comprised of two chapters, two overlooked media are connected to 'reforms' that have traditionally been understood as atrophying artistic production in the subcontinent. Part I relates amateur practice to the reform of the Company's civil establishment, using an extensive archive associated with the celebrated amateur Sir Charles D'Oyly (1781-1845) and an art society that he established called the Behar School of Athens (est.1824). It argues that rather than citing the Company's increasing bureaucratisation as the cause of a decline in fine art patronage, it is crucial instead to recognise how amateur practice shaped this bureaucracy's collective identity and ethos. Part II connects the production and consumption of illustrated print culture to the demographic shifts that occurred as a result of the repeal of the Company's monopolistic privileges in 1813 and 1833, focusing specifically on several costume albums published by artists such as John Gantz (1772-1853) and Colesworthy Grant (1813-1880). In doing so, it reveals how print culture provided cultural capital to a transnational middle class developing across the early-Victorian Empire of free trade. Throughout each chapter, the gradual undermining of the East India Company's sovereignty by a centralising British State is framed as a prerequisite to the emergence of the nation-state as the fundamental category of modern social and political organisation. Art in India's 'Age of Reform' therefore seeks not only to uncover the work and biographies of several unstudied artists in nineteenth-century India, but reveals the significance of this overlooked art history to both the development of the modern British State, and the consequent demise of alternative forms of political corporation.

"April 2004" / Bibliography: leaves 319-342. / viii, 387 leaves : ill., maps ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, Discipline of History, 2004

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--Edith Cowan University, 2008. / Submitted to the Faculty of Computing, Health and Science. Includes bibliographical references.

The Seven Years’ War and the resulting Treaty of Paris of 1763 represent a watershed in British domestic and imperial histories. Not only did the war result in Britain acquiring vast new territories and rights in North America and South Asia, but it also saddled Britain with a national debt of over £140,000,000. The challenge for British politicians in the post-1763 era was not only finding a balance between the need to secure territorial gains while searching for a means to reduce costs and raise revenues to pay down the debt, but rather to do so without infringing on the constitutional rights of colonists and chartered companies. The political ramifications of the Treaty of Paris were equally important. Disputes over the terms of the Peace tore apart the Newcastle-Pitt coalition, resulting in the dissolution of the Whig Broadbottom. With the Duke of Newcastle and his allies in opposition alongside William Pitt, the political situation was thrown into turmoil. Although the confused state of politics in the short-term undoubtedly resulted in an opposition which acted, as Namier suggested, on the basis of self-interest rather than on principles, it can also be said to have provided the matrix within which historians can observe the genesis of new policies of domestic and imperial governance. It was precisely the lack of ideological identification in politics at the accession of George III that allowed British political ideologies in the age of the American Revolution to so quickly develop alongside the formulation and implementation of, as well as in the opposition responses to, the new challenges facing British parliamentarians in the governance of the Empire. This work therefore traces the development of distinct imperial ideologies among British politicians as they emerged in response to the various imperial crises of the 1760s and 1770s. Additionally, it will be shown that the new and unprecedented crises in both American and Indian affairs were brought about primarily as a means of obtaining revenues for the Treasury. The interrelated nature of the imperial problems in the east and the west, as well as the attempts of British politicians to resolve them, will be examined primarily through the policies made surrounding the article of tea.

Rhetorics of globalization are best understood through the concept of risk. This dissertation traces the history of contemporary globalization back to the encounters of the English East India Company (EIC) from the seventeenth through eighteenth centuries with foreign trading cultures through primary journals, records, and guidebooks. I also contrast the EIC approach with the <i>sulh-i-kull</i> approach of the Mughal Empire. I conclude that the EIC cultivated risk to override ethical considerations of the Other, invent the private sphere, and lay the bedrock of contemporary capitalism.

This study aims to contribute to the understanding of how different Christian traditions are described in Sweden during the second half of the 18th century. This thesis presents examples of how Swedes could look at different Christian traditions. The object of study has been Jacob Wallenberg's famous travel writing Min son på galejan and Wallenberg’s view on various Christian traditions. Wallenberg travels as a chaplain aboard the ship Finland which travels for the Swedish East India Company to China. Wallenberg meets several different people, cultures and sees different types of practices on his journey to China, and therefore Min son på galejan can be seen as a book worth analyzing, it is also relevant because it is relatively well known. The theoretical framework in this study is mainly based on Stuart Hall's theory of representation and therefore the focus is largely on trying to understand how different Christian traditions are represented based on the content of Min son på galejan. The method used to answer the research questions is a content analysis, the focus has mainly been on illustrate what the contexts looked like and how different Christian traditions were portrayed, thus shedding light on how these traditions were valued. In summary Wallenberg valued different traditions differently, the Lutheran tradition Wallenberg mainly portrayed as something desirable but there existed examples where Wallenberg criticized persons with Lutheran belief. Non-Lutheran Christian traditions were mostly portrayed by Wallenberg in a critical and satirical manner and were therefore seen as something less desirable compared to Lutheranism.