Forgotten Voices of the British Empire: How Knowledge was Created and Curated in Colonial India and Burma

This study explores the contributions of outsiders in accumulating knowledge from the East India Company era to the early twentieth century, focusing on their heterogeneous voices and interactions with the indigenous population. Their endeavors, often driven by intellectual curiosity or material gain, produced a perspective on colonial life that challenged conventions and offered a discursive historical construct that complements official reports and surveys.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 312 pages
Publication date: 15 May 2024
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

This study explores the contributions of outsiders in acquiring knowledge from the era of the East India Company until the early twentieth century, when photography emerged as a vital means of documenting information. It emphasizes the perspectives of diverse individuals on the periphery who engaged with the indigenous population to generate unique and unexpected insights that transcended the boundaries of the term "colonial." These individuals, often overlooked in contemporary narratives, pursued their intellectual curiosity or sought to enhance their material circumstances, resulting in a distinctive perspective on colonial life that challenged conventional norms. Their journeys and experiences provide a valuable discursive historical construct, comparable in significance to official reports, censuses, and surveys, and contribute to our comprehension of the diverse creative processes that shaped the intellectual histories of the colonial state.

Weight: 494g
Dimension: 228 x 151 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781538163238