Associate Professor, History, JSIA, JGU, India Research Associate, Centre for Global Knowledge Studies, CRASSH Cambridge Managing Editor, Journal of Indian Ocean World Studies Address: O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, India
Gajendra Singh sets out to investigate the world of the sipahis and how they experienced and arti... more Gajendra Singh sets out to investigate the world of the sipahis and how they experienced and articulated everyday life outside the battlefield or away from their line of duty, but as serving personnel of the colonial army. Making use of varied sources, including extensive archival material, the author seeks to present a broad overview of the colonialist attitude towards the sipahis, while rediscovering the subaltern voices of these peasant soldiers, through the narration of their life story, in their own words.
Nitin Sinha's work is a significant contribution to the history of communication in modern India.... more Nitin Sinha's work is a significant contribution to the history of communication in modern India. Focusing on eastern India – Bihar, specifically, Sinha draws out the interdependence of spatial transformation and communication networks in nineteenth-century India. In addition to material aspects of geography and knowledge production, however, the author uses networks of exchange and flow to emphasize the physicality of space.
Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 71, 2010
This essay demonstrates how colonial efforts to control communication lines were confronted by th... more This essay demonstrates how colonial efforts to control communication lines were confronted by the competing interests of indigenous powers, weakened by the manipulation of the political and civil officials of the colonial state, and complicated by the Company State's own inability to standardise policies of rule and governance.
Global Scientific Practice in an Age of Revolutions, 1750-1850 , 2016
This chapter is a study of the attempted regulation of networks of information exchange and trans... more This chapter is a study of the attempted regulation of networks of information exchange and transmission by the colonial authorities, which came to be driven by considerations of temporality and spatiality, reflecting the juxtaposition of the imperial and scientific discourse in nineteenth-century India. This drive toward standardization arose from concerns of empire building; the administrative framework and political economy of the British Empire in India came to be situated within a global imperial context through the spread of postal networks of communication.
This article discusses the overlap between British Indian networks of postal communication and tr... more This article discusses the overlap between British Indian networks of postal communication and trade, and smuggling of opium within a nineteenth-century inter-Asian context. These circulatory networks received support from the expansion of global shipping lines. The colonial state subsidised opium steamers of private shipping companies and converted them into mail packets, using them to transport illicit opium to parts of Southeast and East Asia. Domestically, inland postal routes came to be appropriated by local traders, cultivators and itinerants to smuggle excess opium, growing outside the purview of the colonial state, to various ports in western India, thereby cutting into the profits and prestige of the colonial state. Simultaneously, official complicity in opium smuggling also came to the fore, evident in the case of post offices situated in the eastern parts of the subcontinent, highlighting the inherent weaknesses within the colonial system of administration.
Across Colonial Lines takes a multi-perspective approach to the study of empire and commodities, ... more Across Colonial Lines takes a multi-perspective approach to the study of empire and commodities, and encourages readers to look at commodity histories in alternative spatial and temporal contexts. It offers a comparative understanding of commodities in the Venetian, Portuguese, Dutch, French and British Empires.
Highlighting the interwoven character of multiple commodity networks, this book situates commodities like gold, coffee, tea and indigo, to name a few, within pre-existing networks of labour, consumption and knowledge production. It explores the nexus between the local and the global, and highlights the role played by individual producers, petty traders, sailors and even consumers in creating regional circulations within a global political economy. In this volume, commodity networks are not just sites of production and trade, but also of political control, social organisation and consumption choices. They provide the impetus for globalisation from as early as the thirteenth century.
Each chapter takes an individual commodity to illustrate the history of commodity transmission within imperial contexts. From early modern Venetian commerce to the trade networks of the Eurasian world; from the trading ambitions of British sailors to Portuguese global imperial ambitions; from the cross-imperial knowledge networks of indigo to the assertion of indigenous agency in Angola; and from the commodification of labour to the experience of tourism in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean World, Across Colonial Lines uses commodity networks as a lens to study empire building across varied yet connected geographies and chronologies.
Gajendra Singh sets out to investigate the world of the sipahis and how they experienced and arti... more Gajendra Singh sets out to investigate the world of the sipahis and how they experienced and articulated everyday life outside the battlefield or away from their line of duty, but as serving personnel of the colonial army. Making use of varied sources, including extensive archival material, the author seeks to present a broad overview of the colonialist attitude towards the sipahis, while rediscovering the subaltern voices of these peasant soldiers, through the narration of their life story, in their own words.
Nitin Sinha's work is a significant contribution to the history of communication in modern India.... more Nitin Sinha's work is a significant contribution to the history of communication in modern India. Focusing on eastern India – Bihar, specifically, Sinha draws out the interdependence of spatial transformation and communication networks in nineteenth-century India. In addition to material aspects of geography and knowledge production, however, the author uses networks of exchange and flow to emphasize the physicality of space.
Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 71, 2010
This essay demonstrates how colonial efforts to control communication lines were confronted by th... more This essay demonstrates how colonial efforts to control communication lines were confronted by the competing interests of indigenous powers, weakened by the manipulation of the political and civil officials of the colonial state, and complicated by the Company State's own inability to standardise policies of rule and governance.
Global Scientific Practice in an Age of Revolutions, 1750-1850 , 2016
This chapter is a study of the attempted regulation of networks of information exchange and trans... more This chapter is a study of the attempted regulation of networks of information exchange and transmission by the colonial authorities, which came to be driven by considerations of temporality and spatiality, reflecting the juxtaposition of the imperial and scientific discourse in nineteenth-century India. This drive toward standardization arose from concerns of empire building; the administrative framework and political economy of the British Empire in India came to be situated within a global imperial context through the spread of postal networks of communication.
This article discusses the overlap between British Indian networks of postal communication and tr... more This article discusses the overlap between British Indian networks of postal communication and trade, and smuggling of opium within a nineteenth-century inter-Asian context. These circulatory networks received support from the expansion of global shipping lines. The colonial state subsidised opium steamers of private shipping companies and converted them into mail packets, using them to transport illicit opium to parts of Southeast and East Asia. Domestically, inland postal routes came to be appropriated by local traders, cultivators and itinerants to smuggle excess opium, growing outside the purview of the colonial state, to various ports in western India, thereby cutting into the profits and prestige of the colonial state. Simultaneously, official complicity in opium smuggling also came to the fore, evident in the case of post offices situated in the eastern parts of the subcontinent, highlighting the inherent weaknesses within the colonial system of administration.
Across Colonial Lines takes a multi-perspective approach to the study of empire and commodities, ... more Across Colonial Lines takes a multi-perspective approach to the study of empire and commodities, and encourages readers to look at commodity histories in alternative spatial and temporal contexts. It offers a comparative understanding of commodities in the Venetian, Portuguese, Dutch, French and British Empires.
Highlighting the interwoven character of multiple commodity networks, this book situates commodities like gold, coffee, tea and indigo, to name a few, within pre-existing networks of labour, consumption and knowledge production. It explores the nexus between the local and the global, and highlights the role played by individual producers, petty traders, sailors and even consumers in creating regional circulations within a global political economy. In this volume, commodity networks are not just sites of production and trade, but also of political control, social organisation and consumption choices. They provide the impetus for globalisation from as early as the thirteenth century.
Each chapter takes an individual commodity to illustrate the history of commodity transmission within imperial contexts. From early modern Venetian commerce to the trade networks of the Eurasian world; from the trading ambitions of British sailors to Portuguese global imperial ambitions; from the cross-imperial knowledge networks of indigo to the assertion of indigenous agency in Angola; and from the commodification of labour to the experience of tourism in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean World, Across Colonial Lines uses commodity networks as a lens to study empire building across varied yet connected geographies and chronologies.
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Highlighting the interwoven character of multiple commodity networks, this book situates commodities like gold, coffee, tea and indigo, to name a few, within pre-existing networks of labour, consumption and knowledge production. It explores the nexus between the local and the global, and highlights the role played by individual producers, petty traders, sailors and even consumers in creating regional circulations within a global political economy. In this volume, commodity networks are not just sites of production and trade, but also of political control, social organisation and consumption choices. They provide the impetus for globalisation from as early as the thirteenth century.
Each chapter takes an individual commodity to illustrate the history of commodity transmission within imperial contexts. From early modern Venetian commerce to the trade networks of the Eurasian world; from the trading ambitions of British sailors to Portuguese global imperial ambitions; from the cross-imperial knowledge networks of indigo to the assertion of indigenous agency in Angola; and from the commodification of labour to the experience of tourism in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean World, Across Colonial Lines uses commodity networks as a lens to study empire building across varied yet connected geographies and chronologies.
Highlighting the interwoven character of multiple commodity networks, this book situates commodities like gold, coffee, tea and indigo, to name a few, within pre-existing networks of labour, consumption and knowledge production. It explores the nexus between the local and the global, and highlights the role played by individual producers, petty traders, sailors and even consumers in creating regional circulations within a global political economy. In this volume, commodity networks are not just sites of production and trade, but also of political control, social organisation and consumption choices. They provide the impetus for globalisation from as early as the thirteenth century.
Each chapter takes an individual commodity to illustrate the history of commodity transmission within imperial contexts. From early modern Venetian commerce to the trade networks of the Eurasian world; from the trading ambitions of British sailors to Portuguese global imperial ambitions; from the cross-imperial knowledge networks of indigo to the assertion of indigenous agency in Angola; and from the commodification of labour to the experience of tourism in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean World, Across Colonial Lines uses commodity networks as a lens to study empire building across varied yet connected geographies and chronologies.