Forging Subjects under Document Raj: Writing, Credibility, and Coercion in the making of an Early Colonial Regime in South India
Monday, March 2nd, 2009
| Date | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Monday, March 2, 2009 | 4:00PM - 6:00PM | Seminar Room 208N, Munk Centre For International Studies 1 Devonshire Place |
Description
Why were Company officials so invested in questions of forgery and perjury and why did so many inhabitants appear to proffer false testimony? This talk investigates the relationship between graphic culture and the making of early colonial governance under Company rule. With the acquisition of the Madras hinterland in 1800, Company officials, hard pressed to discern the credibility of the spoken and written claims made to them but determined to render Madras governable, began to tame practices of attestation through forgery and perjury regulations. The apprehension about the credibility of inhabitants thus opened up a struggle over norms of acceptable evidence and testimony shaping the relationship between the Company’s Document Raj and its subjects.
Bhavani Raman is an assistant professor at the History Department, Princeton University where she teaches South Asian History.
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