Reversing the Gaze: Amar Singh's Diary: A Colonial Subject's Narrative of Imperial India - Hardcover

Rudolph, Susanne H; Rudolph, Lloyd; Kanota, Mohan Singh; Rudolph, Lloyd I.; Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813336260 ISBN 13: 9780813336268

Publisher: Basic Books, 2002

Synopsis

Amar Singh, a Rajput nobleman and officer in the Indian Army, kept a diary for 44 years from 1898, when he was twenty, until his death in 1942. In it he writes about the Jodhpur court, the Imperial Cadet Corps, and the British Expeditionary Force in China during the Boxer rebellion. A century before hybridity, he constructs a hybrid self, an Edwardian officer cum gentleman and a martial Rajput cum manor lord. With the diary acting as alter ego and best friend, Amar Singh resists becoming “a coolie for the raj” when he finds the British to be racist masters as well as friends. He writes and reads extensively “to keep himself amused,” he says, and to avoid the boredom of princedom and raj philistinism. Here the authors focus on the first eight years of Amar Singh's diary (1898-1905), offering a rare and intimate glimpse into British colonialism from the point of view of a colonial subject. Illustrated with fifty photographs and facsimiles from Amar Singh's readings.

About this title

About the Author

Susanne Hoeber Rudolph and Lloyd I. Rudolph are professors of political science at the University of Chicago. Among their books are The Modernity of Tradition and In Pursuit of Lakshmi . Mohan Singh Kanota, Amar Singh's nephew and heir, is also the author of The History of the Champawats and Kachhawas of Hamir Dev (both in Hindi). Susanne Hoeber Rudolph and Lloyd I. Rudolph are professors of political science at the University of Chicago. Among their books are The Modernity of Tradition and In Pursuit of Lakshmi . Mohan Singh Kanota, Amar Singh's nephew and heir, is also the author of The History of the Champawats and Kachhawas of Hamir Dev (both in Hindi). Susanne Hoeber Rudolph and Lloyd I. Rudolph are professors of political science at the University of Chicago. Among their books are The Modernity of Tradition and In Pursuit of Lakshmi . Mohan Singh Kanota, Amar Singh's nephew and heir, is also the author of The History of the Champawats and Kachhawas of Hamir Dev (both in Hindi).

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813336260
• ISBN 13: 9780813336268
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 650