Dr%20Maria%20Misra: List of publications

Recent interest in nineteenth-century European colonialism as a model for promoting state-building and development in parts of the contemporary Third World has rehabilitated the idea of imperialism. Proponents of this imperialism as state-building idea have pointed to the British Raj in India as proof of empire's positive legacy. But the latest historical research does not support this view of the Raj as an agent of centralization, economic development, and secularism. Current research suggests that, if anything, the British promoted the "traditionalization" of India, halting many of the indigenous impulses toward modernization present in the late eighteenth century. Moreover, this legacy continues to play itself out in the political and economic problems of contemporary South Asia. In particular, the legacy of the colonial tendency to rigidify and, in some cases to create, a set of fragmented and competitive group identities has seriously impeded the achievement of an integrated state, full liberal democracy, and a successful economy. These problems were neither the result of specific conditions in India, nor of mere policy errors by the British, but are the likely consequence of any imperial relationship, making imperialism an inappropriate model for even the best-intentioned contemporary state-builder.

This book is a study of the political and economic activities of an important group of British businessmen in India between 1850 and 1960. Though denounced by Indian nationalists as the economic arm of the British Raj, the firms of these ‘Managing Agents’ seemed unassailable before the First World War. However, during the inter-war period they rapidly lost their commanding position to both Indian and other foreign competitors. The author argues that the failure of these firms was, in part, the consequence of their particular (and ultimately self-defeating) attitudes towards business, politics, and race. She casts new light on British colonial society in India, and makes an important contribution to current debates on the nature of the British Empire and the causes of Britain’s relative economic decline.