Showing papers in "The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History in 2018"
TL;DR: Deane as mentioned in this paper used a multidisciplinary survey of nutrition conducted in interwar Nyasaland to derive a single monetary estimate of production, which was essentially an exercise in reductionism and bounding; Deane also proved unwilling to exclude too much.
Abstract: Concerns about women’s work were present at the advent of the modern method of national income accounting, and they have featured prominently in the most radical critiques of this method. During and after the Second World War, Phyllis Deane, a young researcher working under the supervision of Richard Stone, Austin Robinson and Arthur Lewis, grappled with the conceptual difficulties involved in measuring the ‘national’ incomes of mostly rural subsistence colonies in British central Africa. In constructing her estimates, Deane relied heavily on a multidisciplinary survey of nutrition conducted in interwar Nyasaland. Deane’s work was essentially an exercise in reductionism and bounding; she sought to extract from these data a single monetary estimate of production. Yet Deane also proved unwilling to exclude too much. She broke with her advisors’ favoured convention that activities not involved in market exchange should be excluded from the national income. Successive national income accountants aroun...
30 citations
TL;DR: It is the era of decolonisation in central Africa: angry mobs in the streets; authorities struggling to contain agitation by communists and other subversives; reports of Africans strangled.
Abstract: It is the era of decolonisation in central Africa: angry mobs in the streets; authorities struggling to contain agitation by communists and other subversives; reports of Africans strangled ...
27 citations
TL;DR: The authors provides a survey and definition of the field of Commonwealth constitutional history since 1918, especially during and after global decolonisation, and asks what is Commonwealth history, and what is the role of women in it.
Abstract: This article provides a survey and definition of the field of Commonwealth constitutional history since 1918, especially during and after global decolonisation. It asks what is Commonwealth...
24 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe how over the course of the eighteenth and early-to-mid-nineteenth centuries the Irish, who moved throughout the British Empire, helped to build the social, political and economic structures that would...
Abstract: Over the course of the eighteenth and early-to-mid-nineteenth centuries the Irish, who moved throughout the British Empire, helped to build the social, political and economic structures that would ...
19 citations
TL;DR: The history of international law in the early and middle decades of the nineteenth century has emphasised the role of global humanitarian movements in establishing internatio... as discussed by the authors, which has been used as a basis for the present work.
Abstract: Narratives of the history of international law in the early and middle decades of the nineteenth century have emphasised the role of global humanitarian movements in establishing internatio...
18 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the Komagata Maru incident of 1914 has been remembered and memorialized, but neglecting the global and imperial implications of the incident, as well as the role that direct actions by the India...
Abstract: Recent remembrance and memorialisation of the Komagata Maru incident of 1914 has neglected the global and imperial implications of the incident, as well as the role that direct actions by the India...
17 citations
TL;DR: For example, during the 1860s Cape Breton Island's Sydney coalfield, at the northeastern tip of Nova Scotia, experienced dramatic economic expansion as mentioned in this paper, and the historical interpretation of this understudied coal boom has been studied.
Abstract: During the 1860s Cape Breton Island’s Sydney coalfield, at the northeastern tip of Nova Scotia, experienced dramatic economic expansion. Historical interpretation of this understudied coal boom has...
17 citations
TL;DR: The authors traces the colonial and postcolonial histories of one of India's most iconic structures, New Delhi's All-India War Memorial, which was designed and built by Edwin Lutyens immediately after the Gre...
Abstract: This paper traces the colonial and postcolonial histories of one of India’s most iconic structures, New Delhi’s All-India War Memorial. Designed and built by Edwin Lutyens immediately after the Gre...
16 citations
TL;DR: The authors discusses political liberalism at the end of empire in British Africa through analysis of British ideas about institution building below the level of parliamentary democracies, arguing that new articulations of an imperial liberalism during decolonisation had an energising effect on some Britons within domestic institutions whose expertise was called upon to assist with the development of successor institutions in emergent states.
Abstract: This article discusses political liberalism at the end of empire in British Africa through analysis of British ideas about institution building below the level of parliamentary democracies. It suggests that while processes of institution-building have largely been discussed through the prism of development, they also constitute fruitful sites for the exploration of British ideas about the nature of politically-liberal systems. I argue that new articulations of an imperial liberalism during decolonisation had an energising effect on some Britons within domestic institutions whose expertise was called upon to assist with the development of successor institutions in emergent states. As they engaged in a process of institution-building, these individuals acted in ways that were not only determined by Western liberalism, but also by distinctive British ideas of the appropriate relationship of institutions to the state. I suggest, however, that while their approach to institution building in emergent st...
16 citations
TL;DR: The recurring problems of covert and opportunistic conflict between settlers and Indigenous peoples produced considerable debate across the British settler world in the early nineteenth century as mentioned in this paper, and the British government responded to these recurring problems with a variety of measures.
Abstract: Over much of the nineteenth century, recurring problems of covert and opportunistic conflict between settlers and Indigenous peoples produced considerable debate across the British settler world ab...
16 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines opposition to the creation and presence of the West India Regiments in Britain's Caribbean colonies from the establishment of these military units in the mid-to-late 1790s to...
Abstract: This article examines opposition to the creation and presence of the West India Regiments in Britain’s Caribbean colonies from the establishment of these military units in the mid-to-late 1790s to ...
TL;DR: The Age of Catastrophe (1914-1945) has long been considered a crisis of liberalism as mentioned in this paper and what emerged in its wake, amid the swells of irremediable nationalisms, is the subject of this article.
Abstract: The Age of Catastrophe (1914–1945) has long been considered a crisis of liberalism. As a political platform and moralistic worldview, the hollowness of liberalism’s promise was exposed when total war struck at the heart of Europe, undermining its presumption of imperial hegemony over much of the world. What emerged in its wake, amid the swells of irremediable nationalisms, is the subject of this article. Blinded by the fog of war and bright lights of modernity, historians often fail to catch the glimpses of alternative aspirations, which escaped the age’s ruptures so as to reinvent and redeem humanity from the depths of its bloody past. Against a backdrop of neglected case studies from Britain and elsewhere – from the Luddites to the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift – this article seeks to show how the spectre of death inspired new ideals of youth and civility that rejected the arrogance of imperial masculinity and industrialised oppression, turning instead to visions of global kinship that were socialis...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine constitutional design for colonies of European settlement, arguing about such design in two key respects: first, thi... and second, the striking instance of colonial New Zealand.
Abstract: Focusing on the striking instance of colonial New Zealand, this article examines constitutional design for colonies of European settlement, arguing about such design in two key respects. First, thi...
TL;DR: The authors examines shifting responses to the imperial sexual and political ideologies underpinning collective toleration of Halifax's racially mixed sex district, and offers a case study of this crucial moment of civic refashioning.
Abstract: In the early years of the twentieth century, city administrators in Halifax, Nova Scotia articulated a new, modern identity for the former imperial garrison town by identifying the local red light district as both a moral and a spatial problem. Between the twilight of Victoria’s reign and Britain’s entry into the First World War, middle-class toleration of a local sex district as a means of managing the city’s populations of imperial servicemen virtually evaporated. Haligonians were inspired instead by North American urban modernisation initiatives to eradicate this visible and physical space for the world’s oldest profession. This paper examines shifting responses to the imperial sexual and political ideologies underpinning collective toleration of Halifax’s racially mixed sex district, offers a case study of this crucial moment of civic refashioning.
TL;DR: In this paper, a neglected imperial trade war between Lancashire and Australia is revisited to explore the nature of the cultural economy of the British Isles during the early 1800s.
Abstract: Following the recent cultural turn in economic history, this article resurrects a neglected imperial trade war between Lancashire and Australia to explore the nature of the cultural economy of the ...
TL;DR: The authors examines the process by which British-born migrants to Australia and South Africa were deported from mental hospitals in the 1920s and 1930s and shows how men and women who arr...
Abstract: This article examines the process by which British-born migrants to Australia and South Africa were deported from mental hospitals in the 1920s and 1930s. It shows how men and women who arr...
TL;DR: This paper cast new light on the post-war international adoptions of Chinese refugee children in the British colony of Hong Kong, arguing that while children were "saved" and found families overseas, they were also used as pawns in a bigger political game.
Abstract: With the support of new sources from British and Hong Kong archives, this study casts new light on the post-war international adoptions of Chinese refugee children in the British colony of Hong Kong. It argues that while children were ‘saved’ and found families overseas, they were also used as pawns in a bigger political game. A way to delegate welfare for the Hong Kong government, a symbolic humanitarian concession vis-a-vis a strict anti-immigration policy for Britain, and an anti-communist propaganda tool for the United States, these adoptions also convey the competing power and population politics played over subject children by two multiracial empires: one in decline (the rapidly decolonising Britain), the other on the rise (the new cold war superpower).
TL;DR: This paper explored merchants' views of illness and how they were deeply embedded in broader assumptions about manliness during a time of rapid imperial expansion, drawing on Holt's private papers, as well as merchant memoirs and the historiographies of medicine, hydrotherapy and masculinity.
Abstract: From 1862 until 1874, John Holt lived on the island of Bioko (Fernando Po), laying the groundwork for a company that would become one of the most influential trading houses in western Africa. During his time on the coast, Holt was almost continually ill with malaria and other tropical diseases, and his illnesses had a major impact on how he experienced and interpreted his life and work in Africa. This paper draws on Holt’s private papers, as well as merchant memoirs and the historiographies of medicine, hydrotherapy and masculinity to explore merchants’ views of illness and how they were deeply embedded in broader assumptions about manliness during a time of rapid imperial expansion.
TL;DR: In this paper, a governmental committee set up in 1800 to address a long-standing problem faced by the British state: how to procure a reliable and cost-effective supply of hemp was investigated.
Abstract: This article investigates a governmental committee set up in 1800 to address a long-standing problem faced by the British state: how to procure a reliable and cost-effective supply of hemp. This re...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined three connected campaigns for Indian imperial citizenship which spanned the period 1890 to 1919, and their impact on the emergence of radical South Asian anticolonialism.
Abstract: This article examines three connected campaigns for Indian imperial citizenship which spanned the period 1890 to 1919, and their impact on the emergence of radical South Asian anticoloniali...
TL;DR: The authors examines how the India Office handled cases of destitute Indians, such as sailors and servants, who were stranded in Britain during the Second World War, and concludes that "the empire provided opportunities for work and travel, yet...
Abstract: This article examines how the India Office handled cases of destitute Indians, such as sailors and servants, who were stranded in Britain. The empire provided opportunities for work and travel, yet...
TL;DR: Amongst Britain's former colonies, the independent countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean represent something of an anomaly in so far as the majority of them remain constitutional monarchies and co... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Amongst Britain's former colonies the independent countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean represent something of an anomaly in so far as the majority of them remain constitutional monarchies and co...
TL;DR: The presence of single and also of married British women in overseas colonies, especially those employed by or married to men in the Colonial Service in the later colonial period, has been the subject of scholarly enquiry as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The presence of single and also of married British women in overseas colonies, especially those employed by or married to men in the Colonial Service in the later colonial period, has been the subject of scholarly enquiry. Their lives, roles and values and their distinctive contribution, if any, to the development of empire and of its ending have been debated. Their gendered roles were usually subordinate in a masculine culture of empire, and especially as wives they are commonly regarded as marginalised. The archived records left by Lady Margaret Field reveal her commitment as a single woman to a colonial mission and her sense of achievement as a school teacher and educational administrator, while also acknowledging the independence and career satisfactions she subsequently lost when she married a senior Colonial Service officer who rose to be a governor. But it is also apparent that, though incorporated and subordinate as a governor's wife to her husband's career, she was not marginalised to a separate sphere. As is evident from this case study, governors’ wives had important and demanding political duties, and such responsibilities need to be acknowledged.
TL;DR: The authors argue that the state utilised the abkari department not simply as a means of generating revenue, but as a way of managing social relations and economic life in nineteenth-century India.
Abstract: Following a series of aggressive military campaigns across India, by the early nineteenth century, the East India Company had secured a more definitive political space for itself in India. However, in taking over the administration of the diwani, or administration and revenue collection duties in Bengal, the Company gained responsibility for the taxes that governed the production and sale of alcohol and drugs—the abkari system. The abkari duties represented an opportunity and challenge for the colonial state. What followed changed the social landscape of India as the Company developed a series of regulations to govern alcohol in both military and civil space. These laws quickly moved beyond earlier Mughal dictates on alcohol, revealing the state’s intent to mould society through taxation.
This article frames these colonial taxes on alcohol as a tool of governmentality. It argues that the state utilised the abkari department not simply as a means of generating revenue, but as a means of managing social relations and economic life in nineteenth-century India. It explores the path that the colonial state sought to forge between arguing for the ‘moral uplift’ of drinking populations and securing reliable revenue for Company (and later Crown) coffers. The laws themselves were often race- (and class-) specific, suggesting, for example, the pre-disposition of certain peoples to particular drinks. Moreover, the drinks themselves, whether toddy or ‘European’-style distilled spirits, were assigned a racial identity. While European observers viewed toddy as ‘natural’ and even beneficial when drunk by poor Indian labourers, in the throats of European soldiers it was labelled ‘dangerous’ or even lethal. Conversely, later Indian campaigners warned that ‘alien’ distilled spirits, such as whisky or rum, were completely foreign to India and that their introduction suggested a darker, less benevolent, side to India’s colonial rule. As such, these colonial controls on alcohol, and the debates that swirled around them, illuminate the ways in which the colonial state both understood and attempted to shape its subjects and servants.
TL;DR: Focusing on the history of the wartime Macau Delegation of the Portuguese Red Cross (1943-46), the authors aims to shed light on interactions between Macau and the occupied British colony of Hong...
Abstract: Focusing on the history of the wartime Macau Delegation of the Portuguese Red Cross (1943–46), this article aims to shed light on interactions between Macau and the occupied British colony of Hong ...
TL;DR: The authors traces the responses of Afrikaners to the symbolism and political purposes of the 1947 royal visit to Southern Africa, the first post-war royal tour and the first visit of a reigning s...
Abstract: This article traces the responses of Afrikaners to the symbolism and political purposes of the 1947 royal visit to Southern Africa, the first post-war royal tour and the first visit of a reigning s...
TL;DR: The British Council's early stages of expansion in Cyprus under British rule, from 1935 to 1955, before the start of the Greek Cypriot anti-colonial struggle was examined in this article.
Abstract: This article offers an examination of the British Council’s early stages of expansion in Cyprus under British rule, from 1935 to 1955, before the start of the Greek Cypriot anti-colonial struggle (...
TL;DR: In late colonial Basutoland and early independence Lesotho, the issue of who could access citizenship rights and passports became increasingly important. Political refugees fled apartheid South Africa.
Abstract: In late colonial Basutoland and early independence Lesotho, the issue of who could access citizenship rights and passports became increasingly important. Political refugees fleeing apartheid South ...
TL;DR: The Labour Party founded in 1900 necessarily confronted the imperial nature of the British state, the empire as an economic and military entity, and the inequalities it contained as discussed by the authors. Yet Labour initia...
Abstract: The Labour Party founded in 1900 necessarily confronted the imperial nature of the British state, the empire as an economic and military entity, and the inequalities it contained. Yet Labour initia...
TL;DR: The authors explored the ways in which British socialism may have supported and strengthened liberal ideas held by postcolonial leaders who were educated in Britain, by examining the relationship between British socialism and post-colonisation.
Abstract: This article explores the ways in which British socialism may have supported and strengthened liberal ideas held by postcolonial leaders who were educated in Britain. It attempts to do so by examin...