A trustworthy interpreter between rulers and ruled: Behramji Malabari, colonial and cultural interpreter in nineteenth-century British India
2013; Routledge; Volume: 38; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/03071022.2013.755330
ISSN1470-1200
Autores Tópico(s)Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1 The Times, 13 July 1912; Bombay Review, cited in Darayam Gidumal, The Life and Life-work of Behramji M. Malabari: Being a Biographical Sketch, with Selections of his Writings and Speeches on Infant Marriage and Enforced Widowhood, and Also 'Rambles of a Pilgrim Reformer' (Bombay, 1888), 88. 2 The Times, 13 July 1912. 3 Mrinilani Sinha, Colonial Masculinity: The 'Manly Englishman' and the 'Effeminate Bengali' in the Late Nineteenth Century (Manchester, 1995); Eckehard Kulke, The Parsees in India: A Minority as Agent of Social Change (New Delhi, 1978); Sudhir Chandra, 'Two faces of prose: Behramji Malabari and Govardhandram Tripathi' in Arvind Krishna Mehrotra (ed.), A History of Indian Literature in English (London, 2003), 82–91; and Antoinette Burton, 'A "Pilgrim Reformer" at the heart of Empire: Behramji Malabari in late-Victorian London' in her At the Heart of the Empire: Indians and the Colonial Encounter in Late-Victorian Britain (New Delhi, 1998), 152–88. References to Malabari in discussions of Indian gender politics include Rosalind O'Hanlon, 'Issues of widowhood: gender and resistance in colonial western India' in Douglas Haynes and Gyan Prakash (eds), Contesting Power: Resistance and Everyday Social Relations in South Asia (Delhi, 1991), 62–108; Meera Kosambi, 'Girl-brides and socio-legal change: Age of Consent Bill (1891) controversy', Economic and Political Weekly, 3–10 August 1991, 1857–68; and Tanika Sarkar, 'Rhetoric against the age of consent: resisting colonial reason and death of a child-wife', Economic and Political Weekly, 4 September 1993, 1869–78. 4 Morgan Meyer, 'The rise of the knowledge broker', Science Communication, xxxii, 1 (March 2010), 118. 5 Yanna Yannakakis, The Art of Being In-Between: Native, Intermediaries, Indian Identity, and Local Rule in Colonial Oaxaca (Durham, NC, 2008), 13. 6 Behramji Malabari, An Appeal from the Daughters of India (London, 1890), 18; and Sidar Jogendra Singh, B. M. Malabari: Rambles with the Pilgrim Reformer (London, 1914), 41–2. 7 Simon Schaffer et al., 'Introduction' in Simon Schaffer, Lissa Roberts, Kapil Raj and James Del Bourgo (eds), The Brokered World: Go-Betweens and Global Intelligence, 1770–1820 (Sagamore Beach, MA, 2009), x. 8 Stephen Greenblatt, Marvellous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World (Oxford, 1992). 9 On the Americas see Daniel K. Richter, 'Cultural brokers and inter-cultural politics: New York–Iroquois relations, 1664–1701', Journal of American History, lxxv, 1 (June 1988), 40–67; Eric Hinderaker, 'Translation and cultural brokerage' in Phil Deloria and Neal Salisbury (eds), A Companion to American Indian History (Oxford, 2002), 357–75; Nancy Hagedorn, ' "A friend to go between them": the interpreter as cultural broker during Anglo-Iroquois councils, 1740–1770', Ethno History, xxxv, 1 (Winter 1988), 60–80; Alida C. Metcalf, Go-Betweens and the Colonization of Brazil, 1500–1600 (Austin, 2005); for a European perspective see Andreas Höffle and Werner von Koppenfels (eds), Renaissance Go-Betweens: Cultural Exchange in Early Modern Europe (Berlin, 2005). 10 Benjamin Lawrence et al., 'Introduction: African intermediaries and the "bargain" of collaboration' in Benjamin Lawrence, Emily Lynn Osborn and Richard L. Roberts (eds), Intermediaries, Interpreters and Clerks: African Employees in the Making of Colonial Africa (Madison, 2006), 11. 11 Yannakakis, Art of Being In-Between, op. cit., 5. 12 Ronald Robinson, 'Non-European foundations of European imperialism: a sketch for a theory of collaboration' in Roger Owen and Bob Sutcliffe (eds), Studies in the Theory of Imperialism (London, 1972), 138. 13 Bernard Cohn, Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India (Princeton, 1996), 16–56; and C. A. Bayly, Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780–1870 (Cambridge, 1996), 2, 56. 14 Brian A. Hatcher, 'What's become of the pandit? Rethinking the history of Sanskrit scholars in colonial Bengal', Modern Asian Studies, xxxix, 3 (2005), 700. Also see Thomas Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj (Cambridge, 1995), xi, 11, 12, 41; Kate Teltscher, India Inscribed: European and British Writing on India 1600–1800 (Delhi, 1995), 199; and Kapil Raj 'Mapping knowledge: go-betweens in Calcutta, 1770–1820' in Schaffer et al., op. cit., 105–50. 15 Singh, op. cit., 45. 16 Thomas B. Macaulay, 'Minute on Indian education, 2 February 1835' in Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin (eds), The Post-colonial Studies Reader (London, 1997), 428–30; Leeds Mercury, 18 July 1896. 17 Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London, 1994), 86. 18 Behramji Malabari, 'A talk with my educated countrymen', Indian Spectator, 4 November 1894. 19 Behramji Malabari, The Indian Problem (Bombay, 1894), 37–8. 20 David Ruderman asserts that transitory lifestyles are indicative of mediators; see his 'Introduction' in David B. Ruderman and Giuseppe Veltri (eds), Cultural Intermediaries: Jewish Intellectuals in Early Modern Italy (Philadelphia, 2004), 4. 21 During this visit Malabari penned his Indian Eye on English Life, or, Rambles of a Pilgrim Reformer, 3rd edn (Bombay, 1895), 2. 22 Singh, op. cit., 41–2; and Behramji Malabari, Gujarát and the Gujarátis: Pictures of Men and Manners Taken from Life (London, 1882), 20. 23 Kris Manjapra, 'Introduction' in Sugata Bose and Kris Manjapra (eds), Cosmopolitan Thought Zones: South Asia and the Global Circulation of Ideas (Basingstoke, 2010), 1. 24 The Times, 8 and 14 August 1905. 25 Jesse Palsetia, The Parsis of India: Preservation of Identity in Bombay City (Leiden, 2001), 128–57. 26 Dosabhai Framji Karaka, History of the Parsis, including their manners, customs, religion, and present position, 2 vols (London, 1884), vol. 1, 303. 27 T. M. Luhrmann, The Good Parsi: The Fate of a Colonial Elite on a Postcolonial Society (Cambridge, MA, 1996), 1. 28 Bhabha, op. cit., 87. 29 Burton, op. cit., 18–19. 30 Between 1887 and 1900 his name is qualified on nine occasions in The Times by the word Parsee/Parsi; also see the Pall Mall Gazette, 31 July 1890 and the Graphic, 17 May 1884. 31 The Times, 23 March 1901. 32 Richard Sorabji, Opening Doors: The Untold Story of Cornelia Sorabji (London, 2010), cited 220. 33 'Queen Victoria's Proclamation to the Princes, Chiefs and the People' in A. B. Keith (ed.), Speeches and Documents on Indian Policy, 1750–1921 (London, 1922), vol. 1, 382. 34 Padma Anagol, The Emergence of Feminism in India, 1850–1920 (Aldershot, 2005), 201. 35 Gidumal, Life and Life-work, op. cit., cix. 36 ibid., 251. 37 ibid., cxiii. The complete version of Notes on Infant Marriage and Enforced Widowhood in India: Being a Collection of Opinions, for and against Received by Mr Behramji M. Malabari, from Representative Hindu gentlemen and Official and Other Authorities (Bombay, 1887) is used throughout. 38 ibid., cix–cx. 39 ibid., 2. 40 ibid. 41 ibid., 8–9. 42 Letter from Lord Ripon to Malabari, dated Simla, 20 August 1884, in ibid., 11. 43 Justice Scott to Malabari, letter dated 27 July 1886, reproduced in ibid., 47. 44 See British Library (subsequently BL), London, India and Oriental Office (subsequently IOR), India Home Proceedings of the Government of India, in the Home Department (Public), No. 35 – 1616–26, 'Papers relating to infant marriage and enforced widowhood', J. Moncreath, Under-Secretary to the Government of Bombay, 26 March 1885, 38; and Babu Peary Mohun Mukarjee, Hon. Secretary of the British Indian Association, 26 January 1885, 187. 45 Schaffer, et al., op. cit., xxvii. 46 The use of 'I' appears more than twenty times in the Notes. 47 BL, IOR, 'Papers relating', Kalianrai, Desai of Broach, 14 January 1885, 73–5. 48 Morning Post, 21 March 1887. 49 Malabari in Gidumal, op. cit., 305. 50 Letter from Sir W. Wedderburn to Malabari, dated January 1886, in Notes, op. cit., 86–7. 51 Response to A. O. Hume in ibid., 70–1. 52 Letter from A. O. Hume, dated Simla, January 1885 in ibid., 68–9. 53 Malabari, 'The attitudes of some officials and reformers' in Gidumal, Life and Life-work, op. cit., 55. 54 Preface, 'Papers relating', 2. 55 Richard Phillips, Sex, Politics and Empire: A Postcolonial Geography (Manchester, 2006), 76. 56 Uma Chakravarti, Rewriting History: The Life and Times of Pandita Ramabai, 2nd edn (New Delhi, 2006), 174–6. 57 Malabari, Appeal, op. cit., 10–11. 58 ibid., 17, but also see 2–4. 59 ibid., 18. 60 This was particularly so since the 'Maiden Tribute' scandal of 1885. Burton draws this analogy in op. cit., and Phillips makes an explicit comparison between Malabari and Stead in op. cit., 63–74. 61 Malabari, Appeal, op. cit., 3. 62 See, for example, Antoinette Burton, Burdens of History: British Feminists, Indian Women, and Imperial Culture, 1865–1915 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1994). 63 Malabari, Appeal, op. cit., 20. 64 BL, IOR, Lansdowne Letters, MSS EUR D558/12, Letter no. 40, 52, Lord Reay to Lord Lansdowne, dated 13 June 1890. 65 Kosambi, 'Girl-brides and socio-legal change', op. cit., 1858. 66 BL, IOR/P/3951 Legislative Department Proceedings, April 1891, Proceedings 9/10 – Resolutions passed at a meeting. Summary dated 6 November 1890, 48–9. 67 BL, IOR, Lansdowne Letters, MSS EUR D558/12, Letter no. 40, 52, Lord Reay to Lord Lansdowne, dated 13 June 1890, reiterated in Letter no. 43, 57, Reay to Lansdowne, dated 4 July 1890. 68 See references made to Malabari in Liverpool Mercury, 31 December 1885. 69 Max Müller's (signed F. M. M.) letter to The Times, 14 January 1888. 70 Leeds Mercury, 23 February 1891. For other regional coverage see Manchester Times, 29 August 1890 and Birmingham Daily Post, 15 August 1890. 71 David Spurr, The Rhetoric of Empire: Colonial Discourse in Journalism, Travel Writing, and Imperial Administration (Durham, NC, 1993), 36. 74 From 'A correspondent', The Times, 13 September 1890. 72 Chandrika Kaul, Reporting the Raj: The British Press and India, c.1880–1922 (Manchester, 2003), 61. 73 See The Times's letter columns 20 August, 22 August, 30 August and 4 September 1890. 75 Malabari, The Times, 13 September 1890. 76 Rast Gutfar, 24 August 1890. Also see Indian Nation, 1 September 1890. 77 Gujarati, 24 August 1890. 78 Nandalal Ghosh, Glory Unto Loyalty: O Empress! Pray Do Not Interfere with Religion (Calcutta, 1891), 9. 79 ibid. 80 Himani Bannerji, 'Age of consent and hegemonic social reform' in Claire Midgley (ed.), Gender and Imperialism (Manchester, 1998), 23. See testimony of L. M. Thornton, Secretary of the Government North-West Province to Secretary of Government of India, 26 February 1891, as one such instance of anxiety. BL, IOR/P/3951,Appendix A8, Government of India Legislative Department, Papers No. 9 relative to the Bill to amend the Indian Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedures 1882. 81 BL, IOR/P/3951 Legislative Department Proceedings, April 1891. 82 See Burton, Heart of the Empire, op. cit., and Antoinette Burton, 'Making a spectacle of Empire: Indian travellers in fin-de-siècle London', History Workshop Journal, 42 (Autumn 1996), 139. 83 Greenblatt, Marvellous Possessions, op. cit., 143–5; and Metcalf, Go-Betweens, op. cit., 9–11, 18. 84 Malabari, Gujarát and the Gujarátis, op. cit., 10. 86 Malabari, Gujarát and the Gujarátis, op. cit., 10. 85 ibid., 48–9; see also Inderpal Grewal, Home and Harem: Nation, Gender, Empire and the Cultures of Travel (London, 1996), 144. It is no coincidence that Malabari alludes to one of the other great satirists of the eighteenth century, Jonathan Swift, mentioning both his Modest Proposal (1729) by citing cannibalism of children in times of famine as applicable to India, 47, and Gulliver's Travels (1726), 141. 87 ibid., 47. 88 Chandra, 'Two faces' in History of Indian Literature in English, op. cit., 84. 89 Graphic, 17 May 1884. 90 Malabari, Gujarát and the Gujarátis, op. cit., preface by E. B. Eastwick, viii. 91 ibid., 9. 92 For Heber see Narrative of a Journey Through the Upper Provinces of India from Calcutta to Bombay 1824–25; An Account of a Journey to Madras and the Southern Provinces, 1826, and letters written in India edited by Amelia Heber, 3 vols (London, 1828); James Forbes penned Oriental Memoirs, 4 vols (London, 1813), recounting his experiences as an East India Company official in Gujarat. 93 Gidumal, op. cit., xciii and Malabari, Gujarát and the Gujarátis, op. cit., 9. 94 Civil and Military Gazette cited in Gidumal, op. cit., xci. 95 Malabari described the multiple editions of the book as 'a good investment … more remunerative than the Kaiser-i-Hind'. Malabari, 'Rambles', cited in Gidumal, Life and Life-work, op. cit., 305. 96 Grewal, op. cit., 141. 97 Indian Spectator, 1 July 1883. 98 Malabari, Indian Problem, op. cit., frontispiece. 99 'Indian affairs', The Times, 11 September 1894. 100 Malabari, Indian Problem, op. cit., 1, 7–8, 36–7, 40. 101 Review of Indian Problem, Calcutta Review, 1 April 1895, lxx. 102 Behramji Malabari, India in 1897 (London, 1898), 4. 103 ibid., 11. 104 ibid., 22. 105 'Indian affairs', The Times, 14 February 1898. 106 Malabari, India in 1897, op. cit., 29. 108 Malabari, Indian Spectator, op. cit., 4 November 1894. 107 These included Indian Spectator and Voice of India (1890–1900), Indian Spectator and Champion (1901–2) and Indian Spectator, Voice of India and Champion (1904–13). 109 Malabari, Appeal, op. cit., 3. 110 The Times, 27 May 1907; 26 July 1896; and 30 October 1906. 111 Julie F. Codell 'The Empire writes back: native informant discourse in the Victorian press' in J. Codell (ed.), Imperial Co-histories: National Identities and the British and Colonial Press (Madison, 2003), 188–218, especially 214. 112 Sir Auckland Colvin, cited in Rangaswami Parthasarathy, Journalism in India: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day, 5th edn (New Delhi, 2004 [1989]), cited 48. 113 The Times, 11 December 1901. 114 For one of Malabari's only and unsigned features see 'The native press – then and now', East and West, iii, 34 (1904), 853. 115 W. T. Stead, 'What is my duty to the people of India?', East and West, i, 1 (1901), 70–5 and T. Baty, 'Oriental and occidental ideals', East and West, i, 2 (1901), 151. 116 Julie Codell, 'Getting the twain to meet: global regionalism in East and West: A Monthly Review', Victorian Periodicals Review, xxxvii, 2 (2004), 227. 117 Manjapra, 'Introduction' in Cosmopolitan Thought Zones, op. cit., 3. 118 Frederick Cooper, 'Conflict and connection: rethinking colonial African history', American Historical Review, 99 (1994), 1529. 119 Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 'Between a rock and a hard place: some afterthoughts' in Schaffer et al., op. cit., 440. 120 Singh, op. cit., 60. 121 Lord Reay's response is described in The Times, 23 March 1901. 122 The Times, 13 July 1912. 123 Meyer, 'Knowledge broker', op. cit., 118. 124 Manjapra, 'Introduction' in Cosmopolitan Thought Zones, op. cit., 6.
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