India inscribed

About this book

India Inscribed is the first comprehensive study of European and British writing on India in the period 1600-1800, from the foundation of the East India Company to the defeat of Tipu Sultan. Britain's transition from trading partner to colonial power is charted through a detailed analysis of an exceptionally wide range of representations of India. The book draws on many sources previously ignored by scholars: travel accounts, missionary letters, histories and parliamentary debates, as well as illustrations, novels and poetry. Kate Teltscher argues that writing about India is not monolithic or univocal, but that representations of India are diverse, shifting, historically contingent and frequently competitive. Using the techniques of textual analysis on non-literary as well as literary texts, she examines such issues as the contrasting representation of Muslim and Hindu women, the rhetoric of Catholic and Protestant missionaries, the construction of British authority, and the ever-present threat of Indian subversion.