James Tod and Indian History

Lloyd I. Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber Rudolph. Romanticism's Child: An Intellectual History of James Tod's Infuence on Indian History and Historiography. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2017. 256 pp. $45.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-19-946589-7.

Reviewed by Cynthia Talbot

Published on H-Asia (April, 2018)

Commissioned by Sumit Guha (The University of Texas at Austin)

This slim volume bearing the name of Lloyd I. ties of Rajasthan (1829-32) on their frst trip to In‐ Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph was pub‐ dia in 1956; it remains in print in both English lished posthumously. For years before Susanne's and Hindi and intrigued the Rudolphs throughout death on December 23, 2015, at the age of eighty- their careers. fve and Lloyd's death on January 16, 2016, at the Like Tod, the Rudolphs were fascinated by the age of eighty-eight, the two had expressed a desire region of Rajasthan and often mingled with its Ra‐ to compile their writings on Colonel James Tod in jput elite. Rajasthan's Rajputs and their adapta‐ book form. This wish came to fruition with the as‐ tion to the changing world of independent India sistance of Susanne's brother Francis W. Hoeber, were the main focus of the Rudolphs' Essays on who shepherded Romanticism's Child through the Rajputana: Refections on History, Culture and publication process. In addition to fve essays Administration (1984). With the help of Amar about Tod by the Rudolphs, it contains the individ‐ Singh's nephew, Mohan Singh Kanota, the ual testimonies of Tod and James Mill—ofering Rudolphs also undertook the editing of a massive radically diferent advice—to the British Parlia‐ diary compiled by Amar Singh, a Rajput noble ment in 1832. and ofcer in the Indian Army; Reversing the On the surface, the Rudolphs and Tod seem to Gaze: Amar Singh's Diary, A Colonial Subject's have little in common. The Rudolphs were emi‐ Narrative of Imperial India (2000) contains select nent political scientists whose publications on entries dating from 1898 to 1905. The Rudolphs post-independence India include The Modernity were largely responsible for introducing the Ra‐ of Tradition: Political Development in India jasthan region to the world of area studies schol‐ (1967), In Pursuit of Lakshmi: The Political Econo‐ arship that became prominent in the United my of the Indian State (1987), and Explaining Indi‐ States after World War II; in that sense, too, they an Democracy: A Fifty-Year Perspective, resembled Tod, who frst brought Rajasthan to the 1956-2006 (2008). Tod, on the other hand, was an attention of European scholars of an Orientalist ofcer of the East India Company in the frst bent soon after the territory came under British decades of the nineteenth century, whose inter‐ sway. No wonder then that Tod and his work res‐ ests were antiquarian. Yet the Rudolphs encoun‐ onated so much with the Rudolphs. tered Tod's hugely infuential Annals and Antiqui‐ H-Net Reviews

Tod's magnum opus is the focus of "Writing British India and the more inductive and contex‐ and Reading Tod's Rajasthan: Interpreting the tual approach based on local knowledge in Tod's Text and Its Historiography," the previously pub‐ Rajasthan. lished essay with which Romanticism's Child Next is "Tod and Vernacular History," which opens. In this longest and most comprehensive of Lloyd Rudolph had circulated among colleagues their writings on Tod, the Rudolphs provide an since at least 2010 but not published anywhere. It overview of Tod's life, along with a discussion of examines Tod's impact on more popular construc‐ the intellectual infuences underlying Rajasthan tions of the past, such as those found in vernacu‐ and the later impact of the text. The Rudolphs lar-language texts. The Rudolphs make the valid note that British policy changed after the 1857 re‐ point that Tod has long been overlooked by main‐ bellion in ways that accorded with Tod's views: stream historiography, both as a political actor Indian rulers were now considered loyal vassals and as a scholar. Only recently has there been and recognized as such in quasi-feudal rituals and greater appreciation of the many ways in which ceremonies, such as the 1877 Delhi Durbar. Tod's Tod's Rajasthan inspired the imagination of Indi‐ casting of Rajputs as warrior heroes also contrib‐ an writers like R. C. Dutt in their historical fction uted to the construction of the martial race theo‐ and other vernacular works. The heroic histories ry, according to which only certain Indian com‐ presented by Tod afected even Mahatma Gandhi, munities were suitable for recruitment into the who stated that "Colonel Tod has taught us to be‐ Indian Army in the post-1857 era. Amar Singh, the lieve that every pass in Rajputana is a Thermopy‐ diarist, was among the Indian ofcers who served lae" (pp. 97-98). the British Raj subsequently, while maintaining a Another essay that appears in publication for strong sense of his own Rajput identity. the frst time here, although a draft of it dates Tod's sympathies toward the Rajputs were not back to 1993, is "Tod's Infuence on Shyamal Das's widely shared in his day, as is made clear in "Tod Historiography in Vir Vinod." Shyamal Das was a vs Mill: Clashing Perspectives on British Rule in court poet commissioned by the court's princes to India and Indian Civilization: An Analysis Based produce a history of Mewar. His Vir Vinod (He‐ on James Tod's and James Mill's 1832 Parliamen‐ roes' delight) was printed between 1886 and 1894 tary Testimony." Also previously published, this but remained largely inaccessible to the public essay juxtaposes the policy stances of Tod and until after India's independence. A noteworthy Mill, the well-known author of the History of feature of Das's publications is their inconsistent British India (1818). Tod advocated what later approach to historiography, so much so that the came to be termed indirect rule—that is, allowing Rudolphs wrote that "there were, in a sense, two indigenous rulers to maintain some semblance of Shyamal Dases, the Shyamal Das who wrote the sovereignty—while Mill supported direct rule, the Mewar sections of Vir Vinod and the Shyamal Das annexation of all Indian states. The Rudolphs re‐ who wrote for the professional journals of his garded Tod as part of the so-called Orientalist fac‐ time" (p. 125). Das followed Tod's romantic para‐ tion that lost infuence over East India Company digm and "imaginative" approach when covering policy in the 1830s to the Utilitarians, including the history of his region and its rulers, in stark Mill. The triumph of Utilitarianism led to the dis‐ contrast to his stress on empirical facts when astrous 1857 rebellion and the subsequent adop‐ writing about afairs outside of Mewar. Das can tion of policies more aligned to Tod's earlier rec‐ thus to "be regarded as one of India's frst modern ommendations. The Rudolphs end by drawing a historians," despite the heavy imprint on his work contrast between the abstract and deductive ap‐ of Tod's construction of Rajput history (p. 134). proach to history displayed in Mill's History of

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The last of the Rudolphs' essays is "Represent‐ ated these two testimonies to Parliament within ing/Re-presenting Rana Pratap: Introduction to the larger context of the renewal of the East India Kesri Singh's Maharana Pratap: The Hero of Company's charter in 1833. Or they might have Haldighati." Tod's valorization of the Mewar king provided a lengthier analysis of these documents Rana Pratap is the main point covered in this in their essay on Tod and Mill; instead, the reader short foreword to a book by the younger brother should turn to the fourth chapter of Jason Fre‐ of the diarist Amar Singh. Here, as in their other itag's Serving Empire, Serving Nation: James Tod essays, the Rudolphs discuss how much Tod's per‐ and the Rajputs of Rajasthan (2009). Other short‐ spective on Mewar's resistance against Mughal comings in Romanticism's Child, such as the re‐ power, which he viewed as a noble fght for free‐ peated references to Henry Hallam's model of me‐ dom, was shaped by the romantic movement's ad‐ dieval feudalism and other infuences on Tod's miration of the Greeks in their struggle for inde‐ thinking, would presumably have been ad‐ pendence from the Ottoman Turks. Going even dressed, and some concluding observations would further than Tod, Kesri Singh argued that Rana have been ofered to wind up the book. Pratap did not fee from Mughal forces at the fa‐ Even as it stands, however, Romanticism's mous Battle of Haldighati in 1576 but rather made Child is a welcome addition to the growing body a deliberate withdrawal; Singh attempted to de‐ of scholarship on Tod. Several books have been fend Rana Pratap's heroic reputation from any published in the past few years besides Freitag's taint by this means. noteworthy monograph: James Tod's Rajasthan: In the second section of Romanticism's Child, The Historian and His Collections, edited by Giles we are provided with primary sources that Tillotson (2007); Itihāskar Karnal Jems Ṭoḍ (The demonstrate how greatly Tod's opinions on com‐ historian Colonel James Tod) edited by Bhawani pany rule difered from those of Mill. First is the Singh Patawat (2011); and Knowledge, Mediation oral testimony that Mill gave before a parliamen‐ and Empire: James Tod's Journeys among the Ra‐ tary committee in 1832, followed by Tod's written jputs by Florence D'Souza (2015). The Rudolphs' responses to questions from the same committee. clear writing, broad perspective, and succinct for‐ In most respects, the two men ofered radically mulations of Tod's signifcance make Romanti‐ diferent assessments of the quality of company cism's Child a good introduction to Tod for a non‐ governance in the past and its recommended fu‐ specialist audience. The book will be especially ture course of action. Mill claimed that gover‐ cherished by the many scholars of Rajasthan's his‐ nance in the subsidiary and protected (later tory and culture, like me, to whom the Rudolphs "princely") states was far worse than in areas con‐ gave unstinting encouragement over the decades. trolled by the company, and so he urged the com‐ pany to annex them all. Tod was instead a vehe‐ ment proponent of non-interference into the af‐ fairs of the Rajput states, which should be protect‐ ed from manipulation by British commercial in‐ terests as well. He also ofered advice on the dis‐ tribution of the company's armed forces and on the system of patronage for entry into company service, among other practical matters. Had the Rudolphs been able to complete Ro‐ manticism's Child, they would no doubt have situ‐

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Citation: Cynthia Talbot. Review of Rudolph, Lloyd I.; Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber. Romanticism's Child: An Intellectual History of James Tod's Infuence on Indian History and Historiography. H-Asia, H-Net Reviews. April, 2018.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=50439

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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