This accessible cultural history explores 400 years of Britishimperial adventure in India, developing a coherent narrativethrough a wide range of colonial documents, from exhibitioncatalogues to memoirs and travelogues. It shows how these textshelped legitimize the moral ambiguities of colonial rule even asthey helped the English fashion themselves.* An engaging examination of European colonizers'representations of native populations* Analyzes colonial discourse through an impressive range ofprimary sources, including memoirs, letters, exhibition catalogues,administrative reports, and travelogues* Surveys 400 years of India's history, from the 16thcentury to the end of the British Empire* Demonstrates how colonial discourses naturalized the racial andcultural differences between the English and the Indians, andcontrolled anxieties over these differences

Acknowledgments vii1 Introducing Colonial Discourse 12 Travel, Exploration, and''Discovery'': From Imagination to Inquiry12Imagining Multiple Worlds: The Fantasy of''Discovery'' 18The Narrative Organization of Discovery 29''Inquiry'' and the Documentation ofthe Others 41Conclusion: ''Discovery'' and Wonder,''Contracted and Epitomized'' 493 The Discourse of Difference: Constructing the ColonialExotic 55The Colony and Imperial Wealth 57The Exotic in English Culture 59The Colonial Exotic: Aesthetics, Science, and Difference60The Sentimental Exotic 62The Scientific Exotic 79Conclusion: From the Indian to the Colonial Exotic 954 Empire Management: From Domestication to Spectacle104The Domestication of Colonial Spaces 106Administering Colonial Spaces 121''Raising the General Credit of theEmpire'': The Spectacle of Empire 140Conclusion: Imperial Improvisation and the Spectacle1455 Civilizing the Empire: The Ideology of Moral and MaterialProgress 161England's Age of Improvement 164Discipline and Improve 170Imperial Lessons 174The Salvific Colonial 178Rescue, Reform, and Race 183Conclusion: From Improvement to Self-Legitimization1946 Aesthetic Understanding: From Colonial English to ImperialCosmopolitans 201The Self-Fashioning of the Scholar-Colonial 204Antiquarian Aesthetics and Colonial Authority 213''Consumption, Ingestion, andDecoration'': Colonial Commodities 219The ''Empire City'': Pageantry andEmpire 226Conclusion: From Colonial English to ImperialCosmopolitan 229References 235Index 260