From Contact to Conquest - Transition to British Rule in Malabar,1790-1805

Author: Margret FrenzPublisher: Oxford University PressYear: 2003Language: EnglishPages: 209ISBN/UPC (if available): 0 19 566321 7 DescriptionThis study provides a new perspective on the transition from pre-colonial to early colonial rule in late 18th century Malabar. Making extensive use of Malayalam sources, it considers an important, largely neglected region of India, and offers a fresh approach towards the analysis of colonial encounters.The book focuses on the construction and legitimation of rule by elite local groups in Malabar and the implications of British conquest. At the centre of the study is an exploration of the clash of sovereignty that occurred when two very different concepts of rule collided-that of the British, built on the Euro-centric notion of the state with an all-pervasive administration, and that of the Malabar elite, a complex indigenous idea of the state based on redistributive processes. In the face of the British drive for supremacy local rulers could eit