Reversing the Gaze - Amar Singh's Diary, A Colonial Subject's Narrative of Imperial India

Author: Susanne Hoeber RudolphLloyd I Rudolph/Editor: Susanne Hoeber RudolphPublisher: Oxford University PressYear: 2001Language: EnglishPages: 625ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195658698 DescriptionThese selections from the years 1898 to 1905 are the work of the young Amar Singh. He records his sense of discovery and surprise at diverse sites – the Jodhpur court, the women’s quarters of the Jaipur haveli, Lord Curzon’s Imperial Cadet Corps. Amar Singh reverses the gaze. A colonial subject contemplates an imperial other. He begins writing at twenty, producing over forty-four years what may be one of the world’s longest continuous diaries. These selections from the years 1898 to 1905 are the work of the young Amar Singh. He records his sense of discovery and surprise at diverse sites – the Jodhpur court, the women’s quarters of the Jaipur haveli, Lord Curzon’s Imperial Cadet Corps. In daily negotiations with his British and Rajput counter-players, he constructs a hybrid self, a Rajput