The Travels of Dean Mahomet

An Eighteenth-Century Journey through India

Dean Mahomet (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

214 Seiten

1997
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-20717-2 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

Offers an account of life in late eighteenth-century India. This book presents an Indian's view of the British conquest of India and conveys the vital role taken by Indians in the colonial process, especially as they negotiated relations with Britons both in the colonial periphery and the imperial metropole.

This unusual study combines two books in one: the 1794 autobiographical travel narrative of an Indian, Dean Mahomet, recalling his years as camp-follower, servant, and subaltern officer in the East India Company's army (1769 to 1784); and Michael H. Fisher's portrayal of Mahomet's sojourn as an insider/outsider in India, Ireland, and England. Emigrating to Britain and living there for over half a century, Mahomet started what was probably the first Indian restaurant in England and then enjoyed a distinguished career as a practitioner of 'oriental medicine, i.e., therapeutic massage and herbal steam bath, in London and the seaside resort of Brighton. This is a fascinating account of life in late eighteenth-century India - the first book written in English by an Indian - framed by a mini-biography of a remarkably versatile entrepreneur. "Travels" presents an Indian's view of the British conquest of India and conveys the vital role taken by Indians in the colonial process, especially as they negotiated relations with Britons both in the colonial periphery and the imperial metropole.
Connoisseurs of unusual travel narratives, historians of England, Ireland, and British India, as well as literary scholars of autobiography and colonial discourse will find much in this book. But it also offers an engaging biography of a resourceful, multidimensional individual.

Michael H. Fisher is Professor of History at Oberlin College. He is the author of A Clash of Cultures: Awadh, the British, and the Mughals (1987) and Indirect Rule in India: Residents and the Residency System, 1764-1858 (1991).

List of Illustrations
Map
PREFACE

A Text and a Life

Dean Mahomet in Europe (1784-185I)

The Significance of Dean Mahomet's Work

A Guide to This Volume

Acknowledgments

ONE: THE WORLD OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY INDIA

The Mughal Empire and the Regional States

The European East India Companies

The Diverse Origins of the Bengal Army

The New Model: The Sepoy

Sepoy Battalions

The Bengal Army's European Regiments

Dean Mahomet's Youth in Bihar (1759-69)

Dean Mahomet as Camp Follower (1769-81)

Dean Mahomet as Bengal Army Officer (1781-82)

Dean Mahomet in Transit (1782-84)

TWO: THE TRAVELS OF DEAN MAHOMET

THREE: DEAN MAHOMET IN IRELAND AND ENGLAND
(I784-1851)

Dean Mahomet Enters Cork

Publication of Travels

Cork Society

Immigration to London

Dean Mahomet Works for a Nabob

The Hindostanee Coffee House (1809-12)

The World of Brighton

Dean Mahomet and Jane Move to Brighton

The Battery House Baths (1815-20)

Mahomed's Baths (1821-43)

Shifting Self-Presentations

The Indian Method

Shampooing Surgeon to Royalty

Social Position in Brighton

Dean Mahomet's Legacies

Notes
Glossary
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	30.7.1997
Vorwort	Michael Fisher
Zusatzinfo	16
Verlagsort	Berkerley
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	363 g
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
	Literatur ► Essays / Feuilleton
	Reisen ► Reiseberichte ► Europa
	Reisen ► Reiseberichte ► Asien
ISBN-10	0-520-20717-3 / 0520207173
ISBN-13	978-0-520-20717-2 / 9780520207172
Zustand	Neuware