Political and Lineage Intrigue in the Indian States: Rajput Realities and British Convictions-in Conflict (original) (raw)

In many ways, it is useful to see the period of British dominance in South Asia as a continual semiconscious process of the manipulation and reconstruction of perceptions and-more frequently-misperceptions of Indian "national character'' and politics. Ignoring the omnipresent racism that lay beneath this process and facilitated the rule of many millions of Asians by a few thousands of Europeans, this continual reprocessing of Indic reality was a The research presented in this paper has been supported by grants from the American Institute oflndian Studies, the Shell Companies Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. While none can be expected to share my conclusions, the generous comments, conversations, and (sometimes protracted) arguments of the following friends and colleagues are acknowledged with deep gratitude: H.