I won’t speak for you, but I find it utterly remarkable that the British were able to “rule” India. Britain, of course, is a small island off a small continent some significant distance from most of its colonies. India, in contrast, is essentially a continentunto itself and the home of an ancient, sophisticated civilization. How could the tiny UK “rule” an entire continental civilization?

Happily, Dhara Anjaria gives us some answers in her excellent Curzon’s India: Networks of Colonial Governance, 1899-1905 (Oxford University Press, 2014).In a word, the Brits didn’t rule Indiaalone, at least when they were ruling India well. Through the lens ofGeorge Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, Anjaria tells the tale.

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Dhara Anjaria, “Curzon’s India: Networks of Colonial Governance, 1899-1905” (Oxford University Press, 2014)