Liberal Arts Faculty Books
Working-Class Raj: Colonialism and the Making of Class in British India
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Description
Focusing on the military men, railway workers, and wives and children of the British working-class who went to India after the Rebellion of 1857, Working-Class Raj explores the experiences of these working-class men and women in their own words. Drawing on a diverse collection of previously unused letters and diaries, it allows us to hear directly from these people for the first time. Working-class Brits in India enjoyed enormous privilege, reliant on native Indian labour and living, as one put it, “like gentlemen.” But within the hierarchies of the Army and the railyard they remained working class, a potentially disruptive population that needed to be contained. Working in India and other parts of the empire, emigrating to settler colonies, often returning to Britain, all the while attempting to maintain family ties across imperial distances-the British working class in the nineteenth century was a globalised population. This book reveals how working-class men and women were not atomised individuals, but part of communities that spanned the empire and were fundamentally shaped by it.
ISBN
9781009356565
Publication Date
10-1-2023
Relational Format
book
Department
History
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Recommended Citation
Lindgren-Gibson, Alexandra, "Working-Class Raj: Colonialism and the Making of Class in British India" (2023). Liberal Arts Faculty Books. 261.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/libarts_book/261
