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Hartly House, Calcutta : Phebe Gibbes
Michael Franklin 
Swansea University Author:
Michael Franklin
Abstract
This novel is a designedly political document. Written at the time of the Hastings impeachment and set in the period of Hastings's Orientalist government, Hartly House, Calcutta (1789) represents a dramatic delineation of the Anglo-Indian encounter. The novel constitutes a significant intervent...
| ISBN: | 9781526134370 9781526134363 |
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| Published: |
Manchester
Manchester University Press
2019
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| Online Access: |
https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526134370/ |
| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa49110 |
| Abstract: |
This novel is a designedly political document. Written at the time of the Hastings impeachment and set in the period of Hastings's Orientalist government, Hartly House, Calcutta (1789) represents a dramatic delineation of the Anglo-Indian encounter. The novel constitutes a significant intervention in the contemporary debate concerning the nature of Hastings's rule of India by demonstrating that it was characterised by an atmosphere of intellectual sympathy and racial tolerance. Within a few decades the Evangelical and Anglicising lobbies frequently condemned Brahmans as devious beneficiaries of a parasitic priestcraft, but Phebe Gibbes's portrayal of Sophia's Brahman and the religion he espouses represent a perception of India dignified by a sympathetic and tolerant attempt to dispel prejudice. |
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| Keywords: |
British Occupation of India, 1765-1947, Fiction, India |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |