Empire-building did not only involve the use of excessive violence against native communities, but also required the gathering of data about the native Other. This is a book about books, which looks at the writings of Western colonial administrators, company-men and map-makers who wrote about Southeast Asia in the 19th century. In the course of their information-gathering they had also framed the people of Southeast Asia in a manner that gave rise to Orientalist racial stereotypes that would be used again and again. Data-Gathering in Colonial Southeast Asia 1800-1900: Framing the Other revisits the era of colonial data-collecting to demonstrate the workings of the imperial echo chamber, and how in the discourse of 19th century colonial-capitalism data was effectively weaponized to serve the interests of Empire.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- A Note on Spelling
- Introduction
- The Panopticon in the Indies: Data-Gathering and the Power of Knowing
- I. Lost no longer: The House of Glass that is Postcolonial Southeast Asia
- 1. Caught in the Eye of Empire
- Stamford Raffles’ 1814 Java Regulations
- I. An English government does not need the articles of a capitulation to impose those duties which are prompted by a sense of justice: Lord Minto’s brand of benevolent imperialism in Java
- II. The Lieutenant-Governor is Watching You: Raffles’ 1814 Regulations
- III. Knowing Java and Policing Java
- IV. Policing Bodies: Corpses, Prisoners and other ‘Asiatic Foreigners’
- V. Policing and Profit: Raffles’ Regulations of 1814 as the Foundation of Regulated and Racialized Colonial-Capitalism
- VI. Framing the Javanese as both Useless and Useful: Native Labour in Imperial Policing
- 2. Deadly Testimonies
- John Crawfurd’s Embassy to the Court of Ava and the Framing of the Burman
- I. Stabbing at the Heart of their Dominions: John Crawfurd’s Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava
- II. I shall have the honour soon to lay an abstract before the Government: Crawfurd’s Embassy to Ava read as an Intelligence Report
- III. Who Can I Trust? John Crawfurd’s Search for Reliable Data from Reliable Witnesses
- III.A. Our Man in Rangoon: The Merchant-turned-Informant John Laird
- III.B. Our Man from London: The Merchant-turned-Informant Henry Gouger
- III.C. The Unquiet American: The Yankee Missionary Adoniram Judson
- III.D. Everything including the Kitchen Sink: The Testimonies of Jeronimo de Cruz, John Barretto and the mysterious Mr. ******* from ******
- IV. Racial Difference and the Framing of the Burmese in the Writing of John Crawfurd
- V. Deadly Testimonies: Weaponised Knowledge in the Workings of Racialized Colonial-Capitalism
- 3. Fairy Tales and Nightmares
- Identifying the ‘Good’ Asians and the ‘Bad’ Asians in the Writings of Low and St. John
- I. Fairy Tale Beginnings: Hugh Low Spins the Tale of Sarawak’s ‘Redemption’
- II. Knowing the Difference: Differentiating Between the ‘Good’ and the ‘Bad’ Asians in the works of Hugh Low and Spenser St. John
- III. Protecting the Natives from other Asiatics: St. John’s negative portrayal of Malays and Chinese as the oppressors of the Borneans
- III.A. Spenser St. John’s construction of the ‘Malay threat’
- III.B. Spenser St. John’s construction of the ‘Chinese Peril’
- IV. Bloodsuckers and Insurgents: Knowing the Asian Other and the Maintenance of Colonial Rule
- V. And the Narrative Continues: The Fairy Tale Ending to Sarawak’s Story
- 4. The Needle of Empire
- The Mapping of the Malay in the works of Daly and Clifford
- I. Elbow Room for Empire: Britain’s Expansion into the Malay Kingdoms
- II. Stabbing at the Heart of the Malay: Seeking Justification for Britain’s Expansion into the Malay States
- III. Enter the Imperial Needle: Dominick D. Daly, Geographic Intelligence, and Colonial Mapping
- IV. To Bring Darkness to Light: Hugh Clifford, Colonial Geography, and the Duty of ‘the Great British Race’
- V. The Geography of Empire: Mapping and Colonial Power
- 5. The Panopticon in the Indies
- Data-collecting and the Building of the Colonial State in Southeast Asia
- I. We want to know you better: Data-collecting in the service of Empire
- II. Text and Context: Empire’s Power Differentials and the Framing of the Colonized Other
- III. Imperial Hubris: When Empire’s Archive Fell Apart
- IV. The Panopticon Today: Data-Gathering and Governance in Present-day Postcolonial Southeast Asia
- Appendix A
- Proclamation of Lord Minto, Governor-General of British India, at Molenvliet, Java, 11 September 1811
- Appendix B
- Proclamation of Stamford Raffles, Lieutenant-General of Java, At Batavia, Java, 15 October 1813
- Appendix C
- The Treaty of Peace Concluded at Yandabo
- Appendix D
- The Treaty of Friendship and Commerce between Her Majesty and the Sultan of Borneo (Brunei). Signed, in the English and Malay Languages, 27 May 1847
- Appendix E
- The Racial Census employed in British Malaya from 1871 to 1931
- Timeline of Events and Developments in Southeast Asia 1800-1900
- Bibliography
- Newspapers and News Reports
- Parliamentary Acts
- Letters
- Index
Text
Audio
Adobe DRM
Login to your account