Empire News
The Anglo-Indian Press Writes India
Priti Joshi
Empire News: The Anglo-Indian Press Writes India by Priti Joshi (SUNY Press) is the first scholarly monograph to study the Indian, English-language newspaper press during the waning days of the East India Company’s governance of India. Between 1845 and 1860, the press was relatively unfettered following the 1835 loosening of press restrictions and their reimposition in 1857. In a detailed analysis of several newspapers – the Bengal Hurkaru, the Mofussilite, the Friend of India, the Englishman, and the Hindoo Patriot – this book examines key moments of crisis, including the 1851 trial of the East India Company vs. Jyoti Prasad in Agra and the 1857 Uprising, as covered by the press. The book traces circuits of exchange within presses in India and between Britain and India, paying attention to both mobility and blockage. Empire News is the first study to access the untapped archive of Indian newspapers of this crucial period and to connect debates in Book History, postcolonial studies, and 19th century studies.
Advance Praise:
“Empire News will be required reading for scholars researching Victorian imperialism. Those interested in media and book studies and empire studies will find its discussion of the press networks of Anglo-India especially rewarding. This book is an important bridge between postcolonial studies and Victorian studies, two fields that have long had many missed connections. Furthermore, it is an excellent model for how to present a long-neglected archive to an audience unfamiliar with the materials.” — Nasser Mufti, author of Civilizing War: Imperial Politics and the Poetics of National Rupture
“An impressive and original project.” — Catherine Waters, author of Commodity Culture in Dickens’s “Household Words”: The Social Life of Goods
Priti Joshi is Professor of English at the University of Puget Sound.
Order online at: www.sunypress.edu