Planting Empire, Cultivating Subjects British Malaya, 1786–1941
Planting Empire, Cultivating Subjects examines the stories of ordinary people to explore the internal workings of colonial rule. Chinese, Indians and Malays learned about being British through the plantations, towns, schools and newspapers of a modernising colony. Yet they got mixed messages from the harsh, racial hierarchies of sugar and rubber estates and cosmopolitan urban societies. Empire meant mobility, fluidity, and hybridity, as well as the enactment of racial privilege and rigid ethnic differences. Using sources ranging from administrative files, court transcripts and oral interviews to periodicals and material culture, Lynn Hollen Lees explores the nature and development of colonial governance, and the ways in which Malayan residents experienced British rule in towns and plantations. This is an innovative study demonstrating how empire brought with it both oppression and economic opportunity, shedding new light on the shifting nature of colonial subjecthood and identity, as well as the memory and afterlife of empire.
- Proposes a more complex view of colonialism that takes into account shared sovereignties, multi-ethnic populations, and widely different styles of governance
- Situates the history of British Malaya in its global context, recognising its importance to the Indian Ocean and the Southern Pacific areas, as well as the world economy
- Demonstrates the impact of British rule on ordinary people as they migrated long distances into a frontier area
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Description
Planting Empire, Cultivating Subjects examines the stories of ordinary people to explore the internal workings of colonial rule. Chinese, Indians and Malays learned about being British through the plantations, towns, schools and newspapers of a modernising colony. Yet they got mixed messages from the harsh, racial hierarchies of sugar and rubber estates and cosmopolitan urban societies. Empire meant mobility, fluidity, and hybridity, as well as the enactment of racial privilege and rigid ethnic differences. Using sources ranging from administrative files, court transcripts and oral interviews to periodicals and material culture, Lynn Hollen Lees explores the nature and development of colonial governance, and the ways in which Malayan residents experienced British rule in towns and plantations. This is an innovative study demonstrating how empire brought with it both oppression and economic opportunity, shedding new light on the shifting nature of colonial subjecthood and identity, as well as the memory and afterlife of empire.
- Proposes a more complex view of colonialism that takes into account shared sovereignties, multi-ethnic populations, and widely different styles of governance
- Situates the history of British Malaya in its global context, recognising its importance to the Indian Ocean and the Southern Pacific areas, as well as the world economy
- Demonstrates the impact of British rule on ordinary people as they migrated long distances into a frontier area
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Hardback
2017
ISBN: 9781107038400
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