An Imperial Crisis in British India

In 1891 a major anti-British revolt erupted in the northeast Indian princely state of Manipur after a dangerously miscalculated attempt by the Government of India to assert its authority in the wake of a palace coup. Following the murder of a number of senior officers, a substantial British force descended upon the state to restore order and to bring the prime culprits to a questionable justice, generating widespread condemnation in England. The Manipur Uprising and its aftermath showed the fragility of indirect rule in India and British underestimation of native loyalty to princely rule. With fresh archival research and contemporary reports, Caroline Keen here provides a compelling account of erratic imperial policy-making at the highest level.

Caroline Keen holds a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. She is the author of Princely India and the British: Political Development and the Operation of Empire (I.B.Tauris).

THE ROAD TO MANIPUR
MANIPUR IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
CAST OF CHARACTERS
THE ABDICATION OF SUR CHANDRA SINGH
THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER'S ESCORT
THE ARRIVAL OF THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER
HOSTILITIES
THE RETREAT
THE SOLDIER'S ACCOUNT: LIEUTENANT CHARLES GRANT
THE CIVILIAN'S ACCOUNT: SIGNALLER C. WILLIAMS
THE THREE COLUMNS
THE COURT OF ENQUIRY
REACTION AT HOME
THE TRIAL OF THE PRINCES
THE AFTERMATH