Hartly House, Calcutta: Phebe Gibbes

By Phoebe Gibbes and Phebe Gibbes

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1526134373
• ISBN13: 9781526134370
• Release Date: February 2019
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.4"