Mushirul Hasan

A collection of papers or articles in honor of the historian Eric Stokes, the disconnected nature of the collection detracts from its effectiveness. Some of them have been written in an exaggeratedly academic style, so that they make for very tedious reading, and one is not clear what the point being made is. Some of them could have been compressed to half their length with advantage. Among the contributions which made an impact is David Barker's exposition on famines in northern MP at the end of the 19th century and the British administration's culpabilities. On the whole, the volume seems to have belied the great promise of the title, that is to disentangle the different courses of the British relationship with the subcontinent. By emphasizing mostly the negative and adversarial aspects, the publication seems to have ignored the rich tapestry of creative, institution-building, and knowledge-creating interactions and cooperative efforts.… (mais)