Abstract
The interaction and frequent clash of the Indian sub-imperial sphere with the expanding scope of British operations around the western Indian Ocean produced a unique and complicated dynamic. Before the Great War, the Indian sphere was tolerated by the Imperial government as an acceptable if sometimes problematic mechanism for supervising the affairs of a number of disparate territories — both inside and outwith the formal British Empire — stretching from the Persian Gulf to eastern Africa. Through its general control of India, Whitehall sought to ensure that Indian relations with this western sphere were conducted in ways complementary to Imperial policy. The Indian government, on the other hand, had its own particular objectives to pursue; and while it did not actively seek conflict with the Imperial sphere, the differences in approach and perspective between India and Britain inevitably led to friction at various points of mutual interest. The transfers of Zanzibar and Somaliland to Whitehall control demonstrated that the Imperial sphere was in the ascendant during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. To some extent, however, both these territories were on the periphery of India’s external system and represented the extension, and perhaps the overextension, of core axes of control centred on Muscat and the Persian Gulf, and on Aden and the Hadramaut.
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© 2003 Robert J. Blyth
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Blyth, R.J. (2003). ‘A Sort of Gilded Parochialism’: Conclusions and Postscript. In: The Empire of the Raj. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230599116_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230599116_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-42308-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-59911-6
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