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28 views102 pages

The Colonial Public and The Parsi Stage. The Making of The Theatre of Empire (1853-1893) Rashna Darius Nicholson Full Digital Chapters

The document discusses 'The Colonial Public and the Parsi Stage: The Making of the Theatre of Empire (1853–1893)' by Rashna Darius Nicholson, which explores the development of Parsi theatre within the context of colonialism. It is a revised version of a doctoral thesis and is part of the Transnational Theatre Histories series, focusing on cultural exchanges and the impact of imperial expansion on performance arts. The book includes various sections on social reform, professionalization, and race-thinking in Parsi social drama.

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TRANSNATIONAL THEATRE HISTORIES

The Colonial Public


and the Parsi Stage
The Making of the Theatre of Empire
(1853–1893)
Rashna Darius Nicholson
Transnational Theatre Histories

Series Editors
Christopher B. Balme
Institut für Theaterwissenschaft
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
Munich, Germany

Tracy C. Davis
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL, USA

Catherine M. Cole
College of Arts and Sciences
University of Washington
Seattle, WA, USA
Transnational Theatre Histories illuminates vectors of cultural exchange,
migration, appropriation, and circulation that long predate the more
recent trends of neoliberal globalization. Books in the series document
and theorize the emergence of theatre, opera, dance, and performance
against backgrounds such as imperial expansion, technological develop-
ment, modernity, industrialization, colonization, diplomacy, and cultural
self-determination. Proposals are invited on topics such as: theatrical
trade routes; public spheres through cross-cultural contact; the role of
multi-ethnic metropolitan centers and port cities; modernization and
modernity experienced in transnational contexts; new materialism: objects
moving across borders and regions; migration and recombination of
aesthetics and forms; colonization and decolonization as transnational
projects; performance histories of cross- or inter-cultural contact; festi-
vals, exchanges, partnerships, collaborations, and co-productions; diplo-
macy, state and extra-governmental involvement, support, or subversion;
historical perspectives on capital, finance, and administration; processes of
linguistic and institutional translation; translocality, glocality, transregional
and omnilocal vectors; developing new forms of collaborative authorship.

Series Editors
Christopher B. Balme (LMU Munich)
Catherine M. Cole (University of Washington)
Tracy C. Davis (Northwestern)

Editorial Board
Leo Cabranes-Grant (UC Santa Barbara, USA)
Khalid Amine (Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Tétouan, Morocco)
Laurence Senelick (Tufts University, USA)
Rustom Bharucha (JNU, New Delhi, India)
Margaret Werry (University of Minnesota, USA)
Maria Helena Werneck (Federal University of Rio de Janiero, Brazil)
Catherine Yeh (Boston University, USA/ University of Heidelberg,
Germany)
Marlis Schweitzer (York University; Canada)

More information about this series at


http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14397
Rashna Darius Nicholson

The Colonial Public


and the Parsi Stage
The Making of the Theatre of Empire (1853–1893)
Rashna Darius Nicholson
University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong S.A.R., China

This book is the revised version of a doctoral thesis entitled ‘The Theatre of
Empire’ submitted to the Faculty of History and the Arts, Ludwig Maximilian
University of Munich, Germany.

Transnational Theatre Histories


ISBN 978-3-030-65835-9 ISBN 978-3-030-65836-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65836-6

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021, corrected publication 2021
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
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of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc.
in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such
names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for
general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and informa-
tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither
the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with
respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been
made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps
and institutional affiliations.

Cover image: ‘An Actress in a Fine Company. India.’, H. C. White


Company, 1996.0009.WX25689, Keystone-Mast Collection, UCR/California Museum of
Photography, University of California at Riverside.

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Acknowledgments

As this work formally began in 2010, the debt that I owe to several
individuals and institutions is significant. The first draft of this book
was completed as a doctoral thesis entitled The Theatre of Empire at
the DFG-Graduiertenkolleg Globalisierung, Ludwig Maximilian Univer-
sity of Munich. I thank first and foremost Christopher Balme, Christoph
Neumann, and Robert Stockhammer, who taught me my first lessons in
history-writing.
Research for this book was conducted at the following private and
public archives: the J. N. Petit Institute, Mumbai; the K. R. Cama Oriental
Institute, Mumbai; the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai;
the Alexandra High School, Mumbai; the Maharashtra State Archives,
Mumbai; the Unesco Parzor Foundation, New Delhi; the Sangeet Natak
Akademi, New Delhi; the National School of Drama, New Delhi; the
National Archives of India, New Delhi; the Natarang Pratishthan, New
Delhi; the Calcutta Parsi Amateur Dramatics Club, Kolkata; the National
Library, Kolkata; the Natyashodh Sansthan, Kolkata; the British Library;
and the New York Public Library. The generosity of Muncherji Cama,
Nawaz Mody, Shernaz Cama, Bahadur and Ratan Postwalla, and the staff
of the J. N. Petit Institute cannot be overstated.
This book is undergirded as much by anecdotes, family photographs,
and memories as by archival research; I am grateful to the late Noshir
Gherda, the Khatow family (Vinci Khatow, Percy Khatow, Aspi Khatow,
Tony Parr), the Madan family (Rustom Bharucha and Gool Ardeshir), the

v
vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Khambatta family (Shirin Vakil, Rukshan Vakil, and Daulat Mewawala),


the Marzban family (Ardeshir Dubash), the Kabraji family (the late Rusi
Vaccha and Jal Mehta), and the Sethna family (Ms. Raja).
For their continued intellectual support, special acknowledgement is
due to the IFTR Historiography Working Group. Claire Cochrane is
singled out for her counsel and encouragement. For pointing me in
unseen directions, I thank my colleagues at the Institute of Theatre
Studies at the LMU, Munich: Judith Rottenburg, MeLê Yamomo, Nic
Leonhardt, Anirban Ghosh, Gero Toegl, and my friends Carla Nobre
Sousa, Jo Tyabji, Simin Patel, Saachi Chitkara, Danilo Spanicciati, and
Richard Bösel. The courage and strength of my colleagues and students
and the institutional support from the School of English at the University
of Hong Kong made the revisions of this book possible. I am grateful to
Otto Heim, Jessica Valdez, Julia Kuehn, Janny Leung, the anonymous
reviewers, Catherine M. Cole, Jessica Hinds-Bond, Jack Heeney, and
especially Tracy C. Davis for their advice during the publishing process.
The copyright of images from Pārsı̄ Nāt.ak Takhtānı̄ Tavārı̄kh belongs
to the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute. These images cannot be used in
any other form or publication or for any other purpose without the
written permission of the institute. The cover image, ‘An Actress in a Fine
Company. India’, is from the Keystone-Mast Collection, UCR/California
Museum of Photography, University of California in Riverside. Excerpts
from this book have appeared in different forms in Ethnic and Racial
Studies, Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film, and The Methuen Drama
Handbook of Theatre History and Historiography.
Finally, there are few words to express my gratitude towards my family
in Mumbai, Vicenza, and New York. I am particularly indebted to my
mother, who taught me how to read Gujarati between 2010 and 2014,
and to Giovanni, for all that he has given.
This book is for Soona and Jehangir.
Glossary

nāt.ak theatre
man.d.alı̄ club/company
set.h wealthy merchant leader/man of high social standing
nazar sight/vision/surveillance/evil eye
kalyug Hindu mythological age of discord or downfall

vii
Transliteration Note

All translations are my own unless specified otherwise.1 I have used the
ALA-LC transliteration system. Pha has been replaced with Fa in keeping
with the Parsi model of transliterating names. Additionally, the more
commonly used ‘za’ in Hindi and Urdu has been replaced with ‘ja’ or
‘jha’ when translating from Gujarati in keeping with the original char-
acter in the source text (e.g. Marajbā˜ n). However, I have retained the ‘za’
in common Hindustani terms such as ‘nazar’. Variations in the spelling
of the names of actors, managers, and directors have been mentioned in
the endnotes. I have adopted as the standard spelling the version that was
used by the person or company themselves. In the absence of this infor-
mation, the most commonly used spelling between the nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries has been cited. The names of famous personali-
ties (e.g. Dadabhai Naoroji) have been spelled according to popular usage.
Colonial Anglicized spelling has been used for city names and for theatre
productions primarily described in English newspapers.

Note
1. For a more elaborate description of the transliteration system, see Rashna
Darius Nicholson, ‘What’s in a Name? The Performance of Language in the
Invention of Colonial and Postcolonial South Asian Theatre History’, in
The Methuen Drama Handbook of Theatre History and Historiography, eds.
Claire Cochrane and Jo Robinson (London: Bloomsbury, 2019), 199–209.

ix
Contents

1 Introduction 1

Part I Discipline

2 Parsi Compradors and the Public Sphere 23

3 Social Reform, Lawmaking, and the Origins of the Parsi


Theatre 43

4 Corporeal Discipline 89

Part II Re-Enchantment

5 Science, Secular Mythology, and the Professionalization


of the Parsi Theatre 129

6 The Expansion of the Parsi Theatre 175

xi
xii CONTENTS

Part III Revolution

7 The Reformers in Need of Reforming 221

8 Race-Thinking and the Parsi Social Drama 259

9 Conclusion 289

Correction to: The Colonial Public and the Parsi Stage C1

Bibliography 305

Index 317
Abbreviations

BG Bombay Gazette
BT Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce
KIH Kaysare Hinda
NA Ek Jān.ı̄tā Pārsı̄ Ekt.arno Ardhı̄ Sadı̄ Uparno Nāt.akı̄ Anubhav
PNTT Pārsı̄ Nāt.ak Takhtānı̄ Tavārı̄kh
RG Rāst Goftār
Rāst Goftār tathā Satya Prakāś
STOJ Straits Times Overland Journal
TOI Times of India

xiii
List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 ‘Bombay Play-house, 1810’ (Source British Library, File


number D40013-09, © British Library Board. All Rights
Reserved/Bridgeman Images) 24
Fig. 2.2 ‘The Entertainment given to C. Forbes Esquire,
in the Theatre at Bombay, on the Night of 16th Oct.
1811’ (Source British Library, File number D40013-27,
© British Library Board. All Rights Reserved/Bridgeman
Images) 25
Fig. 3.1 Naśarvānjı̄ Dorābjı̄ Āpakhatyār (Source Pat.el, PNTT ,
49. Courtesy: The Trustees, The K. R. Cama Oriental
Institute, Mumbai) 51
Fig. 3.2 Kuvarjı̄ Sorābjı̄ Nājar, member of the Elphinstone
Theatrical Club (Source Pat.el, PNTT , 7. Courtesy: The
Trustees, The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai) 58
Fig. 3.3 Dhanjı̄śāh Navrojı̄ Pārakh, member of the Elphinstone
Theatrical Club (Source Pat.el, PNTT , 9. Courtesy: The
Trustees, The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai) 60
Fig. 3.4 Naśarvānjı̄ Navrojı̄ Pārakh, member of the Elphinstone
Theatrical Club (Source Pat.el, PNTT , 36. Courtesy: The
Trustees, The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai) 61
Fig. 4.1 Dādābhāi T.hut.hı̄ (Source Pat.el, PNTT , 158. Courtesy:
The Trustees, The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai) 94
Fig. 4.2 Farāmjı̄ Dalāl (Source Pat.el, PNTT , 285. Courtesy: The
Trustees, The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai) 95

xv
xvi LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 4.3 Farāmroj Jośı̄ (Source Pat.el, PNTT , 38. Courtesy: The
Trustees, The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai) 96
Fig. 4.4 Kekhuśro Kābrājı̄ (Source Tārāporvāl.ā, Pe. Kha.
Kābrājı̄-Smruti. Bombay: ‘Sāñj Vartamān’ Press, 1905,
n.p. Courtesy: The J. N. Petit Institute, Mumbai) 97
Fig. 4.5 Austen Henry Layard, ‘Hall in Assyrian Palace, Restored’,
1849. From General Research Division, The New
York Public Library, New York Public Library Digital
Collections. Accessed July 15, 2020, http://digitalcollecti
ons.nypl.org/items/510d47dc-46e4-a3d9-e040-e00a18
064a99 102
Fig. 4.6 Dhanjı̄bhāi Rūstamjı̄ Kerā˜ vālā (Source Pat.el, PNTT ,
330. Courtesy: The Trustees, The K. R. Cama Oriental
Institute, Mumbai) 104
Fig. 4.7 Kāvasjı̄ Naśarvānjı̄ Kohı̄dārū (Source Pat.el, PNTT , 286.
Courtesy: The Trustees, The K. R. Cama Oriental
Institute, Mumbai) 105
Fig. 4.8 Dādābhāi Sorābjı̄ Pat.el (Source Pat.el, PNTT , 95. Courtesy:
The Trustees, The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai) 106
Fig. 5.1 Nāhānābhāi Rūstamjı̄ Rān.ı̄nā (Source The Calcutta Parsi
Amateur Dramatic Club Golden Jubilee Souvenir Volume.
1907 –1947 , Calcutta, 1957. Courtesy: The Calcutta Parsi
Amateur Dramatic Club) 136
Fig. 5.2 Advertisement for Dāde Darı̄āv by the Victoria Nāt.ak
Man.d.alı̄. This advertisement was the first in the Parsi
theatre’s history to include a picture (Source RG, 22 May
1870, 342. Courtesy: The J. N. Petit Institute, Mumbai) 138
Fig. 5.3 Khurśedjı̄ Mervānjı̄ Bālı̄vālā (Source Gulfām, Bhamto-Bhut,
Bombay: Fort Printing Press. Courtesy: The PARZOR
Foundation, New Delhi) 152
Fig. 6.1 Edaljı̄ Dādābhāi (Source Pat.el, PNTT , 274. Courtesy: The
Trustees, The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai) 182
Fig. 6.2 D. osābhāi Fardunjı̄ Mogal (Source Pat.el, PNTT , 159.
Courtesy: The Trustees, The K. R. Cama Oriental
Institute, Mumbai) 183
Fig. 6.3 Jamśedjı̄ Farāmjı̄ Mādan (Source The Calcutta Parsi
Amateur Dramatic Club Golden Jubilee Souvenir Volume.
1907 –1947 , Calcutta, 1957. Courtesy: The Calcutta Parsi
Amateur Dramatic Club) 189
Fig. 6.4 Farāmjı̄ Dādābhāi Apu (Source Pat.el, PNTT , 160.
Courtesy: The Trustees, The K. R. Cama Oriental
Institute, Mumbai) 190
LIST OF FIGURES xvii

Fig. 6.5 The Pandal under construction in Mysore of the Parsee


Victoria Theatrical Company of Bombay, 1st July 1902
(Courtesy: Shirin Vakil) 192
Fig. 6.6 Grandpa Jehangir (Courtesy: Shirin Vakil) 195
Fig. 8.1 Photograph of the Kābrājı̄ family with Bahmanjı̄ standing
at centre (Courtesy: Rusi Vaccha) 268
Fig. 8.2 Portrait of Mary Fenton in Parsi dress (Source Pat.el,
PNTT , 308. Courtesy: The Trustees, The K. R. Cama
Oriental Institute, Mumbai) 270
Fig. 8.3 ‘Scene in a tragedy by Famous Troup[e] [Bālı̄vālā’s
company]’, H. C. White Company, 1996.0009.WX25692,
Keystone-Mast Collection, UCR/California Museum
of Photography, University of California at Riverside 278
CHAPTER 1

Introduction

This book is a history of the Parsi theatre. No sentence could be more


deceptive in its apparent simplicity. Originating in Bombay, the colonial
Parsi theatre, performed in Gujarati, English, Farsi, and Hindustani, and
comprising Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Parsi, and Anglo-Indian personnel,
rapidly became South Asia’s primary form of entertainment during its
eighty-year existence (1853–ca. 1933). The Parsis, today considered an
ethno-religious Indian minority of Iranian origin, created this sophisti-
cated, commercial theatre industry that played a formative role in Asian
cultural history. Emerging with the rise of colonial entrepôts and modern
forms of cultural consumption, Parsi theatre was highly syncretic; its plays
amalgamated Indo-Persian and Hindu mythological stories, Arabian
Nights lore, Shakespearean tragedy, English melodrama, and Western
and Hindustani music. Described as the ‘Indian equivalent of Victo-
rian spectacular theatre’,1 it introduced European stagecraft, forms of
theatrical management, and spectacle in a recognizable idiom across
South and Southeast Asia. As the precursor of numerous influential

The original version of this chapter was revised: At the end of the first
paragraph “West Africa” was corrected to “East Africa”. The correction to this
chapter is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65836-6_10

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1


Switzerland AG 2021, corrected publication 2021
R. D. Nicholson, The Colonial Public and the Parsi Stage,
Transnational Theatre Histories,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65836-6_1
2 R. D. NICHOLSON

cultural forms such as Komedie Stamboel, Bangsawan, Yemeni drama, the


autochthonous regional theatres of India, and South Asian cinema, Parsi
drama’s impress was significant. As Matthew Isaac Cohen argues, ‘much
of the theatrical history of South and Southeast Asia is cloaked in mystery.
… But the history of the popular theatre movement can be traced more
or less precisely to a point of origin, the Parsi … minority of Bombay
during the 1850s’.2 Consequently, the title of this book alludes to the
Parsi theatre’s vast cultural influence during the colonial period, as well
as the ‘unselfconscious provincialism’, noted by Claire Cochrane, that has
skewed theatre history towards the belief that everything significant in
British theatre happened in London.3 The Theatre of Empire, I propose,
was not located in the capitals of Western Europe but instead circulated in
the mediated form of Parsi theatre, from Bombay—Urbs Prima in Indis,
the First City of India—across South and Southeast Asia, East Africa, and
beyond.
While the broad lineaments of the story of Parsi theatre are well-
known, detailed histories are nonexistent. Despite the temporal and
geographic scale and long-term impact of this cultural phenomenon, the
inaccessibility of its primary sources has led to the historiographic omis-
sion of its leading figures, landmark productions, and catalytic events in
existing Asian cultural histories. This book offers foundational primary
source information that is almost entirely absent from existing schol-
arly literature. It is the first comprehensive appraisal of the origins and
early development of this pan-Asian theatrical form between 1853 and
1893, a forty-year span that covers the first half of the commercial Parsi
theatre’s existence and that encompasses three key moments of rupture
in India’s history: the 1865 share crash, the 1874 Parsi-Muslim riots, and
the 1893 cow-killing Hindu-Muslim riots. The year 1893, with which
this book concludes, was a watershed year for South Asian society and
theatre alike, as it also marked the birth of cinema, which spelled the
end of the theatre’s transregional popularity.4 By delimiting the chrono-
logical frame to a forty-year period, I am able to unravel in detail such
critical, hitherto unanswered questions as which troupes existed when;
who were their star actors and playwrights; what were the theatre’s signif-
icant plays and productions; what scenography, performance conventions,
and organizational structures were appropriated, adapted, and/or created;
and when and how did the theatre professionalize and diffuse across the
urban and semi-urban areas of the subcontinent to present-day Singa-
pore, Indonesia, and Burma? In sum, the book delineates the complex
1 INTRODUCTION 3

institutional history of a dramatic phenomenon that originated among


an intrepid minority community and yet became the British Empire’s
most influential cultural commodity of the nineteenth and early twen-
tieth centuries. To fill the historiographic black hole of the colonial
Asian theatrical past and ease the work of future scholarship through the
positivist accumulation of data is a function of this book.
Simultaneously, the title Theatre of Empire functions as a double
entendre, analyzing not only the object itself (Parsi theatre) but also a
meta-theatre of imperialism and nationalism, of which the proscenium
stage was an active participant and a passive index. Parsi theatre is usually
described as sensational entertainment, insulated from the protracted,
contentious sociocultural debates and political developments that culmi-
nated in the birth of the nation. By drawing on a large body of literature
(advertisements, newspaper articles, autobiographies, and not least the
plays themselves) in Gujarati, English, and Hindustani, this book contests
the dismissal of the composite, often thorny relationship between Parsi
theatre and the many communities that it attempted to please. The
unpredictable, ambiguous Parsi performance world of fluttering fairies,
sinking ships, and man-eating demons limning illusion and reality, dreams
and moral certitude, the known and the unknown, half-light and half-
truth, was not without logic. On the empire’s stage, customs and values
were disenchanted, legitimized, and disputed, hopes and dreams were
conceived and challenged, loyalty and revolution were intoned, and,
above all else, a relative cultural homogeneity was established.
As the aesthetic glue that bound together disparate regional, linguistic,
and ethnic constituencies, the Parsi theatre was foundational to the inter-
pretation of the South Asian past and present and was therefore the
single most important aesthetic formation to create the conditions for
the birth of competing visions of nationhood. Through its pivotal role
in the Parsi reform movement, its appropriation of designations such as
the Victoria, Ripon, Elphinstone, Imperial, and Alfred Theatrical Compa-
nies, and its elaborate demonstrations of loyalty, Parsi drama was initially
an influential site for the translation of the imperial project in Bombay.
However, after its professionalization in the 1870s, a corpus of spectac-
ular, mythological, and melodramatic plays offered romanticized visions
of ancient pasts, organized and disseminated a moral economy that func-
tioned as a counterpoint to colonial bourgeois thought, and propagated
racial theories in popular form. In so doing, the theatre curated, indexed,
and distributed highly charged symbols that were eventually adopted
4 R. D. NICHOLSON

by nationalist movements in the early twentieth century for ritual stag-


ings of political legitimation and sovereignty. In the absence of the clear
narrative direction characteristic of novels, journalistic reportage, and
travelogues, audiences drew on their own explanatory frames, crafting
Parsi mythological and spectacular drama into a deliciously subversive site
for the accumulation and transmission of a constellation of contrasting
worldviews and beliefs. The theatre’s unparalleled reach to the masses
across the Indian subcontinent and Malay Peninsula—populations who
had little access to print—further consolidated its position as a sociopolit-
ical powerhouse during the period of high colonialism. The book shows
how shifts in visual signage, the rehearsal of allegorical codes and figu-
rative themes, and especially the spectacular delineation of the origins
and efflorescence of classical genus enabled the invention of tradition.
From the Arabian Nights expanse of Turkey to China, from a mythical
Ancient Persia and a similarly mythical Sanskrit ‘India’, to the village idyll
of Navsari and contemporaneous colonial Bombay, audiences imagined
themselves inhabiting specific places. Spaces and places began to serve
narratological functions, thus becoming meaningful. Touring companies
dotting the landscape functioned as polyvocal sites of meaning-making,
drawing on colonial knowledge systems and material flows of capital,
goods, and labour in order to make and unmake topographies of reli-
gious, ethnic, and linguistic identities. By tracing how the incongruous,
often ambiguous, and multivocal Parsi theatre imaged and reinforced
communal and national forms of belonging and exclusion, the book
attempts to uncover the incipient possibilities in the nineteenth century
of nations unformed, repressed, or to be dreamed into being.

The Cultural Comprador


The trajectory of the book begins with the Parsis (Parsees), followers
of Zoroastrianism, who fled for the coast of Gujarat between 8 and
10 CE to escape religious persecution in the aftermath of the Arab
conquest of Persia. The community remained on the periphery of Gujarat
for approximately eight hundred years, until the first Portuguese and
British mercantile settlements in Western India were established in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Parsis thrived in these trans-
formed political environs because, as Amalendu Guha explains, they had
been relatively uninvolved in previous Muslim and Hindu administrations,
1 INTRODUCTION 5

had greater occupational mobility, and were as a community discon-


nected from the sociopolitical power struggles that characterized the first
phase of the consolidation of colonial rule.5 Migrating in droves to the
emerging colonial entrepôt of Bombay, which would soon overrun Surat
as the capital of Western India, the community made a swift occupational
shift, from agriculture and artisanry to international trade and shipping.
During the colonial reconfiguration of trade networks from the export of
finished products to raw cotton and opium, Parsis joined existing Euro-
pean firms, becoming indispensable in such occupations as brokerage,
banking, and shipbuilding.6 Jürgen Osterhammel clarifies that in Asia,
Europeans required an extended period of time to adapt to conditions
that were foreign and seemingly impenetrable.7 Collaborators not only
helped manage the colonial trade but also developed joint Indo or Sino-
European ventures and new commercial routes that actuated the rise of
port cities and the development of new forms of consumption. In their
capacity as ‘go-betweens’, gatekeepers, and knowledge brokers, these
‘compradors’ (as the Portuguese first designated them) thus facilitated the
global flow of capital through translation. The common Parsi surnames
Dalal (broker) and Dubash (two languages or translator) reference the
community’s privileged diplomatic role in controlling the movement of
goods, information, and forms of knowledge between diverse constituen-
cies. The book demonstrates how Parsis as compradors were the lifeblood
of the British Empire, actuating the formation of not only a global capi-
talist economy but also a cross-cultural conceptual economy characterized
by processes of interpretation, legitimation, and diffusion.
Colonialism, as has frequently been noted, was realized not merely
through a coercive machinery of military, economic, and political
phenomena, but also through cultural technologies of power such as liter-
ature, journalism, and theatre. The comprador trader, the first burgher
or bourgeois, herein played a decisive role. Yet several studies have also
argued that compradorial complicity was not wholly unalloyed; there
was a considerable overlap between national and comprador elements,
between early national industrialization and colonial capital.8 Doubly
peripheral, belonging neither to the worlds translated from nor to the
worlds translated to, Parsis as compradors negotiated zones of difference,
inhabiting a grey area of constant ambiguity. The book traces how the
Parsis not only domesticated the imperial project through acts of trans-
lation but also created sites for self-representation and subsequently for
Another Random Scribd Document
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Communication - Lecture Notes
Second 2025 - Laboratory

Prepared by: Researcher Smith


Date: August 12, 2025

Unit 1: Ethical considerations and implications


Learning Objective 1: Comparative analysis and synthesis
• Best practices and recommendations
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Learning Objective 2: Case studies and real-world applications
• Current trends and future directions
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Learning Objective 3: Theoretical framework and methodology
• Learning outcomes and objectives
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Learning Objective 4: Statistical analysis and interpretation
• Practical applications and examples
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Learning Objective 5: Problem-solving strategies and techniques
• Historical development and evolution
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
[Figure 5: Diagram/Chart/Graph]
Key Concept: Theoretical framework and methodology
• Best practices and recommendations
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Important: Theoretical framework and methodology
• Best practices and recommendations
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Note: Literature review and discussion
• Interdisciplinary approaches
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Important: Literature review and discussion
• Problem-solving strategies and techniques
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Note: Case studies and real-world applications
• Key terms and definitions
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
Review 2: Study tips and learning strategies
Remember: Research findings and conclusions
• Key terms and definitions
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Example 11: Research findings and conclusions
• Literature review and discussion
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
[Figure 12: Diagram/Chart/Graph]
Example 12: Comparative analysis and synthesis
• Interdisciplinary approaches
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Practice Problem 13: Best practices and recommendations
• Theoretical framework and methodology
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Practice Problem 14: Current trends and future directions
• Interdisciplinary approaches
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
Definition: Historical development and evolution
• Problem-solving strategies and techniques
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Important: Interdisciplinary approaches
• Study tips and learning strategies
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Example 17: Comparative analysis and synthesis
• Research findings and conclusions
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
Important: Best practices and recommendations
• Research findings and conclusions
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Practice Problem 19: Assessment criteria and rubrics
• Learning outcomes and objectives
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
Introduction 3: Research findings and conclusions
Practice Problem 20: Case studies and real-world applications
• Critical analysis and evaluation
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Remember: Best practices and recommendations
• Learning outcomes and objectives
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Definition: Fundamental concepts and principles
• Research findings and conclusions
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
[Figure 23: Diagram/Chart/Graph]
Practice Problem 23: Experimental procedures and results
• Practical applications and examples
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Practice Problem 24: Statistical analysis and interpretation
• Critical analysis and evaluation
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Important: Literature review and discussion
• Critical analysis and evaluation
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Key Concept: Experimental procedures and results
• Critical analysis and evaluation
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
[Figure 27: Diagram/Chart/Graph]
Note: Fundamental concepts and principles
• Comparative analysis and synthesis
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Example 28: Case studies and real-world applications
• Fundamental concepts and principles
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Note: Current trends and future directions
• Historical development and evolution
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Unit 4: Key terms and definitions
Remember: Practical applications and examples
• Fundamental concepts and principles
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Definition: Interdisciplinary approaches
• Key terms and definitions
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Definition: Assessment criteria and rubrics
• Practical applications and examples
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
Example 33: Case studies and real-world applications
• Research findings and conclusions
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
[Figure 34: Diagram/Chart/Graph]
Example 34: Practical applications and examples
• Best practices and recommendations
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Remember: Theoretical framework and methodology
• Research findings and conclusions
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Note: Statistical analysis and interpretation
• Comparative analysis and synthesis
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
[Figure 37: Diagram/Chart/Graph]
Definition: Research findings and conclusions
• Problem-solving strategies and techniques
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Remember: Statistical analysis and interpretation
• Theoretical framework and methodology
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Definition: Fundamental concepts and principles
• Critical analysis and evaluation
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
[Figure 40: Diagram/Chart/Graph]
Quiz 5: Research findings and conclusions
Key Concept: Ethical considerations and implications
• Theoretical framework and methodology
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
[Figure 41: Diagram/Chart/Graph]
Remember: Fundamental concepts and principles
• Critical analysis and evaluation
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
[Figure 42: Diagram/Chart/Graph]
Definition: Ethical considerations and implications
• Key terms and definitions
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
[Figure 43: Diagram/Chart/Graph]
Key Concept: Current trends and future directions
• Learning outcomes and objectives
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Definition: Ethical considerations and implications
• Literature review and discussion
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Remember: Problem-solving strategies and techniques
• Current trends and future directions
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Note: Theoretical framework and methodology
• Study tips and learning strategies
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Key Concept: Theoretical framework and methodology
• Historical development and evolution
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Example 48: Practical applications and examples
• Practical applications and examples
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
[Figure 49: Diagram/Chart/Graph]
Example 49: Practical applications and examples
• Fundamental concepts and principles
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
Test 6: Practical applications and examples
Practice Problem 50: Statistical analysis and interpretation
• Critical analysis and evaluation
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Example 51: Comparative analysis and synthesis
• Practical applications and examples
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Definition: Ethical considerations and implications
• Critical analysis and evaluation
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
[Figure 53: Diagram/Chart/Graph]
Note: Fundamental concepts and principles
• Research findings and conclusions
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Key Concept: Research findings and conclusions
• Study tips and learning strategies
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Practice Problem 55: Problem-solving strategies and techniques
• Statistical analysis and interpretation
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Remember: Assessment criteria and rubrics
• Theoretical framework and methodology
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Key Concept: Fundamental concepts and principles
• Statistical analysis and interpretation
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Definition: Theoretical framework and methodology
• Current trends and future directions
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
[Figure 59: Diagram/Chart/Graph]
Practice Problem 59: Literature review and discussion
• Best practices and recommendations
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Appendix 7: Statistical analysis and interpretation
Practice Problem 60: Problem-solving strategies and techniques
• Learning outcomes and objectives
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Note: Ethical considerations and implications
• Key terms and definitions
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Example 62: Comparative analysis and synthesis
• Ethical considerations and implications
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Practice Problem 63: Research findings and conclusions
• Ethical considerations and implications
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Definition: Best practices and recommendations
• Practical applications and examples
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Definition: Practical applications and examples
• Current trends and future directions
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
[Figure 66: Diagram/Chart/Graph]
Important: Historical development and evolution
• Problem-solving strategies and techniques
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
[Figure 67: Diagram/Chart/Graph]
Important: Current trends and future directions
• Problem-solving strategies and techniques
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Example 68: Ethical considerations and implications
• Statistical analysis and interpretation
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Important: Problem-solving strategies and techniques
• Critical analysis and evaluation
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
[Figure 70: Diagram/Chart/Graph]
Discussion 8: Fundamental concepts and principles
Remember: Key terms and definitions
• Fundamental concepts and principles
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Example 71: Study tips and learning strategies
• Interdisciplinary approaches
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Note: Statistical analysis and interpretation
• Key terms and definitions
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
Remember: Current trends and future directions
• Ethical considerations and implications
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Definition: Study tips and learning strategies
• Interdisciplinary approaches
- Sub-point: Additional details and explanations
- Example: Practical application scenario
- Note: Important consideration
Formula: [Mathematical expression or equation]
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