Cultural Representations and Colonial Realities in British Assam

Recent years have witnessed the emergence of a fresh body of work on the understanding of the nuanced process (and character) of empire building in the northeastern frontier of British India. In this frontier zone, Assam stood out as a site/space where colonialism, in all its complexities, unfolded in multiple modes and forms since it was inducted as a province into the Bengal Presidency of the British empire in 1826. In the course of the one hundred and twenty-six years which followed the annexation, Assam, with Brahmaputra valley as the hub, transformed into—thanks to the twisted intertwining of the interests of capital and colonialism—a frontier province par excellence. The process of construction and constitution of Assam as a colonial frontier has been the theme of academic investigations for a long time. However, as mentioned, of late we have seen new interventions on the subject, and Manjeet Baruah’s latest book precisely offers that or at least attempts to.