British Officials Research Articles

Interrogating Orientalism: Hindu Festivals and Travellers’ Tales in the Colonial Indian Ocean

ABSTRACT Thimithi – the Tamil Hindu fire-walking ceremony has always attracted the attention of the curious and the thrill seeker and remains a tourist attraction as well as the performance of a solemn vow in many parts of the world where it continues to be enacted. A source of much speculation as to the participants’ apparent ability to withstand the pain of walking over hot coals, travellers’ often exaggerated accounts of eye witness attendance at such events regularly graced the columns of western journals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This article focusses on an unusual investigation carried out in colonial Mauritius in mid-1874. The enquiry resulted from a published description of thimithi written by Nicolas Pike, former American consul on the island which caused concern at the colonial office in London, who asked for an explanation. This produced a set of reports, firstly by British police officers, and secondly, but more remarkably, by leading members of the Tamil community on Mauritius. Their detailed and occasionally humorous responses to the western orientalist gaze deftly unpick the absurdities and hypocrisies of the so-called ruling caste whilst their very involvement serves to complicate our understanding of the relationship between white settler and Indian ‘subject’ in the mid-Victorian colonial empire.

Caught between the Union Jack and the Nazi Swastika: African Protests over Ambiguous Status under British Imperialism and Potential Transfer to Nazi Colonialism

AbstractResistance to colonial rule is a dominant topic in the historical study of Africa. But resistance to attempted transfer of colonised peoples and territories, to promote peace in Europe, has not gained similar attention in African and colonial historiographies. This article looks at how rumours and reports of Nazi Germany's colonial demands in Africa, and the ambiguous reactions of British officials to them, shaped conversations among colonised peoples about their dignity under British colonialism and in intra-European diplomacy. The article argues that the prospect of Nazi rule and its spectre of slave-labour concentration camps for Africa's Western-educated elites, and other colonial subjects, bound these segments of colonial society closer to British, and French, imperialism than they relished at an uncertain, but critical moment in African and international history. They became the defenders of colonial systems they deplored, and opponents of a ruthless regime they feared.

The Position of Kurdish Women in the View of the British in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

When British travelers visited Kurdish regions in the first half of the twentieth century they recorded their memories and opinions on Kurdish society, especially the position of women. This article analyses the text the British travelers produced to understand whether they were written from an orientalist perspective. The freedom of Kurdish women impressed the British travellers and officers, and in particular they differentiated between Kurdish women and other Muslim societies. They admired the high status of Kurdish women in society regardless of class, in both rural and urban communities. That freedom was reflected in their clothing, lack of face coverings and confident treatment of foreigners. Women participated in politics, became leaders of their communities, and educated themselves, leading British travelers to make comparisons between Kurdish and European women. This article challenges the idea that British travelers considered Kurdish women solely from an orientalist perspective. While orientalism determined many of their views on Kurdish society, British views of Kurdish women were informed by comparison with Europeans.

Making Swadeshi Managers: The Antecedents of Professional Management Education in India, 1860s–1950s

The history of Indian management education is overwhelmingly focused on the period from the 1950s and 1960s onward. This article traces the hitherto underexplored history of how, from the 1860s until the 1950s, Indians thought about and implemented education and training for managers. In particular, it demonstrates how Indian nationalist politicians articulated the nation-building utility of managers and managerial training, and how business education became yoked to nationalists’ broader visions of India’s economic regeneration. Beginning in the early twentieth century, Indian nationalists championed commercial education, advocating its evolution out of its vocational roots into something more scientific and specialized for producing skilled indigenous managers. The precise evolution of Indian commercial education exercised long-term influences on postcolonial management programs. First, Indians established a tradition of surveying the latest pedagogical methods and institutional models from around the world and adapting them to Indian conditions. Second, Indian advocates of commercial education carved out an important role for the state, working on commercial education endeavors with British officials in the colonial era and, later on, placing management education within the ambit of centralized state planning. Management had a fundamentally political valence in India. For this reason, commercial and management education programs in India, unlike in the West, largely avoided questions about their legitimacy.

Lupin Conference and the Tensions between Ikhwan and Ibn Saud

The Lupin conference was held in 1930 to reach a peace treaty between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. This study aims to highlight the issues and concerns that compelled the Saudi authorities to demand the extradition of Farhan bin Mashhour from Iraq. This study is based on the review and consolidation of secondary data regarding the rebellion of the leaders that was discussed at the Lupin conference in 1930. The sources mentioned in the country library were reviewed, particularly those records were focused that mentioned the rebellious attitudes of foreign politicians to affect the sovereignty and stability of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study found that the peace treaty in 1930 at the Lupin conference was a win-win situation for Iraq and Saudi Arabia, as it paved the way for future beneficial associations. British officials also agreed to the extradition of Ikhwan leaders from Iraq and handing over to Ibn-Saud.

“Insiders Among Outsiders”: Representation of Enemies and Allies in the Texts of British Prisoners of War on the Iberian Peninsula 1808—1814

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the perception of enemies and allies by the British combatants who found themselves in French captivity during the war on the Iberian Peninsula in 1808—1814. The undertaken analysis of sources, including both British officers’ published memoirs, letters and diaries and the manuscript of the British soldier’s memoirs, demonstrated the multidimensionality of the images of the Spaniards and the French in the British “captivity narratives”. The authors of such narratives tended to dwell not only on the positive characteristics of the French, such their politeness or gallantry, but also on their cruelty towards the locals, as well as the tendency of French soldiers to theft and looting. The image of the Spaniards in the British “captivity narratives” on the contrary turns out to be more complimentary than in other sources left by British soldiers who were not captured. In the POWs’ texts the Spaniards are presented as good-natured and hospitable, but their two qualities — cruelty and religious fanaticism — reduce the locals from the British point of view to semi-civilized people.

Путешествие В. С. Голенищева в Египет осенью и зимой 1890–1891 гг. (новый архивный материал)

The publication presents a document preserved at the Archives of Vladimir Golenishchev in Paris (Centre Wladimir Golénischeff, École Pratique des Hautes Études). This is a report about the travel of the outstanding Russian Egyptologist Vladimir Golenishchev to Egypt that lasted from October 1890 to February 1891. It appears to be a preliminary version of a paper intended for submission to the Zapiski Vostochnogo otdeleniia Imperatorskogo Russkogo arkheologicheskogo obshchestva (Memoirs of the Oriental Department of the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society). The paper is kept in one file of red cardboard with pencil drafts, sketches and plans made by the Egyptologist during his travel. The report had not been published. It contains evidence about Golenishchev’s acquisitions for his collection (now at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow; among the other things he purchased the papyri with the famous texts of Wenamun’s Voyage to Byblos and the Onomasticon of Amenemope), about the survey of archaeological monuments (most importantly, at the Kharga Oasis), about his new interpretations (the correct attribution of the so-called Hyksos sphinxes to Amenemhat III of Dynasty XII). Of special interest is the information about Golenishchev’s participation in the official reception in Egypt of the Russian heir apparent Nicholas Alexandrovich (future Emperor Nicholas II) and about some degree of tension between himself and the British officers in the Egyptian service, due to the contemporary confrontation of the Russian and the British Empire in the Great Game in the East.

Leaving the Pyrenees: France and Frenchmen as Perceived by British Soldiers in 1813–1814

Under the command of Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, the future first Duke of Wellington, the British Army was one of the main participants of the military conflict on the Iberian Peninsula in 1808–1814. In the autumn of 1813, fighting on the side of the Spaniards and the Portuguese against the French Army, Wellington’s army ousted the enemy from the Spanish territories and launched an offensive on French lands. This article focuses on the reception of the image of France and the French in the diaries, letters, and memoirs of British soldiers and officers who participated in the war in France in 1813–1814. After leaving the Pyrenees, the British combatants believed they had returned to enlightened Europe from the “semi-civilized” Spain and Portugal. At the same time, the British image of the French combined elements of Gallophilia and Gallophobia that dominated in English society in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. On the one hand, British military narratives contained favourable characterisations of the locals whom King George III’s soldiers seemed to be freeing from Napoleon’s tyrannical rule. British officers noted such positive qualities of the French as politeness, gallantry, and friendliness. On the other hand, for the British military, the French Army became the personification of the “Other”. The texts of the English combatants described the soldiers of Soult’s army as cruel people capable of robbing and ruining their compatriots, and the French officers were perceived by the British military as self-interested careerists, ready to serve as a tool in the hands of Napoleon for the sake of promotion.

Операция «Браслет»: британский полковник Э. Джейкоб о визите У. Черчилля в Москву в августе 1942 г.

The article presents the first Russian publication of a part of the diary of Edward Jacob devoted to the visit of the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to Moscow and to his talks with the leader of the USSR Joseph Stalin in August 1942. This visit was of a great importance for establishing personal contact between the leaders of two countries, which was necessary for the Allies’ cooperation during World War II. The subject of the research is diary of Edward Jacob (1899-1993), who was Military Assistant Secretary to the War Cabinet in 1939-46. The document is stored in the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge in personal collection of Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Ian Claude Jacob. Publication of the documents in Russian is being made for the first time; it is justified by the necessity of advanced study of the Soviet-British relations and their influence on the course of World War II. This source contains an original version of events perception by their immediate participant, as reflected in diary records. The major method of research is content analysis of the diary, which makes it possible to detail events connected with Churchill’s visit, to reconstruct the image of Stalin, his environment, common Russian people, and day-to-day life in Russia and in Kremlin in perceptions of a foreigner, the British officer. Jacob’s diary contains original travel notes on his flight over the territory of the USSR, meetings and talks between Churchill and Stalin. Jacob also compiled brief summaries of information, in particular, on Churchill’s arrival to Moscow and the course of his talks with Stalin, which the author of the diary didn’t witness personally. Analysis of the diary text shows that he received his information directly from Churchill, and his interpretation of events is colored by emotional perceptions of the Prime Minister. W. Churchill considered personal contact with J. V. Stalin absolutely necessary for mutual actions during the war. Description of the banquet procedure in Kremlin, also reflected in other national and foreign sources (records of talks from both sides, memoirs of W. A. Harriman, A. Cadogan, etc.), makes it possible to reconstruct “Stalin’s court etiquette” and observations on Stalin’s personality in the perceptions of the diary’s author, distinct from the contents of other sources. Study of Jacob’s diary leads to the conclusion that, despite serious contradictions, which had appeared initially between the two leaders, the contact was re-established in the meetings on August, 14-16, and the change of interpreters helped. The work is of an interest for researchers studying the history of international relations and anti-Hitler coalition, as well as for all interested in the events of World War II.

The Officer Corps of the British Navy in the Observations and Assessments of Russian Representatives to the Grand Fleet, 1914–1918

In this article, the author examines the assessment of the Royal Navy’s command staff contained in official reports, correspondence, memoirs, and diaries of naval officers Mikhail Kedrov, Mikhai Smirnov, Gustav von Schultz, and Sergei Izenbek, who were official Russian representatives to the Grand Fleet during the Great War. The purpose of this article is to summarise the views of representatives of the Russian Navy on the traditions, general and professional culture of British naval officers, the level of their maritime, special and tactical training, the specifics of their mentality, service subordination, relationships in a naval environment, the ways of service and everyday life. Considerable differences in the professional qualities of the officers of the British and Russian fleets were noted, stemming mainly from the different principles of recruitment and training of the command staff, as well as the growing distrust of the British naval corporation towards Russia as an ally during the war. The author concludes that professional analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Royal Navy's command staff significantly complemented and updated the image of the British ally formed in the Russian naval milieu during the Great War and in the years following, and contributed to a more balanced self-assessment of Russian naval personnel.

The Bolsheviks and Britain during the Russian Revolution and Civil War, 1917–24 by Evgeny Sergeev (review)

Reviewed by: The Bolsheviks and Britain during the Russian Revolution and Civil War, 1917–24 by Evgeny Sergeev Murray Frame Sergeev, Evgeny. The Bolsheviks and Britain during the Russian Revolution and Civil War, 1917–24. Bloomsbury Academic, London, New York and Dublin, 2022. xxi + 270 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Select chronology. Notes. Select bibliography. Index. £85.00. This interesting book by Evgeny Sergeev — Chief Research Fellow at the Institute of General History, Russian Academy of Sciences, and Professor of International and British History at the Russian State University for the Humanities — explores a brief but turbulent period in British-Russian relations, 1917–24, charting the transformation from wartime cooperation to open hostility and economic blockade, followed by gradual resumption of trade and diplomatic recognition of the USSR by Britain. Compared to many earlier studies of the topic, the book is notable for the author's extensive use of archives in both Russia and Britain, including previously inaccessible material such as recently declassified intelligence reports. Sergeev therefore adds much detail to a relatively familiar story, and in a manner which carefully balances primary material and perspectives from both sides of the relationship. The questions which Sergeev sets out to answer are clearly stated at the beginning: 'How did the revolutionary events of 1917 affect the military alliance between Petrograd and London? What were the origins of a dramatic transition from friendly cooperation to outright animosity in the later years? Why did the British armed intervention fail, and what are the reasons for the recognition of the Bolshevik dictatorship by the UK government?' (p. 2). Although the main conclusions will not surprise historians of the period — the revolution sundered the military alliance; the outright animosity stemmed from 'competing geopolitical interests' (p. 167); Britain formally recognized the USSR because there was growing appetite for stable relations and resumption of trade — they are grounded in considerable detail, and readers will admire the author's encyclopaedic knowledge of this complex and multi-layered subject. Sergeev succeeds in conveying a tangible sense of the international uncertainties of the period and how they divided officials in both London [End Page 177] and Petrograd/Moscow. On the British side, for example, George Lansbury, Alfred Milner and Lloyd-George — whose assistants, we learn, nicknamed him the 'Kerensky of the West' (p. 12) — favoured early diplomatic recognition of Bolshevik Russia, but most government officials did not, concerned that the Bolsheviks would sign a separate peace with the Central Powers and then seek to undermine the British empire. During 1917–18, this question dominated political deliberations about Russia, especially after the Russian-German armistice in December 1917, and it partly lay behind Robert Bruce Lockhart's well-known mission to Moscow in 1918. On the Russian side, Lenin was anxious about the fate of the revolution as the Germans advanced again in February 1918, and so he remained open to Allied support if necessary, at least until the Brest-Litovsk Treaty was signed in the face of opposition from many within the Soviet leadership. The 'Lockhart Plot' — or 'complot of ambassadors' — to overthrow the Bolsheviks ended any prospect of collaboration between Britain and Russia for the next two years. Steps towards coexistence were possible only after the cessation of the Allied intervention, the main purpose of which — to protect the eastern front, support the White counter-revolutionaries, or prevent revolutionary contagion — never seemed consistent. A strength of Sergeev's book is that he gives considerable attention to British-Russian relations in the Middle East, often side-lined at the expense of a Eurocentric focus. While Britain sought to contain Bolshevik expansion — and to counter German moves towards Transcaucasia and beyond — the Soviets deployed a variety of diplomatic and political tools aimed at forestalling British encroachments on surrounding territories, such as signing agreements with Persia and Afghanistan in 1921. Sergeev emphasizes that the landmark agreements of the period failed to improve relations quickly. Following the Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement of 1921, mutual suspicion remained. British officials remained concerned by Soviet efforts to spread revolutionary propaganda across the empire, while the Soviets objected to British funding of White Russians in neighbouring countries. Yet the economic imperative for cooperation was strong: by late 1921...

Through the Lens of Slavery: A Look at Early America

Through the Lens of SlaveryA Look at Early America Marie Jenkins Schwartz (bio) The Antebellum Origins of the Modern Constitution: Slavery and the Spirit of the American Founding simon j. gilhooley Cambridge University Press, 2022 350 pp. Thirteen Clocks: How Race United the Colonies and Made the Declaration of Independence robert g. parkinson Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture and University of North Carolina Press, 2021 256 pp. Washington at the Plow: The Founding Farmer and the Question of Slavery bruce a. ragsdale Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2021 368 pp. Race, Removal, and the Right to Remain: Migration and the Making of the United States samantha seeley Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture and University of North Carolina Press, 2021 368 pp. Slavery is a lens through which academics, journalists, and members of the general public are increasingly looking to learn about the founding of the United States. Some people might prefer a more positive approach to understanding the nation's origins. After all, Americans threw off British imperial rule and established the world's first modern republic. They united under a written Constitution that together with its first [End Page 219] ten amendments protected individual civil rights and limited the power of the federal government to do such things as restrict speech, establish a state religion, or control the press. War hero George Washington refused to be made president for life and stepped down of his own accord after two terms. The problem with limiting discussion of early America to such celebratory events is that slavery was a blight that left a legacy of racism. Incomplete or distorted versions of history will not help a nation that continues to struggle with issues of inequality and exclusion. Four recent books answer important questions about slavery in early America. How and why did thirteen disparate colonies unite to fight and defeat the British? Who, exactly, was included in the definition of "American"? Who were the nation's founders, really? And when the founders wrote the US Constitution, what was their original intent? One scholar considers the efforts of the nation's founders to incite fears among white colonists of Black and Native peoples as a means of uniting against British rule. Another engages and carries this narrative forward by looking at how, in the aftermath of the Revolution, federal and state officials, with the backing of eager white settlers, attempted to exclude from America these same peoples, and how and why Black and Native Americans struggled to remain in the places they called home. A third author examines George Washington, not as war hero or first president, but as slaveholding agriculturalist. The fourth makes the case that the concept of originalism as applied to judicial interpretation of the US Constitution was established in the antebellum era by men intent on preserving slavery. Although all four books focus on the distant past, each in its own way has something to say about modern America. _______ The subtitle of Robert G. Parkinson's Thirteen Clocks makes clear its central theme: "how race united the colonies and made the Declaration of Independence." Focusing on the fifteen months that separated the start of the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence (April 19, 1775, to July 4, 1776), Parkinson takes issue with John Adams's oft-quoted observation that "the Revolution was effected before the war commenced." It had occurred, Adams said, "in the minds and hearts of the people," who had undergone a radical change in thinking before the first shots were fired. Adams's words, Parkinson says, make a violent event seem like an intellectual disagreement. In truth, to keep up momentum for war and [End Page 220] independence after the skirmishes in Lexington and Concord, Patriot leaders deliberately set out to instill fear. The British, they insisted, were planning to employ enslaved people and Native Americans to slaughter settlers and upend the domestic order. When later certain British officials called for arming or aligning with Black or Native Americans to put down the rebellion, the situation played into Patriot leaders' hands. Rather than talk of liberty, rights, and republicanism, Parkinson says, "weaponized prejudice" caused thirteen...

Consider the Source: An 1800 Maroon Treaty

In 1800, an exiled community of Jamaican Maroons migrated from Nova Scotia to the British antislavery colony of Sierra Leone. When they disembarked, Maroon captains met with Sierra Leone Company officials and rapidly negotiated and coauthored a treaty. This treaty is a composite manuscript document scattered throughout the National Archives at Kew (United Kingdom). The diplomatic customs that Maroons and British officials observed at the negotiation—including making speeches, reading script words aloud, and refusing to sign documents—marked the document as a treaty. This essay makes the case that the source is a treaty; explains and contextualizes the negotiation that occurred; and explores the themes of settlement, alliance, and antislavery that changed in Maroon treaties in Jamaica and Sierra Leone in the eighteenth century.

Features of the Activities of Political Agents in the Tribal Area of the North-West Frontier Province of British India (1919–1939)

The special form of government of the North-West Frontier Province, analyzed in the article, was established through the interaction of British political agents with local tribes. The territory under consideration was characterized by a high level of instability, which they tried to neutralize by creating a multi-level management system, as well as establishing parity among local elites with British mediation as an arbiter. The administrative system formed by agents has survived, territorially related to modern Pakistan, with its characteristic problems, which is presented as the historical experience of British India in controlling its northwestern border. The main task of the British officers was to establish a controlled system of checks and balances in the border zone, aimed at resolving issues of ensuring the reliable protection of British India from external threats. At the same time, the possibility of a foothold for the territory under consideration was created for further geopolitical competition in Asia. The presented hierarchy of subordination removed this region from the general system of colony management and prevented reforms. The tribal area was under the territorial jurisdiction of British India, had full autonomy with limited agents who had representation in local jirgas and coordinated the actions of the militias, self-defense units, scouts. The implementation of the set installations was carried out using a number of mechanisms for the management of the province, concluded in diplomatic agreements, supported by financial payments in favor of the local elite, as well as by engaging the Indian army in particularly unstable areas.

Все дороги ведут в Саламанку: испанский город в восприятии британских военных в 1808–1812 гг.

Introduction. The conflict in the Iberian Peninsula of 1808-1814, which was a part of the Napoleonic Wars, contributed to the intensification of cross-cultural contacts between British combatants and the civilian population of Spain. Salamanca became one of the places for such interaction between the soldiers of the Wellington army and the Spaniards. The focus of the article is the reconstruction of the image of Salamanca and its inhabitants in the texts of the British participants in the hostilities on the Iberian Peninsula in 1808–1812. Materials and Methods. The study is based on the analysis of letters, diaries and memoirs of British combatants using the imagological method, which makes it possible to refer to the features of the functioning and interpretation of British ideas about Spain, Salamanca, and the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula. Analysis. As a result of the study, it was possible to establish that sources of personal origin created by the British soldiers testify to the coexistence of several images of Salamanca. Firstly, we can stress the romanticized image of the university city that became the scene of the action of the novel Gil Blas. The notion of Salamanca as the city of Gil Blas is a persistent cliche found in the texts of British officers. Secondly, in British narratives about Salamanca attention is often focused on the positive qualities of the townspeople who are friendly towards the British and grateful soldiers of the Wellington army for liberating the city from the French. Results. Based on the study we can conclude that several British images of Spain in general and Salamanca in particular function. These images are situational and directly depend on the nature of the relationship established between the British and local residents as well as the behavior of the French army in the occupied territory.

Coolie: A Novel on class conflict in capitalist Indian Society

This paper is trying to focus on the issue of class conflict in capitalist Indian society in different levels. In the capitalist society like that of India the people of working-class were mercilessly exploited. Munoo’s story begins in the village where he had been living with his family, there the rich but greedy landlord of village had seized the small piece of land of Munoo’s father and his father died of broken heart. In Sham Nagar Munoo was exploited by Nathoo Ram who belonged in dominant class. In Daulatpur the plight of coolies on the street and servant’s condition of Prabha’s factory show the gap between haves and haves not. The condition of coolies in Bombay, mill-workers was miserable. Coolies, their wives and children had to sleep on the pavement of the city because they had no living accommodations. The workers were exploited mercilessly in Sir Geroge White’s cotton-mill, they had to live in most unhygienic place. These workers were ill-paid, ill-housed and treated as objects. The capitalists would like to maintain their profits and continue their exploitation to workers. Similarly, Munoo was exploited in Simila by Mrs. Mainwaring sexually and physically. It clears that the exploitation and discrimination of working-class people by capitalists and class struggle between two classes: haves and haves not. The British people were all Englishman occupy top position in India. The upper- class Indian have the link between class of Englishman and lower- class Indian. The upper- class people abused to lower class people, humiliated them for minor faults and sometimes without any reason. The working-class people have lost their sense of self-respect and ready to any length to win favor of British officer especially the upper-class Indian were involved in such practice

Rozejm bożonarodzeniowy 1914 r. w listach kapitana Edwarda Hulse’a

The Christmas truce of 1914 in the letters of Captain Edward Hulse The article presents the translation and edition of a source: two letters written in December 1914 by a British officer Edward Hulse; it is his account of the events of the Christman truce. The aim of the paper is also to present and discuss the problem of mythologizing that event and changing its perception in historiography.

Armies of Arabia: Military Politics and Effectiveness in the Gulf

Armies of Arabia: Military Politics and Effectiveness in the Gulf

The Last Shah: America, Iran, and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty; The Fall of Reza Shah: The Abdication, Exile, and Death of Modern Iran’s Founder

The Last Shah: America, Iran, and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty; The Fall of Reza Shah: The Abdication, Exile, and Death of Modern Iran’s Founder

“The water flows under the bridge and we pass above it …” infrastructure, transport and state power: The bridges of Hyderabad city, India c. sixteenth to twentieth centuries

In the late sixteenth century and again in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the rulers of Golconda and Hyderabad (India) faced a problem of urban congestion around the Musi River. The river impeded movement between growing urban areas on either bank and during the monsoon it flooded making transport nearly impossible. To resolve this issue, they constructed four bridges across the Musi, often with assistance from local British officials. These bridges served as critical infrastructure technology for urban transport and mobility. Forms of state power, from a sultan to an indigenous prince to colonial officials, all worked to finance, design, and build these bridges thus allowing urban Hyderabad to both encompass and grow beyond the challenges of the river.