ABSTRACT
Many men built formidable reputations in colonial India. The narratives, which often took on mythical proportions, created ‘emblematic heroes and villains’ (Cohn 1996: 6). The British man inevitably took on the role of hero, while the local population was often cast as villainous. The retelling or recasting of key historical events, and the individuals involved, was shaped by the creation of memorials, the writing of historical accounts and the building of collections that later went on to find homes in British museums. These monuments to imperial knowledge, displayed both in South Asia and back home in England, told of an all-powerful colonial dominance. The museum collections created during this period unsurprisingly bring with them connotations of imperial rule, repression and plunder and an expectation that, collectively, these objects will add to the meta-narratives of colonialism. However, when viewed individually and when the process of acquisition is revealed, a very different narrative emerges.
