ABSTRACT
As a result of the wars against Mysore, British territory in South India tripled in size during the 1790s. Caste disputes continued to occur in Madras in the early decades of the nineteenth century, but the fact that the town was the ‘capital’ of an extensive territorial empire again significantly altered the context in which they took place. The extensive investigation into the relatively minor dispute of 1809 can be seen as a result of a new systematic and bureaucratic British policy. Another striking feature was that the indigenous elite seemed to absent itself from the disputes. This reflected an altered significance of the division of right and left hand castes within indigenous society in Madras. This chapter focuses on the new British policy in some detail before examining the composition and the behaviour of the indigenous elite. It presents a portrait of the indigenous elite in early nineteenth-century Madras.
