1st Edition

The Chartist General Charles James Napier, The Conquest of Sind, and Imperial Liberalism

By Edward Beasley Copyright 2017
    388 Pages
    by Routledge

    388 Pages
    by Routledge

    General Charles James Napier was sent to confront the tens of thousands of Chartist protestors marching through the cities of the North of England in the late 1830s. A well-known leftist who agreed with the Chartist demands for democracy, Napier managed to keep the peace. In South Asia, the same man would later provoke a war and conquer Sind. In this first-ever scholarly biography of Napier, Edward Beasley asks how the conventional depictions of the man as a peacemaker in England and a warmonger in Asia can be reconciled. Employing deep archival research and close readings of Napier's published books (ignored by prior scholars), this well-written volume demonstrates that Napier was a liberal imperialist who believed that if freedom was right for the people of England it was right for the people of Sind -- even if "freedom" had to be imposed by military force. Napier also confronted the messy aftermath of Western conquest, carrying out nation-building with mixed success, trying to end the honour killing of women, and eventually discovering the limits of imperial interference.

    Illustrations and Maps

    Acknowledgements

     

    Introduction: Liberalism and Napier

    Part I: Boyhood and War

    Chapter 1: Early Days

    Chapter 2: A Soldier

    Chapter 3: In America and France

    Part II: The Radical Abroad and at Home

    Chapter 4: Greece and the Greeks

    Chapter 5: Cephalonia and the Greek Revolution

    Chapter 6: Social Reform for Cephalonia

    Chapter 7: Departure and Bereavement

    Chapter 8: Australia and Idealism

    Chapter 9: Flogging and Politics

    Part III: The North of England

    Chapter 10: The Coming of Chartism

    Chapter 11: Command in the North

    Chapter 12: The Long-Term Threat

    Chapter 13: Newport and After

    Part IV: The Conquest of Sind

    Chapter 14: To India and Sind

    Chapter 15: Napier's Motivations

    Chapter 16: To and from the Battle of Miani

    Chapter 17: The Battle of Dubba

    Part V: 'In Scinde as in Cephalonia….'

    Chapter 18: Victory in the Sun

    Chapter 19: 'To Protect the Poor from Barbarian Tyranny!'

    Chapter 20: Conflict and Decline

    Part VI: Commander-in-Chief

    Chapter 21: Home and Back

    Chapter 22: Reforming the Army

    Chapter 23: The Kohat Expedition

    Chapter 24: The Mutinies of Charles James Napier

    Conclusion: Napier, Liberalism, and Imperialism

    Bibliography

    Biography

    Edward Beasley is Professor of History at San Diego State University. He is author of The Victorian Reinvention of Race, Empire as the Triumph of Theory and Mid-Victorian Imperialists, all available from Routledge.