From Little London to Little Bengal: Religion, Print and Modernity in Early British India, 1793–1835 by Daniel E. White (review)

Daniel E. White’s book provides a thoughtful study of the transactions in print and religious cultures between Britain and Bengal between 1793 and 1823. Following a book-historical methodology, and consequently rich in archival detail, it extends readers’ notion of Romantic orientalism by highlighting the interactive nature of early colonial rule in South Asia. It focuses on the print industry, the newspaper press, and the anglophone reading public of early colonial Calcutta (the “Little London” of James Atkinson’s 1824 poem “City of Palaces”) and London (which saw the development of a “Little Bengal” neighbourhood because of returned expatriates from India) to show how the cities were tied to each other through fluid but unequal movements of people, ideas, books, and other commodities. White’s book, then, illuminates tensions and contradictions in the world views undergirding the hierarchical relationships between the two capitals and their overlapping public spheres.

Chapter 1 examines questions of authenticity and imitation by taking up the articulations of a colonial “Indian public sphere” by figures such as James Buckingham and Rammohun Roy, the polyglot Hindu reformer and founder of the Bramho Sabha. It also engages with two related sites of vision, namely, the Panorama of Dover on display at Calcutta during the opening decades of the nineteenth century, and the festival of Durga, the most significant festival of Bengali Hindus, to understand how they affirmed British authority while also augmenting the cultural capital of elite Bengali families. The next chapter follows missionaries from the Bristol Baptist College and Missionary Society to Srirampur, just north of Calcutta. It examines their efforts at disseminating printed Bibles in Indian languages and their attempts at collecting Hindu devotional items, locating these within an “integrated evangelical circuit of communication.” Noting that idolatry was a powerful context for Robert Southey’s version of romanticism, it further engages with his writings on missionaries in India and, in particular, his epic poem, The Curse of Kehama. The chapter presents readers with an insightful and sympathetic reading of Southey, noting that while the poet became a true believer in the British Empire, his dedication to evangelism was fundamentally instrumental. When assessing Southey’s epic poem, White reads a twofold goal: it sought to depict Brahminical religion as the essence of priestcraft and superstition while also suggesting that popular forms of Hinduism contain implicitly Christian virtues, making the majority of heathens suitable for conversion.

Chapter 3 constellates Henry Derozio, the first Indian to write poetry in English and the legendary English teacher of Presidency College, Calcutta, with Rammohun Roy. In his excellent discussion, White reads Rammohun’s Hindu Unitarianism as a distinct form of “sceptical syncretism” that attempted to incorporate Hindu, Muslim, and Christian theologies into a negative, historicized critique of polytheism and superstition while striving for a positive, transhistorical theism. The chapter’s engagement with Rammohun’s public encounter with and critique of Robert Tyler is particularly illuminating. It also provides a convincing, and salutary, reassessment of Derozio’s literary achievements, moving away from notions of imitation or mimicry to think of the poet’s works through the lens of “citation,” adapted from Walter Benjamin. The final chapter of the book focuses on “Little Bengal,” the geographical heart of London’s Anglo-Indian community, an area that saw the establishment, over time, of Dean Mahomet’s “Hindostanee Coffee House,” the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Oriental Club. Focusing on the last two institutions, White contends that “Little Bengal” can be seen as part of an imperial circuit contributing specialized experience and information to the colonial mission while being connected to global movements of ideas, capital, and commodities.

White’s book, handsomely produced and illustrated, not only demonstrates the worldliness of literary texts but also provincializes British romanticism to provide it with a global perspective. While the book is undoubtedly illuminating, and...