Official Cultures & Literary Worlds of Nineteenth Century Provincial Administrators in Company India

This article reads the official and literary output of two underresearched English East India Company officials, John Briggs and William Browne Hockley, who served in India in the early nineteenth century. Reading unpublished archives alongside published literary works provides insights into how the Company’s officialdom in provincial western India was experienced and projected by these British men. Beyond portrayals of colonial officialdom, this article also examines how Briggs and Hockley variously attempted to use literature to reinvent themselves. This article calls for greater attention to the study of juxtaposed official and literary sources as a method to reveal the underlying logics and frameworks of colonial rule, which continue to animate and shape postcolonial bureaucracies.