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Raids, annexation and plough: Transformation through territorialisation in nineteenth-century Chittagong Hill Tracts

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  • Tamina M. Chowdhury

    (Dhaka, Bangladesh)

Abstract

This article suggests that territorialisation was the dominant concept that defined British expansion in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. It underlies the Company’s efforts to impose sovereignty over the region and to exert its ‘right’ to collect tax from its inhabitants. The introduction of the plough and creation of a political economy of rule were some key means by which the Raj sought to tighten its grip over the territory and its people. Territorialisation in the Tracts manifested as the spatial, economic, agricultural, as well as political expansion of the Company state in the region. The article discusses how, in the aftermath of the raids of the early 1860s, the administration resorted to tougher policies to control, deter and counteract the raiders of the eastern hills. It suggests that by setting up institutions of economic control, as well as by modifying existing centres of political power, the Raj succeeded in capturing both the polities and the economies of the territory.

Suggested Citation

  • Tamina M. Chowdhury, 2016. "Raids, annexation and plough: Transformation through territorialisation in nineteenth-century Chittagong Hill Tracts," The Indian Economic & Social History Review, , vol. 53(2), pages 183-224, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:indeco:v:53:y:2016:i:2:p:183-224
    DOI: 10.1177/0019464616634874
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Stern, Philip J., 2011. "The Company-State: Corporate Sovereignty and the Early Modern Foundations of the British Empire in India," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195393736, Decembrie.
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