British Paramountcy and the Cooch Behar State : A Study of the Anatomy of Indirect Rule in Cooch Behar

Contents: Acknowledgements. 1. Introduction. 2. The British Policy of indirect rule-an Indian experience. 3. The British construction of indirect rule in Cooch Behar. 4. Imperialism in making. 5. Anatomy of revenue administration. 6. Experiencing capital investment. 7. The British and the Cooch Behar State in the Decade before partition. Conclusion. Appendices.

The present book focuses on the British Paramountcy and the Cooch Behar State, 1773-1947 (A study of the Anatomy of Indirect Rule in Cooch Behar). This research work is a critical study of the British relations with the Princely State of Cooch Behar during 1773 to last decade of Britsh regime. Instead of concentrating of official British policy statements alone, this work analyses the underlying patterns and defects of British Indirect Rule on the Cooch Behar rulers and state and on how the British and Cooch Behar rulers themselves functioned.

From 1773 to 1947 was the period of Indirect Rules in Cooch Behar, when for the first time; political agents were stationed at Cooch Behar, the state capital. The political agents came with definite instructions to introduce reforms, to develop the resources and thereby to change the state so as to bring some form of uniformity between it and the rest of India.

The work is based primarily on archival sources preserved in the National Archives of India, New Delhi; the West Bengal State Archives, Kolkata; North Bengal State Library, Cooch Behar, District Judge Court, Cooch Behar specially the secret reports which the political agents sent regularly to the Bengal Government. These reports throw light on the Annual Administrative Report of the State. These have of course been supplemented by other published document, Gazetteers, records, service records, newspapers, journals, books and so on.