Servant Subversions: Reading the British Anxiety over ‘Native Nuisance’ as Infra-Politics in Anglo-Indian Household Manuals.
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| Title: | Servant Subversions: Reading the British Anxiety over ‘Native Nuisance’ as Infra-Politics in Anglo-Indian Household Manuals. |
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| Authors: | BANERJEE, FRANCIS1, DAS, ARINDAM1 ad_arindam@yahoo.co.in |
| Source: | 3L: Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies. Sep2025, Vol. 31 Issue 3, p145-160. 16p. |
| Subject Terms: | Racialization, Subversive activities, Postcolonial literature, Household employees, Colonial administration, Domestic space |
| Abstract: | The British colonial domestic space emerges as a critical site for interrogating the racialised dynamics of empire, owing to the proximity it fostered between the coloniser and the colonised. While extant scholarship predominantly underscores colonial hegemony and control within this space, our study, while acknowledging this premise, undertakes a contrapuntal, against-the-grain reading of Anglo-Indian domestic manuals to foreground the subversive agency of “native†servants. These manuals—produced between 1850 and 1900, a period roughly coterminous with the apogee of Victorian moralism and imperial confidence—serve not merely as instructional texts but as anxious colonial archives, inadvertently documenting servant resistance. Using a qualitative methodology grounded in close textual analysis, this study probes the discursive constructions of “native servant problems†as symptomatic of deeper tensions and anxieties embedded in the colonial household. By exposing the manuals’ aporias and symptomatic silences, we argue that seemingly mundane acts—such as feigned ignorance, strategic disobedience, delay, pilferage, and non-verbal defiance—constitute forms of infrapolitics that subtly unsettled the Anglo-Indian domestic order and, by extension, the colonial power matrix. The manuals analysed were selected based on their accessibility and availability, ensuring a representative sample of prescriptive domestic literature circulating during high imperialism. Our findings reveal that native servants were not passive subjects but stealth agents of disruption, whose infrapolitical manoeuvres subverted the performative authority of white domesticity. This reframing compels a reconsideration of the colonial household as a fraught space of power, negotiation, and everyday resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of 3L: Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies is the property of 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Education Research Complete |
| FullText | Links: – Type: pdflink Text: Availability: 0 |
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| Header | DbId: ehh DbLabel: Education Research Complete An: 188964835 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: Academic Journal PubTypeId: academicJournal PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Servant Subversions: Reading the British Anxiety over ‘Native Nuisance’ as Infra-Politics in Anglo-Indian Household Manuals. – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22BANERJEE%2C+FRANCIS%22">BANERJEE, FRANCIS</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22DAS%2C+ARINDAM%22">DAS, ARINDAM</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><i> ad_arindam@yahoo.co.in</i> – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%223L%3A+Southeast+Asian+Journal+of+English+Language+Studies%22">3L: Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies</searchLink>. Sep2025, Vol. 31 Issue 3, p145-160. 16p. – Name: Subject Label: Subject Terms Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Racialization%22">Racialization</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Subversive+activities%22">Subversive activities</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Postcolonial+literature%22">Postcolonial literature</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Household+employees%22">Household employees</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Colonial+administration%22">Colonial administration</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Domestic+space%22">Domestic space</searchLink> – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: The British colonial domestic space emerges as a critical site for interrogating the racialised dynamics of empire, owing to the proximity it fostered between the coloniser and the colonised. While extant scholarship predominantly underscores colonial hegemony and control within this space, our study, while acknowledging this premise, undertakes a contrapuntal, against-the-grain reading of Anglo-Indian domestic manuals to foreground the subversive agency of “native†servants. These manuals—produced between 1850 and 1900, a period roughly coterminous with the apogee of Victorian moralism and imperial confidence—serve not merely as instructional texts but as anxious colonial archives, inadvertently documenting servant resistance. Using a qualitative methodology grounded in close textual analysis, this study probes the discursive constructions of “native servant problems†as symptomatic of deeper tensions and anxieties embedded in the colonial household. By exposing the manuals’ aporias and symptomatic silences, we argue that seemingly mundane acts—such as feigned ignorance, strategic disobedience, delay, pilferage, and non-verbal defiance—constitute forms of infrapolitics that subtly unsettled the Anglo-Indian domestic order and, by extension, the colonial power matrix. The manuals analysed were selected based on their accessibility and availability, ensuring a representative sample of prescriptive domestic literature circulating during high imperialism. Our findings reveal that native servants were not passive subjects but stealth agents of disruption, whose infrapolitical manoeuvres subverted the performative authority of white domesticity. This reframing compels a reconsideration of the colonial household as a fraught space of power, negotiation, and everyday resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] – Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright Label: Group: Ab Data: <i>Copyright of 3L: Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies is the property of 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.17576/3L-2025-3103-09 Languages: – Code: eng Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 16 StartPage: 145 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Racialization Type: general – SubjectFull: Subversive activities Type: general – SubjectFull: Postcolonial literature Type: general – SubjectFull: Household employees Type: general – SubjectFull: Colonial administration Type: general – SubjectFull: Domestic space Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Servant Subversions: Reading the British Anxiety over ‘Native Nuisance’ as Infra-Politics in Anglo-Indian Household Manuals. Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: BANERJEE, FRANCIS – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: DAS, ARINDAM IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 09 Text: Sep2025 Type: published Y: 2025 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 01285157 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 31 – Type: issue Value: 3 Titles: – TitleFull: 3L: Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies Type: main |
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