In this lecture John Marriott explores how and when an English private joint stock company transformed into a fully-fledged colonial power with control over large swathes of the Indian subcontinent. Drawing on cultural, legal and economic theory, he demonstrates the role played by land in the assembly of sovereign power, and how English discourses of land and judicial authority conflicted with indigenous and rival European traditions. The process was ad hoc, fragmented and pragmatic but by 1700 the Company had established the sites of Madras, Bombay and Calcutta, providing a toehold for the extraordinary land grab of the following century.
Professor John Marriott is a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford. He is the author of Land, Law and Empire: The Origins of British Territorial Power in India (2025).
This online lecture is presented by The British India Historical Trust. For more information and to book tickets, please visit https://www.britishinindia.org.uk/zoom-lectures-26-27