Robert Sewell (historian): Difference between revisions

'''Robert Sewell''' (1845–1925){{citation needed|date=February 2014}} worked in the civil service of the [[Madras Presidency]] during the period of [[colonial India|colonial rule in India]].<ref name="Stein" /> He was [[Curator|Keeper]] of the Madras Record Office<ref>{{cite book |title=The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume V: Historiography |editor-first=Robin |editor-last=Winks |chapter=India to 1858 |first=Robert E. |last=Frykenberg |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1999 |page=198 |isbn=9780191542411 |chapter-url=httphttps://books.google.co.ukcom/books?id=u2G63IrFXpgC&pg=PA198}}</ref> and was tasked with responsibility for documenting ancient inscriptions and remains in the region, As with other British administrators of his type at that period, his purpose was not scholarly but rather to bolster administrative control by constructing a history that placed British rule as a virtue and a necessity rather than something to be denigrated. Portrayal of historic factionalism among local figureheads and dominion by alien despots would, it was thought, enhance the perception that only the British could rescue the country from its past.<ref name="Stein">{{cite book |title=The New Cambridge History of India: Vijayanagara |first=Burton |last=Stein |authorlink=Burton Stein |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1989 |isbn=9780521266932 |url=httphttps://books.google.co.ukcom/books?id=OpxeaYQbGDMC&pg=PA3 |pages=3–4}}</ref>

Sewell undertook archaeological work, including at the [[Buddhist]] [[stupa]] at [[Amaravathi village, Guntur district|Amaravati]], which had already been largely destroyed prior to his arrival. The site had previously been surveyed by [[Colin Mackenzie]] and [[Walter Elliot (Scottish naturalist)|Walter Elliot]]. His record-keeping at that site in 1877 has been criticised for making an already-bad situation worse, adding to the problems that meant it was impossible to correlate the finds made.<ref>{{cite book |title=Empires of the Imagination: Politics, War and the Arts in the British World, 1750-1850 |pages=338–341 |url=httphttps://books.google.co.ukcom/books?id=tuW554NdWk8C&pg=PA338 |first=Holger |last=Hoock |publisher=Profile Books |year=2010 |isbn=9781861978592}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Early Buddhist Architecture in Context: The Great Stupa at Amaravati (ca. 300 BCE-300 CE) |first=Akira |last=Shimada |publisher=BRILL |year=2012 |isbn=9789004233263 |url=httphttps://books.google.co.ukcom/books?id=pfUyAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA90 |page=90}}</ref> According to several Indian historians, Sewell chose Vijayanagar in the title of his work because he knew Kannada and Telugu groups would fight if he called it Karnataka, although he mentioned in the body of the text that the empire was called Karnataka.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/books/book-review-hampi-by-pierre-sylvain-filliozat-and-vasundhara-kavali-filliozat-is-more-than-a-coffee-table-book-on-the-vijayanagar-empire/article38185980.ece#! | title=Book Review: 'Hampi' by Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat and Vasundhara Kavali-Filliozat is more than a coffee-table book on the Vijayanagar Empire | date=9 January 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://fountainink.in/qna/when-the-south-was-one | title=When the south was one }}</ref>

* {{Gutenberg author |id=Sewell,+Robert 1166| name=Robert Sewell}}

[[Category:British Indologists]]