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Military Professionalism in a Colonial Context: The Madras Army circa 18321

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Lorenzo M. Crowell
Affiliation:
Mississippi State University

Extract

Was the Madras Army professional in the 1830s? The answer depends largely upon the definition of professionalism. Professional standards in society at large and in military forces have changed over the past two hundred years. Major political decisions with enormous social and economic consequences are made by governments today based upon their understanding of military professionalism. This understanding should incorporate the historical record including nineteenth-century developments outside of Europe.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

2 As Robert Frykenburg pointed out in ‘Company Circari in the Carnatic, c. 1799–1859: The Inner Logic of Political Systems in India,’ Realm and Region in Traditional India, ed. Fox, Richard G., Duke University Program in Comparative Studies on Southern Asia, Monograph and Occasional Paper Series, monograph no. 14 (1977), p. 139,Google ScholarChaudhri's, S. R.Civil Disturbances during the British Rule in India: 1756–1857 (Calcutta, 1955), is useful as a listing of violent incidents.Google Scholar A careful analysis of each of these incidents has yet to be done.’ For the narrative analysis of the military suppression of the rebellion in the Vishakhapatnam District see my unpublished 1982 Duke University dissertation, ‘The Madras Army in the Northern Circars, 1832–1833: Pacification and Professionalism.’Google Scholar

3 Sir Fredrick Adam (1781–1853). Governor of Madras (1832–37): son of the Right Honorable William Adam; in the Army 1795; served in Egypt; in Sicily; in Spain as A.D.C. to the Prince Regent; as a brigade commander at Waterloo; as Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands (1824–26);.K.C.B., G.C.M.G., P.C., G.C.B., and General (1846): died 17 August 1853. Sir Fredrick's papers are included among the Adam of Blair–Adam Muniments held by the Adam family. The papers may be seen in Edinburgh with the family's permission at the National Register of Archives (Scotland).Google Scholar

4 Sir Henry George Andrew Taylor (1784–1876). General: entered Madras Army in 1798; served at Assaye and Argaum, 1803; at Gawilghar, 1805; under Sir Barry Close, 1809; in the Commissariat, 1811–1819; under Sir John Doveton in the Pindarry War; as Town Major of Madras, 1825; as brigadier at Vellore, 1828; and as commander of the Northern Division of the Madras Army, 1832–1837, suppressed rebellions in the Vishakhapatnam and Ganjam Districts: retired 1838: C.B., General in 1857, K.C.B., G.C.B.: died 9 February 1876 as the oldest general in the British Army. Sir Henry's papers are held by the William R. Perkins Library at Duke University.Google Scholar

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