Nabobs

Abstract

A disparaging term describing employees of Britain's East India Company in the late 18th century, nabob was literally an Anglicized transliteration of the term nawab , a title for aristocratic regional leaders within the Mughal empire.

Auctions and the Making of the Nabob in Late Eighteenth-Century Calcutta and London

“…66 According to their detractors, nabobs' ill-gotten wealth, adopted subcontinental cultural norms, and debauched activities made them much like oriental despots in India and Britain. 67 While elites feared that nabobs' 'enormous crimes committed in that part of the world' could illuminate parallels to domestic greed and immorality, 68 the scrutiny of inflowing cash extended to a raft of individuals enriched through imperial ventures. Indeed, many persons crowding metropolitan auction rooms and appropriating materials of eliteness were those amassing Asiatic fortunes and those profiting from American slavery.…”

“…Some observers feared that the rupees lining nabobs' pockets would dwarf domestic land-based wealth, dislodge the traditional elite from their social position, and make fine artworks and other status symbols available only to the nouveau riche. 91 In November 1771, for instance, the politician and auction aficionado Horace Walpole noted the expected value of 'Mr. Hamilton's Correggio'.…”

Whiteness, Polite Masculinity, and West-Indian Self-fashioning: The Case of William Beckford

“…73 At home in Britain, the presence of colonials subjects was problematic, as they were the symbols of both Britain's commercial success and socially disruptive and potentially corrupt new money. 74 In the 1770s, social hostess Elizabeth Montagu categorically declined to visit the 'profuse' West Indians and the 'magnificient' nabobs in her neighbourhood for the fear of their foreign habits of drinking rum and eating turtle would contaminate her own household. 'Commerce has so enriched this Kingdom, that in every County there are some new Gentry who eclipse those ancient Families which once had the superiority, and I must own I love to see it return to them', Montagu complained, deeming the 'mellow dignity of a [Country] Gentleman' infinitely preferable to the 'crude pride of a Nabob', thus emphasising the disruptive influence of colonial money on established social orderbut also implying that colonial background made true gentlemanliness impossible.…”

“…80 Other denigrated nabobs included, for example, Warren Hastings, Joseph Price, and Sir Thomas Rumbold. 81 The extent to which polite masculinity, Englishness, and whiteness were intertwined is further exemplified by discursive representations of macaronis -the paragons of luxurious effeminacy -who were rendered nationally questionable by their deviant masculinity and branded as Italienite or Frenchified fops. As Amelia Rauser argues, their adoption of ornamental, inauthentic versions of manly politeness made them viewed as un-English.…”

The Female World of Love & Empire: Women, Family & East India Company Politics at the End of the Eighteenth Century

“…Dominant stereotypes of this era associated Company women with idle luxury and egotistical consumer excess. 75 Her contemporaries, however, clearly understood that Mrs Chitty's care of Company children was work that connected her to the business of empire. For the title 'Mrs' in eighteenth-century Britain denoted not mere marital status, but rather engagement in active employment: 'it described a woman who governed subjects (that is, employees or servants or apprentices)', Amy Erickson reminds us.…”