Revisiting Maria Graham's Earliest Publication: Journal of a Residence in India

By Nahirah Izaz

Travel literature became a highly treasured genre in eighteenth century Europe, as it allowed the public to gain knowledge on distant regions around the world through an authentic first-person account. Literary critic Charles Lynn Batten investigates the form and convention of Eighteenth-Century travel literature and claims in his book Pleasure Instruction that travel writing had reached “unparalleled popularity” because the public were intrigued by “natural religion and human nature” (Batten 1). As the interest in non-fiction travel writing heightened during this time, Maria Graham’s first book Journal of a Residence in India was published in 1812 and received great attention; so much so that a second edition was printed in 1813 and the text was translated into French in 1841 (Brown et al). The work documents Graham’s travels in India from 1809 to 1811 and is quite remarkable for its time, as it depicts a single and young European woman’s journey in a foreign country thousands of miles from home. Although the text was well-received, I will argue that Graham ultimately failed at her attempt to avoid “the reproach of European prejudice” (Brown et al) as many parts of the book centers around Eurocentric ideology that heavily critiques Indian culture as well as the different races present in India. Graham’s work establishes this notion of the “other” and views the Indian inhabitants as uneducated and primitive which is an outlook full of prejudice.

For specification, I am referring to a first edition of Graham’s Journal of a Residence in India that was printed by George Ramsay and Company for publishers Archibald Constable and Company based in Edinburgh; and Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown who were based in London. Graham begins writing on “May 28, 1809” and addresses a “Dear Friend” who requested notes and journals, to which Graham says she will fulfill and continues by essentially outlining her travels thus far. Aside from the book’s preface and appendix, Graham encapsulates her stay in India in 183 pages that are broken into 25 different parts where she visits major cities or is at sea. On various occasions a few cities appear more than once on separate journal entries as a result of Graham revisiting these certain places again.

In addition to the cities that are discussed in detail, the book features many illustrations of particular monuments in India that Graham visited. The engravings that are incorporated are almost entirely illustrated by Graham herself except for one, and nearly all of them are engraved by a professional named James Storer. There are fifteen illustrations in the travel book: twelve of them are inscribed with Graham’s initials “M.G.”, followed by “etched by James Storer”; two of them appear to have no inscription, and one is credited to being “drawn by Major G” and “etched by M. Graham”, whom I assume is Thomas Graham a naval officer whom she met and married on the trip in 1809. The pages that exhibit these illustrations are unnumbered and are always followed by a blank page. The illustrations play a crucial role in Graham’s work because they depict the alluring landscapes and architecture in India that she seems to appreciate immensely, yet she never portrays the beauty of the actual people that inhabit the land and these infrastructures.

Aside from the illustrations, a substantial amount of the book discusses other European individuals who are also in India at the time and had become Graham’s acquaintances. When Graham arrived in India in 1809, the country had already been largely dominated by European forces because of the East India Company that was established in 1600 by the English to exploit trade relations with India and “acted as an agent of British imperialism” (Britannica). This fact undoubtedly benefitted other Europeans like Graham, as they were able to travel without  complications through voyages set out by the government; Graham had the opportunity to explore India because she accompanied her father, a naval officer on duty. Without ever acknowledging her privileged position, Graham criticizes and makes the differentiation between rural Indian villages and those largely enhanced by the imperial powers of British colonization. Graham paints a picture of how the British has aided in constructing cities but does so in a slightly biased way, as she seems to imply that without British forces India would be uncivilized.

In a similar manner, when Graham is not speaking about Europe despite being in Asia, she tends to narrate her observations from a very British standpoint that compares the Indian cultures she witnesses to European principles and ultimately devalues Indian experiences and heritage. For example, when she comes across something pleasant that she enjoys she ultimately compares it to the British lifestyle; on her visit to the banian tree in Sion, she mentions its resemblance to an “English park” (Graham 7). Although she often expresses fascination and interest in the lives of native Indians, the willingness to learn more about them is almost promptly overshadowed by her blunt criticisms. She judges Indian people of all religions on their practices and constructs them as exotic others, simply because they do not engage with life in an identical way to herself. Graham also focusses a great deal of time on the fact that many Indians are uneducated and unable to read or write, she finds it shocking which is an extremely privileged thought for her to have as a wealthy woman who comes from a country that is able to prioritize learning amongst their citizens. Rather than purely appreciating and immersing herself in Indian culture as it seems her book is doing; Graham tends to obscurely note British superiority, as she masks it with respect for the colonized country.

Although Graham’s book includes her prejudices, it is important to consider her audience and who the text is written for. The purpose of her work is not only to educate readers, but also entertain them. As the book was published in Edinburgh and London the readers were exclusively Europeans, and this may explain why Graham focusses on particular elements and omits others; it is possible that she wrote about Indian people as caricatures to grasp the attention of her audience.   There are parts in the book where Graham shows admiration and respect for Indian people, and even acknowledges their labour that is underpaid allowing the British to have “cheap and beautiful” fabrics (Graham 55).

Maria Graham’s travel book Journal of a Residence in India is a piece critical to history because of how it documents the way India operated during its early colonized years. Although the book is written by the perspective of Graham, a young British woman who was far from free of bias, it is an important journal as it highlights how external forces perceived Indian culture. I believe at the time when Graham’s work was first published, the readers would have enjoyed the content of the book because they were able to gain a glimpse into a different country without having to travel themselves and could learn about a culture different to their own.

Works Cited

Batten, Charles. Pleasurable Instruction: Form And Convention In Eighteenth-Century Travel Literature. 1st ed., University Of California Press, 1978.

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2021, February 12). East India Company. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/East-India-Company

Brown, Susan et al. "Maria Callcott". Orlando Cambridge University Press | Women's Writing In The British Isles From The Beginnings To The Present, 2021.

Comer, Denise. “White Child Is Good, Black Child His [Orher] Slave”: Women, Children, And Empire In Early Nineteenth‐Century India". European Romantic Review, vol 16, no. 1, 2005, pp. 39-58.

Graham, Maria. Journal of a Residence in India by Maria Graham. Empire Online.                                  http://www.empire.amdigital.co.uk.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/Documents/Details/Journal of a Residence in India by Maria Graham Edinburgh 1812