von Brescius, Moritz Hans (2021). „Foreigners in the Princely States and British India: Recruitment Conditions and a Typology of Outsider Involvement”. In: Kulke, Tilmann; Vicente Martín, María (eds.) From Florence to Goa and Beyond: Essays in Early Modern Global History (pp. 201-247). Florenz: European University Institute Press
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Scholarly attention has turned in recent years to the remarkable permeability and openness of imperial systems for indigenous and other groups of actors who originated from beyond the boundaries of their respective imperial homelands. The British – and other European powers active in South Asia since the early modern period – sought to overcome their geographical, cultural and political ignorance about the subcontinent through the deployment of different strategies. For their incremental acquisition of ‘useful’ knowledge in the realms of topography, languages and the social and religious mores of subjected or frontier territories and populations, British authorities massively enlisted the services of indigenous intermediaries, ‘informants’ and explorers. While this ‘internal’ co-optation of expertise and personnel was essential, empires were also embedded in much larger environments. Many were unable, or indeed unwilling, to shield themselves from external ideological, commercial or scientific influences. A concern with mobile specialists and the ‘rule of experts’ (including recruited foreigners) provides a salient opportunity to rethink the scientific activities and history of institutional innovation within diverse European and non-European imperial projects, as in the Ottoman and Japanese cases. While such a perspective does not suggest that the political sovereignty of the power in question was undermined through the agency and activities of outsiders, it redirects attention to the significant exchange and employment of ideas, skilled personnel and ideologies across geographical and political boundaries often too readily taken for granted.