Local Intermediaries and the Making of British Authority: A Micro-History of Village-Level Power Brokers 1780-1880

This study examines the pivotal yet often overlooked role of local intermediaries in constructing and sustaining British authority at the village level between 1780 and 1880. Moving beyond conventional state-centric interpretations of colonial governance, the research foregrounds the everyday negotiations through which intermediaries—patwaris, village headmen, small zamindars, revenue brokers, moneylenders, and caste leaders—translated imperial directives into local realities. Drawing on micro-historical perspectives, the study argues that British rule did not operate through a uniform bureaucratic logic but relied on a layered, negotiated, and frequently improvised system of governance anchored in the knowledge, influence, and strategic choices of these intermediaries. Their embeddedness in the social fabric of rural India enabled the colonial state to access information, administer land settlements, mobilize labour, manage disputes, and respond to resistance in ways that would otherwise have been impossible. Ultimately, the study underscores the need to understand empire from the ground up, through the complex human relationships that sustained it.