Sports-hunting, Fairness and Colonial Identity: Collaboration and Subversion in the Northwestern Frontier Region of the British Indian Empire

This paper examines the place of hunting in the construction of identity for both British colonial sportsmen and indigenous hunters on the north-western frontier region of the British Indian empire, illustrating how their competing moral orders are placed in tension in the colonial encounter through...

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Main Author: Hussain Shafqat
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2010-01-01
Series:Conservation & Society
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.conservationandsociety.org/article.asp?issn=0972-4923;year=2010;volume=8;issue=2;spage=112;epage=126;aulast=Hussain
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author Hussain Shafqat
author_facet Hussain Shafqat
author_sort Hussain Shafqat
collection DOAJ
description This paper examines the place of hunting in the construction of identity for both British colonial sportsmen and indigenous hunters on the north-western frontier region of the British Indian empire, illustrating how their competing moral orders are placed in tension in the colonial encounter through the shared experience of hunting. I show that the British sportsmen generally used ideas of fairness in hunting to mark themselves off from the indigenous hunters while colonial frontier officers specifically, through their adeptness in hunting, differentiated themselves from other colonial officers. I argue that ideas of fairness had a different place in the indigenous hunting practices, and often clashed with the ′moral ecology′ of the colonial hunters. Using the example of ′palming off′, I show how unlike the clash of moral ecologies in relation to hunting practices, the process through which the identities of colonial hunters were constructed was a precarious and contingent one in which indigenous collaboration played a crucial role.
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spelling doaj.art-834b0449a45b48f491fec50103def9042022-12-21T22:23:51ZengWolters Kluwer Medknow PublicationsConservation & Society0972-49230975-31332010-01-0182112126Sports-hunting, Fairness and Colonial Identity: Collaboration and Subversion in the Northwestern Frontier Region of the British Indian EmpireHussain ShafqatThis paper examines the place of hunting in the construction of identity for both British colonial sportsmen and indigenous hunters on the north-western frontier region of the British Indian empire, illustrating how their competing moral orders are placed in tension in the colonial encounter through the shared experience of hunting. I show that the British sportsmen generally used ideas of fairness in hunting to mark themselves off from the indigenous hunters while colonial frontier officers specifically, through their adeptness in hunting, differentiated themselves from other colonial officers. I argue that ideas of fairness had a different place in the indigenous hunting practices, and often clashed with the ′moral ecology′ of the colonial hunters. Using the example of ′palming off′, I show how unlike the clash of moral ecologies in relation to hunting practices, the process through which the identities of colonial hunters were constructed was a precarious and contingent one in which indigenous collaboration played a crucial role.http://www.conservationandsociety.org/article.asp?issn=0972-4923;year=2010;volume=8;issue=2;spage=112;epage=126;aulast=Hussainsports-huntingcolonial identityfrontier officersmoral ecologyGilgit-Baltistan
spellingShingle Hussain Shafqat
Sports-hunting, Fairness and Colonial Identity: Collaboration and Subversion in the Northwestern Frontier Region of the British Indian Empire
Conservation & Society
sports-hunting
colonial identity
frontier officers
moral ecology
Gilgit-Baltistan
title Sports-hunting, Fairness and Colonial Identity: Collaboration and Subversion in the Northwestern Frontier Region of the British Indian Empire
title_full Sports-hunting, Fairness and Colonial Identity: Collaboration and Subversion in the Northwestern Frontier Region of the British Indian Empire
title_fullStr Sports-hunting, Fairness and Colonial Identity: Collaboration and Subversion in the Northwestern Frontier Region of the British Indian Empire
title_full_unstemmed Sports-hunting, Fairness and Colonial Identity: Collaboration and Subversion in the Northwestern Frontier Region of the British Indian Empire
title_short Sports-hunting, Fairness and Colonial Identity: Collaboration and Subversion in the Northwestern Frontier Region of the British Indian Empire
title_sort sports hunting fairness and colonial identity collaboration and subversion in the northwestern frontier region of the british indian empire
topic sports-hunting
colonial identity
frontier officers
moral ecology
Gilgit-Baltistan
url http://www.conservationandsociety.org/article.asp?issn=0972-4923;year=2010;volume=8;issue=2;spage=112;epage=126;aulast=Hussain
work_keys_str_mv AT hussainshafqat sportshuntingfairnessandcolonialidentitycollaborationandsubversioninthenorthwesternfrontierregionofthebritishindianempire