Empire-building did not only involve the use of excessive violence against native communities, but also required the gathering of data about the native Other. This is a book about books, which looks at the writings of Western colonial administrators, company-men and map-makers who wrote about Southeast Asia in the 19th century. In the course of their information-gathering they had also framed the people of Southeast Asia in a manner that gave rise to Orientalist racial stereotypes that would be used again and again. Data-Gathering in Colonial Southeast Asia 1800-1900: Framing the Other revisits the era of colonial data-collecting to demonstrate the workings of the imperial echo chamber, and how in the discourse of 19th century colonial-capitalism data was effectively weaponized to serve the interests of Empire.

[Farish A Noor](https://www.rsis.edu.sg/profile/farish-badrol-hisham-ahmad-noor/) is Associate Professor at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, where he teaches the history and politics of Southeast Asia.

DedicationA note on spellingIntroduction. The Panopticon in the Indies: Data-Gathering and the Power of KnowingI. Lost no longer: The House of Glass that is Postcolonial Southeast Asia.Chapter 1: Caught in the Eye of Empire: Stamford Raffles' 1814 Java Regulations I. An English government does not need the articles of a capitulation to impose those duties which are prompted by a sense of justice: Lord Minto's brand of benevolent imperialism in Java.II. The Lieutenant-Governor is Watching You: Raffles' 1814 Regulations.III. Knowing Java and Policing Java.IV. Policing Bodies: Corpses, Prisoners and other 'Asiatic Foreigners'.V. Policing and Profit: Raffles' Regulations of 1814 as the Foundation of Regulated and Racialized Colonial-Capitalism. VI. Framing the Javanese as both Useless and Useful: Native Labour in Imperial Policing.Chapter 2: Deadly Testimonies: John Crawfurd's Embassy to the Court of Ava and the Framing of the BurmanI. Stabbing at the Heart of their Dominions: John Crawfurd's Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava as a Blueprint for Invasion.II. I shall have the honour soon to lay an abstract before the Government: Crawfurd's Embassy to Ava read as an Intelligence Report.III. Who Can I Trust? John Crawfurd's Search for Reliable Data from Reliable Witnesses.IV. Racial Difference and the Framing of the Burmese in the Writing of John Crawfurd.V. Deadly Testimonies: Weaponised Knowledge in the Working of Racialized Colonial-Capitalism.Chapter 3: Fairy Tales and Nightmares: Identifying the 'Good' Asians and the 'Bad' Asians in the Writings of Low and St. JohnI. Fairy Tale Beginnings: Hugh Low Spins the Tale of Sarawak's 'Redemption' II. Knowing the Difference: Differentiating Between the 'Good' Asians and the 'Bad' Asians in the works of Hugh Low and Spenser St. JohnIII. Protecting the Natives from other Asiatics: St. John's negative portrayal of Malays and Chinese as the oppressors of the Borneans.IV. Bloodsuckers and Insurgents: Knowing the Asian Other and the Maintenance of Colonial Rule.V. And the Narrative Continues: The Fairy Tale Ending to Sarawak's Story.Chapter 4: The Needle of Empire: The Mapping of the Malay in the works of Daly and CliffordI. Elbow Room for Empire: Britain's Expansion into the Malay Kingdoms. II. Stabbing at the Heart of the Malay: Seeking Justification for Britain's Expansion into the Malay States.III. Enter the Imperial Needle: Dominick D. Daly, Geographic Intelligence, and Colonial Mapping.IV. To Bring Darkness to Light: Hugh Clifford, Colonial Geography, and the Duty of 'the Great British Race'.V. The Geography of Empire: Mapping and Colonial Power.Chapter 5: Panopticon in the Indies: Data-collecting and the Building of the Colonial State in Southeast AsiaI. We want to know you better: Data-collecting in the service of EmpireII. Text and Context: Empire's Power Differentials and the Framing of the Colonized OtherIII. Imperial Hubris: When Empire's Archive Fell Apart.IV. The Panopticon Today: Data-Gathering and Governance in Present-day Postcolonial Southeast Asia. Appendix A: Proclamation of Lord Minto, Governor-General of British India, at Molenvliet, Java, 11 September 1811.Appendix B: Proclamation of Stamford Raffles, Lieutenant-General of Java, at Batavia, Java, 15 October 1813.Appendix C: The Treaty of Peace Concluded at Yandabo.Appendix D: The Treaty of Friendship and Commerce between Her Majesty and the Sultan of Borneo (Brunei). Signed, in the English and Malay Languages, 27 May 1847.Appendix E: The Racial Census employed in British Malaya from 1871 to 1931.Timeline of events and developments in Southeast Asia 1800-1900.Bibliography.Index