Imperial footprints: exploring the convergence of the politics of domesticity and colonialism in Birds of Passage: Henrietta Clive's travels in South India 1798–1801

Drawing upon the book Birds of Passage: Henrietta Clive's travels in South India 1798–1801, a compilation of travel accounts Henrietta Clive penned during her journey in the Southern part of India, this study explores the socio-political and historical background of her travel during the late eighteenth century. The study highlights the turbulent background of the fall of Tipu Sultan as perceived and documented by a female traveller whose loyalties lie solely with the empire. The paper argues that for a female traveller like Clive, upholding English domesticity in a colonised setting proved profoundly political. Furthermore, the study concludes that Clive upheld a subservient self-fashioning shaped by her class, education and ideology, which unquestioningly extended her subject position as a facilitator of the imperial agenda by representing the authority of the colonial masters even in private spheres.