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A Colonial Affair traces the 1716 conviction of Nayiniyappa, a Tamil commercial agent employed by the French East India Company, for tyranny and sedition, and his subsequent public torture, the loss of his wealth, the exile of his family, and his ultimate exoneration. Danna Agmon’s gripping microhistory is a vivid guide to the “Nayiniyappa Affair” in the French colony of Pondicherry, India. The surprising and shifting fates of Nayiniyappa and his family form the basis of this story of global mobilization, which is replete with merchants, missionaries, local brokers, government administrators, and even the French royal family.

Agmon’s compelling account draws readers into the social, economic, religious, and political interactions that defined the European colonial experience in India and elsewhere. Her portrayal of imperial sovereignty in France’s colonies as it played out in the life of one beleaguered family allows readers to witness interactions between colonial officials and locals. Students and scholars of the history of colonialism, religion, capitalism, and law will find Agmon’s narrative of European imperialism of great interest.

Danna Agmon is Assistant Professor of History and ASPECT at Virginia Tech.

List of Illustrations 
Acknowledgments 
The Actors 

Introduction 

Part One: The World of the Affair

1. The Elusive Origins of a Colonial Scandal
2. Kinship as Politics 

Part Two: The Unfolding of the Affair

3. The Denial of Language
4. Conflict at Court 

Part Three: The Afterlives of the Affair

5. Between Paris and Pondichéry 
6. Archiving the Affair 

Epilogue

Notes 
Index 

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• Coski, Christopher. Review of A Colonial Affair: Commerce, Conversion, and Scandal in French India, by Danna Agmon. The French Review 92, no. 2 (2018): 241-242. doi:10.1353/tfr.2018.0018.
• Cross, Elizabeth. “A Colonial Affair: Commerce, Conversion, and Scandal in French India, Written by Danna Agmon.” Journal of Early Modern History 23, no. 4 (August 20, 2019): 389–91. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700658-12342019-11.
• Pairaudeau, Natasha. “Danna Agmon. A Colonial Affair: Commerce, Conversion, and Scandal in French India.” The American Historical Review 124, no. 4 (October 1, 2019): 1443–45. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhz369.
• Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. “Hybrid Affairs: Cultural Histories of the East India Companies.” The Indian Economic & Social History Review 55, no. 3 (July 2018): 419–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/0019464618778408.