Chapter I / Osterley Walk
Introduction
Begin walking along the fence on the right.
We are currently in the London Borough of Hounslow in Isleworth , which was once a farming settlement.2 The name Isleworth comes from the old English name for the place Gislheresuuyrth, meaning: enclosures belonging to a person named Gislhere, referring to the Anglo-Saxon settlement that was first recorded here.3 The word ‘enclosure’ is key, because within the history of land ownership in England, it refers to the system of fencing-off common lands from the public by landowning individuals, often by using barriers such as fences and hedges4 - a classic example of agrarian capitalism, which was later introduced to Britain’s many colonies.5
One of those former colonies6 was a city-state on the southeastern coast of the Indian subcontinent - an erstwhile British province overlooking the Bay of Bengal. Here, enclosures were key to colonising indigenous tribal lands - by enclosing forests and wastelands for the extraction of agricultural produce and maximising profits.7
In this tour, we will walk with two sites located thousands of miles apart and woven across time and space by a common thread: the East India Company.
Play the next audio when you arrive at the gate.
1 Sir John Soane’s Museum Collection Online. “Osterley House”. Robert and James Adam Office Drawings. Accessed September 5, 2024. https://collections.soane.org/SCHEME929
2 “The history of Isleworth.” n.d. Isleworth. Accessed June 8, 2024. https://isleworth.life/pages/the-history-of-isleworth.
3 Survey of English Place-Names. Accessed June 8, 2024. https://epns.nottingham.ac.uk/browse/id/53282a5ab47fc407a000023c
4 University of Oxford and Charlie Harris. 2022. “Enclosing the English Commons: Property, Productivity and the Making of Modern Capitalism (Case Study #26).” Edited by Christopher McKenna. Global History of Capitalism Project, (November). https://globalcapitalism.web.ox.ac.uk/files/case26-enclosingtheenglishcommonspdf#:~:text=The%20first%20was%20informal%20enclosure,majority%20of%20British%20land%20enclosed.
5 Williams, Raymond. "Enclosures, Commons and Communities". The Country and the City. Italy: Oxford University Press, 1975. pg.137-153
6 Raman, Bhavani. "Sovereignty, Property and Land Development: The East India Company in Madras", Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 61, 5-6 (2018): 976-1004, doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341472
7 Saravanan, Velayutham. 2006. Colonial Agrarian Policies in the Tribal Areas of Madras Presidency: 1872–1947. South Asia Research, 26(1), 63-85. https://doi.org/10.1177/0262728006063199. p. 65, 66.
Bhukya, Bhangya. 2017. “Enclosing Land: The Making of the Colonial State in the Hills”, The Roots of the Periphery: A History of the Gonds of Deccan India. Oxford Academic. Pg. 82. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199468089.001.0001