A colonial officer’s reports wavered between minimizing and inflating native rebellion threats

Evidence

Demmemi’s daily reports between 11 and 24 November waver. He maintains that “roofzucht” (rapacity) motivated the assaults on Peyer and Luhmann, but then quotes a “very believable source,” who reports on plans being made for full-scale rebellion in Deli two months later. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1236

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader theme of epistemic anxieties in colonial commonsense — vacillation between under- and over-reading native intentions.