Between 1787 and 1796, John Gilchrist, a surgeon in the service of the East India Company published the first really detailed analysis of the 'Hindustani' language for the use of his compatriots in India. The study of colonial linguistics has tended to follow one of two paths, characterising texts like Gilchrist's either as exercises in technical problem-solving or as reductively political examples of 'colonial discourse'. This study develops a method of reading colonial grammars that acknowledges both dimensions of the text - the technical and the political.

Steadman-Jones offers contextual discussion of the political, biographical, and intellectual contexts of Gilchrist's work. He also goes on to provide detailed readings of Gilchrist's grammatical praxis and, through them, presents a picture of the complex relationship between grammatical inquiry and the politics of colonial discourse in the early years of the Indian Empire.