 In Empire and Information : Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India , 1780 – 1870 ( 1996 ) , Christopher Alan Bayly said that , at the height of European imperialism , European power in the Orient was not absolute , and much depended upon local collaborators , who often subverted the geopolitical strategies of the European powers with whom they collaborated against their own peoples . In For Lust of Knowing : The Orientalists and Their Enemies ( 2006 ) , Robert Graham Irwin said that Palestine and Egypt were poor historical examples of Orientalism , because they were under European hegemonic control only for short periods in the late 19th and early 20th centuries . He believed that Said ignored better examples of Orientalism and imperialism , namely the British Raj ( 1858 – 1947 ) in India and Russia 's Asian dominions , because Said sought to score political points against the West 's actions in the Middle East . 
