The Dialectics of Resistance

Colonial Geography, Bengali Literati and the Racial Mapping of Indian Identity

Bibliographic Data

ID3619308
AuthorsSubho Basu (Syracuse University, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume44
Issue1
Pages53-79
Publication date2010-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueModern Asian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0026-749X • E-ISSN: 1469-8099
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0026749x09990060
OpenAlexW2128406559
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited36

Through a study of hitherto unexplored geography textbooks written in Bengali between 1845 and 1880, this paper traces the evolution of a geographic information system related to ethnicity, race, and space. This geographic information system impacted the mentality of emerging educated elites in colonial India who studied in the newly established colonial schools and played a critical role in developing and articulating ideas of the territorial nation-state and the rights of citizenship in India. The Bengali Hindu literati believed that the higher location of India in such a constructed hierarchy of civilizations could strengthen their claims to rights of citizenship and self-government. These nineteenth century geography textbooks asserted clearly that high caste Hindus constituted the core ethnicity of colonial Indian society and all others were resident outsiders. This knowledge system, rooted in geography/ethnicity/race/space, and related to the hierarchy of civilizations, informed the Bengali intelligentsia's notion of core ethnicity in the future nation-state in India with Hindu elites at its ethnic core

Aesthetics · Bengali · Caste · Citizenship · Colonialism · Ethnic group · Geography · Hindi · Hinduism · Identity (music · Intelligentsia · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Law · Philippine History and Culture · Religious studies