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COLONIAL KNOWLEDGE & THE MAKING OF BRITISH RULE
📍
Colonial Knowledge as a Tool of Rule
🟢 European colonial domination depended not only on
military power, political authority and economic wealth, but also on what scholar
Nicholas Dirks calls the
“cultural technologies of rule.”
🟢 Knowledge of Indian
laws, customs, languages, literature and social institutions helped the British understand and administer the colony.
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Warren Hastings: “Rule the Conquered in Their Own Way”
🟢
Warren Hastings sought to end Robert Clive’s
Dual Government and establish a stronger territorial administration in Bengal.
🟢 He opposed simply imposing
English laws and ways on India.
🟢 His approach was to
rule the conquered in their own way by understanding existing Indian institutions and traditions.
🟢 Reconciliation with native traditions was expected to make British rule more
acceptable and help prevent resistance.
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Asiatic Society of Bengal
🟢 Established by
William Jones in 1784 at Calcutta.
🟢 Objective: make India more intelligible to the British through systematic study of
Asian languages, literature, history and traditions.
🟢 The Society published the journal
Asiatick Researches.
🟢 William Jones acquired mastery of
Sanskrit and authored
A Digest of Hindu Law on Contract and Succession.
🟢
Charles Wilkins translated the
Bhagavad Gita into English.
📍
Henry Thomas Colebrooke
🟢
Colebrooke succeeded William Jones as a prominent Orientalist scholar.
🟢 He became
Professor of Sanskrit at Fort William in 1800.
🟢 He studied the
Vedas, placing them chronologically before the Puranas.
🟢 His work highlighted the existence of a
monotheistic tradition in ancient India.
🟢 His essay in
Asiatick Researches supported the
existence and authenticity of the Vedas.
📍
Codification of Hindu Law
🟢 Warren Hastings’ judicial reforms revealed different interpretations of local laws by
Brahman Pandits, based on different schools of
Dharmashastra.
🟢 To bring uniformity,
11 Pandits compiled a digest of Hindu laws.
🟢
N.B. Halhed translated it into English as
A Code of Gentoo Laws.
🟢
A Code of Gentoo Laws and
A Digest of Hindu Law on Contract and Succession emerged as important authoritative texts on Hindu law.
🟢 The
Company government financed their compilation and publication.
📍
Mapping Colonial India
🟢 The
Office of Surveyor General of Bengal was established under Warren Hastings.
🟢
James Rennell became the first Surveyor General of Bengal in
1764.
🟢 Rennell produced
A Map of Hindoostan, described as the first authoritative mapping exercise of India.
🟢
Sepoys and British Army officials participated in the survey and mapping exercise.
📍
Administrators-Cum-Scholars
🟢
Fort William College contributed to the emergence of administrators who were also scholars of Indian society.
🟢 Their knowledge of India was increasingly applied to
colonial administration.
🟢 Thus, the production of knowledge became closely connected with the
exercise of colonial power.
📍
UPSC MAINS
Q. Colonial rule in India was strengthened not merely through military power but also through the systematic production of knowledge. Discuss with reference to the Orientalist scholarship and administrative practices under Warren Hastings.
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