¹ Chattopadhayay, Sanjeev Chandra, Palamau Bhraman (Calcutta: Bangadarshan Press, 1889; Republished Calcutta: Orient Book Store, 1965), p. 29Google Scholar.

² The Jharkhand region has been aggressively surveyed, settled, and taxed by colonial officials since the 1790s. Nonetheless, the ‘people of the forest’ often resisted extractive revenue demands of the colonial state and there have been several rebellions in the region since the advent of colonial rule. Baske, Dhirendranath, Samotala Ganasamgramera Itihas, Paribardhita Samskarana (Kalikata parl, 1982), pp. 12–22Google Scholar.

³ Sanjeev Chandra Chattopadhayay, Palamou Bhraman, (1965), pp. 32–33.

⁴ Fabian, Johannes, Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes its Objects? (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983), pp. 26–31Google Scholar. Also quoted in Ussama Makdisi, ‘Reclaiming the Land of the Bible: Missionaries, Secularism and Evangelical Modernity.’ The American Historical Review, 102 (June, 1997): 680–713.

⁵ Banerjee, Prathama, Politics of Time: ‘Primitives’ and History-Writing in a Colonial Society (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶ The Report of the Indian Education Commission, appointed in 1882, and headed by W.W. Hunter, noted that in 1855 the committee for public instruction had raised the number of institutions under its control from only 28 in 1843 to 151 in 1855, and the number of pupils from 4,632 in 1843 to 13,163 in 1855. According to the 1881 census, the commission maintained, the number under instruction, together with those able to read and write but no longer under instruction exceeded 9.75 millions for British India (including British Burma) out of a population of 208.75 millions. Taking the departmental returns for 1881–1882, and comparing the number of students at school with the population of school-going age, the commission calculated that 20.82 per cent of boys and 0.80 per cent of girls, respectively, attended government-run and government-aided schools in Bengal. Hunter, W.W., Report of the Indian Education Commission, (Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, 1883), p. 28Google Scholar.

⁷ Kapila, Shruti, ‘Race Matters: Orientalism and Religion, India and Beyond c. 1770–1880.’ Modern Asian Studies 41 (May 2007): 471–513CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁸ The implication of Aryan theory, in terms of history writing, has often been analysed by scholars but its implication in providing a territorial context has not been analysed until now. For a historical interpretation of Aryan theory and its implication for Indian culture, see Trautmann, Thomas, Aryans and the British India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁹ These terms were borrowed from the Indian epics, The Ramayana and The Mahabharata, and the vast corpus of puranic literature. Intellectuals from low caste social groups and adivasis, in a classic instance of social inversion, used such terms in a positive light in order to claim higher social status and to indicate their subsequent marginalization under putative Aryan rule. This is particularly evident in the writings of Maharashtrian intellectual and social activist, Jyotiba Phule. See Thapar, Romila, ‘Some Appropriations of the Theory of Aryan Race Relating to the Beginnings of Indian History,’ in Ali, DaudInvoking the Past: The Uses of History in South Asia (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 15–35Google Scholar. For details concerning Jyotiba Phule, please see Hanlon, Rosalind O’, Caste, Conflict and Ideology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995)Google Scholar.

¹⁰ In her recent highly acclaimed work, Manu Goswami has demonstrated effectively how Hindus were perceived as ‘originary’ citizens of India and Muslims as ‘invaders’ and ‘tyrannical rulers’. Goswami, Manu, Producing India: From Colonial Economy to National Space (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2004), p. 207CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This paper engages with her arguments by highlighting how the claims of the Hindu literati of being the primary citizens of the land were articulated through a racial construction of citizenship through the theory of an Aryan race in opposition to a constructed aborigine identity for non-Hindu forest and mountain dwellers.

¹¹ For a brilliant exposition of the idea of such an epistemic break, see the seminal work of Partha Chatterjee. Chatterjee, Partha, ‘The Nation and its Pasts,’ in The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), pp. 76–94Google Scholar.

¹² For a succinct and crisp analysis of such anthropometric surveys, see Bates, Crispin, ‘Race, Caste and Tribe in Central India: The Early Origins of Indian Anthropometry,’ in The Concept of Race in South Asia, ed. Robb, Peter (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 219–259Google Scholar.

¹³ Bayly, C.A., Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780–1870 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), particularly pp. 300–307Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Manu Goswami, Producing India (2004).

¹⁵ S. Ramaswamy, ‘Maps, Mother/Goddesses and Martyrdom in Modern India.’ Journal of Asian Studies 67:3 (2008): 1–35; Ramaswamy, S., ‘Conceit of the Globe in Mughal India.’ Comparative Studies in Society and History 49:4 (2007): 751–782CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ramaswamy, S., ‘Of Gods and Globes: The Territorialisation of Hindu Deities in Indian Popular Visual Culture,’ in India's Popular Culture: Iconic Spaces and Fluid Images, ed. Jain, Jyotindra (Mumbai: Marg, 2008), pp. 19–31Google Scholar.

¹⁶ The process of naturalization of such knowledge as universal in this paper is based upon Sanjay Seth's recent work Subject Lessons: Western Education of Colonial India, (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007).

¹⁷ C.A. Bayly, Empire and Information (1996), particularly pp. 300–307.

¹⁸ Bayly, Susan, ‘Caste and “Race” in the Colonial Ethnography of India,’ in The Concept of Race in South Asia, ed. Robb, Peter (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 165–218Google Scholar.

¹⁹ Bourdieu, Pierre and Passeron, Jean-ClaudeReproduction in Education Society and Culture London (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1977)Google Scholar.

²⁰ Hostetler, Laura, Qing Colonial Enterprise: Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern China (Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 2001)Google Scholar.

²¹ Blum, Susan, Portraits of ‘Primitives’: Ordering Human Kinds in the Chinese Nation (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001)Google Scholar.

²² Kelly, Patricia, Postcolonial Vietnam: New Histories of the National Past (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002)Google Scholar.

²³ Adas, Michael, Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989)Google Scholar.

²⁴ Balibar, Etienne, ‘Citizen- Subject,’ in Who Comes After the Subject?, eds Cadava, Eduardo, Connor, Peter, Nancy, Jean-Luc (New York: Routledge, 1991)Google Scholar.

²⁵ Bhaskar Mukhopadhaya, in possibly one of the best known articles on travel-writing, recently used Balibar to interrogate the ontological form of Bengali travel-writing. He argues that European modernity, based on the idea of the nation-state, temporalizes space in a way that makes Asia and Africa appear as the past of Europe. Mukhopadhaya, Bhaskar, ‘Writing Home, Writing Travel: The Poetics and Politics of Dwelling in Bengali Modernity.’ Comparative Studies in Society and History, 44 (April 2002): 293–318Google Scholar.

²⁶ Balibar, ‘Citizen-Subject (1991)’, pp. 33–57.

²⁷ For the significance of climate in the colonial discourse of race see Harrison, Mark, Climates and Constitutions: Health, Race, Environment, and British Imperialism in India, 1600–1850 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000)Google Scholar. For details of the interaction between notions of Christian masculinity and Indian nationalism, see Basu, Subho and Banerjee, Sikata, ‘Quest for Manhood: Masculine Hinduism and Nation in Bengal’, Comparative Studies in South Asia, Middle East and Africa 26 (November 2006): 476–488CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

²⁸ The most fascinating account of such hierarchy is provided in the work of Marshall, P.J. and Williams, Glydwr, The Great Map of Mankind: Perceptions of the New Worlds in the Age of Enlightenment (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982)Google Scholar. However, I have deliberately refrained from speaking about ‘enlightenment’ in the singular, keeping in mind J.G.A. Pocock's suggestion that it would be wrong to view enlightenment as a unitary or universal phenomenon. Instead, it could be read as a family of discourses arising at the same time in a number of European cultures. Pocock, J.G.A., ‘Enthusiasm: The Antiself of Enlightenment,’ in Enthusiasm and Enlightenment in Europe: 1650–1850, eds Klein, Lawrence E. and La Vopa, Anthony J. (San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1998), p. 9Google Scholar.

²⁹ The word ‘territoriality’ is used following Robert Sack to connote a geographical expression of power by ‘an individual or group to affect, influence, or control people, phenomena, and relationships by delimiting and asserting control over a geographical area.’ Sack, Robert, Human Territoriality: Its theory and History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 19Google Scholar.

³⁰ Gellner reminds us of the centrality of space to the nation in his pivotal work on nationalism. See Gellner, E., Nations and Nationalism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983)Google Scholar. Anthony Smith further reinforces the idea in his well known study: Smith, Anthony, ‘States and Homelands: The Social and Geopolitical Implications of National Territory.’ Millennium: Journal of International Studies 10 (3): 187–202CrossRefGoogle Scholar. These works were further used to signify the importance of ‘Homeland’ in the work of Robert J. Kaiser. Kaiser, Robert J., ‘The Meaning of “Homeland” in the Study of Nationalism,’ in The Geography of Nationalism in Russia and USSR (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), pp. 3–33Google Scholar.

³¹ Thongchai Winichakul discusses such transformations in detail. Winichakul traces the transformation of the notion of territoriality in Thailand in the wake of interaction with the Western science of cartography and the knowledge of sovereignty based on maps. The implication of Winichakul's work is that a critical transformation occurred in people's imagination of a national habitat in the wake of western mapping introduced in Asia through colonial modernity. Winichakul, Thongchai, Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-body of a Nation (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994)Google Scholar. Benedict Anderson incorporates Winichakul's idea in his third edition of Imagined Communities, where he includes a chapter on maps, censuses, and museums. Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London, New York: Verso, 2006)Google Scholar. The most critical problem with the theses of both these writers is their emphasis on modular implantation of such ideas in Asia through colonial agency.

³² For details, see Edney, Matthew H., Mapping an Empire: The Geographic Construction of British India, 1765–1843 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), pp. 155–164CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³³ Embree, A.T., ‘Frontiers into Boundaries: From the Traditional to the Modern State,’ in Realm and Region in Traditional India, ed Fox, Richard (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1977), pp. 250–280Google Scholar. In recent years, an alternative interpretation to Embree's work on boundaries has been proposed in Ian J. Barrow, ‘Moving Frontiers: Changing Colonial Notions of the Indian Frontiers,’ http://inic.utexas.edu/asnic/sagar/fall.1994/ian.barrow.art.html (accessed 8 July, 2007).

³⁴ Following Henri Lefebvre's idea of ‘spatial framework of power,’ Manu Goswami invokes the idea of state space to connote colonial definition of their conquered territory in India. Manu Goswami, Producing India (2004), p. 8. See also Lefebvre, Henri, Production of Space, trans. Donaldson-Smith, (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991)Google Scholar.

³⁵ For example, W.S. Atkinson, Director of Public Instruction of Bengal wrote to a school inspector in 1863: ‘[Y]ou will be good enough to pay particular attention to the manner in which geography is taught in the several classes of the schools visited by you. . . . Wherever maps are wanted I shall be always ready to sanction grants for the purchase of them’, West Bengal State Archives, General Department Education Branch, Progs A 23 March 1863. W.S. Atkinson Esq., Director of Public Instruction to S.W. Fallon Esq., Inspector of Schools, North West Division. (No. 996, 16 March, 1863).

³⁶ It would be nearly impossible to survey all geography textbooks that developed in different Indian languages in the late-nineteenth century. Tamil, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, and Marathi were the most important linguistic vehicles of articulation for new geographic ideas in India. However, this paper concentrates on Bengali to provide glimpses of the evolution of such intellectual discourses in India.

³⁷ Pearce, W.H., Bhugol Britanta [Geography Interspersed with information and historical and Miscellaneous] (Calcutta: School Book Society, 1846)Google Scholar.

³⁸ Pearce, Bhugol Britanta (1846), the front cover provides details of the circulation of different editions of the book.

³⁹ Ibid., Preface.

⁴⁰ The word ‘puranic’ is derived from the Puranas. The term ‘Puranas’ or ‘tales of ancient times’ refers to an ancient Indian genre of literary texts that provided highly selective and crafted expositions and presentations of worldviews and soteriologies referring to Vishnu, Siva or Devi, or, indeed, any number of deities. They also contain detailed cosmographic explanations concerning the earth and the universe.

⁴¹ Vidyaratna, Dwarkanath, Bhutatwa Bichar (Analysis of Geography) (Chinsurah: Chikitsa Parkash Press, c. 1872), p. 11Google Scholar.

⁴² Ibid., p. 17.

⁴³ Moitra, Kalidas, Bhugol Bigyapak (Geography Advertised) (Sreerampur: Temohar Press, 1857), p. 5Google Scholar. It seems that this book was, at first, part of a wider series called Day's Course: The Vernacular Scholar's Best Companion to Geography [in four parts], Vol 1. The front cover assures the reader that the book has been published with the permission of Babu Shrinath Dey and published by J.H. Peters ‘Saheb.’ In other words, it was a government-sanctioned but privately published school textbook. The English title of the book also claims ‘Part I Comprising [sic] The Shape, Size and Motions of the Earth in Contrast with Hindu Geography.’ The rest is written in Bengali.

⁴⁴ Moitra, Bhugol Bigyapak (1857), p. 6.

⁴⁵ Ibid., pp. 7–12.

⁴⁶ These were Lyell, Charles, Principles of Geology, 8 Volumes, Third Edition (London: John Murray, 1834–1835)Google Scholar; Johnston, A.K., A School Atlas of Physical Geography (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood and Sons, 1852)Google Scholar; Ansted, David Thomas, Physical Geography, in A Manual of Geographical Science, etc., ed. Nicolay, C.G. (London: John W. Parker and Son, 1852)Google Scholar; Murray, Hugh, An Encyclopædia of Geography; Comprising a Complete Description of the Earth, Physical, Statistical, Civil, and Political (London, 1834–1844)Google Scholar; Page, David, Advanced Textbook of Physical Geography (publisher not known, Edinburgh and London, 1864)Google Scholar; Page, David, Introductory Text-book of Physical Geography (Edinburgh and London, 1863)Google Scholar; Somerville, Mary, Physical Geography (Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1848)Google Scholar.

⁴⁷ ‘Dwitiya Parisisto: Modhya Bhibahgyo Bangla o Minor Chatrabrittir Bhugol Proshnaboli,’ in Bhugol Sarsamgraha, Nilkamal Ghosh (Calcutta: Calcutta Press, 1872), p. 82.

⁴⁸ Bandopadhyay, Gopal Chunder, Sikhsadan Samket Jukti Dristanta Sambalito Siksha Pranali (An Elementary Treatise on Education: The Systems and Principles with Practical Hints and Examples), Third Edition (Calcutta: Hitaishi, 1872), p. 11Google Scholar.

⁴⁹ Dutta, Akshay Kumar, Bhugol Kolikata (Tatwabodini Patrika Press, 1841), p. 15Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ Clift's First Geography is primarily a popular physical geography textbook. It had been influential in composing text books in other Indian languages too. Clift, First Geography, Kilipt envpavar ceyta Pukolacastriac curukkam:pukola patattirkut tunai nul:iktupallikkunkalukku moli peryarkkappattatu (in Tamil) (Madras: Scottish Press (Graves, Cookson and Co., 1869). Reprinted by order of the Director of Public Instruction, Translator Unknown, British Library, India and Oriental Office Collection.

⁵¹ Hamilton, Walter, A Geographical, Statistical and Historical Description of Hindostan and the Adjacent Countries in Two Volumes (London: John Murray, 1820)Google Scholar.

⁵² First Book of Geography or NO: X of a New Series of School Books Drawn Up for Scottish School Book Association (Edinburgh: William Whyte and Co., 1840), p. 41.

⁵³ First Book of Geography (1840), p. 53.

⁵⁴ First Book of Geography (1840), p. 60.

⁵⁵ Tagore, Sourindra Mohan, Bhugol o Itihas Ghotito Brityanto (Calcutta: Saraodaparakash Chattopadhaya Printers, 1877), pp. 17–20Google Scholar. This was the second edition of the work based on an original textbook published in 1857. Sourindro Mohan Tagore wrote in the preface of his work, ‘Twenty years have lapsed since this little book was first published . . . I do not feel disposed towards materially altering what I called my first and earliest attempt at writing.’ (Preface, Second Edition, no page number given.)

⁵⁶ Indeed, Dutta composed a series of essays in Tattobodini Patrika criticizing the oppression of indigo planters and linked this oppression to the overall imperial system of domination. Asit Kumar Bhattacharya Akshay Kumar Dutta: Makers of Indian Literature. (Calcutta: Sahitya Academi, 1996), pp. 73–75.

⁵⁷ Chatterjee, Partha, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse (London: Zed for the United Nations University, 1986)Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ Mukhopadhyay, Haranchandra, Asiar Biboron: Sukumarmoti Balokgoner Sikharthe Nanabidho Ingraji or Bangala Pushtak Hoite (A description of Asia for the Impressionable Bright Children Compiled from Various English and Bengali Sources) (Calcutta: Vidyaratno Press, 1868), pp. 25–26Google Scholar.

⁵⁹ Chattopadhyay, Tarini Charan, Bhugol Biboron (Calcutta: Vidyaratno Press, 1865), pp. 75–77Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ Dutta, Akshay Kumar, Bhugol (Kolikata Tatwabodini Patrika Press, 1841), pp. 60–61Google Scholar.

⁶¹ Radhika Prasanna Mukherjee, for example, acknowledged Akshay Kumar Dutta and Rajandralal Mitra's efforts in his work. Mukherjee, Radhika Prasanna, Bhu Vidya Vishayak Path (A Study of Geography) (Calcutta: J.C. Chatterji's Press, 1868), p. 2Google Scholar.

⁶² Mitra, Rajendralal, Prakrita Bhugol Arthat Bhumandaler Noisargik Baboshtya Barnan Bishyayk Grantho (A Tome Related to the Description of the Physical Features of the Earth), (Calcutta: School Textbook Society, 1871), pp. 216–214Google Scholar.

⁶³ Rajandralal Mitra, Prakrita Bhugol Artha (1871), pp. 216–224.

⁶⁴ Blumenbach, J.F., A Manual of the Elements of Natural History, trans. Gore, R.T. (London: Slimkin and R. Marshall Stationers’ Hall Court, 1825), p. 35CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶⁵ Rajani Kanta Ghosh, Bhugol Vidyasar (Core of Geographic knowledge): Containing a General Account of Asia, Europe, Africa, America and Oceania, A Detail of India, Great Britain, Ireland and a Particular Description of Bengal Especially, with an Appendix of Ancient Names of the Countries and Towns and Compiled from Recent Authorities (Kati Para, Jessore: Rajcumar Ghosh, 1871). This long title is bilingual with the first part written in Bengali and the second part in English.

⁶⁶ R. Ghosh, Bhugol (1871), p. 20.

⁶⁷ Balibar, Etienne ‘Preface’ in Wallerstein, Immanual and Balibar, Etienne, Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities (London, New York: Routledge, Chapman & Hall, 1991), pp. 1–14Google Scholar.

⁶⁸ Hamilton, Walter, A Geographical Statistical and Historical Description of Hindostan and the Adjacent countries in Two Volumes (London: John Murray, 1820)Google Scholar. It was later republished in 1828 as The East Indian Gazetteer Containing Particular Descriptions of the Empires, Kingdoms, Principalities, Cities to Districts, Fortresses, Harbours, Rivers, Lakes & C. of Hindostan, and the Adjacent Countries and the Eastern Archipelago; Together with Sketches of the Manners, Customs, Institutions, Agriculture, Commerce, Manufactures, Revenues, Population, Castes, Religion, History & C. of their Various Inhabitants in Two Volumes (London: Parbury, Allen and Co., 1828). In this work, we will primarily consult the 1820 volume.

⁶⁹ Walter Hamilton, A Geographical Statistical . . ., Vol I, (1820), p. iii.

⁷⁰ Walter Hamilton, A Geographical Statistical . . ., Vol I, p. xxiv.

⁷¹ Prichard, James Cowley, The Natural History of Man; Comprising Inquiries into the Modifying Influence of Physical and Moral Agencies on the Different Tribes of the Human Family (London: H. Bailliere, 1843), p. 240Google Scholar.

⁷² R. Ghosh, Bhugol (1871), p. 192.

⁷³ Risley, H.H., The People of India, ed. (and intro.) Crooke, William (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink, 1915), p. 275Google Scholar. Quoted in Ron Inden, Imagining India (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990), p. 61. For a detailed analysis of Risley's views, please see Chapter 2, ‘India in Asia: The Caste Society,’ pp. 49–74.

⁷⁴ R. Ghosh, Bhugol (1871), p. 131.

⁷⁵ Mukhopadhyay, Harimohan, Bharatborser Bishesh Biboron Bangla ChatroBrtti Soukaorshathe Bibidho Pushtak Hoite Bharat borser Sthul Sthul Bhoumik Ebong Aitihasik Biboron (A Special Description of India with a Focus on Material and Historical Specificities: For the Benefit of Students Preparing for Scholarship) (Calcutta: Nutan Samaskrita Jontro, 1865), p. 30Google Scholar.

⁷⁶ Peabody, Norbert, ‘Tod's Rajasthan and Boundaries of Imperial Rule in Nineteenth Century India.’ Modern Asian Studies, 30 (February 1996): 185–220CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁷⁷ Marathas were described as ‘short, ugly, and greedy’. Bhaskar Mukhopadhaya, ‘Writing Home, Writing Travel’ (2002), p. 30.

⁷⁸ Poulantzas, Nicos, State, Power, Socialism (London: Verso, 1978), p. 114Google Scholar.

⁷⁹ Chattopadhaya, ShashibhusanBharatborsher Biboron (Bongo Desher Bishesh biboroner sahit) (A Descriptive Geography of India with a Detailed Account of Bengal, fifteenth edition) (Calcutta: New School Book Press, 1877), pp. 21–23Google Scholar.

⁸⁰ ‘Dwitiya Parisisto: Modhya Bhibhagyo Bangla o Minor Chatrabrittir Bhugol Proshnaboli’ in Ghosh, NilkamalBhugol Sarsamgraha (Calcutta: Calcutta Press, 1872), p. 84Google Scholar.

⁸¹ Chakrabarty, Dipesh, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference (Princeton, 2000)Google Scholar.