Reading Information

Overview

Chapter 1 is about European states and nations that are starting to gain more power and authority. Their influences are starting to become established and extended to different foreign nations around the world. As ideas and practices start transforming into a modern period, there is a growth of new education and beliefs of how things should be. The time period that is being described in this chapter is the period after the eighteenth century. This chapter focuses on the power and influence of Great Britain that was imposed on India. Conquering India was a huge and important task for the British. India was the largest and most vital colony of Great Britain. Events that are mentioned in this article would include the invasion of India by Great Britain and their attempts to assimilate within the Indian community. Great Britain was on a journey to emerge as an imperial power. This chapter relate to the topic of colonialism/ imperialism/ empire since the British is slowly gaining more power and overtaking other nations around the world. Conquering India was a complete new experience for the British and it was a relatively tough mission. The British had to learn the language and traditions of the Indian society. Having knowledge of the local language was important since it could enable the British to collect taxes, issue orders, and maintain order within the community. The acquisition of India to the British Empire lets us know that some nations back then were desperate for more power and would do anything to gain more territories such as learning the language and the culture of their colonies.

Keywords

Investigative Modality- the information that is collected from appropriate knowledge and transformed into useful forms such as published reports, encyclopedias, and histories

Epistemological- a type of philosophy that investigates on the nature and origin of human knowledge

Acquisition- gaining possession and having control over another colony or nation

Argument

Cohn argued how in coming to India, British “unknowingly and unwittingly invaded and conquered not only a territory but an epistemological space as well.”(Cohn 4)

Evidence

Cohn uses evidence from surveyors to support his points and argument. He references to surveyors like James Rennall, William Lambton, Colin Mackenzie, Alexander Cunningham, and Francis Buchanan Hamilton. Using the survey modality, a new survey was launched when the British acquired a new territory or land. They studied the practices of how knowledge was gathered. They also learned a lot about the process of their knowledge in India which were transformed into textual forms.

Historiographical Debate

Cohn does not explicitly situate himself in a wider scholarly debate in Chapter 1.

Contribution to Our Understanding of Colonial Rule

This chapter helped me understand colonialism and colonial rule a lot better. Before reading this chapter, I just had a simple knowledge and definition of these terms. I felt that I learned more and understood more of what took place back in that time period after reading the chapter. I found the term “investigative modality” to be very interesting since I have never heard of it and I learned a lot about this term throughout the chapter. Reading the chapter also taught me different forms of modalities such as historiographic and museology which are considered “general”. Some other modalities were the survey and census ones which were considered “highly defined”. Also,  there were the observational/ travel modality, enumerative modality, surveilance modality, and the investigative modality. I felt that Cohn gave a good description and good details of each modality which helped me learn more and gave me a better understanding about the modalities and its functions.