Information

Cohn Bernard, Introduction, Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge

Overview

This reading explains about the British first steps of the colonial projects in their mission to make sense of what India represented. As the reading suggests, an educated Englishman would make sense of the world by looking at the world in an empirical way and relying in facts. In order to make sense if India the British used investigative modalities. Investigative modalities are the collected facts which British gathered data about finance, trade, health, demography, crime, education, transportation, agriculture, and industry in India, so the British could be able to facilitate colonization based on what they investigated. From the eighteenth century onward, the investigation for colonial project has initiated in England as well as in mainland India. British created their own officers who are able to speak Indian, and they sent specialists such as priests, historians, and artist to India in order to launch investigation in earnest. The modalities are divided into various categories such as historical, museological, surveillance, and observational modalities, which are indicated in the specific location and description of archaeological sites and enumerative, and survey modalities which are more related to administrative questions. All of these modalities were used not only by institutions and administrative sites, but they were also transformed into sciences. By understanding the characteristics of each investigative modality, we can figure out which modality approach was used India in colonialism (territorial dominance), or imperialism way (national spirit dominance). This reading tells us that in the past colonial superpowers such as the British sought to impose their authority unto their conquered nations by using investigative modalities in order to best manage and rule these territories.

Keywords

Investigative Modalities – is the collected facts about India by British before conquest.

Historiographic Modality- is the investigation about knowledge of the history and practices of Indian states.

Observational Modality- is the investigation about knowledge of the routes or particular sites through traveling.

Survey Modality- is the investigation to measure land for the purpose of establishing boundaries, and to supervise.

Enumerative Modality- is the collected basic information about Indian age, occupation, caste, religion, literacy, place of birth, and current residence as statistical forms.

Museological Modality- is the investigation about knowledge of the art, architecture, scripts, and textual traditions of India.

Argument

“The process of state building in Great Britain, seen as a cultural project, was closely linked with its emergence as an imperial power, and India was its largest and most important colony. It is not just that the personnel who governed Indian were British, but the projects of state building in both countries – documentation, legitimation, classification and bounding and the institutions therewith-often reflected theories, experiences, and practice worked out originally in India and then applied in Great Britain, as well as vice versa.” (p.3~4)

Evidence

To support his argument the author uses examples on how cultural projects used in India aided Britain and vice versa. Two of the examples given by the author to show the mirror effect that these projects had in the development of Britain as an imperial superpower are how the Indian civil service provided some of the models for the development of the Home services in Britain. Another example is given by the author when he talks about how the British concept of using universities and schools for the old aristocracy and the new middle class to meet and produce loyal new governing elites would later be used in India for the same purpose. To my understanding, the author’s evidence seems reliable. The evidence provided by the author effectively support his argument.

Historiographical Debate

The author does not explicitly situate him in a wider scholarly debate in the text.

Contribution to Our Understanding of Colonial Rule

I was impressed with the British colonial project which is more elaborate than I thought it would be. Some aspects of the reading were expected such as the conquering nation having to familiarize with the native language. It was an essential step to teach their own officers the local language in order to issue commands, collect taxes, maintain law and create order. However, before this reading, I believed that the first stage of colonizing another country is to enforce dominance through the use of military force, and constant public displays of power that would show a visual power gap between the conqueror and the conquered. However, before starting a full scale colonization, the pre-investigation steps that the British took were very detailed, which included knowledge of India’s ancient history to understanding India’s culture during the current time. After reading the previous book, I already had an idea that colonialism eventually brings benefits to mother country politically, and economically through trades of goods and slaves.