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ABSTRACT
The paper attempts to understand the genealogy of certain ‘spatial’ and conceptual dichotomies and categories pertaining to India’s North East. Representation of the geography, climate and simultaneously the dwellers of this space since middle of nineteenth century still reverberates in contemporary knowledge production about the region. These discursive practices for more than two and a half century had been (re)organizing and inscribing space, disciplining subjectivity. This problematic of representation was selectively incorporated into the biography of the ‘modern nation state’ in India that further accentuated the dichotomies and categories. The colonial dichotomy of ‘nature/culture’ staged, performed and articulated by the practices of representation enacted geographically determined social relations. These practices of representation operate not only at the level of discourse but also at the cultural, political, geographical and psychological domains. It would be crucial not only to understand the long sequence of representation but also to understand the material effects.
Acknowledgements
Part of the article is adopted from Author’s Doctor of Philosophy thesis to be submitted to Jawaharlal Nehru University. I thank the Faculty members of Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory, JNU and Doctoral students of the centre for their comments and suggestions during the course of the Doctoral Students’ workshops. I am especially grateful to my supervisor Dr. Mohinder Singh.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Pratt, Imperial Eyes, 4.
2. Cohn, Colonialism and Its forms of Knowledge,4.
3. Ibid,6.
4. Henri Lefebvre borrows this phrase from Erwin Panofsky in The Production of Space, 286.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. See Clifford, Writing Culture, 98.
8. Arnold, The Tropics and the Travelling Gaze,21.
9. Ibid.
10. Said, Orientalism,6.
11. Ibid, 8.
12. Ibid.
13. Marx, Capital Vol. I, 9.
14. Griselda Pollock cited in England, ‘Disciplining Subjectivity and Space’, 296.
15. Mannheim cited in Berger and Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality, 22.
16. Asiatic Researches, XIV. P.424 cited in Wilcox.
17. Wilcox, ‘Memoir of a Survey of Assam and the Neighboring Countries, Executed in 1825-6-7-8’ in Asiatic Researches, Vol. XVII.
18. Ibid.
19. M’Cosh, Topography of Assam,7.
20. Wallace, Tropical Nature and Other Essays.
21. Royale, Illustrations of the Botany, vol. I,15.
22. Cohn, Colonialism, 7.
23. Arnold, The Tropics, 98.
24. Butler, Travels in Assam.
25. ibid, 5.
26. Ibid.
27. Sevcenko Cited in Martins, ‘A Naturalists Version of the Tropics’, 20.
28. Rennell, Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan, 346.
29. Butler, Travels in Assam, 9.
30. Gregory (2001), ‘(Post) Colonialism’, 103.
31. Foucault, Power/Knowledge,75.
32. Said, Orientalism, p.21.
33. Rorty, Philosophy and Mirror of Nature, 3.
34. Lefebvre, The Production, 287.
35. Heidegger, ‘The Question Concerning Technology’, 17.
36. See Endnote 34, 288.
37. Gregory, ‘(Post)Colonialism’, 93.
38. See Endnote 31, 118.
39. Assam Secretariat Proceedings, File No. 128-138, ASA; see Kar, ‘Framing Assam’, 346.
40. Ibid.
41. Emily Eden cited in Arnold, The Tropics, 81.
42. See Endnote 23, 75.
43. ‘Acclimatization of Europeans ’, 602.
44. Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge, 32.
45. Ibid. 38.
46. Ibid.
47. Hall, ‘The West and the Rest’, 215.
48. M’Clelland, Calcutta Journal, 295.
49. Hooker, ‘Notes of a Naturalist’, Himalayan Journal, Vol. I, 6.
50. See Foucault (1970), The Order of Things.
51. Griffith, Journals of Travels.
52. Ibid.
53. Royle, Essay on the Productive, 246–47.
54. Ibid.
55. See Sangwan (2000), ‘From Gentlemen Amateurs to Professionals’, 218.
56. Royle, Essay on the Productive, 247.
57. See Endnote 23, 145.
58. Hegel Cited in Gregory, “Post(Colonialism), 89.
59. My formulation of the idea of ‘Tropicality’ owes much to Arnold, ‘India’s Place in the Tropical’, 2.
60. Ibid.5.
61. Gregory, ‘Post(Colonialism)’, 100.
62. Butler, Travels and Adventures, 4.
63. Ibid.
64. Ibid.
65. ibid.
66. Arnold, ‘India’s Place’, 7.
67. See Endnote 19, 100.
68. Ibid. p 99.
69. Semple cited in Arnold, ‘Illusory Riches’, 13.
70. Duncan cited in Gregory, ‘(Post)Colonialism’, 105.
71. Sambon, ‘Acclimatization of Europeans in Tropical Land’, 589.
72. My formulations of the debates owes to David N. Livingstone, ‘Tropical Climate and Moral Hygiene’.
73. “Acclimatization of Tropical Land-Discussions “, 599.
74. Ibid.605.
75. Ibid. 602.
76. Ibid.
77. Ibid. 604.
78. Assam Secretariat Proceedings, Revenue A, File No. 128-138, ASA.
79. Ibid. 10.
80. Twining Cited in Arnold, ‘India’s Place’, 7.
81. See Hilaly, ‘Railways and Colonialism’, For a detailed discussion on this.
82. Clark cited in Manu Goswami, Producing India, 48–9.
83. Assam secretariat Files, Revenue, File no. 2531R, Assam State Archives.
84. Hall, ‘The West and the Rest’, 188.
85. ibid.
86. Cited in ‘Colonisation of Wasteland in Assam’, Revenue A, File No. 128-138, November 1898, ASA.
87. See Jayeeta Sharma, Empires Garden.
88. Henry Cotton in Assam Secretariat Proceedings, File No. 128-138, ASA.
89. Adanson cited in Pratt, Imperial Eyes, 30.
90. Barun cited in Gregory, ‘(Post)Colonialism’, 96.
91. See Whitehead, ”John Locke and Governance”.
92. Locke cited in Whitehead, ‘John Locke and Governance’, 85.
93. Gidwani, ‘Waste and the Permanent Settlement’, 39.
94. Whitehead, ‘Locke and Governance’, 92.
95. Gidwani, 40.
96. M’ Cosh, Topography, 21–22.
97. Ibid.
98. Foreign Political Consultations, No. 106-8, NAI.
99. Assam Secretariat Files. 128-138, ASA.
100. Butler, Sketch of Assam, 35.
101. For a detailed discussion on this see Sarmah, Empires Garden.
102. Gidwani, ‘waste and Permanent Settlement’, 43.
103. Whitehead, ‘John Locke and Governance’, 92.
104. Extract from the Minute of the 3 May 1908, Assam State Archives.
105. ibid.
106. Cited in Hilaly, from ‘Naga Hills Diary’.
107. See Endnote 103, 87.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Bikash Sarma
Bikash Sarma is a Doctoral Candidate at the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and currently associated with Department of Political Science, Salesian College, Siliguri. He obtained Master of Philosophy from Sikkim Central University. His research interests broadly include nineteenth and twentieth century travel writings and geographical thoughts on Assam.