Unearthing the Past to Forge the Future : : Colin Mackenzie, the Early Colonial State, and the Comprehensive Survey of India / / Tobias Wolffhardt.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2017
• VerfasserIn: Wolffhardt, Tobias,
• Place / Publishing House: New York ;, Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2017]; ©2017
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in British and Imperial History ; 6
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (356 p.)

For much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the British East India Company consolidated its rule over India, evolving from a trading venture to a colonial administrative force. Yet its territorial gains far outpaced its understanding of the region and the people who lived there, and its desperate efforts to gain knowledge of the area led to the 1815 appointment of army officer Colin Mackenzie as the first Surveyor General of India. This volume carefully reconstructs the life and career of Mackenzie, showing how the massive survey of India that he undertook became one of the most spectacular and wide-ranging knowledge production initiatives in British colonial history.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- A Note on the Text and Sources -- List of Abbreviations -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Scottish Experiences -- Chapter 2. Building an East Indian Career -- Chapter 3. On the Route: From Military Imperatives to the Tasks of Government -- Chapter 4. Mackenzie’s Survey -- Chapter 5. Mapping History, Producing Territory -- Chapter 6. Knowledge for the Future -- Chapter 7. The Past in the Present -- Chapter 8. The Surveyor General -- Epilogue -- Bibliography -- Index