Mapping an empire : the geographical construction of British India, 1765-1843

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Bibliographic Information

Mapping an empire : the geographical construction of British India, 1765-1843

Matthew H. Edney

University of Chicago Press, 1997

  • : cloth
  • : pbk

Available at  / 32 libraries

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Note

Bibliography: p. [409]-436

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

: cloth ISBN 9780226184876

Description

In this history of the British surveys of India, focusing especially on the Great Trigonometrical Survey (GTS) understaken by the British East India Company, the author relates how imperial Britain employed modern scientific survey techniques not only to create and define the spacial inmage of its Indian empire, but also to legitimate its colonialist activities as triumphs of liberal, rational science bringing "Civilisation" to irrational, mystical and despotic Indians. The reshaping of cartographic technologies in Europe into their modern form played a key role in the use of the GTS as an instrument of British cartographic control over India. In analyzing this reconfiguration, the author undertakes a detailed critical analysis of the foundations of modern cartography.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Maps List of Tables Preface Note on East India Company Coinage Places Mentioned in the Text: Southern India and Northern India Chronology of Events and the Expansion of the East India Company Ch. 1: The Ideologies and Practices of Mapping and Imperialism Ch. 2: Observation and Representation Ch. 3: Surveying and Mapmaking Ch. 4: Structural Constraints of the East India Company's Administration Ch. 5: Cartographic Anarchy and System in Madras, 1790-1810 Ch. 6: Institutions for Mapping All of British India, 1814-23 Ch. 7: Triangulation, the Cartographic Panacea, 1825-32 Ch. 8: The Final Compromise: Triangulation and Archive, 1831-43 Ch. 9: Scientific Practice: Incorporating the Rationality of Empire Ch. 10: Cartographic Practice: Inscribing an Imperial Space Biographical Notes Notes Unpublished Primary Sources, by Archive Published Primary Sources Secondary Sources Relating to the British Surveys in India Principal Secondary Sources Index
Volume

: pbk ISBN 9780226184883

Description

In this history of the British surveys of India, focusing especially on the Great Trigonometrical Survey (GTS) undertaken by the British East India Company, the author relates how imperial Britain employed modern scientific survey techniques not only to create and define the spacial inmage of its Indian empire, but also to legitimate its colonialist activities as triumphs of liberal, rational science bringing "Civilisation" to irrational, mystical and despotic Indians. The reshaping of cartographic technologies in Europe into their modern form played a key role in the use of the GTS as an instrument of British cartographic control over India. In analyzing this reconfiguration, the author undertakes a detailed critical analysis of the foundations of modern cartography.

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