Unearthing the Past to Forge the Future

Download or read book Unearthing the Past to Forge the Future written by Tobias Wolffhardt and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2017-10-01 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.