Agriculture as knowledge: delegitimising ‘informal’ knowledge through colonial pedagogy in Bihar, 1880–1930

Abstract

ABSTRACT Agricultural improvement was a vital aspect of the ‘development scheme’ of the British Government in India as agriculture was the most revenue-generating industry in Bihar. From the first Famine Commission Report of 1880, there was a set agenda to improve agriculture through education. This was to be achieved through importing western science and technology by establishing premium institutes and a range of experiment stations. In this process, the British tried to juxtapose western lab-based knowledge over the time-tested local knowledge based on observation. This article attempts to locate agriculture as knowledge and how informal knowledge was proscribed by the British. It tries to unfurl the hitherto unquestioned links between agriculture, knowledge and the rural people. As knowledge encompasses power configurations, this article also aims to unravel the intellectual power and moral hegemony promoted by colonial pedagogy to subjugate the Indian people because they were employing a different knowledge system.