Colonial textbooks and national consciousness in British India

Abstract

ABSTRACT A geophysical perception of the ecumene had always existed in the consciousness of Indians even in precolonial days. But with the advent of the British, and with the establishment of territorial mapping and institutionalised education, there was a growing awareness of differences and similarities related to ethnicity, race and space. Colonial schools and education played a critical role in developing a sense of belongingness to a shared space. As Bengal was the hub for colonial administration as well as for dissemination of education, a look at history and geography textbooks, in both English and Bengali, highlights how the Bengali educated class negotiated this construction of knowledge. The article analyses the production of knowledge as a complex imagining of a ‘national’ space that refashioned and forged intricate geopolitical consciousness, which then went on to have vital implications for the future conception of nation-state in India.