The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts TERRITORIAL SELF-FASHIONING: PLACE-MAKING IN LATE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY COLONIAL INDIA A Dissertation in History by Aryendra Chakravartty © 2013 Aryendra Chakravartty Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2013 The dissertation of Aryendra Chakravartty was reviewed and approved* by the following: David Atwill Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies Director of Graduate Studies Dissertation Adviser Chair of Committee Joan B. Landes Ferree Professor of Early Modern History & Women’s Studies Michael Kulikowski Professor of History and Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies Head, Department of History Madhuri Desai Associate Professor of Art History and Asian Studies Mrinalini Sinha Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of History Special Member University of Michigan, Ann Arbor * Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. ii Abstract My project, Territorial Self-Fashioning: “Place-Making” in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Colonial India, focuses on the province of Bihar and the emergence of a specifically place-based Bihari regional identity. For the provincial literati, emphasizing Bihar as an “organic” entity cultivated a sense of common belonging that was remarkably novel for the period, particularly because it implied that an administrative region had transformed into a cohesive cultural unit. The transformation is particularly revealing because the claims to a “natural” Bihar was not based upon a distinctive language, ethnicity or religion. Instead this regional assertion was partially instigated by British colonial politics and in part shaped by an emergent Indian national imagination. The emergence of a place-based Bihari identity therefore can only be explained by situating it in the context of 19th century colonial politics and nationalist sentiments. Indian national imagination is so integral to the construction of an “organic” Bihar, that without it not only does the region emerge fragmented, but it also becomes a landscape of contradictions. Bihar, situated on the eastern end of the Gangetic plain, often appears as two distinct cultural landscapes divided by the river, with Mithila in the north and Magadha to the south. Today, Bihar has become little less than a metonym for crime- infested anarchy where poverty and economic backwardness prevail. The idea of Bihar acquires cache only in the context of an Indian national imagination wherein it is accorded an originary national status. Indian national history embraces Bihar as the fount of India’s “glorious” national past as home to the ancient Mauryan and Gupta Empires and the birthplace of Buddhism. The Bihari literati adopted precisely these cultural markers, integral to a generic conception of Indian national identity, as the basis for a “Bihariness”. The conception of a Bihari regional identity, therefore, was coeval with that of the emergence of an Indian nationalist imagination. The formation of a distinctively regional identity, in this instance of territorial self-fashioning, was not in opposition to colonial politics or nationalist sentiments; rather it was the unmistakable product of 19th century colonial and national imaginings. iii Dedicated to The Memory of Prof. Kumkum Chatterjee She remains an integral part of this dissertation. iv Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements vi Introduction 1 Chapter 1: The Emergence of Bihar: Bihari Middle Class and the Making of a Province 21 Chapter 2: Making of a Vernacular: Colonial Policies, Print Culture and Hindi in 19th century Bihar 64 Chapter 3: Discovery of Ancient Bihar: Archeology and the Emergence of a Regional Territorial Space 103 Chapter 4: Territorial Self-Fashioning and the Past: Institutions, Artifacts and History-Writing 164 Chapter 5: Articulating Mithila: Interrogating the Existence of a ‘Genuinely’ Bihari Culture 221 Conclusion 281 Appendix 286 Bibliography 291 21 v Acknowledgements As I write to acknowledge the debt incurred in completing this dissertation, I am constantly reminded of Prof. Kumkum Chatterjee, my mentor and advisor, whose life was so cruelly cut short while I was at the final stages of completing my work. This dissertation could not have been conceived without her support and guidance. Although she is no longer with us, I hope this work can serve as a tribute to her memory and stand up to the rigorous standard that she always demanded of her students. Professor Mrininali Sinha has always been a source of immense support and guidance. Her probing questions and intellectual challenges were central to framing crucial aspects of this work. I am indebted to her for her steady support during the final stages of the dissertation, which kept me on track to complete this work. Professor Joan Landes has not only helped me look beyond South Asia but also to make this work more widely relevant. This dissertation would not have been the same without Prof. Madhuri Desai’s guidance in helping me better understand colonial archaeology and art history. I am thankful to Prof. Michael Kulikowski, who very kindly agreed to be a part of this project. Finally, I would like to thank Prof. David Atwill for having remained an extremely supportive and kind mentor throughout my graduate career. My graduate experience has only enriched further through our regular conversations. I am immensely thankful to have had such a great committee. I have been extremely fortunate to have received much needed funding at every crucial stage of this project. Several grants from the Department of History and the College of Liberal Arts at Pennsylvania State University helped me not only develop my project but also enabled me to travel to the archives and complete my work. My research travels took me to several libraries and archives in India. In Kolkata much of my research work was conducted at the West Bengal State Archives and the Newspaper Reading Room of the National Library. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff at both these places, and in particular I would like to thank Bidisha-di and Sumit-da at the archives and Partha-da at the Esplanade reading room. My research work in Patna and Darbhanga would not have been possible without the guidance and support of Prof. Hetukar Jha. He has not only been a source for extremely rare documents crucial to my research, but our many conversations were equally enriching and provided me an added reason to study Bihar. I would also like to thank the staff at Kalyani Foundation, Darbhanga who made my stay there very pleasant. In Patna, Prof. Surendra Gopal was always very welcoming and would eagerly share his immense knowledge of modern Patna and Bihar. I am thankful to Dr. Umesh Chandra Dwivedi of the Patna Museum who made his office and the museum extremely accessible to me. I would like to thank the staff at the Bihar State Archives, who would go out of their way to provide me with much needed documents. In New Delhi, I would like to thank the staff at the National Archives and the Nehru Memorial Museum. Throughout these years of research and writing, my parents have been a source of unshakable support and encouragement. Baba and Ma were the first to instill in me the value of education and have always shown a very eager interest in my work. I hope the culmination of this work, in a very small way, makes up for the sacrifice they have made vi in seeing their younger son grow up and live continents away. I would also like to thank Dada and Boudi, who have always been there for me when I needed them the most. My in-laws joined in to share the travails of this project at a very crucial stage. They have not only added in their enthusiastic support but have also made Kolkata another home for me. Finally, I would like to thank Suparna. Without her this project would have been a very solitary affair. She has not only been extremely supportive of my work but has also been my strongest critic. She has always cheered me on when my confidence was flagging and has been my most important reason to finish. vii Introduction On March 22, 2010, ninety-eight years following its separation from Bengal, the state of Bihar for the first time dedicated a day commemorating and celebrating Bihar’s separation from Bengal. Since then, March 22 has been celebrated as “Bihar Divas” (Bihar Day). The initiative for this came from the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, who hoped that such an event would help Biharis “celebrate [their] glorious past and gear [them] up to revive it.”1 Over the past three years, the annual Bihar Diwas has become a public platform for Bihar to highlight “the glorious history of the state, its cultural and historical heritage, traditions and achievements” and is celebrated amidst elaborate cultural festivals held at Patna as well as throughout the state.2 As the Bihari state continued with its project of refashioning itself with the aim of overcoming the stereotypical and widely prevalent characterizations of it as one of India’s most backward, lawless and poverty-stricken regions, the centenary celebrations of 2012, provided the state with the opportunity to highlight and commemorate the region’s rich past. The current plans for constructing in Patna, he state capital, a Civilization Gate (Sabhyata Dwar) which, as the proposal claims, will be much like New Delhi’s India Gate and Mumbai’s Gateway of India, is one such monumental project celebrating 1 “Bihar Diwas Marks Public Holiday in Bihar,” Bihar Prabha, March 22, 2012. http://news.biharprabha.com/2012/03/bihar-diwas-marks-public-holiday-in-bihar/; accessed on March 15, 2013. 2 “Bihar Diwas Functions from Today,” Times of India, March 22, 2010.