English in the Colonial University and the Politics of Language: The
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English in the Colonial University and the Politics of Language: the Emergence of a Public Sphere in Western India (1830-1880) Veena Naregal School of Oriental and African Studies Thesis submitted for the Ph.D. degree ProQuest Number: 10673203 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10673203 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ABSTRACT The introduction of English as ‘high’ language and the designs to re-shape the ‘native vernaculars’ under its influence through colonial educational policy altered the universe of communicative and cultural practices on the sub-continent. Colonial bilingualism also introduced hierachical and ideological divisions between the newly-educated and ‘illiterate’, ‘English- knowing’ and ‘vernacular-speaking’ sections of native society. On the basis of an analysis of the possibilities for a laicised literate order opened up through the severely elitist project of colonial education, the thesis proposes an argument about the structural links between these crucial cultural shifts and the strategies adopted by the colonial intelligentsia in western India to achieve a hegemonic position. The main argument of my thesis is set against a discussion of the relations between linguistic hierarchies, textual practices and power in pre-colonial western India. My thesis is a study of the bilingual relation between English and Marathi and it traces the hierarchical relation between the English and vernacular spheres in the Bombay-Pune region between 1830-1880. The initiatives to establish the first native Marathi newspaper, the Bombay Durpan. a bilingual weekly, in 1832 signified the beginning of the intelligentsia’s efforts to disseminate the new discourses among wider audiences and to establish a sphere of critical exchange through the vernacular. Later attempts, from the 1860s onwards, to aestheticise vernacular discourse by creating ‘high’ ’modern’ literary forms were undoubtedly important in enhancing the intelligentsia’s hegemonic claims, but they also corresponded with crucial shifts in their self-perception and their ideological orientation. The emergence of Kesari and the Maratha in early 1881 indicated that the bilingual relation that structured the colonial-modern public sphere had, by this time, yielded two separate, largely monolingual literate communities within native society. Concomitantly, by the early 1880s, the upper-caste intelligentsia had renounced even the minimal scope that had existed for them to act as agents for a more egalitarian cultural and social order. In analysing the conditions under which the colonial intelligentsia in western India were able to achieve a position of ideological influence, the thesis also aims to raise questions about the displacement of the meanings and spaces for hegemonic articulation within colonial modernity. Contents Acknowledgements. 1 Introduction. 3 Chapter 1. Language and Power in Pre-colonial Western India. 7-38 Introduction 7 Beginnings of Marathi Textuaiity 13 Literate and Literary Practices in the Peshwa period 18 Colonialism, Comparative Philology and Re-making the Politics of Language 25 Conclusion 37 Chapter 2. Colonial Education and Problems of the Laicisation of Knowledge : Re-making Cultural Hierarchies and Modes of Contestation. 39-77 introduction 39 Colonial Education, Extending Modernity and the Possibility of a Public Sphere 41 Extending the Colonial Public Sphere : Laicisation and the Possibility of a Caste Alliance in Pre-1857 Western India 58 Low-caste Associations and Negotiation of the Colonial Public Domain 71 Chapter 3. Colonial Education and the Cultivation of English and Marathi: Hierarchies of Language and the Emerging Political Structure. 78-113 Introduction 78 Bilingualism, Translation and Colonial Literacy 83 English and Laicisation in the Vernaculars : a Colonial ‘Renaissance'? 88 Translation and the 'Diffusion of Knowledge’ : the Emergence of a Native Vernacular Discourse 98 The Emergence of Bombay University : instituting Colonial Bilingualism as Social Hierarchy 108 Chapter 4. Colonial Power, Print and the Re-making of the Literate Sphere. 114-155 Colonial Power, Print and Publicity 114 The Beginnings of Print and the Making of New Languages 125 Of Pandits , Shastris and the Making of Early Marathi Print Culture in Bombay 131 Re-inventing the Public Terrain : the Early Marathi Press and Establishing a Critical Vernacular Sphere 147 Chapter 5: Bilingualism, hegemony and the ‘swing to orthodoxy’ : the shaping of the political sphere (1860 - 1881). 156-205 Introduction 156 Colonial Bilingualism and Questions of Hegemony : the Post-1857 Native Press 162 Colonial Bilingualism and Political Associations 182 Aestheticization and Intolerance in the Vernacular Sphere Ideological Consolidation : Chiplunkar’s Nibandhmaia 196 Glossary i-iv Bibliography v-xii Acknowledgements I have had to draw on the generous support of many persons in completing this work. It is with deep gratitude that I recount all the help I have received and it is not an easy task to translate my appreciation into a neat list of acknowledgements. Foremost among all the people who have helped me complete this study, I owe thanks for the guidance I have received from Sudipta Kaviraj, my research adviser. Working with him has been a rich and rewarding learning experience. His perspicacity and encouragement have been utterly and especially valuable in the writing of the thesis. I owe a special debt to Homi Bhabha for the very generous support he has shown towards my work. His comments on an eariy draft provided me with inspiration at a crucial point in the writing process. I would also like to thank Ram Bapat for being so magnanimous with his time, books and ideas, and I have benefited greatly from his very deep understanding of the cultural and political history of western India. As adjunct supervisor, Dr. David Taylor read my drafts minutely and with great thoroughness and his comments have helped me sharpen some of the comparative points my study makes about the development of modernity in South Asia and Europe. I thank Sheldon Pollock for allowing me to read his unpublished work on the literary history of Sanskrit as part of the NEH research project on South Asian literary cultures. I would also like to thank both Sheldon Pollock and Homi Bhabha for making it possible for me to present my work to the South Asia Department at the University of Chicago earlier this year. The feedback I received there has been very important in shaping my arguments. My work at SOAS and stay in London was made possible by a grant from the Felix Trust. I would also like to thank the Charles Wallace Trust and the Leche Trust for providing additional support during the crucial writing-up stage. A number of my friends and colleagues at the School of Oriental and African Studies have read and provided very supportive comments on draft chapters. Among these, special thanks are due to Prathama Bannerjee for her critical and insightful reading of my drafts. John Game and Rashmi Sadana also offered themselves as ‘readers’ in the early stages of writing. Francesca Orsini has also been a warm and relentless critic as I made my way through successive drafts. I would like to thank Dr. Milind Malshe at the Department of Humanities, I.I.T., Bombay for his encouragement and support to the project in its early stages. My research provided me the opportunity to discuss my ideas with a number of people in Kolhapur, Pune and Bombay. Many of them know a great deal more about the region than I do, and I would like to thank 1 them for sharing their enthusiasm and information with me. I have learnt a great deal from my discussions with Prof. A. R. Kulkarni, Baba Adhav, Dr. Sadanand More, Dr. Vora, Ashok Kelkar, Y.D. Phadke, Sitaram Raikar and Vasant Moon. I would also like to thank Dr. Sujata Patel for her comments on some of my drafts and her probing questions. This work would have been impossible without the help and support of various libraries in London, Edinburgh and in India. I would like to thank the India Office Library for its incredibly efficient service and its staff for help in locating materials. My deep gratitude to Shailaja Jadhav and Nilkanth Gurav at the Shivaji University Library, Kolhapur; Malvika and Mrs. Potdar at the Bombay University Library; the Director and staff at the Bombay Archives and the staff of the Bombay Asiatic Society Library. My work in the Fergusson and Deccan College libraries in Pune would not have been possible without the cheerful assistance of the staff at these places. My special thanks to Mr. Phansalkar of the Tilak Smarak Mandir and Suneela Jani of the V.J.T.I. library for giving me special access to the microfilm-reading equipment at these two institutions respectively. Chris Gutkind has been a good friend through our stay in London, helping to alleviate anxiety at times when progress was slow. Thanks also to Rajiv for his friendly help in lightening the load of printing. Special thanks to Eddie Rodrigues, Vrijendra, Gita and Sridhar, my friends in Bombay, who have provided much animated discussion over the years and significant help in acquiring materials for this project. I would like to thank Anil and Ashwini for providing warm hopsitality and cheerful company during my stay in Pune. And last but not the least, my family has been a source of strength to sustain my motivation through this work.