FRENCH SCHOLARS and the PREOCCUPATION with INDIA DURING the NINETEENTH CENTURY Jyoti
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ABSTRACT Title of Document: CLAIMING INDIA: FRENCH SCHOLARS AND THE PREOCCUPATION WITH INDIA DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Jyoti Mohan, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Directed By: Professor Jeffrey Herf, Department of History My dissertation examines the image of India which was created by the French academics of the nineteenth century. This image of India was distinct from the British image of India partly due to the different intellectual and political traditions in France, as well as Anglo-French national rivalry and the position of France in India as a subordinate or ‗subaltern‘ colonizer. For instance, the French image of India was marked by its reliance on the spiritual and religious aspects of India, and its antiquity and ‗Aryan‘ heritage, while the British described India primarily as a land of Oriental despotism and oppressed masses alleviated only by British colonial rule. I have examined the specifically French creation of India by French writers from the early modern to the early twentieth century to demonstrate the history of French interest in India. I have also looked at the interest of scholars in different nineteenth century disciplines like philology, anthropology, history, and religion in creating a specifically ‗French‘ image of India in terms of race, caste and Hinduism. CLAIMING INDIA: FRENCH SCHOLARS AND THE PREOCCUPATION WITH INDIA DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY by Jyoti Mohan Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2010 Advisory Committee: Professor Jeffrey Herf, Chair Professor Richard Price Associate Professor Paul S. Landau Professor Mrinalini Sinha (Pennsylvania State University) Professor Hervé Campagne © Copyright by Jyoti Mohan 2010 Dedication For my mother whose perseverance saw me through… ii Acknowledgments This enormous and time consuming project has seen more milestones of my life than I would sometimes like to remember. On the other hand, with the hindsight that historians are notorious for, I cannot imagine that this thesis would have taken the form it has today, without these milestones. For my husband who has painstakingly supported me in my often bewildering mood swings for eight years. My children, Nandika and Arjun, taught me that there are other important and fulfilling roles in life. My brother Anand was always my most exacting critic and without his interest in my dissertation, I can truly say it would never have been completed. My friend and co-conspirator since our days of graduate school, Marcy Wilson, has been around for my marriage, the birth of my two children and has constantly reminded me that it was worth finishing even when the kids enticingly beckoned for me to shelve the project indefinitely. Several people provided much intellectual sustenance- Professor Richard Price, Professor Paul Landau, Professor Jeffrey Herf, Professor Mrinalini Sinha, Professor Brett Berliner, and Professor Gyanendra Pandey. The companionship of several participants at the University of Liverpool‘s project on France- Britain-India shaped this project in important ways. In particular, the feedback of Ian Magedera and Kate Marsh was indispensible. My biggest debt of gratitude is to my mother. She put her own life on hold to become chief babysitter and housekeeper, leaving me free to do research. More importantly, her emotional support and desire to see me finish kept me from quitting during my most depressing and lonely periods. Thank you amma. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ........................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ................................................................................................................... vii Prologue: The History of Britain and France in India…………………………………….1 Introduction: Why a French image of India?.....................................................................22 The ‗Oriental Renaissance‘ and the place of India…………………………........27 ‗Orientalism‘ and India…………………………………………………………..31 Themes……………………………………………………………………….......36 A note on terminology…………………………………………………...………41 Chapter 1: India: A land of wonders or of monstrosities? The writings of missionaries. .45 Background………………………………………………………………………46 The Muslim Enemy………………………………………………………………51 The Origin of the Indian Religion………………………………………………..58 The effects of ‗civilization‘………………………………………………………62 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….77 Chapter 2: The ‗sublime‘ civilization of India: The pre-occupation of philosophes .........80 Enlightenment India- a shift from Ecclesiastical writing………………………..81 Montesquieu and the notion of the ‗Oriental Despot‘…………………………...85 Voltaire and the Vedam………………………………………………………….92 Montesquieu and Voltaire redux………………………………………………..103 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...108 Chapter 3: The Business of Serious Academics: Indology and the Study of India. ........114 An ancient civilization: searching for Sanskrit…………………………………115 Here to Stay: A Parisian Monopoly…………………………………………….130 A changing tide: the end of romanticism ………………………………………137 Chapter 4: The Era of Empiricism and the rise of Philology ...........................................147 The new Philology……………………………………………………………...150 Buddhism and its Indian Origin………………………………………………...154 Tassy and the study of Indian Islam……………………………………………157 Scholars have practical considerations too……………………………………..164 British preoccupations………………………………………………………….172 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...179 Chapter 5: The Glory of Ancient India Stems from her Aryan Blood: The development of ‗scientific Anthropology‘ in relation to India ..................................................................186 The Study of Man………………………………………………………………188 Topinard and the anthropometric method………………………………………195 Gobineau and Race……………………………………………………………..203 Le Bon and India……………………………………………………………….207 British and Aryan India…………………………………………………………221 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...…223 iv Chapter 6: Recasting India in French Indology: Hinduism and the Caste system..........237 Caste and the ‗racialization‘ of India…………………………………………...240 Caste and Race………………………………………………………………….254 Barth and the ‗Hinduization‘ of India…………………………………………..258 The British and the uses of caste………………………………………………..271 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...283 Chapter 7: Writing histories, creating ‗India‘ ..................................................................288 Duruy and Aryanism……………………………………………………………292 Anglo-French colonial rivalry…………………………………………………..309 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...329 Chapter 8: Imperial showcase: the visual presentation of ‗India‘ ....................................335 Conclusion: Was India really ‗French‘? ..........................................................................372 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................378 Bibliographic Aids……………………………………………………………...378 Journals and Newspapers……………………………………………………….379 Primary Sources………………………………………………………………...380 Secondary Sources……………………………………………………………...395 v List of Tables Table 1: List of articles about India in the Magazin Encyclopédique ou Journal des sciences, des lettres et des arts, 1795-96……………………………........145 Table 2: List of articles about India, 1803- 1805 in the Journal des Débats et des Décrets…………………………………………………………………………..146 Table 3: Distribution of articles on India by topic: Journal des Savants, 1817-99……182 Table 4: Graph of articles on India by topic: Journal des Savants, 1817-99…………..183 Table 5: Table of articles on India by topic: Journal Asiatique, 1822- 1902…………..184 Table 6: Graph of articles on India by topic: Journal Asiatique, 1822- 1902………….185 Table 7: Table of articles on India by topic: Revue des Deux Mondes, 1829- 1900…...186 Table 8: Comparison of article content among articles on India Journal Asiatique, 1822- 1902………………………………………………………….226 Table 9: Comparative graph of article content among articles on India Journal Asiatique, 1822-1902…………………………………………………………227 Table 10: Comparison of article content among articles on India in the Bulletins de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris, 1822- 1902…………………………228 Table 11: Comparative graph of article content among articles on India in the Bulletins de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris, 1822- 1902………………………....228 Table 12: Comparison of article content among articles on India in the Journal Asiatique, Revue d‟Ethnographie, Revue d‟Anthropologie and Bulletins de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris, 1860-1900…………………………………………..229 Table 13: Comparative graph of article content among articles on India in the Journal Asiatique, Revue d‟Ethnographie, Revue d‟Anthropologie and Bulletins de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris, 1860- 1900………………………………………………….229 vi List of Figures Figure 1: Map of Franco-British military rivalry, 1740- 61……………………………..21 Figure 2: Postcard of French India posts………………………………………………..44 Figure 3: Types of inhabitant of Pondichéry in 1832…………………………………..231 Figure 4: Bayadère……………………………………………………………………...232 Figure 5: Jeweler………………………………………………………………………..233