University of Alberta European Representations and Information Technologies in Early Nineteenth'Century India by Khyati Nagar © A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Humanities Computing Edmonton, Alberta Spring 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-54617-8 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-54617-8 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Nnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada Dedication To the spirit of India and my parents Abstract The goal of this Masters thesis is to achieve a fuller account of the Bengal Renaissance by looking at both the role that early nineteenth-century media technologies played in precipitating Indian ideas of westernization and nationalism as well as the ways in which these media technologies represented India in art. In the early nineteenth century, the introduction and use of textual and visual media technologies sowed the seeds of the Bengal Renaissance. By examining the textual media technologies employed by the Serampore Mission Press I show that Carey's press was an important factor in the emergence of the Bengal Renaissance. In studying the aquatints of Thomas and William Daniell and Balthazar Solvyns I show that visual media technologies worked with textual media technologies in bringing about social change and intellectual awakening in Bengali artists. In the research presented here, Heidegger's seminal essay, 'The Question Concerning Technology', provides a bridge between the past and the present, as well as between art and technology. Acknowledgements There are many people I would like to thank, for they have supported my thesis writing in various ways. First of all I would like to thank my HuCo Professor and supervisor Dr. Harvey Quamen for introducing me to new ideas in technology, for numerous suggestions and comments that he took the time to make, for his guidance and the direction he helped me find. I would also like to thank my committee members Dr. Stephen Slemon and Dr. Sean Gouglas. Thanks to my family for their unending support and enthusiasm toward all my creative and academic endeavors. Had it not been for my parents, Usha and Vinod Nagar, my sister Swati, and my son Aranya's happy aura, I would have never come back to school. They are my pillars of strength. I would like to thank Dr. Maureen Engel, Dr. Grace Wiebe and Lois Burton at ARC for giving me the opportunity to work on my thesis while working there and creating many inspiring opportunities for me to keep my creativity alive. Thanks to Professor Patricia Demers for reminding me to focus on my research constantly. Thanks to Janey Kennedy at the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies for all her help and kindness. Thanks also to Dr. Geoffrey Rockwell for all his help. Last but not the least, thanks to my friends— Laurie, Mustafa, Rhiannon, Doug, Debbie, Nicole and Stefan for opening their hearts and homes to me and my son — we would not have survived the long Edmonton winters without them. Table of Contents CHAPTER l: TEXTUAL AND VISUAL MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN EARLY NINETEENTH-CENTURY INDIA ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED. Heidegger and the Question Concerning Technology 6 A Brief Overview of Politics and Policies from 1756 tol850 10 CHAPTER 2: TEXTUAL TECHNOLOGIES AND THE SEEDS OF THE BENGAL RENAISSANCE ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED. Fort William College, Asiatic Society of Bengal, Orientalist Scholars and the Serampore Mission Press 23 Mahratta Dictionary 31 Hortus Bengalensis 38 Digdarshan and Samachar Darpan 45 The Serampore Mission Press as an Agent of Change 52 CHAPTER 3: VISUAL MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES AND THE SHAPING OF THE BENGAL RENAISSANCE IN ART ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED. Brief Biographical Sketches of Thomas and William Daniell and Balthazar Solvyns 55 Comparing Techniques and Subjects 57 Defining the Picturesque 60 Images, Travels and Interpretation 61 Representation in Poiesis 92 CHAPTER 4: THE BENGAL RENAISSANCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN EARLY NINETEENTH-CENTURY INDIA 95 End of the Bengal Renaissance and its Place in Modern India 100 Works Cited 102 Table of Figures: 1) Map of India from 1904 21 2) Title page from the Mahratta Dictionary 32 3) Page from Hortus Bengalensis 42 4) View of Old Court House Street 67 5) Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba 69 6) Calcutta from the River Hoogly 72 7) The Sacred Tree at Gyah 75 8) Gary 82 9) Bullock Cart in Dadar Mumbai 84 10) MahabharuterSobha 87 11) Maulys 90 12) Roadside Flower Stall 91 European Representations and Information Technologies in Early Nineteenth—Century India Chapter 1- Textual and Visual Media Technologies in Early Nineteenth-Century India My goal in this thesis is to achieve a fuller account of the Bengal Renaissance by looking at both the role that early nineteenth-century media technologies played in precipitating Indian ideas of westernization and nationalism as well as the ways in which these media technologies represented India in art. In the early nineteenth century, the introduction and use of textual and visual media technologies sowed the seeds of the Bengal Renaissance. By examining the textual media technologies employed by the Serampore Mission Press it will be shown that Carey's press was an important factor in the emergence of the Bengal Renaissance. In studying the aquatints of Thomas and William Daniell and Balthazar Solvyns it can be shown that visual media technologies worked with textual media technologies in bringing about social change and intellectual awakening in Bengali artists. Why is the study of these information technologies in India, especially those of two hundred years ago, important? The Bengal Renaissance in India has been compared by prominent scholars such as David Knopf to the Renaissance in Europe. The Bengal Renaissance started with Raja Ram 1 Mohan Roy (1775-1833) and ended with Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). The ideals of the Bengal Renaissance shaped Indian society through a crucial period of almost one hundred and fifty years under British rule, and then with its close saw the departure of the British and the emergence of a self- governing Indian nation. Modern India owes much to the Bengal Renaissance activists and artists in the birth of modern India, and the way they took European influences and made them Indian. The new "intellectual knowledge of European ideas, especially philosophy, history, science and literature affected the minds and lives of Indians radically" (Samanta l). Though it is by no means certain when the term renaissance was first used in nineteenth-century Calcutta, Rammohan Roy referred to recent events in Bengal as being analogous to the European Renaissance and Reformation...The Bengali novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterji (1838-1894) frequently employed the word renaissance either in context of a revitalized Bengali language or literature or as the modern reinterpretation of the Hindu tradition. (Knopf 3) Ram Mohan Roy is recognized as the father of the renaissance in Bengal. He recognized that social reform was the only way to unshackle the Indian mind from the ideas of caste systems, untouchability, and extreme religious rites and ceremonies. Among other things it was Carey's press that gave Roy the zeal and a platform to engage in a nationalist dialogue. "The scholar missionary, Reverend William Carey, first in association with the earliest Bengali Press at his Serampore Mission, and later as a teacher of Bengali at 2 the Fort William College, had a critical role to play in the shaping of the Bengali language, between 1800 and 1836" {Power in Print 49). Carey's Evangelical agenda was also successful in questioning Hinduism in a way that Roy found it necessary to reinvent Hinduism. He was a proud Hindu who saw that without education and the fundamental knowledge of modern sciences Indians could not participate in the social transition from the medieval to the modern (Samanta 3). Without William Carey's press and the technology of language in promoting Carey's ideological agenda there would have been no medium for Ram Mohan Roy to form his nationalist ideas.