Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T23:18:21.078Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mapping a Colonial Borderland: Objectifying the Geo-Body of India's Northeast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2011

David Vumlallian Zou  and
M. Satish Kumar
Get access

Abstract

India's Northeast frontier is at the margins of three study areas: South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. This paper attempts a history of “mapping” in its broader sense as a cultural universal over a relatively long period. It is not a history of cartography, but focuses on the interface between cartography and cosmography, which were, in turn, shaped by imperial power and geographical knowledge. This approach offers a high-altitude view of this Asian borderland as the imperial frontier of both the Mughals and the British, and the national fringe of Republican India. The authors argue that imperial geographical discourses invested the colonial Northeast (British Assam) with a new kind of territorial identity. Surveyors and mapmakers objectified the “geo-body” of this borderland in a spatial fix and visualized it as a Northeast-on-the-map. Cartographic territoriality naturalized traditional frontiers into colonial borderlands, which, in turn, forged national boundaries.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 70 , Issue 1 , February 2011 , pp. 141 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Adelman, Jeremy, and Aron, Stephen. 1999. “From Borderlands to Borders: Empires, Nation-States, and the Peoples in between in North American History.” American Historical Review 104 (3): 814–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ahmad, Aijazuddin. 1999. Social Geography. Jaipur: Rawat Publications.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Rev. ed. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Appadurai, Arjun. 1990. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.” Public Culture 2 (2): 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barua, Hem. 1991. The Red River and the Blue Hill. Guwahati: Lawyer's Book Stall.Google Scholar
Barua, Rai Sahib Golap Chandra, ed. 1930. Ahom Buranji: From the Earliest to the End of Ahom Rule. Repr., Guwahati: Spectrum Publications, 1985.Google Scholar
Bayly, C. A. 1999. Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780 – 1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Becker, C. 1923. Early History of the Catholic Missions in Northeast India (1598–1890). Trans. Leicht, F. and Karotemprel, S.. Calcutta: Firma KLM, 1989.Google Scholar
Bhadra, Gautam. 1999. “Two Frontier Uprisings in Mughal India.” In Subaltern Studies II: Writings on South Asian History and Society, ed. Guha, Ranajit, 43–59. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bhagwati, Jagdish. 2004. In Defense of Globalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bhattacharyya, Sudhindra Nath. 1994. A History of Mughal North-East Frontier Policy: Being a Study of the Political Relation of the Mughal Empire with Koch Bihar, Kamrup and Assam. Calcutta: Punthi-Pustak.Google Scholar
Black, Charles E. D. 1891. A Memoir of the Indian Surveys, 1875 –1890. London: Secretary of State for India in Council, India Office Records.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaut, James M., Stea, David, Spencer, Christopher, and Blades, Mark. 2003. “Mapping as a Cultural and Cognitive Universal.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 93 (1): 165–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
C. E. A. W. O. 1927. “A History of Assam (Book Review).” Geographical Journal 69 (3): 271–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. W. 1911. Ao-Naga Dictionary. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Mary Mead. 1907. A Corner in India. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society.Google Scholar
Cohn, Bernard S. 1987. “The Census, Social Structure and Objectification in South Asia.” In An Anthropologist among the Historians and Other Essays, by Cohen, Bernard S., 224–54. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dena, Lal. 1988. Christian Missions and Colonialism: A Study of the Missionary Movement in Northeast India with Particular Reference to Manipur and Lushai Hills, 1894–1947. Shillong: Vendrame Institute.Google Scholar
Dennis, Richard. 1991. “History, Geography, and Historical Geography.” Social Science History 15 (2): 265–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Digby, Simon. 1973. “The Bhugola of Ksema Karna: A Dated Sixteenth Century Piece of Indian Metalware.” Art and Archaeological Research Papers 4:10–31.Google Scholar
Dirks, Nicholas. 1996. Foreword to Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge, by Cohen, Bernard S.. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dutta, S. C. 1984. The Northeast and the Mughals, 1661–1714. Delhi: D. K. Publications.Google Scholar
Edney, Matthew H. 1999. Mapping an Empire: The Geographical Construction of British India, 1765–1843. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gait, Edward A. 1897. Report on the Progress of Historical Research in Assam. Shillong: Assam Secretariat Printing Office.Google Scholar
Gait, Edward A.. 1926. A History of Assam. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co.Google Scholar
Galbraith, John S. 1960. “The ‘Turbulent Frontier’ as a Factor in British Expansion.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 2 (2): 150–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gangadharan, Surya. 2006. “China Dams Brahmaputra, India Upset.” CCN-IBN News, October 23. http://www.ibnlive.com/news/china-dams-brahmaputra-india-upset/24570-3.html [accessed November 4, 2010].Google Scholar
Gole, Susan. 1989. Indian Maps and Plans: From Earliest Times to the Advent of European Surveys. New Delhi: Manohar.Google Scholar
Guha, Ramachandra. 1996. “Savaging the Civilised: Verrier Elwin and the Tribal Question in Late Colonial India.” Economic and Political Weekly 31 (35–37), Special Number (September): 2375–80, 2382–83, 2385–89.Google Scholar
Gupta, Karunakar. 1971. “The McMahon Line 1911–45: The British Legacy.” China Quarterly, no. 47:521–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harley, J. B. 1989. “Historical Geography and the Cartographic Illusion.” Journal of Historical Geography 15 (1): 80–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harley, J. B., and Woodward, David, eds. 1987. The History of Cartography. Vol. 1, Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Helgerson, Richard. 1986. “The Land Speaks: Cartography, Chorography, and Subversion in Renaissance England.” Representations 16:51–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kakati, Banikanta. 1948. “The Mother Goddess Kamakhya.” Triveni—An Organ of the Triveni Foundation, March.Google Scholar
Kakoty, Sanjeeb. 2005. “Meghalaya-Sylhet: A Border without History or Logic.” Himal Southasian 18 (3). http://www.himalmag.com/read.php?id=1255 [accessed November 4, 2010].Google Scholar
Karim, Abdul. 1995. History of Bengal, Mughal Period, II. Rajshahi: Institute of Bangladesh Studies, University of Rajshahi.Google Scholar
Kaviraj, Sudipta, ed. 1997. Politics in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kejariwal, O. P. 1987. “The Indian History Congress and Historical Research in Northeast India.” In Proceedings of the North-East History Association, 33–81. Kohima: North-East India History Association.Google Scholar
Kirk, W. 1962. “The Inner Asian Frontier of India.” Transactions and Papers (Institute of British Geographers), no. 31:131–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kumar, M. Satish. 2004. “Henry Yule (1820–89).” In Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Scientists, ed. Lightman, Bernard, 2224–29. London: Thoemmes Continuum.Google Scholar
Kumar, M. Satish. 2006. “The Census and Women's Work in Rangoon, 1872–1931.” Journal of Historical Geography 32 (2): 377–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamb, Alastair. 1966. The McMahon Line: A Study in the Relations between India, China, and Tibet, 1904–1914. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Leach, E. R. 1960. “The Frontiers of ‘Burma.’” Comparative Studies in Society and History 3 (1): 49–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Livingstone, David N. 1994. The Geographical Tradition: Episodes in the History of a Contested Enterprise. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ludden, David. 2003. “Presidential Address: Maps in the Mind and the Mobility of Asia.” Journal of Asian Studies 62 (4): 1057–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ludden, David. 2005. “Where Is Assam?” Himal Southasian 18 (3). http://www.himalmag.com/read.php?id=1240 [accessed November 4, 2010].Google Scholar
Maaker, Erik De, and Joshi, Vibha. 2007. “Introduction: The Northeast and Beyond: Region and Culture.” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, n.s., 30 (3): 381–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackenzie, Alexander. 1884. History of the Relations of the Government with the Hill Tracts of the North-East Frontier of Bengal. Calcutta: Home Department Press.Google Scholar
Mehra, Parshotam. 1972. “A Forgotten Chapter in History of the Northeast Frontier: 1914–36.” Journal of Asian Studies 31 (2): 299–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehra, Parshotam. 2007. Essays in Frontier History: India, China and the Disputed Border. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mitchell, St. John F. 1883. The North-Eastern Frontier of India: A Topographical, Political and Military Report. Repr., Calcutta: Vivek Publishing House, 1973.Google Scholar
Misra, Sanghamitra. 2005. “Changing Frontier and Spaces: The Colonial State in Nineteenth-Century Goalpara.” Studies in History, n.s., 21 (2): 215–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mullan, C. S. 1932. Census of India 1931, Vol. III, Part I—Report. Shillong: Government of India, Central Publication Branch.Google Scholar
Nag, Sajal. 2002. Contesting Marginality: Ethnicity, Insurgency and Subnationalism in North-East India. New Delhi: Manohar.Google Scholar
National Archives of India. 1908. (Library Collections). Memorandum submitted to Morley of Blackburn, Secretary of State for India, dated 27th August 1908, N0.262 of 1908, Govt. of India, Survey Department.Google Scholar
Nehru, Jawaharlal. [1946] 2004. The Discovery of India. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Pemberton, R. B. 1835. Report on the Eastern Frontier of India. New Delhi: Mittal Publications.Google Scholar
Phillimore, R. H., ed. 1945. Historical Records of the Survey of India. Vol. 1, 18th Century, Geodetic Branch. Dehra Dun: Survey of India.Google Scholar
Phillimore, R. H.. 1952. “Three Indian Maps.” Imago Mundi 9:111–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillimore, R. H., ed. 1954. Historical Records of the Survey of India. Vol. 3, 1815–1830. Dehra Dun: Survey of India.Google Scholar
Phillimore, R. H., ed. 1958. Historical Records of the Survey of India. Vol. 4, 1830–1843. Dehra Dun: Survey of India.Google Scholar
Prakash, Gyan. 1990. “Writing Post-Orientalist Histories of the Third World: Perspectives from Indian Historiography.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 32 (2): 383–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pratt, Mary Louise. 1991. “Arts of the Contact Zone.” Profession 91: 33–40.Google Scholar
Razdhan, Nidhi, and Sen, Sudhi R.. 2006. “India Readies for China's Brahmaputra Plan.” NDTV.com, November 17. http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?slug=India+readies+for+China's+‘assault'&id=96532&category=National [accessed November 17, 2006].Google Scholar
Retzlaff, Ralph J. 1963. “India: A Year of Stability and Change—Survey of India in 1962.” Asian Survey 3 (2): 96–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, Thomas. 1993. The Imperial Archive: Knowledge and the Fantasy of Empire. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Robb, Peter. 1997. “The Colonial State and Constructions of Indian Identity: An Example on the Northeast Frontier in the 1880s.” Modern Asian Studies 31 (2): 245–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saikia, Yasmin. 2004. Fragments of Memories: Struggling to be Tai-Ahom in India. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Sarkar, J. N. 1951. The Life of Mir Jumla, the General of Aurangzib. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co.Google Scholar
Schendel, Willem Van. 1992. “The Invention of the ‘Jummas’: State Formation and Ethnicity in Southeastern Bangladesh.” Modern Asian Studies 26 (1): 95–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwartzberg, Joseph E. 1992. “Geographical Mapping.” In The History of Cartography, vol. 2, book 1, part II, Cartography in Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies, ed. Harley, J. B. and Woodward, David, 388–493. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1998. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, James C.. 1999. “The State and People Who Move Around: How the Valleys Made the Hills in Southeast Asia.” IIAS Newsletter Online, no. 19. http://www.iias.nl/iiasn/19/general/1.html [accessed November 4, 2010].Google Scholar
Shakespear, L. W. 1914. History of Upper Assam, Upper Burmah and North-Eastern Frontier. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Shakespeare, J. 1912. The Lushai-Kuki Clans. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Singh, B. P. 1987. “North-East India: Demography, Culture and Identity Crisis.” Modern Asian Studies 21 (2): 257–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, Jai Pal, and Khan, Mumtaz. 1999. “Hindu Cosmology and the Orientation and Segregation of Social Groups in Villages in Northwestern India.” Geografiska Annaler, Series B, Human Geography 81 (1): 19–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steiner, H. Arthur. 1959. “India Looks to Her Northern Frontiers.” Far Eastern Survey 28 (11): 167–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stewart, Jules. 2006. Spying for the Raj: The Pundits and the Mapping of the Himalaya. Stroud: Sutton.Google Scholar
Sword, Victor Hugo. 1992. Baptist in Assam: A Century of Missionary Service, 1836–1936. Guwahati: Spectrum Publications.Google Scholar
Wade, John Peter. 1800. An Account of Assam—The History of Assam—A Geographical Sketch of Assam. Ed. Sarma, Benudhar [Venudhara Sarma]. British Library, Oriental and India Office Collections, London.Google Scholar
Wessels, C., and Nijhoff, S. T. Martinus. 1988. Early Jesuit Travellers in Central Asia. Delhi: Book Faith India.Google Scholar
Wilcox, R. 1873. “Memoir of a Survey of Assam and the Neighbouring Countries, executed in 1825-6-7-8.” In Hill Tracts between Assam and Burma: Selection of Papers. Delhi: Vivek Publishing Company, 1978.Google Scholar
Wilford, Francis. 1805. “An Essay on the Sacred Isles in the West.” Asiatick Researches 8:245–367.Google Scholar
Winichakul, Thongchai. 1994. Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Wirsing, Giselher. 1972. The Indian Experiment: Key to Asia's Future. New Delhi: Orient Longman.Google Scholar