Evolution, Race and Public Spheres in India: Vernacular Concepts and Sciences (1860-1930)

189 Pages·2019·8.536 MB·English

by  Luzia Savary

Evolution, Race and Public
Spheres in India
This book provides an in- depth exploration of South Asian readaptations
of race in vernacular languages. The focus is on a diverse set of printed
texts, periodicals and books in Hindi and Urdu, two of the major print lan-
guages of British North India, written between 1860 and 1930.
Imperial raciology is a burgeoning field of historical research. So far,
most studies on race in the British Empire in South Asia have concentrated
on the writings of Western-e ducated elites in English. The range of Hindi
and Urdu sources analyzed by the author provides a more varied and
complex picture of the ways in which South Asians reinterpreted racial
concepts, thereby highlighting the importance of scrutinizing the ver-
nacular dimensions of global entanglements. Part I of the book centers on
the debates on “civilization” and “civility” in Hindi and Urdu periodicals,
travelogues and geography books as well as Hindi literature on caste. It
asks if and in what respect the discussions changed when authors appro-
priated racial concepts. Part II revolves around the “science” of eugenics.
It scrutinizes more popular genres, namely, early twentieth century
advisory literature on “fit reproduction.” It highlights how the knowledge
promoted there was different from “eugenics” as the (mainly English-
writing) founders of the Indian eugenic movements endorsed it.
A fascinating analysis of the ways in which colonized elites have
adopted and readapted racial concepts and theories, this book will be of
interest to academics in the fields of Modern South Asian History, History
of Science, Critical Race Studies and Colonial and Imperial History.
Luzia Savary received her doctorate in History of the Modern World from
the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland. She
currently works as an interpreter at the Refugee Office of the Italian Con-
sortium of Solidarity in Trieste, Italy.
Routledge Studies in South Asian History
12 Politics and Left Unity in India
The United Front in Late Colonial India
William Kuracina
13 Citizenship, Community and Democracy in India
From Bombay to Maharashtra, c.1930–1960
Oliver Godsmark
14 India and World War I
A Centennial Assessment
Edited by Roger D. Long and Ian Talbot
15 Foreign Policy of Colonial India
1900–1947
Sneh Mahajan
16 Women and Literary Narratives in Colonial India
Her Myriad Gaze on the ‘Other’
Sukla Chatterjee
17 Gender, Nationalism, and Genocide in Bangladesh
Naristhan/Ladyland
Azra Rashid
18 Evolution, Race and Public Spheres in India
Vernacular Concepts and Sciences (1860–1930)
Luzia Savary
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
asianstudies/series/RSSAH
Evolution, Race and Public
Spheres in India
Vernacular Concepts and Sciences
(1860–1930)
Luzia Savary
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 Luzia Savary
The right of Luzia Savary to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
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publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-i n-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-138-54184-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-01008-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
List of figures vii
Acknowledgments viii
A note on transliteration and translation x
Introduction 1
PARt I
From beasts and demons to inferior races?
Civilization and the shifting ideas on human
difference in the Hindi and Urdu public spheres 35
1 The civilized and the uncivilized: dividing the world
in the late nineteenth century 39
2 Hindi literati’s savage others? The “showcasing of
the wild” and the permanence of the civilizing
mission 52
3 “Struggle for existence” and eugenics: a comparison
between Hindi and Urdu 75
4 The nature-n urture debate on caste 86
vi Contents
PARt II
Hindi and Urdu advisory literature on reproduction:
the cases of santati-­śāstra and kokaśāstra 97
5 “Mental force” or selective breeding? Comparing
two para- eugenic rationalities 103
6 “Selecting the best flowers from the world’s gardens
of knowledge”: vernacularization and scientific
referencing 114
7 Between “artificial contraceptives” and
brahmacārya: ambivalent attitudes to birth control in
the Hindi public sphere 124
Conclusion 138
Appendix 147
Bibliography 157
Index 176
Figures
1.1 “The facial features of people of the black world” 48
2.1 “Pygmy princess” 59
2.2 “Polynesian woman” 60
2.3 “Ezhava (Tiyar) women” 61
2.4 “Malayali girls” 62
2.5 “Sinhali girl” 64
2.6 “Tamil women’s tea-p lucking work” 65
2.7 Cover page of the book for children “These Are
Humans, Too” 69
Acknowledgments
My first message of gratitude goes to the Routledge South Asia publishing
team which has been extremely patient in waiting for the final version of
this book to materialize.
The book is largely based on my doctoral thesis and I would like to
express my warmest gratitude to Prof Harald Fischer-T iné, my supervisor.
He has helped me in three important ways: providing fundamental theoret-
ical inputs in the initial phase of my research when I did not know what
direction to take; leaving me the freedom of choosing the direction of my
own; and, finally, giving me constant critical feedback once research
results did eventually emerge. I am also highly grateful to Prof Margrit
Pernau, my second supervisor, who has offered her exhaustive answers to
my endless questions regarding Urdu sources and crucial critical feedback
to the thesis. I also wish to thank Douglas E. Haynes, who agreed to act as
“third supervisor” to my thesis, a bureaucratic specialty of ETH Zurich.
He has been an extremely careful and stimulating commentator, especially
in relation to the part of my work concerning Hindi advisory literature on
reproduction.
Further, I have learned a lot from my fellow PhD students and Post-D ocs
at ETH Zurich. First of all, I owe much to Dr Nikolay Kamenov, who has
kept in touch after my departure from Zurich not only as a friend but also as
a motivator and commentator. During our common period at ETH we have
been teaching two courses together, and I have profited a lot from his know-
ledge. Special thanks goes to Paromita Das Gupta for having been at my
side during the first part of this journey, in which we have often discussed
our doubts and problems together. My gratitude also goes to Dr Jana
Tschurenev for her critical feedback during the first stages of this work. I
also want to thank Dr Christine Whyte from whom I have also profited
much and whom I have been missing since she finished her PhD. Dr
Vasudha Bharadwaj, who joined the team shortly before I left, has also
given me important inputs. Dr Monika Freier from Max- Planck-Institute,
Acknowledgments ix
Berlin helped me prepare my research trip to India and has kindly shared
some of her own source material with me. I am very grateful to her in this
respect. I also thank the librarians Sadhna Chaturvedi and Purnimaji, who
have kindly assisted me in the library of the Hindi Sāhitya Sammelan in
Allahabad. Mr Sharma and his colleagues at the Marwari Library in Delhi
have also been very helpful. I thank Dr Charu Singh for starting a fascinat-
ing conversation which I hope to continue.
Last but not least, the greatest thanks goes to the people who have made
the completion of the thesis and the book possible in practical terms; that
is, offering themselves as babysitters while I was writing: nonna Ruth
deserves enormous thanks in this regard. I also thank nonno Bruno and zia
Laura. Fabrizio proved to be an excellent ham- safar also in this hectic
phase of life. It is to him and to our daughters that this book is dedicated.