Subject Lessons: The Western Education of Colonial India

277 Pages·2007·2.13 MB·English

by  Sanjay Seth

South ASiAn hiStory/PoStcoloniAl StudieS
seth
Subject Lessons offers a fascinating account of how western knowledge “traveled” to India,
changed that which it encountered, and was itself transformed in the process. Beginning in
1835, India’s British rulers funded schools and universities to disseminate modern, west-
ern knowledge in the expectation that it would gradually replace indigenous ways of know-
ing. From the start, western education was endowed with great significance in India, not
only by the colonizers but also by the colonized, to the extent that today almost all “serious”
knowledge about India—even within India—is based on western epistemologies. In Subject
Lessons, Sanjay Seth’s investigation into how western knowledge was received by Indians
Subject Lessons
under colonial rule becomes a broader inquiry into how modern, western epistemology
came to be seen not merely as one way of knowing among others but as knowledge itself.
t
Drawing on history, political science, anthropology, and philosophy, Seth interprets h
the debates and controversies that came to surround western education. Among these e

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were concerns that Indian students were acquiring western education by rote memoriza-
e
tion—and were therefore not acquiring “true knowledge”—and that western education su
t
had plunged Indian students into a moral crisis, leaving them torn between modern, west- eb
r
ern knowledge and traditional Indian beliefs. Seth argues that these concerns, voiced by the nj
British as well as by nationalists, reflected the anxiety that western education was failing to Ee
d
produce the modern subjects it presupposed. This failure suggested that western knowl- uc
c
edge was not the universal epistemology it was thought to be. at
t
i
“Subject Lessons revives a field that has remained dormant for years: the history of education oL
n
in colonial India. This in itself is no small achievement. But Sanjay Seth does a lot more e
o
than that. Weaving together history and philosophical critiques of historicity and moder- fs

nity, Seth has produced a book that is at once thoughtful and provocative. This outstanding Cs
c o
o
book makes an original contribution to postcolonial criticism.” v lo
er o
—EssDayisp ine sthhe WCahkea okf Sruababltaerrnt Sytu, daiuesthor of Habitations of Modernity: photog nial ns
ra In
“Subject Lessons is a very important contribution to understanding of the coloniality of knowl- p
h d
edge and of being. Imperial control is mainly control of subjectivity, and the control of : U ia
n
subjectivity is largely based on education, on the formation of those to be subjected. Sanjay iv
e
Seth’s study of education in colonial India has implications far beyond the subcontinent. rs
Touching on epistemology, politics (governmentality), religion (Muslims in India), the idea ity o
f
of the nation, gender and sexuality, ethics and history, Seth describes how the logic of colo- B
o
niality has been and continues to be globally enacted.” mb the Western Education of Colonial India
a
—Walter Mignolo, author of The Idea of Latin America y, R
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Sanjay Seth jab
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is Reader in Politics at La Trobe University, i, b
Melbourne, and Professor of Politics at Goldsmiths y a
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College, University of London. u
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Politics, history, and culture o
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A Series Edited by Julia Adams and George Steinmetz n
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Duke University Press to
g sanjay seth
Box 90660, Durham, NC 27708-0660 rap duke
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www.dukeupress.edu er
Subject Lessons
politics,history,andculture
AseriesfromtheInternationalInstituteattheUniversityofMichigan
serieseditors
GeorgeSteinmetzandJuliaAdams
serieseditorialadvisoryboard
FernandoCoronil
MamadouDiouf
MichaelDutton
GeoffEley
FatmaMügeGöcek
NancyRoseHunt
AndreasKalyvas
WebbKeane
DavidLaitin
LydiaLiu
JulieSkurski
MargaretSomers
AnnLauraStoler
KatherineVerdery
ElizabethWingrove
SponsoredbytheInternationalInstituteattheUniversityofMichigan
andpublishedbyDukeUniversityPress,thisseriesiscenteredaround
culturalandhistoricalstudiesofpower,politics,andthestate—afield
thatcutsacrossthedisciplinesofhistory,sociology,anthropology,politi-
calscience,andculturalstudies.Thefocusontherelationshipbetween
stateandculturerefersbothtoamethodologicalapproach—thestudyof
politicsandthestateusingculturalistmethods—andasubstantiveone
thattreatssignifyingpracticesasanessentialdimensionofpolitics.The
dialecticofpolitics,culture,andhistoryfiguresprominentlyinallthe
booksselectedfortheseries.
Subject Lessons
TheWesternEducationofColonialIndia
Sanjay Seth
DukeUniversityPress
DurhamandLondon
2007
©2007DukeUniversityPress
Allrightsreserved.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaonacid-freepaper(cid:6)
TypesetinTrinitébyTsengInformationSystems,Inc.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
appearonthelastprintedpageofthisbook.
ToRajuandNishad

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
parti: subjecttopedagogy
1 ChangingtheSubject:
WesternKnowledgeandtheQuestionofDifference 17
2 DiagnosingMoralCrisis:
WesternKnowledgeandItsIndianObject 47
3 WhichPast?WhoseHistory? 79
partii: modernknowledge,modernnation
4 GovernmentalityandIdentity:
Constitutingthe‘‘BackwardbutProudMuslim’’ 109
5 GenderandtheNation:
DebatingFemaleEducation 129
6 VernacularModernity:
TheNationalistImagination 159
Epilogue:
KnowingModernity,BeingModern 183
Notes 197
Bibliography 235
Index 259

Acknowledgments
Thisbookhasbeenlonginthemaking,andIhavemanypeopleandinstitu-
tionstothank.IamgratefultothelibrariansandarchivistsofIndianOffice
LibraryandRecords(incorporatedintotheBritishLibrarypartwaythrough
myresearch),theNationalArchivesofIndia,theNehruMemorialLibraryand
Museum,theScottishNationalLibrary,theGokhaleInstitute,theCambridge
South Asia Centre Library, the State Library of Victoria, and the Borchardt
libraryofLaTrobeUniversity—especiallyitsInter-LibraryLoanssection.The
AustraliaResearchCouncilprovidedsmallgrantstofacilitateresearchtrips,
asdidLaTrobeUniversity,whichalsoprovidedasupportiveandcongenial
environmentinwhichtowrite.TheJapanSocietyforthePromotionofSci-
enceawardedmeayear-longfellowshiptoworkonthisbook;Iamgratefulto
ProfessorNariakiNakazatoandtheToyoBunkaKenkyujoofTokyoUniversity
forhostingmeduringablissfulyearwhenIwasabletoworkobsessivelyon
themanuscript.Earlierversionsofsomeofthesechapterswerepresentedat
NewDelhi,Princeton,Minneapolis,NewYork,Chicago,SantaCruz,Berlin,
Tokyo,Edinburgh,Melbourne,andBrisbane;mythankstomyaudiencesat
theseoccasions,andtotheorganizersofthesetalks.
Manyfriendsandcolleagueshaveansweredqueries,providedreferences,
and made helpful suggestions; my thanks to Shahid Amin, Robin Jeffrey,
FrancescaOrsini,JohnFitzgerald,thelateRavinderKumar,PaulineNestor,
Hilary McPhee, Joel Kahn, Barbara Cain, Angus McIntyre, Richard Delacy,
Sudhir Chandra, Kama Maclean, Greg Bailey, the late Fred Hardy, Ashok
Aklujkar,DennisAltman,JoelKahn,RobertManne,andKunalChakrabarti.
MythanksalsotoSarbajeetMukherjeeforrenderingresearchassistancein
theNationalLibrary,Calcutta.
Anumberofcolleaguesreadandcommentedononeormorechaptersof
thisbook.IamgratefultoRanajitGuha,SumitSarkar,TanikaSarkar,Robin
Archer,LeelaGandhi,MichaelDutton,IanHunter,AnitaRay,andNariaki
Nakazatofortakingthetroubletodoso,andfortheircommentsandcriti-
ix