MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 03978fam a2200421 a 4500
001 2046654
005 20220615192537.0
008 961115s1997 iluab b 001 0 eng
010 $a 96039703
020 $a0226184870 (cloth : alk. paper)
020 $a0226184889 (pbk. : alk. paper)
035 $a(OCoLC)36001212
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm36001212
035 $9AMS6857CU
035 $a(NNC)2046654
035 $a2046654
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dDLC$dOrLoB-B
043 $aa-ii---
050 00 $aGA1131$b.E36 1997
082 00 $a912/.54$221
100 1 $aEdney, Matthew H.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n96111212
245 10 $aMapping an empire :$bthe geographical construction of British India, 1765-1843 /$cMatthew H. Edney.
260 $aChicago :$bUniversity of Chicago Press,$c1997.
300 $axv, 458 pages :$billustrations, maps ;$c24 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [409]-436) and index.
505 00 $tNote on East India Company Coinage --$tPlaces Mentioned in the Text: Southern India and Northern India --$tChronology of Events and the Expansion of the East India Company --$gCh. 1.$tThe Ideologies and Practices of Mapping and Imperialism --$gCh. 2.$tObservation and Representation --$gCh. 3.$tSurveying and Mapmaking --$gCh. 4.$tStructural Constraints of the East India Company's Administration --$gCh. 5.$tCartographic Anarchy and System in Madras, 1790-1810 --$gCh. 6.$tInstitutions for Mapping All of British India, 1814-23 --$gCh. 7.$tTriangulation, the Cartographic Panacea, 1825-32 --$gCh. 8.$tThe Final Compromise: Triangulation and Archive, 1831-43 --$gCh. 9.$tScientific Practice: Incorporating the Rationality of Empire --$gCh. 10.$tCartographic Practice: Inscribing an Imperial Space.
520 $aFrom James Rennell's survey of Bengal (1765-71) to George Everest's retirement in 1843 as surveyor general of India, geography served in the front lines of the British East India Company's territorial and intellectual conquest of South Asia. In this history of the British surveys of India, focusing especially on the Great Trigonometrical Survey (GTS) undertaken by the Company, Matthew H.
520 8 $aEdney relates how imperial Britain employed modern scientific survey techniques not only to create and define the spatial image of its Indian empire but also to legitimate its colonialist activities as triumphs of liberal, rational science bringing "civilization" to irrational, mystical, and despotic Indians.
520 8 $aThe reshaping of cartographic technologies in Europe into their modern form, including the adoption of the technique of triangulation (known at the time as "trigonometrical survey") at the beginning of the nineteenth century, played a key role in the use of the GTS as an instrument of British cartographic control over India. In analyzing this reconfiguration, Edney undertakes the first detailed, critical analysis of the foundations of modern cartography.
520 8 $aThe success of these new techniques in mapping British India depended on the character of the East India Company as a gatherer and controller of information, on its patronage system, and on the working conditions of surveyors in the field.
520 8 $aDrawing on a wealth of data from the Company's vast archives, Edney shows how these institutional constraints undermined the GTS and destabilized this high point of Victorian science to the point of reducing it to "cartographic anarchy." Thus, although the GTS served at the time to legitimate British rule in India, its failure can now be seen as a metaphor for British India itself: an outward veneer of imperial potency covering an uncertain and ultimately weak core.
650 0 $aCartography$zIndia$xHistory.
610 20 $aEast India Company$xHistory.
852 00 $bglx$hGA1131$i.E36 1997
852 00 $bmil$hGA1131$i.E36 1997
852 00 $boff,glx$hGA1131$i.E36 1997