Betreuung: Martin Gaenszle

Abstract

The proposed study deals with colonial knowledge production in remote areas with manifold power centres with complex relations, small heterogeneous populations, various religious beliefs, and different levels of literacy, unlike previous research that concentrated on areas under established administrations with learned communities and knowledge brokers. It will look into the adapting methods of knowledge production, not merely the collected materials. It is also interested in how involved processes and persons shape the authority of the knowledge collected. A special focus lies on the cultural and linguistic translation processes involved in encounters between the British and communities newly conquered. Primary sources for the study are diaries, letters and reports from the Survey of the North East Frontier, 1830–34 in India conducted by Francis Jenkins and Robert Pemberton.