Colonial Textbooks and National Consciousness in British India

Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

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19

Colonialism; Textbooks; Indians; Race; Ethnicity; Educational Administration; History Instruction; Geography Instruction; Indo European Languages; English (Second Language); Social Class; Political Attitudes; Nationalism; Foreign Countries; Futures (of Society); School Role; Sense of Community; Maps; Self Concept; Educational History

India; United Kingdom

10.1080/0046760X.2022.2050304

0046-760X
1464-5130

A geophysical perception of the ecumene had always existed in the consciousness of Indians even in precolonial days. But with the advent of the British, and with the establishment of territorial mapping and institutionalised education, there was a growing awareness of differences and similarities related to ethnicity, race and space. Colonial schools and education played a critical role in developing a sense of belongingness to a shared space. As Bengal was the hub for colonial administration as well as for dissemination of education, a look at history and geography textbooks, in both English and Bengali, highlights how the Bengali educated class negotiated this construction of knowledge. The article analyses the production of knowledge as a complex imagining of a 'national' space that refashioned and forged intricate geopolitical consciousness, which then went on to have vital implications for the future conception of nation-state in India.

As Provided

2023

EJ1374694