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Statemaking and Territory in South Asia

Statemaking and Territory in South Asia

Bernardo A. Michael

(2012)

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Abstract

“Statemaking and Territory in South Asia: Lessons from the Anglo–Gorkha War (1814–1816)” seeks to understand how European colonization transformed the organization of territory in South Asia through an examination of the territorial disputes that underlay the Anglo–Gorkha War of 1814–1816 and subsequent efforts of the colonial state to reorder its territories. The volume argues that these disputes arose out of older tribute, taxation and property relationships that left their territories perpetually intermixed and with ill-defined boundaries. It also seeks to describe the long-drawn-out process of territorial reordering undertaken by the British in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that set the stage for the creation of a clearly defined geographical template for the modern state in South Asia.


Bernardo A. Michael is an associate professor of history at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, where he is also the Special Assistant to the President and Provost, for Diversity Affairs.


 “Trenchant and meticulously researched, Michael’s book tells the story of how the East India Company established its northern Indian boundary. A must-read for anyone interested in state formation, cartographic history, and the creation of colonial territory.” —Dr Ian Barrow, Department of History, Middlebury College, USA


How did European colonization transform the organization of territory in South Asia? “Statemaking and Territory in South Asia: Lessons from the Anglo–Gorkha War (1814–1816)” seeks to connect two historical junctures at which the idea of the modern state as a geographically discernible and territorially circumscribed entity emerged in colonial South Asia.

The volume first examines the territorial disputes that emerged along the common frontiers of the Himalayan kingdom of Gorkha (present-day Nepal) and the English East India Company that eventually led to the Anglo–Gorkha War of 1814–1816. The volume argues that these disputes arose out of older tribute, taxation and property relationships that left their territories perpetually intermixed and with ill-defined boundaries. Following the war, the British sought to end this territorial illegibility by defining the joint boundary of the two states, rendering it linear and distinct.

Secondly, the volume also reveals the long-drawn-out process whereby the colonial state, through various cartographic projects and changes in administrative routines, attempted to rearrange its internal administrative divisions in an effort to create the geographical template of the modern state. This template would occupy a definite portion of the earth’s surface and with non-overlapping divisions and subdivisions.


 “Bernardo Michael has produced a remarkable book, one that expertly weaves histories of colonial governance, cartography and agrarian practice. In tacking between colonial, national, regional and local archives, Michael is able to explore in remarkable detail the intensely local struggles in the Anglo–Gorkha borderland waged around agrarian entitlements and the fluid and elastic notions of territory that held sway. Theoretically innovative and deeply grounded, this is spatial history at its best.” —Raymond Craib, author of “Cartographic Mexico: A History of State Fixations and Fugitive Landscapes” and Associate Professor of History, Cornell University


Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
FRONT MATTER\r i
Half Title i
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
CONTENTS vii
LIST OF MAPS, PLATES AND TABLES ix
Book Cover ix
Maps ix
Plates xi
Tables xi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii
ABBREVIATIONS xvii
Chapter 1 STATEMAKING, CULTURES OF GOVERNANCE AND THE ANGLO–GORKHA WAR OF 1814–1816 1
1. Approaching States and Statemaking 1
2. Statemaking, Cultures of Governance, Space 3
3. Spatiality and the Study of Cartographic History 6
4. The Anglo–Gorkha War (1814–16) 11
5. Structure of the Book 14
Chapter 2 THE AGRARIAN ENVIRONMENT AND THE PRODUCTION OF SPACE ON THE ANGLO–GORKHA FRONTIER 17
1. Introduction 17
2. The Tarai: Environment and Society 18
3. Labor 21
4. Forest–Field–Waste Mosaics on the Anglo–Gorkha Frontier 25
5. Conclusion: Agrarian Environments and the Production of Space 27
Chapter 3 THE CHAMPARAN–TARRIANI FRONTIER 31
1. Introduction: The Constitution of Order on the Champaran–Tarriani Frontier, 1765–1814 31
2. Cultures of Governance and Illegible Landscapes on the Champaran–Tarriani Frontier 33
3. The Little Kingdoms of Bettiah and Tanahu 36
4. The Makwani Raj and Pargana Tauter/Thathar 37
5. The (Re)constitution of Tappa Rautahat, Pargana (Gadh) Simraon 38
6. The Entangled Edges of Tappa Rautahat and Nannor: The Twenty-Two Disputed Villages 44
7. Additional Territorial Disputes and the Role of Local Agency 46
8. Conclusion 47
Chapter 4 THE GORAKHPUR–BUTWAL FRONTIER 49
1. Introduction 49
2. The Sources of Social Power on the Gorakhpur–Butwal Frontier: Rajas, Talukdars, Birtias and Maafidars 51
3. Cultures of Governance and Illegible Landscapes on the Gorakhpur–Butwal Frontier 55
4. The Palpa Raj: A Yam between Three Boulders? 57
5. The Structure of Territory on the Gorakhpur–Butwal Frontier: Taluqas, Parganas and Tappas 60
The Butwal Tarai 60
Tappa Sheoraj 62
Other Tappas 65
6. Conclusion 65
Chapter 5 THE DISJOINTED SPACES OF PRECOLONIAL TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS 67
1. Introduction: Precolonial Administrative Divisions in South Asia 67
2. The Environment, Labor and Shifting Patterns of Land-Use in the Constitution of Territory 70
3. Cultures of Precolonial Governance and the Production of Territory 71
Agrarian Entitlements and the Production of Territory 71
Rent-Free (Maafi) Grants 74
Territorial Rearrangements 75
Documenting Territory 77
The Territorial Significance of Forts 81
4. The Representation of Parganas in Everyday Life 82
5. Conclusion 84
Chapter 6 MAKING STATES LEGIBLE: MAPS, SURVEYS AND BOUNDARIES 87
1. Introduction: Indigenous Maps and Representations of Territory 87
2. Demarcating the Anglo–Gorkha Boundary 93
3. The Colonial State and its Naqsha Compass Projects in North India 98
The Revenue Surveys 100
4. Reordering Territory: Thanas, Sub-divisions and Districts 104
5. The Case of Gorkhali Territories 109
6. Conclusion 122
Chapter 7 CONCLUSION 123
END MATTER 129
GLOSSARY\r 129
NOTES 137
Chapter 1. Statemaking, Cultures of Governance and the Anglo–Gorkha War of 1814–1816 137
Chapter 2. The Agrarian Environment and the Production of Space on the Anglo–Gorkha Frontier 144
Chapter 3. The Champaran–Tarriani Frontier 151
Chapter 4. The Gorakhpur–Butwal Frontier 161
Chapter 5. The Disjointed Spaces of Precolonial Territorial Divisions 170
Chapter 6. Making States Legible: Maps, Surveys and Boundaries 179
Conclusion 194
ARCHIVAL SOURCES 197
A. INDIA 197
B. NEPAL 198
C. ENGLAND 199
BIBLIOGRAPHY 201
Nepali 201
Hindi/Marwari 202
English 203
INDEX\r 221