Religion, Science, and Empire: Classifying Hinduism and Islam in British India

442 Pages·2012·4.58 MB·English

by  Peter Gottschalk

religion, science, and empire
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Religion, Science, and Empire
classifying hinduism and islam in british india
Peter Gottschalk
oxford university press
1

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Published in the United States of America by
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© Peter Gottschalk 2013
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and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Gottschalk, Peter, 1963–
Religion, science, and empire : classifying Hinduism and Islam in British India / Peter Gottschalk.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-539301-9 (alk. paper)
1. Religion and sociology—India—History. 2. Religion and science—India—History. 3. Religion and
politics—India—History. 4. Chainpur (Bihar, India)—Historiography. 5. India—History—British
occupation, 1765–1947. I. Title.
BL2007.5.G68 2012
306.60954—dc23 2012005797
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
While the border line between tribal religions and some aspects of Hinduism is not at all
easy to draw, it is oft en just as hard to defi ne it between Hinduism and Islam and even
between Hinduism and Christianity, in the case of a number of intermediate sects which
off er points of identity with both.
—t. c. hodson (1937)
What are the men of science doing in these days? . . . From a mass induction of varied
phenomena, a huge mass of facts and fi gures, they evolve, by processes of generalization and
classifi cation, the unity of force and cause. To resolve multiplicity into unity, many into one,
is science.
—keshub chunder sen (1881)
Science, which is in England a calm pursuit, is to our countrymen in the East an instrument
of empire.
—william wilson hunter (1887)
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Th is book is dedicated to the memory of the late Sylvia Campbell
and to all my other teachers
especially
Wendy Doniger
Bruce Lincoln
Jonathan Z. Smith
McKim Marriott
C. M. Naim
V. Narayana Rao
David Knipe
Virendra Singh
Greg Dening
Clyde Pax
Robert H. Garvey
Th eo von Laue
Raymond Schroth, S.J.
Richard Wilde
Sarah Wilde
“Learning, in the book, is not learning”—Sanskrit proverb quoted by Jonnalagada
Prabhakara Sastry
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Contents

Acknowledgements x i
List of Illustrations x v
Term Glossary xvii
Place Glossary xix
Introduction 3
1. Religion, Science, and Scientism 20
2. Cartography, the Ideal of Science, and the Place of Religion 54
First Th eoretical Interlude: Th e Dynamics of Comparison and Classifi cation 88
3. Christocentric Travel Writing: Dynamics of Comparison and Classifi cation 96
Second Th eoretical Interlude: Five Modes of Comparison 132
4. Humanist Travel Writing: Ascent of Empiricism and the On the Spot 136
Th ird Th eoretical Interlude: Classifi cation in the Natural Sciences 174
5. Categories to Count On: Religion and Caste in the Census 182
6. A Raja, a Ghost, and a Tribe: Studies in Folklore, Ethnology, and Religion 2 25
7. Popularizing Chainpur’s Past: Archaeology in Place and in Museums 266
8. Chainpur Today 295
ix