Mapping an Empire

In this history of the British surveys of India, focusing especially on the Great Trigonometrical Survey (GTS) undertaken by the British East India Company, the author relates how imperial Britain employed modern scientific survey techniques not only to create and define the spacial inmage of its Indian empire, but also to legitimate its colonialist activities as triumphs of li...

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In this history of the British surveys of India, focusing especially on the Great Trigonometrical Survey (GTS) undertaken by the British East India Company, the author relates how imperial Britain employed modern scientific survey techniques not only to create and define the spacial inmage of its Indian empire, but also to legitimate its colonialist activities as triumphs of liberal, rational science bringing "Civilisation" to irrational, mystical and despotic Indians. The reshaping of cartographic technologies in Europe into their modern form played a key role in the use of the GTS as an instrument of British cartographic control over India. In analyzing this reconfiguration, the author undertakes a detailed critical analysis of the foundations of modern cartography.

List of Illustrations and Maps
List of Tables
Preface
Note on East India Company Coinage
Places Mentioned in the Text: Southern India and Northern India
Chronology of Events and the Expansion of the East India Company
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List of Illustrations and Maps
List of Tables
Preface
Note on East India Company Coinage
Places Mentioned in the Text: Southern India and Northern India
Chronology of Events and the Expansion of the East India Company
Ch. 1: The Ideologies and Practices of Mapping and Imperialism
Ch. 2: Observation and Representation
Ch. 3: Surveying and Mapmaking
Ch. 4: Structural Constraints of the East India Company’s Administration
Ch. 5: Cartographic Anarchy and System in Madras, 1790-1810
Ch. 6: Institutions for Mapping All of British India, 1814-23
Ch. 7: Triangulation, the Cartographic Panacea, 1825-32
Ch. 8: The Final Compromise: Triangulation and Archive, 1831-43
Ch. 9: Scientific Practice: Incorporating the Rationality of Empire
Ch. 10: Cartographic Practice: Inscribing an Imperial Space
Biographical Notes
Notes
Unpublished Primary Sources, by Archive
Published Primary Sources
Secondary Sources Relating to the British Surveys in India
Principal Secondary Sources
Index
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