HIST 221: South Asia: Colonialism to Independence, 1750-1947 CE: Class Activity

In groups, look closely at some of the print and digital gazetteers below. To identify some of the practices and tools of the ethnographic state. 

Look at:

• who wrote it and how it was written (was it written entirely by one person? was it written by multiple people and compiled by one person?)
• why it was created
• what is being described. 

Create:

• An list of specific people mentioned that contributed to the creation of the gazetteer.
• An index of practices used to create collect the information in gazetteers (ex: survey, census)
• Add your findings to page one of this spreadsheet. 

Gazetteers:

District

Imperial

Caste Ethnography Literature

Diaries

Step One:

Using the information-gathering and creation practices and document types you identified (e.g. surveying, census, gazetteer, etc.) as keywords, use AM Explorer's East India Company collection and Abilekh Patal to search for information about the production of Gazetteers, Caste Literature, as well as regions, people, castes.  

From an administrative valence, what is the purpose of producing and using these documents?

Step Two:

Add what you find to the second page of the spreadsheet.