Science Gone Native - Gyan Prakash

Science "Gone Native" in Colonial India
Author(s): Gyan Prakash

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Representations, No. 40, Special Issue: Seeing Science (Autumn, 1992), pp. 153-178
Published by: University of California Press
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GYAN PRAKASH
Science "Gone Native"

in Colonial India
IF THE EMERGENCE OF SCIENCE in the late nineteenth century as a

signof Westernpower constitutedthe "native"as an objectof scientific discourse,'
the enactment of this process displaced the representations-Westernscience
versus"nativesuperstition"-of colonial domination.In thisessay,I explore such
displacementsin BritishIndia, tracinghow the deploymentof science to appro-
priate(normalize,make appropriate) India also produced "inappropriate"trans-
formations.I examine these "inappropriate"transformations in the functioning
of museums and exhibitionsas sites for representingscience in British India
duringthe late nineteenthand earlytwentiethcenturies,arguingthatthe staging
of science also enacted other performances.
A classic illustrationof how colonial discourse dislodges its constitutiveop-
positions in the process of bringingthem into existence is Rudyard Kipling's
novel Kim (1901). The novel opens with young Kim O'Hara "astride the gun
Zam-Zammah, on her brick platformopposite the old Ajaib-Gher-the Won-
der House, as the natives call the Lahore Museum."2 The Zam-Zammah, an
eighteenth-century cannon, had lost itsmilitaryuse bythistime,but not itssym-
bolic value: "Who hold Zam-Zammah, that 'fire-breathingdragon,' hold the
Punjab; for the great green-bronzepiece is alwaysfirstof the conqueror's loot."
As Kim sat astride the cannon, kickingan Indian boy offit, he did so as a con-
queror for,as Kiplingwrites,"theEnglishheld Punjab and Kim was English."But
how is Kim's English identityestablished? Kipling tells us that Kim's mother,
whose racial identityremains unmarked, had been a nursemaid in a colonel's
familyand had died of cholera when Kim was three,leaving him in the care of
his father,Kimball O'Hara. A sergeantin the Irish regimentof the Britisharmy
in India, the father took to drink, drifted into friendshipwith a "half-caste
woman" fromwhom he learned thejoys of smokingopium, and "died as poor
whitesdo in India." It was fromthis"half-caste"woman who raised him thatKim
discovered that he was English, as she, confusedlyrememberingthe sergeant's
prophecies in his "gloriousopium hours,"told Kim thateverythingwould come
out all rightforhim: "There willcome foryou a great Red Bull on a green field,
and the Colonel ridingon his tallhorse,yes,and-'dropping into English'-nine
hundred devils."
Such was the fabulous tale of Kim's originsand the indeterminateprocess by
which an English identitycame to determine him. Kipling at once avows and
REPRESENTATIONS 40 * Fall 1992 ? THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 153
disavows these uncertainand hybridsources of identityand authoritywhen he
asserts: "Though he was burned black as any native; though he spoke the ver-
nacular by preference,and his mother-tonguein a clipped uncertainsing-song;
though he consorted on termsof perfectequalitywithsmall boys of the bazaar;
Kim was white."3Obvious and easy thoughitis to see howKimassertsracial polar-
ities,it is equally significantto observe thatthese oppositionsare rendered pro-
foundlyenigmaticin the processof theirformulation.Thus Kim'swhitenessdoes
not stand separate fromhis blacknessbut is bleached fromhis "burned as black"
skin. So immersedis the formationof Kim's racial identityand authorityin dif-
ference-whiteness formedon the borderlinesof blackand white,factand fable,
English and the vernacular-that liminalitymarksthe emergence of a powerful
colonizer-colonizedhierarchy.Produced in liminality, the relationshipbetween
these categories is transformed;the imbalance of power between the whiteand
the black does not disappear but acquires a differentbalance afterthe two have
been imbricated.4As Kipling'stextproduces the colonizerfromthe colonized, we
witness the renegotiationof the oppositional relationshipbetween black and
whiteas these termsemerge in the processof denyingand displacingtheirstatus
as self-contained,originaryidentities.
The historyof science staged in museums and exhibitionsin BritishIndia
also bears witnessto the ambivalenceproduced bycolonial discourse in its enun-
ciation-that is, in signifyingcultural difference,categories, meanings, and
identities.This process of enunciationis alwaysambivalentbecause culturalrep-
resentationis signifiedin difference(as in the case of Kim's whiteness)-because
the subject of representation(the West,science,the "native")is alwaysdifferent
from,and can never contain and control,the act of itssignification.Thus, there
existsa disjuncturebetween meanings articulatedand the processes and condi-
tions that make theirarticulationpossible. In the colonial context,these enunci-
ative disjuncturestook on an added meaning not only because Westernscience
was representedin "native"objects,but because the representationof science as
Westernwas expected to emerge fromthe placementof "native"objects before
"native" eyes as well. Such was the enunciativesplitbetween the subject of rep-
resentation(Westernscience) and the process (hybrid,differentiating) by which
it was signified. As a result,neitherthe statusof science as Western nor its sepa-
ration fromthe Indian could be maintained-European knowledgeand institu-
tions emerged pursued by the shadow of its colonial birth.Just as the colony
disclosed thatwhitenesswas bleached fromthe "burned black" skin,it also high-
lightedthatthe representationof scienceas Westernwas produced in the process
of science "goingnative."Withthebinarystructure-scientific/unscientific, Euro-
pean/non-European, colonizer/colonized-of colonial knowledge and power dis-
placed, an Indian elite could emerge as knowing subjects neither blinded by
"superstition"nor endowed with a scientificgaze but with another sight. The
subalterns,too, made their appearance in gaps opened by displacementsand
154 REPRESENTATIONS
rearticulationsproduced bythe performanceof science.But theyappeared men-
acinglyin the discourse, stereotypedas ignorantand unteachable because their
"inappropriate"receptionof science,drawingon "improper"mixturesof objec-
tivityand wonder produced in museums and exhibitions, threatened the
authorityof oppositions sacred to the colonial project. In the emergence of the
subaltern,then,there appears another,"third"viewof the performanceof colo-
nial science-one that addresses the general issue of how the stagingof science
realigned colonial categories.
The Discourse of Colonial Science:

Classificationand Function
To the British,India was an ideal locusfor science: it provided a rich

diversitythat could be mined for knowledge and, as a colony,offeredthe infa-
mous "elbow room" foran unhinderedpursuitof science.5By the late nineteenth
century,this sense of an unbounded opportunitydrove the establishmentand
expansion of museums and exhibitions.6Equally importantin the rise of these
institutionswas the convictionthatIndia needed a new formof knowledge.The
Britishstatedthe matterplainlyin 1874:
mustbe able to recognizewithprecisionthevariousgrainsand otherprod-
Local officers
to enablethemto deal withagricultural
uctsof theirdistricts, in an intelligent
statistics
manner.At presentit is almostludicrousto observe... howoftenthesame thingsare
calledbydifferentnames,and different thingsbysamenames.7
To know was to name, identify,and compare-this was the framein which
the question of understandingIndia entered the discourse of colonial science.
Museums were valuable because they provided an order of thingsby naming,
classifying,and displayingIndian artifacts.8
In thisrespect,museologicalpractice
differedfromcabinetsof curiosities:unlike these cabinets,museums organized
objects to make them speak a language, reveal an order. From thispoint of view,
the Oriental Museum of the AsiaticSociety,founded in Calcutta in 1814, which
was littlemore than a warehouse of rare objects,came to be seen as inadequate
bythe 1850s.9Persuaded bythe society'sargumentthatthe existingseparationof
collectionsinto detached parts robbed them of theirscientificvalue insofaras it
did not make visible "that series of links which actually exists in Nature," the
governmentestablishedcolonial India's largestand mostimportantmuseum,the
Indian Museum, which,housed in a new building,opened in 1878 to the public
in Calcutta.'? The foundationof the Madras Central Museum has a similarhis-
tory. Originating in a storehouse of curious objects, it was established as a
museum in 1851 and began to functionsystematically after 1885 when Edgar
Thurston was appointed as itsfirstfull-timesuperintendent.Thurston remained
in charge until 1910, expanded the museum greatly,and became a major colonial
Science"GoneNative"in ColonialIndia 155
ethnologistwho pursued his special interestin anthropometryratherunusually;
he kept his calipers and other measuring instrumentshandy, using them on
native visitorsto the museum-sometimes paying them, sometimes not." A
numberof othersignificantmuseumswere establishedduringthe second halfof
the nineteenthcentury,makingthemubiquitousin urban India bythe end of the
century.'2
As museums spread and expanded their collections,the stresson natural
history,classification,and re-presentingthe order of nature persisted.'3This
natural-history vision proved to be enduringbecause geological and natural his-
tory collectionswere the predominantconcernsof the older and largermuseums
fromtheirinception.But more importantin thisrespectwas the colonial concep-
tion that India was close to nature: its inhabitantslived close to the soil; it was
home to numerous "tribesand races"; and the stateof knowledgewas chaotic-
"same thingsare called bydifferent names,and different thingsbysame names"-
requiringpersistentclassification.
If colonialismamplifiedthe importanceof classificationand natural history
in the organizationof museums,the imperialconnectionwas visiblealso in the
significantrole given to order and naming in provincialand local exhibitions
throughoutIndia during the same period. The link between classificationand
colonialismhad also markedtheorganizationof objectsat the 1851 CrystalPalace
in London.'4 Local exhibitionsin India originatedin the 1840s to prepare forthis
event,but theyacquired a momentumof theirown in subsequent decades. As
instrumentsfor promotingcommerce and advancing a scientificknowledge of
economic resources, theybrought artifactsinto colonial discourse as classified
objects. The emergence of these artifactsas objects of discourse, however,
entailed the authorizationof colonial officialsas expertsresponsibleforcollecting
informationfrom"nativeinformants."
A general listofSectionswasmadein advance,and in everydistrict at a meetingof
visited,
cultivators, calledwhetherbytheDistrict Officeror an important
zamindar[landlord];a
speciallistwaspreparedinaccordancewiththegenerallistofagricultural articlesofspecial
valueforthatdistrict. In somedistricts,as in Burdwan,Bankuraand Murshidabad, Kabi-
rajes[indigenousherbalists and healers]werealso consulted.The listso made out was
madeoverto theDistrict Officeror to thezamindarconcerned, and thingswerecollected
byactualcultivators and others,and sentto theExhibition.'5
If one aim of colonial pedagogy was to instructpeasants by exhibitingtheir

products and knowledge,organized and authorized by the science of classifica-
tion,itsotheraim was to renderthe principleof functionmanifestso thatitcould
be applied to improveproduction.Indeed, the organizersof the Allahabad Exhi-
bition of 1910-11 stated that the exhibition'spurpose was to instructviewers
in differentmethods of production and in the functioningand benefitsof
machines.6 Thus, while a classificatoryorder emerged in the distributionof
spaces and objects into discrete "Courts," exhibitionsstressed the principle of
156 REPRESENTATIONS
function.17Functionas a categoryof knowledgeon displaygrewrapidlyin impor-
tance soon afterexhibitionsmade theirappearance in the mid nineteenthcen-
tury.Agriculturalexhibitions,in particular,became a regularfeatureof the rural
landscape.'8 Some of these were initiatedlocally and graftedonto traditional
fairs.'9In addition to such local events,provincialand internationalspectacles
were also staged, such as the 1883 Calcutta InternationalExhibition.20
So impor-
tanthad these spectaclesbecome bythe end of the nineteenthcenturythateven
the Indian National Congress, the foremostnationalistparty,joined in by orga-
nizing, startingin 1901, an industrial exhibitionto coincide with its annual
meeting.
Organized witha great deal of pomp and show,exhibitionswere successful
in drawing a large number of visitors.21 For example, the Nagpur Exhibition
in 1865 reported 30,000 visitorsover eight days; 50,000-60,000 visited the
Fureedpur Exhibitionin Bengal over eight days in 1873; and a millionvisitors
wentto see the 1883 Calcutta InternationalExhibition.22Museums,though sober
and somber,were also successfulin this respect. Between 1904 and 1914, the
Indian Museum in Calcutta drew at least 503,000 visitorsannually,and as many
as 829,000.23The Madras Central Museum was equally successful,promptinga
proud Edgar Thurston to compare favorablythe number of visitorsto the
Madras Museum to that of the BritishMuseum.24These numbers indicate the
measure of success thatcolonial science had achieved in its pedagogical project.
But what happened when Westernscience, embodied in native material,was
staged before an overwhelmingly nativeaudience?
The Liminal Man
As colonial discourse assembled and staged India as an object of the

sciences of naming and function,it also created a place for thatwhichit sought
to displace; indigenous artifactsand "tribesand races" emerged in their"native"
particularity discourse.The enunciationof colonial science,
as objectsof scientific
therefore,was a profoundlyambivalentprocess that,whileformulatingscientific
knowledge,articulatedWesternscience with"native"objects.
The liminalityenacted in the performanceof colonial discourse can be seen
in the science of man as itemerged in the activitiesof the Royal AsiaticSocietyof
Bengal. In 1866, the societyinformeditsmembersthatthe curatorof the Indian
Museum had issued a circularsolicitingthe assistanceof the colonial administra-
tion in the collectionof human crania forthe museum'sethnologicalsection,and
thathis requesthad metwitha favorableresponse.The societyhad receivedsome
contributionsfrom private donors, and several sources had promised further
aid.25But the collectionof skulls presented problems. One could buy skulls,as
one ethnologistdid when he persuaded an Andamanese widow to sell for one
rupee the skull of her dead "aboriginal"husband thatshe had been wearing "as
a sortof a locket";but individualscould have a "not unnaturalprejudice" against
partingwiththeircrania, and the "possessorsof interestingskulls mightnot be
willingto let us examine them,while stillon theirshoulders."26An alternative,
superior on both practicaland scientificgrounds, was suggested by Dr. Frayer,
professorof surgeryat the Medical College in Calcutta. In a letterto the Asiatic
Society,he argued that while the displayof crania was valuable, it "fellshortof
the advantages to be derived by anthropologicalscience froma studyof races
themselvesin life."7 Thus arose the idea of assemblingfordisplay"races" found
in and around Bengal and other provincesat various local exhibitions,leading
up to an ethnologicalcongressof all the races of India.
Endorsing thisproposal, George Campbell recountedbeing "much struckby
seeing men of most interestingand curious races carryingthingsdown to the
Punjab Exhibitiontwoor threeyearsago; the men,who were notto be exhibited,
seemed to me much more curious than the things they were taking to the
exhibit."28Persuaded by Campbell, the Asiatic Societyproposed to the govern-
ment thatan ethnologicalcongressbe held as a "fittingadjunct to the proposed
General IndustrialExhibitionof 1869-70."29Discussionsat the society'smeetings
now centered on practicalaspects of the proposed exhibition.Campbell thought
thatan "exhibitionof the Aborigineswould be theeasiestthingin theworld,"and
that"as theyare such excellentlabourers,theymightbe utilisedas Coolies to put
in order the Exhibitiongrounds at certaintimes,while at otherstheytake their
seats forthe instructionof the Public."Accordingly,he proposed that
an Ethnological branchshouldbe added to thenextAgricultural Exhibition,in which,
withoutin anywaydegradingmenand brethren to thepositionofanimals,opportunity
shouldbe givenforstudying manat leasttothesameextenttowhichanimalsare studied;
a study,which,in thecase ofhumans,shouldextendtolanguageand mentalqualities,as
well as to physicalqualities.I would engagea suitablenumberof individualsof pro-
nouncedtype,as Exhibitors on a suitableremuneration. I woulderecta sufficientnumber
ofboothsor stallsdividedintocompartments, liketheboxesin a theatreor theshopsin a
bazar; I wouldarrange,thatat certainhours,on certaindays,theExhibitors, classified
accordingto racesand tribes,shouldsiteachin hisownstall,shouldreceiveand converse
withthePublic,and submittobe photographed, printed, takenoffincasts,and otherwise
reasonably dealtwith,in theinterestsof science.30
Unlike exhibits in museums, living exhibits,suitablyframed in classified

stalls,could talk to visitors;they could be observed in motion, as functioning
objects. Insofar as such an exhibitofferedan understandingof lifeitself,a better
breeding of "man" became realizable:
argue,thata movement
I hope,I need scarcely ofthiskindis no meredilettantism.
Of all
sciences,the neglectedstudyof man is now recognisedas the mostimportant. The
breedingof horsesis a science;the breedingof cattleis a science;I believethatthe
breedingof short-hornsis one of themostexcitingofEnglishoccupations,butthebreed
ofmanhas hitherto beenallowedto multiply at hap-hazard.3
158 REPRESENTATIONS
This "hap-hazard" multiplicationwas evident,according to Campbell, in misce-
genation. "The world is becomingmore and more one greatcountry;race meets
race, black withwhite,the Arian withTuranian and the Negro; and questions of
miscegenationor separation are very pressing."32By providingthe means for
observingand understandingseparate and mixed races, livingexhibitsheld out
the possibilityof envisioninga more scientificbreeding of man to replace and
reorder the chaos of miscegenation-such was the heady lure offeredbythe sci-
ence of life.Given such high stakes,nothingwas too much to offerat the altar of
science. When asked how much clothingwas to coverthese exhibited"wildcrea-
tures,"Campbell replied:
Withrespecttoclothing, I wouldonlysuggestthatI thinkwe shouldpreferto havethem
shape.... As cleanliness
in theirnativeand characteristic so I think
comesaftergodliness,
thatdecencymustcomeafterscience;at anyrateI wouldonlysatisfy themostinevitable
demandsofdecency.33
The ExhibitionCommitteeof the CentralProvincesformulatedthe plan to seize

a familyof specimensratherthan individualsamples of "wildtribes,"and to feed
and photograph their"biped specimens";an officialfromthe Andaman Islands,
in preparationforthe ethnologicalcongress,senttwoAndamanese boyswithnew
names-Joe and Tom-to Calcutta,where theysang and danced at a meetingof
the AsiaticSociety.34A greatdeal of ethnologicalinquirywas carriedout bydistrict
officersin differentprovinces,and a sizable number of reports on "races and
tribes"accumulated. But by 1868, the plan fora grand exhibitionof all the races
had been scaled down,and in theend, due to thelack of funds,such an exhibition
was held in the Central Provincesonly.35
Notwithstandingthe whittlingdown of overlyambitiousplans,the case of the
ethnologicalcongress of races shows that the stagingof the science of man was
inevitably"contaminated"byobjectsin whichitinhered.If the placingof "aborig-
inals" in theater-likestallswas to demonstratea science of man, how could this
science be separated fromthe mode and means of itsperformance?The ambiv-
alence of the colonial science of man lay in the factthatit was produced on the
borderlinesof black and white,the Aryan,Turanian,and the Negro-indeed, on
the marginsbetweenman and short-horns.Could man produced byfearsof mis-
cegenation be anythingbut a disturbed,liminalcategory?The traces of such a
disturbed categoryof man are to be found in Campbell's plea that the human
exhibitsbe "otherwisereasonablydealt with,in the interestsof science,"and the
embarrassmentwithwhichhe concludes that"decencymustcome afterscience."
Racism,to be sure,is overwhelmingin thisand othercolonial texts;itempowered
the colonialistto place the "native"in stalls,interrogateand photographhim,and
referto him as a "biped specimen."But itwas preciselythis"biped specimen"who
stood for"man."
The predicamentof a racistcolonial science was thatit could not escape the
liminalityproduced in itsown performance.As thecolonizerstaged thecolonized
as man, he disavowed the veryracistpolarity-European versus "native"-that
was the enabling frameof his discourse. Though hierarchizedand placed in an
evolutionary frame, the "aborigine" emerges not as alien to man but as his
kindred.The liminalityof such a man was acknowledgedin theanxious reference
to "multiplicationat hap-hazard,"miscegenation,as much as in the embarrassed
and inadequate attemptat reasonablenessand decency.36 These troubledgestures
of it
express the ambivalence colonial science as disavowed its avowed polarities
in the process of producing an authoritativediscourse fromunauthorized mis-
cegenations. In the double-speak of science "gone native,"man turned liminal.37
Spectatorship:
Science Taken forWonder
If the re-presentationof objects by museums and exhibitionspro-

duced the signsof science going native,the ambivalenceof thisprocess could not
but affectthe projected conception of viewingand the response of the viewers.
The problem for museums and exhibitionswas how to make objects rise above
their concreteness and their "native" particularityto reveal something more
abstractand universal.How was a pure order of knowledgeto emerge fromthe
objects of "native" provenance and strike the viewer as science? This was a
problem thatcould not be addressed at the level of the re-presentationof objects
alone; it required the conception of a viewershipthatwas capable of separating
the pure science of classificationfromthe impurityof "same thingscalled bydif-
ferentnames," one thatwas competentto isolate the science of "man" fromthe
body of "biped specimens."Thus the eye became responsiblefor obtainingthe
scientificknowledgelodged in objectsof India's naturalhistory,and the produc-
tion and the authorityof science became dependent on itsvisual demonstration.
The eye as privilegedmeans of acquiringand demonstratingscientificknowl-
edge was particularlyimportantfor museums in India because most Indians
could not read. For illiteratevisitors,captionson exhibitswere of littleuse, least
of all thosewrittenin English,whichmostmuseumsused. Giventheseconditions,
labelingwas a neglectedfeatureof museums; labels were poorlyconceived,often
wrong, and unimaginative,rendering the techniques of display all the more
important.38 The superiorstandardsof displayenhanced the importanceof visu-
ality in museums as an instrumentof education. In the absence of a reading
public, the museum could substitutefora book, and theobservingeyecould stand
for the reading eye. So thought Dr. Bhawoo Dajee, a Parsi merchant from
Bombay,who, in addressing a public meetingof "Native and European inhabi-
tants"held in 1858 to establishthe VictoriaMuseum and Gardens, said that
160 REPRESENTATIONS
totheunlearnedespecially-andin thatclasswemustincludea verygreatmajorityofour
countrymen-a Museum is a bookwith
broad pagesand which
largeprint, is seenat least;
and bymereinspectionteaches evenifitbe notread39
somewhat,
According to Dr. Dajee, seeing was a poor surrogate for reading-it was not
reading but inspection,capable only of "teach[ing]somewhat."But poor substi-
tute though it may have been, the presence of a vast numberof the "unlearned"
leftno alternative.Indeed, visualitybecame all the more critical:
The Nativescannotunderstanda newthingunlessit is held up beforetheireyeswith
somethingofa continuous
perseverance. timetheymaywonder;thesecondtime
The first
theymayunderstand;thethirdtimetheymayobservewitha viewto practice.40
This was the conditionof colonial spectatorship;the "native,"howeverunenlight-
ened, was necessaryfor museums and exhibitionsso that the superstitiouseye
could be transformedinto one that,withrepeated confrontationwithscientific
knowledgeembodied in objects,was capable of understanding.
If the stagingof science transformedthe Indian viewerfromsuperstitiousto
wondrous, the contextof viewershipalso displaced the relationshipof science to
magic. Such a culturaltranslationoccurs in the stagingof mesmerismas a science
in India during the 1840s. The chief proponent of mesmerismin India was a
surgeon in the colonial medical service,Dr. JamesEsdaile, who was allowed to set
up a Mesmeric Hospital in Calcutta as an experimentin 1846, subjectto regular
inspections by other medical officersto determine the scientificvalue of mes-
merism. The inspectingmedical officersconcluded that Dr. Esdaile's claims on
behalf of mesmericscience were untenable,but theyadmittedthat the hospital
was popular withthe "natives"of Bengal because of the existenceof "superstition
in itswidestsense and in itsmostabsurd forms."Those nativeswho had "themost
implicitfaithin witchcraft, magic,the power of spiritsand demons, and the effi-
cacy of charms and incantations" believed that Dr. Esdaile had supernatural
powers, and the officersreported that "the common name under whichthe Mes-
mericHospital is knownamong the lowerclasses is thatof houseofmagic,orjadoo
hospital."4'But how did Dr. Esdaile's hospitalacquire itsname as a house of magic,
and whydid the "natives"believe thatmesmerismwas magic? It appears thatthe
hospitalhad acquired the name ofjadoo hospitalbecause Dr. Esdaile himselfused
the term belateemuntur,"the European charm,"in explaining mesmerismto his
Indian medical assistants.42
If the practice of the European science of mesmerismwas mixed with the
evocationof the "European charm,"how was itsscientificity to be established?As
Esdaile himselfexplained, itwas the publicstagingof mesmerismthatestablished
its scientificity
among both Europeans and Indians.43At first,he was skepticalof
the utilityof "public exhibitionsforeffectinga general conversionto the truthof
Mesmerism" and believed that "performersin public are not unnaturallysus-
pected to take insurancesfromArt,in the eventof Nature failingthem."In spite
of his "natural distrustof public displays,"however,he consented when senior
officialspressured himto stage a show.The performance,held beforeEuropeans
and Indians on 29 July1845, was reportedin the newspapersthe nextday: "The
partywas very numerous, two steamershaving brought the curious fromBar-
rackpore and Calcutta; and there was a large assemblage of the European and
Native residentsof Hoogly and Chinsurah."44Before the day ended, Esdaile had
impressed the viewerswith his many feats: two women who were mesmerized
separatelyin two differentrooms displayedidenticalsymptomsof twinklingeye-
lids, swayingside to side, entranced; mesmerictranceat "long range" was dem-
onstratedon a man, who in his insensiblestate,evident in his catalepticlimbs,
obeyed Esdaile's instructions,singing"Ye Marinersof England," "God Save the
King," and "Hey Diddle Diddle"; "sleeping water" was administered(aftertwo
clergymenand doctors had observed "watercharmed" by Esdaile) to men who
turnedcatalepticor became somnambulists.Undoubtedly,thisEuropean account
treatedthe whole spectacleas an amusing magic show,but italso saw the show as
a demonstrationof the scientificity of mesmerism.Indeed it was in the public
display of its magical effectthat mesmerism emerged as science,perched precar-
iously in between cold scientific
scrutinyand superstitionin its"widest"and "most
absurd forms."
What was true of mesmerismwas also trueof othersciences.From 1866 until
his death forty-two yearslater,FatherEugene Lafont,a BelgianJesuitwho taught
at the Calcutta St. Xavier's College, institutedand delivered a series of public
lecturesand exhibitions.45 Startingwitha simple magic lanternshow,he wenton
to lectureand exhibitinstrumentson such subjectsas the telephone,the phono-
graph, Tesla's high frequencycurrents,X-rays,color photography,and wireless
telegraphy.Acknowledged as a promoter of science, he was invited by the
Western-educatedIndian elite to lectureto itsorganizations,evokingwondrous
response: "The experimentswe have seen tonightshew that Truth is stranger
than fiction"and that the "wondrous discoveriesof Science surpass the wildest
dreams of poetryand romance."46Building on such enthusiasticresponses gen-
erated bypublic lecturesand demonstrationof scientific instruments, Dr. Mahen-
dra Lal Sircar,a prominentIndian promoterof science,aided bymen like Father
Lafont and assisted by governmentpatronage, founded the Indian Association
for the Cultivationof Science in Calcutta in 1876.47While developing into an
organization of scientistsand promotingprofessionalresearch, the IACS also
arranged public talksbyeminentscientistswho illustratedtheirlectureswithsci-
entificinstruments.
If performancemixed science withmagical spectacle,it also enhanced the
importanceofvisuality.Thus, themuseumsconfrontedobserverswithan orderly
organizationof fossils,rocks,minerals,bones, vegetation,coins, sculptures,and
manuscripts.Exhibitions,on the other hand, offereda feastto the Indian eye.
162 REPRESENTATIONS
Depending on theirscale, theyspared no effortto produce an attractivespectacle:
ceremonial arches, palatial structures,militarybands, lakes, fountainsbathed in
colored lights,food stalls,wrestlingcompetitionsand pony races, and regional
theater-all combined to impressthe public eye and draw it to agriculturalprod-
ucts, manufacturedgoods, machines,scientificinventions,and new methods of
workingand living.So centralwas the idea of dramaticsuccess to exhibitionsthat
when it did not occur, public commentarywas sharp. This happened when the
Calcutta InternationalExhibitionopened afteran evening of pouring rain-a
damp beginning compounded by the darkness that the opening ceremonywas
plunged intowhen "owingto the wickednessof some wretchthe electricwirewas
cut."48The Englishman,a newspaper alwaysenthusiasticabout colonial projects,
could not refrainfromcommentingthatthe scene was "verysad, the greatcere-
monywas tornto ribbons,the superb rubyvelvetcanopy was drippinglike a drill
cloth.... EveryCourt leaked more or less-Victoria a good deal."49By contrast,
the opening of the Allahabad Exhibitionof 1910 to 1911 drew ecstaticpublic
praise. Saraswati,a premier Hindi literaryjournal, was moved to describe the
layoutand exhibitspicturesquely,declaringthe eventa spectacularsuccess.50The
Pioneer,an English daily,gushed that"sons and daughtersof the East and West"
greeted the opening of the exhibitionwith cries of "Kolossal!, Kya ajib! [how
amazing], Bapre bap! [akin to O myGod], Wah! [splendid],thisbeats Chicago!"51
What began as representationsof science staged to conquer ignorance and
superstitionbecame enmeshed in the veryeffectsthat were targeted for elimi-
nation. We encounter thisintermixturein the museum's evocationof the awe of
the visitors,in the exhibition'sutilizationof a sense of marvels,in mesmericsci-
ence's attemptto show magical efficacy, and in the miraculouspowers evoked by
public demonstrationsof scientificinstruments.In these representationsof sci-
ence staged in museums and exhibitions,thecold scrutinyof scientificknowledge
confrontedthe magic of spectaclesas part of its own process of signification, as
differencewithinitself.The display of scientificknowledge emerged fromthis
structureof differenceto face the eyes of the curious, not those of the supersti-
tious: the Wonder House confrontedthe museum not as itspolar opposite but as
an interstitialspace signifyinga half-awakestateof comprehensionand incom-
prehension; in the cries of "Kya ajib!" and "Wah!" we do not confrontclosed
minds and blind faithbut open minds and the wondrous curiosityof "This beats
Chicago."
The Second Sight
The rearticulationof the science-superstitionopposition into a non-

binary relationshipbetween wondrous science and knowledge-seekingwonder
opened up an ambivalent space for the subjectivityand agency of Western-
educated Indian elites. So long as the propagandizing of Westernscience was
construed as a conquest over Indian superstition,there was no place for these
elites.But because the ambivalentfunctioningof museumsand exhibitionsrefor-
mulated conquest as translation,the Indian elitescould surfaceas subject-agents
with,as one textstates,"second sight."The double-edged process thatmakes this
"second sight"possible is ignored in the theoryof "second colonization,"which
positsthatideologies of modernityand sciencecolonized Indians farmore endur-
inglythan militaryconquest and politicaldomination.52 Such an approach focuses
primarily on the content of colonial representations, on the process of their
not
composition and deployment.Consequently,itoverlooksthatprocessualand con-
textual meanings of the discourse cannot be simplyread offmimeticallyin the
contentof representations.It was preciselybetweenthe utteranceof the textand
the process of articulation,between the representationalcontentand the act of
its staging,thatthe elite found its"second sight."Having found it,the elite went
on to distinguishtheirvisual power fromthe superstitiouseye of the subaltern
masses whose education was theirtask. This became possible because the func-
tioningof museums and exhibitionsrequired thatthe superstitiouseye become
curious.
We can observe the emergence of the curious eye of "second sight"in R. B.
Sanyal's Hours withNature(1896), which includes a chapter titled "Round the
Indian Museum," a fictionalaccount of a visitby schoolteachersto the Indian
Museum.53Mr.W.,inspectorof schoolsin Bengal, instructsPanditVidyabhushan,
a Sanskrit grammarian,in a dialogue that opens with the teachers expressing
amazement at the sightof zoological specimens:
'Whata varietyofforms!'
'Fromall partsoftheworld!'
'The vastnessofthecollectionis perfectlybewildering!'
'Notso muchas thosestrangeweed-like saidVidyabhushan,
things,' pointingtowards
somereallyveryplant-likeobjectskept in casesagainstthewesternwallofthehall .... Mr.
W., who was attentively
listeningto the conversation and had noticedVidyabhushan's
embarrassment, explainedthatthoughweed-likein appearancetheywere in reality
animals.
exclaimedVidyabhushan.
thanfiction,'
'Truthis,as theysay,stranger
'Letus hearsomething aboutthesestrangeforms,'criedmanyalmostin chorus.
'Wellthen,'resumedMr.W.,'thoseweed-like or Plant-animals,"
objectsare"Zoophytes
resemblance
so calledowingto theirsuperficial to plants.'54
The textcontinues in this manner for several pages, bewildermentand amaze-

ment followed by explanation and understanding.The method of comparison
and classificationis demonstrated,leading to the following:
saidVidyabhushan,
'I havebeenconnected,' oranotherwiththeeducation
'inone capacity
ofchildrenand youngmenforthelastthirty years,and havereadand taughta greatmany
thingsaboutanimalsand theirwaysas relatedinstoryand readingbooks.I know,as every
164 REPRESENTATIONS
school-boyknows,thatlionsand tigersareformidableanimals;thatostriches areverylarge
birdsthatlivein thedesertsofAfrica,and are remarkable fortheirspeed;thatelephants
are verysensibleand amusingto children,and havetheiruses.But then,thisis learning
thingswithoutmethod,and is, therefore, of no value.I am so glad thatMr.W. has hit
upon thisplan of teachingtheteachersto valuesystem. In fact,he has givenus a second
sight[emphasismine]. When I entered
first this greathall, bewilderedat
I was perfectly
thevastnessofthecollection,and had nottheleastidea in whatorderand plantheywere
arranged.I havegotat leastsomenotionnowof theirarrangement, thanksto theinter-
esting demonstrationsof Mr.W.'55
Afterdescribingseveralotheroccasionsof puzzlementfollowedbyMr.W.'sexpla-
nations, the text concludes with Mr. W. stating that understanding nature
requires the simplicityand the purityof a child's heart, and an "ear of faith."
Vidyabhushan acknowledgesthe importanceof childlikesimplicitybut adds that
"according to our old Hindu idea 'Reverence' is anotheressentialqualityforthe
trainingof the mind." With thisinvocationof the "Hindu idea," Vidyabhushan
does not dilute differencebut affirmsitas the basis fornegotiatinga relationship
with"an ear of faith."
As the textsketchesand negotiatesthe relationshipof wonder withscience,
and of childlike simplicityand Hindu reverence with knowledge,it outlines a
space foran educated elite,now possessed of the"second sight"and able to absorb
Westernscience. The "second sight"emerges in the process of encounteringthe
objects in the museum, out of the bewildermentpoised in betweenscientificgaze
and superstition.The emergence of this amazement and wonder through the
performativeprocess is evidentfromthe factthatthetextdoes not attributethem
to prior scientifictraining;the museum goers are described as "school-masters
and Pandits,"and the principal characteris described as "PanditJadavchandra
Vidyabhushan," a scholar of grammar.56As a grammarian, he presumably
broughtlogic and classificationto his understandingof the museum,but thiswas
not the same as the "value system"taughtbythe museum. In fact,the textinvokes
the "Hindu idea of'Reverence."' Significantly, this"Hindu idea" emerges in the
act of learning,even though part of Vidyabhushan'sheritage,it surfacesat the
museum in the process of viewingobjects.Outlined here is the notionof a Hindu
conceptual system,or "Hindu science,"that is not derived fromor opposed to
Westernscience; the "Hindu idea" arises in the process of recognizingthe differ-
ence of Westenscience.
It is significantthat the textoutlines this space of differencein a museum,
and the records of several museums also provide evidence thattheymade room
forthe educated elite.Almostall museumsorganized visitsof groups of students
and teachers to their galleries;57in addition many museums organized regular
public lectures. It appears thatthe Lahore Central Museum was the most active
in this respect.58Besides housing the Science Instituteand allowing the Society
forPromotingScientificKnowledge to use itslecturehall,the museum also insti-
tuted a series of "Magic Lantern Lectures"in 1892 and 1893, whenJohn Lock-
wood Kipling reported the purchase and apparentlyhugely successfuluse of a
magic lanternin a lecture.The topicsof these lectures,deliveredin both English
and Urdu and by both Englishmenand Indians, varied-they ranged fromhis-
tory to science. The best attended lectures were apparentlythe "Zenana Lec-
tures,"reserved for purdah-clad women, delivered frequentlyin the 1910s and
the 1920s by Manorama Bose, a Bengali Christianwoman who taughtat the Vic-
toria School, eventuallybecoming its headmistress.59 She belonged to a family
devoted to missionary work. Her fatherhad converted to when,after
Christianity
graduatingfromthe Calcutta Medical College and joining the medical servicein
Punjab, he came across American missionariesin Ludhiana. One of his four
daughters, Manorama Bose was sent to London to train as a teacher in 1884.
There she began to keep a diary which records her visitsto Kew Gardens, the
Natural HistoryMuseum, the CrystalPalace, and a demonstrationof the magic
lantern.60On her returnto India in 1886, she learned Urdu, Persian,and Bengali,
joined the Victoria School as a teacher,and lectured frequentlyin the series of
the Lahore Museum. Her lectureswere not on science,but the combinationof
lectureson nonscientificissues withscientificsubjectsappears to have been part
of an effortto draw the educated to the museum.6'
The desire to findand include activitiesthatwould draw the uneducated was
a continuingfeatureof museums and exhibitions,and it provided the means for
markingand separating the elite fromthe subaltern.We notice this process of
markingemerge in Dr. Bhawoo Dajee's conception of the museum as a "book
withbroad pages and large print"thattaughtthroughseeing, by "mere inspec-
tion,"the "verygreat majorityof our countrymen"-"theunlearned." We catch a
glimpseof itagain in the response of Bhoobun Mohun Raha and Jadub Chandra
Goswami, the twoJoint-Secretaries of the Fureedpur AgriculturalExhibition,to
of
criticisms amusements in the exhibition:"If bands of music and other attrac-
tion are found necessaryin England, how much more so is somethingof thissort
necessaryin thiscountry."62 That thisreferrednot to Indians as a whole but to
the lower orders becomes clear when theystate,while reportingon the perfor-
mance of jatra (Bengali traditionaltheater)and "nautches" (dances) during the
1873 exhibition,thatthese performanceswere "chieflyforthe amusementof the
lower classes,who have stilla greattasteforthese things."The lowerclasses were
not only marked by theirtasteforjatrasand "nautches"but were also definedby
theirpoor understandingof scientificagriculture.Thus these amusementswere
consideredjustifiedforthe sake of "the improvementof the agriculturists of this
Sub-division,who were so much in need of instructionsand practicaldemonstra-
tion on scientificmode of cultivationand manuring."63
The awareness that the subalternsare in need of scientificinstructionruns
throughthe writingsof the educated elite. It appears, forexample, in an article
on the Alaska-Yukon-PacificExhibitionof 1910, published in the Hindi journal
166 REPRESENTATIONS
Saraswati.The author,afterbeing struckbytheAgriculturalCourt and describing
the demonstrationof scientificmethodsof production,writesof his conversation
witha friend:
'Does not the sightof thesethingsteacha greatdeal?' Munshiramsaid in amazement.

'Undoubtedly, whynot.Thisknowledge isrelevanttofarmers.Theyhavegainedmuchby
coming intothisbuilding.'
'Andthen,thereis our countrywherepeople are livingin darkness.The same old
ploughsand bullocks.These unfortunate thepoorpro-
soulsbelievethatfatedetermines
oftheirsoil.Theydo notrealizethattheirmiserable
ductivity isdue totheirown
condition
ignorance.The samelandcan growhundredtimesmoreifscientific methodswereto be
employed.'
'Butwhowillteachthem?'
'Justas governments here spendcroresof rupeesto teachpeasants,so shouldour
governments do.'
I smiled.Munshiram understoodthemeaningofmysmile.He tooka deepbreathand
joined me as we came out of the building.64
The admirationforscientificagriculture,the bitterrecognitionof the Indian

peasant's ignorance,and the smileand the deep breath-these were the gestures
and expressions of the discourse in which the elite formedits identity,enlight-
ened unlike the subalternbut colonized like it. This identitycan also be seen to
come to the fore earlier,in reactionsto the 1883 Calcutta InternationalExhibi-
tion.The Bengaleewelcomed the idea of an exhibition,acknowledgedthatitcould
instructparticularlywhen held on a small scale in districts.But a grand one such
as the Calcutta Exhibition ignored the fact that one had to keep in mind the
characterof the people it was aimed at and the resourcestheypossessed:
If an Exhibitionwereheld amongthe remotebarbariansof the SandwichIslands,the

theprojectorwouldprobablybe worshippedas a
spectaclewouldcreateastonishment,
god-an honour thatwould perhapsbe extendedto some of his commodities-but
wouldfollow.These barbarianshaveno capital,and evenif
nothingsolidor substantial
and theirinclinations
weredeeplystirred,
theircuriosity moved,therewouldbe wanting
thecapitalto manufacture.65
A similar problem existed in India. Here, too, "artisansand agriculturistswill

come fromthe moffasilto see the greatBazar,"and thoughtheywould be moved
by thingstheysee, nothingcould come of it as theywere deeply in debt and had
no capital. Once again, thiscommentarybears the imprintof an educated elite
distinguishingitselffromartisansand peasants (who were seen as similarto "the
remote barbarians of the Sandwich Islands"), and pressingits rightto speak for
the welfare of the subaltern. Eighteen years after this commentary,when the
Indian National Congress began to hold industrialexhibitionsto coincide withits
annual meetingin 1901, thiselite emerged, organized in a powerfulinstitution,
as a class apart fromthe subalternmasses,and determinedto change them.
Science and the Subaltern
If museums and exhibitionsmade a space for the emergence of the

educated elite fromwhichtheycould act and speak, whatof the subalterns?They
did not writebooks or lettersto editors. But the absence of theirtestimoniesis
not as criticalan issue here as the lack of theirpositionsas speakingsubjects.They
are spoken to and spoken for.We encounter them in the discourse of colonial
and Indian elitesas representingthe ignoranceand darknessthe eliteswished to
remove.What can we read in thisprocess of expulsion fromcolonial discourse as
speaking subjects?What do we make of theirpresence as bearers of ignorance
and "superstition"?
The project of science had begun by targetingthe subalternas the object to
be transformedby the exposure to new formsof knowledge.But those defined
as ignorant and superstitiouscould never be fullyunderstood or completely
appropriated-for if theyever became fullyintelligibleand completelyassimi-
lable, the project of educating them would have come to an end. Therefore, if
the lowerclasses were silencedor made to speak onlythrough"superstition," they
were also assured an intractablepresence in the discourseof colonial science; the
discourse had opened an incommensurablegap between elites and subalterns
that could never be accuratelymeasured or closed. An acknowledgmentof this
incommensurability appears in George Campbell's ruefulremarks:
I oftenstop and look at them ["tribesand races"],and I have triedto make somethingof
them, but theydon't understand me; I don't understand them; and theydon't seem to
realise the interestof ethnologicalinquiries,so I have not progressedmuch.66
If Campbell's acknowledgmentof the unbridgeable gap between colonial elites

and "tribesand races" regretfullyaccepted the inassimilablepresence of subal-
terns,thisintractabilityacquired a threateningdimensionwhen it was given the
destabilizingmomentum of rumors.Colonial rulersregisteredthisintractability
when, wishing upliftpeasants by dazzling them withagriculturalexhibitions,
to
theywere rudelyshocked byrumorssweepingthe Madras countryside.In some
districtsit was said that the Britishwere plottinga new tax scheme; while the
landed gentryand traderscooperated in organizingexhibitions,others,due to
their"unconquerable feelings"had "strangenotions"such as thatthegovernment
wanted to identifythe best agriculturalland and produce so thatit could assess
highertaxes.67Even more disturbingwas the word going around in the country-
side of south India during the 1850s that agriculturalexhibitionswere British
plots to convertHindus to Christianity:
Superstitionalso lent its aid to fillthe cup to the brim,and the most wild and laughably
fancifulnotions,were in some instances,I am inclined to think,designedly spread and
seized by the people, one of whichwas so originalthatit deserves mention,viz.,thatone
of the greatends of the Exhibitionwas to convertthe heathen to Christianity, thatforthis
168 REPRESENTATIONS
reasonprizeswereofferedbytheGovernment forthebestpaddy,thatthewholein the
Districtmightbe broughtup and the nativescompelledto eat boiledriceand become
and thattocelebratetheevent,prizeswereoffered
Christians, byGovernment forthebest
beefin theshapeofcattleofall sorts,on whichtheEuropeansweretoregaleat Christmas
in tokenofthanksgiving.68
We can read the strategyof normalizationin referencesto "superstition"and

"laughably fancifulnotions." But this very strategyof showingthe far-fetched
nature of storiesalso opened a place for the subaltern,for its agency-rumors
"designedlyspread and seized"-and forits"original"speech. This contradictory
process of denying and acknowledgingthe subalterncan be observed in Edgar
Thurston'sdescriptionof his ethnologicaltours:
The ParaiyanwomenofWynaad,whenI appearedintheirmidst,ranaway,believing that
I was goingto havethefinestspecimensamongthemstuffed forthemuseum.Oh, that
thiswerepossible!The difficultproblemof obtainingmodelsfromlivingsubjectswould
be disposedof. The Muppasof Malabarmistookme fora recruiting sergeant,benton
the
enlisting strongest of them to the
against Moplahs.
fight An Irulaof who
theNilgiris,
was'wanted'forsomeancientoffence toa forest
relating elephant,refusedtobe measured
on theplea thattheheight-measuring standardwas thegallows.A mischievous rumour
foundcredenceamongtheIrulasthatI had in mytraina wizardKurumba,whowould
bewitchtheirwomenand compelme to abductthem.The Malaialisof Shevaroysgotit
intotheirheadsthatI wasabouttoannextheirlandson behalfoftheCrown,andtransport
themto thepenalsettlement in theAndamanislands.69
While the wryhumor of "Oh, thatthiswas possible"and the amused descrip-

tion in Thurston's prose presents rumors as wild stories of wild people, his
retellingof these stories-indeed, the general tendencyof colonial officialsto
retell what they regarded as fanciful-is significant.For the very strategyof
definingand appropriatingthe Other in rumorscompels the colonial officialsto
give life to rumors,to make a place for"absurd" tales. In accommodatingthem,
the elites opened theirdiscourse to the wild contagionof indeterminacycharac-
teristicof rumors,to the menace of theirshadowyorigins,and to theirreckless
reverberationsonce set forthin motion. Registeringthe threatposed by such
escalatingindeterminacy, one officialwrotethat"themostabsurd reportswere in
circulation,no one pretendingto knowor withwhom originating,stilltheywere
greedilycredited,and the more grosslyabsurd the report,the more certainwas
it of belief."70The panic feltwas real enough. Thus, the exhibitionin Cuddapah
opened withconsiderable apprehension because the Britishwere unable to read
people's intentions.On the one hand, theyexpected considerableapathythough
not an "intentionto defythe authorities,"promptingthe Britishto considerpost-
poning the opening of the exhibition.On theotherhand, sincedefiancewas "also
stated to be the intentionof those inimicalto the Exhibition,all thoughtsthere-
fore of postponement were abandoned." Unable to determine whether the
"natives"were apathetic or intenton defyingthe authorities,and choosing to
make a stand,the authoritiesopened theexhibitionon 26 May 1856. In theevent,
however,officialsnoted that"nothingwas forthcomingsave a fewcattle."7'
Anticipatinga similaroutbreakof rumorsdue to theimpendingcensus oper-
ation, Abdool Luteef Khan, an elite Bengali Muslim, recalled the atmosphere
created by rumors at the time of the Alipore AgriculturalExhibitionin 1864.
Among many "absurd and ridiculous stories"there was one according to which
the real reason why cattle and horses were required by the exhibitionwas the
outbreak of a war somewhere,forwhichthe cattleand horses would be slaugh-
tered forfood or used to transportmilitarystores.These rumorspromptedKhan
to launch a campaign of education. He issued a pamphletin Urdu which,along
withitsBengali translation,was widelydistributedbythegovernment.As a result,
he concluded, the "bugbear called into existenceby popular ignorance has van-
ished, and thatwhichwas once dreaded is now invitedand welcomed."72It is true
that later exhibitionsdid not record similaroutbreaksof rumors,but the subal-
terncontinued to occupy an intractablepositionin colonial and Indian elite con-
ceptions; if the lower classes did not spread the contagion of rumors, they
disclosed bad culturaltastein theirpredilectionforamusementsthatexhibitions
had to provide in order to attractthem.
The subaltern also evinced an "inappropriate" attitude toward museums.
Colonial officialsfeared that,because of the popularityof museums withlower
classes, the elite had been drivenout: "The Indian aristocracylook on a museum
as something pleasing to the vulgar with which theyare not concerned." Fre-
quented by the lower classes and the "vulgar,"the museum in India could not be
"an institutionof education and research."73Descriptions of the "improper"
appropriation of museums by illiterateIndians, who formedthe overwhelming
majorityof visitors,abound in colonialwritings.Apparently,a visitto themuseum
was a regularfeatureof weddingceremoniesin Lahore.74In Madras, as also other
places, days of the most importantHindu festivalsdrew the largestnumbers of
visitors.But contraryto what we may suppose, these visitorsdid not go to
museums to pay obeisance to the statuesof deities; at least no such mentionis
made byany document. Instead, Hindu festivalsappeared to have onlyprovided
an occasion for festiverecreation,which mightinclude a visitto the museum.
Describingthe day of the feastof Pongal, 15 January1895, when 36,500 visitors
flockedto the Madras Museum, Thurston wrote:
The museumgroundspresentedtheappearanceof a fair,occupiedas theywerebya
swarmof nativesin gayholidayattire,vendorsofsweetmeats, toysand ballads,jug-
fruit,
mendicants
glers, and others.75
Interestinglyenough, when describing what visitorsdid inside the museum,

Thurston does not mentionany religiouspurpose:
to themuseumsin India,whocomeundertheheadingof
Forthegreatmassof visitors
and
sight-seers, whoregard museums as tamdsha butlittlewhat
[show]houses,itmatters
170 REPRESENTATIONS
exhibits or howtheyare displayed,
are displayed, I
providedonlythattheyare attractive.
am myself repeatedlyamusedbyseeingvisitorstotheMadrasmuseumpasshurriedly and
througharrangedgalleries,and lingerlongand noisilyovera heterogenous
silently col-
lectionofnativefigures,toys,paintedmodelsof &c.76
fruit,
Thurston adds that for these uneducated visitors,who called the museum a
"stuffingcollege" and jadu ghar (Magic or Wonder House), the main delight
offeredby the museum was "in the recognitionof familiarobjects,which they
shriekout byname, e.g.,kaka (the crow),pachi pambu (the green tree-snake),ani
(the elephant), periya min (big fish-the whale!), etc."77When Thurston pulled
out his anthropometricalinstrumentsevery evening, a crowd would gather to
watchhim:
Quiterecently,whenI wasengagedinan enquiryintotheEurasianhalf-breedcommunity,
thebookingforplaceswasalmostas keenas on theoccasionofa first
nightattheLyceum,
and thesepoysof a nativeinfantry regiment into
quarteredin Madras,enteredheartily
the spiritof whattheycalled the 'Mujeumgymnashtik shparts'[MuseumGymnastics
Sports]cheeringthepossessorof thebiggesthand-grip,and chaffingthosewhocameto
griefover thespirometer.78
The Significationof Science:

An Enigmatic Articulation
It is temptingto see the "Mujeum gymnashtikshparts"as the price

European science had to pay for its implantationin the non-European soil.
Indeed, this perspectiveframes Thurston's narrative,implyingthat European
discourses,originaryand normalin themetropolis,were pervertedin the process
of their"tropicalization"in the colonies.79Such a view overlooksthatthe repre-
sentationof Europe emerged in the encounterwiththe "native";itwas fashioned
in the foreignand exotic materialaccumulated initiallyin the Renaissance cabi-
nets of curiositiesand later in the burgeoningcolonial spoils displayed in Euro-
pean museums and exhibitions.80 At issue here is not thatthe European and the
non-European were syncretistically fused or that the two were locked in a
dialectic, now to be reversed in favor of the repressed Other to explain the
"origin"of Europe. Recognizingthatcolonial oppositionswere enunciated in dif-
ference allows us to track the relocation of the binarismwhich posits that the
imperial culture,fullyformedin the center,was "tropicalized"as it was diffused
in the periphery.81 I have traced such a relocationin the disjuncturebetweenthe
representation Europe as absolute and organic and the unequal and antago-
of
nistic encounter with the "native" in which this representationof Europe as
autonomous took shape. Imperial discourse disavowed this disjuncture as it
denied an intimacywith the "native," while constitutingcolonial artifactsas
objectsof universalknowledge.In Europe, thisdisavowaltookthe formof appro-
priatingthe "savage" in a narrativeof Enlightenmentand Progress,articulated
in the language of class, as museums and exhibitionsdrew the workingclasses,
who were often compared with the exhibited "savages" elsewhere, into disci-
plinaryregimes.82
But if science staged in European museums and exhibitionsdisavowed the
"native"in order to constitutethe authorityof science in termsof class and dis-
ciplines,the colonial "supplement"surfaced forcefullyin India. Colonies, after
all, provided the infamous"elbow room" unavailable in Europe. It was thus that
museums and exhibitionsin India remained singularlyconcerned withscience
and natural history.But it was preciselyin the virgin,colonial space of India that
museums and exhibitionsas European institutions were forcedto confronttheir
articulationwith the "native."As the Britishstaged Westernscience in Indian
materialand sought the authorityof scientificknowledgein the displayof these
objects before an Indian audience, the "native"supplement,hidden in Europe,
made a forcefulentryin colonial discourse. But conceding a place to Indians
exposed colonial discourse to an unresolvable dilemma. If Indians, who were
objects of knowledge,were recognized as knowingsubjects,the verystrategyof
hierarchizingand displayingthem as objects was invalidated; yet the project of
science demanded recognitionfromIndians as knowingsubjects.It was thusthat
"second sight,"Hindu reverence, and subaltern rumors emerged as forms in
which Indians found a place as knowingsubjects.Even if overdeterminedto be
less than appropriate, the "native"response could not be ignored. As Thurston
described his anthropometricalenterpriseturningintothe "Mujeum gymnashtik
shparts"in order to claim the authorityof ethnologicalscience,he had to concede
a place for the "inappropriate"knowingsubjects.
In making room for the "native" and for "inappropriate"formsof agency,
colonial discourse produced displacementsof itsown foundingrepresentations;
Westernscience staged in museums and exhibitionswas realigned by the struc-
ture of differencein which it was articulated.Such a process of transformation
contains an account of how the categoriesof colonial discourse were revised in
the process of theirhistoricalarticulation,urginga rethinkingof our customary
notion that the colonial discourse of modernityand science produced nothing
otherthan domination.To viewcolonial modernityin theseterms,however,runs
the riskof portrayingBritishIndia as a place scorched by the power/knowledge
axis, leaving nothing of its historyexcept the remains of that which was either
appropriated or stood resistantto it. Such an understandingfails to consider
the performative process in which claims to hierarchical position (science/
superstition,European/native, us/them)were signified and institutionalized.
Consequently,it cannot trackthe "inappropriate"realignmentsand relocations
produced in the institutionalization of the European and the "native."83
In thisessay,I have traced "inappropriate"realignmentsin the veryprocess
that institutionalizedWesternscience in museums and exhibitionsin India. In
such realignmentsand displacements,distinctionsand differencesdid not dis-
172 REPRESENTATIONS
appear into syncretistic acculturation.Differenceremained irreducible,but the
process of rendering it oppositional produced a contingentand contentious
negotiation,a formof "translation"thatsetbinariesintoa relationshipof mixture
and movement. Thus, while the distinctivenessof science was never lost in
museums and exhibitionsor in colonial writings,the process of articulatingit
produced splitsin science'sidentityfromwhichscience emerged in a nonbinary
relationshipwithwonder. Indian elitesfound a place forthemselvesin thisnon-
binaryrelationship,composing theireyes as wondrous instead of superstitious
while markingthemselvesofffromthe ignorance of the subaltern.As forsubal-
terns, their appearance was disruptivebecause their presence was registered
throughtheir"unconquerable feelings"and theirpredilectionforshowand play.
While the discourse undoubtedlyportrayedthe subalternsas unteachable,it also
conceded them a stubbornand menacingagency.This agency,however,was also
contained by means of the stereotypeof the unteachable nativebecause colonial
science, unable to determinebut compelled to address the subalternaudience,
faced viewerswho threatenedthe authorityof the science-magicopposition.Like
the elite's"second sight,"the subaltern'sviewwas also made possiblebythe enact-
ment of science, but its "thirdsight"also representedthe limitsof colonial dis-
course because it placed science and magic in a relationship of dangerous
liminality-a liminality,I have argued, which was a conditionof the discourse's
enunciativeprocess. In thisprocess lies the storyof how science became a part of
a "second colonization" while also being subjected to "second" and "third"
sights-therein lies the enigma of science "gone native."
Notes
1. Michael Adas's Machinesas theMeasure of Men: Science,Technology, and Ideologiesof

Western Dominance(Ithaca, N.Y., 1989), traces the mid-nineteenth-century ascension
of science and technologyto dominance in colonial ideology.
2. All quotations cited in this essay appear in Rudyard Kipling,Kim (London, 1901;
reprinted., Harmondsworth,1987), 7-9. For a historyof the Zam-Zammah and a
description of the Lahore Museum, see T. H. Thornton and J.L. Kipling, Lahore
(Lahore, 1876), 59-60, 62-77.
3. On hybridity, ambivalence,and thedisavowalof difference,see Homi Bhabha's "Signs
Taken forWonders: Questions of Ambivalenceand AuthorityUnder a Tree Outside
Delhi, May 1817," CriticalInquiry12, no. 1 (1985): 144-65.
4. Homi Bhabha calls this rearticulationof the relationshipof power (and knowledge)
cultural translation-a contingentequalization of nonequivalent terms that trans-
formsand displaces theirrelationshipsand meanings. See his "The Commitmentto
Theory," in Questionsof theThirdCinema,ed. J. Pines and Paul Willemen (London,
1989), 111-31. Also of relevanceis his "DissemiNation:Time, Narrative,and the Mar-
Science "Gone Native"in Colonial India 173
gins of the Modern Nation," in Nationand Narration,ed. Bhabha (London, 1990),
whichcontainsan insightfuldiscussionof culturaldifferenceas an analyticthat"does
not simplyrepresentthe contentionbetween oppositional contents"but "marks the
establishmentof new formsof meaning,and strategiesof identification, throughthe
processes of negotiationwhere no discursiveauthoritycan be established without
revealingthe differenceof itself"(313).
5. Speaking of the opportunitythat India offeredfor scientificinquiry,George Camp-
bell, the governorof Bengal and a noted colonial ethnologist,remarkedin 1866: "In
fact,it is now evident,thatas thiscountry,in a far greaterdegree than any other in
the world, offersan unlimitedfield for ethnological observationand enquiry,and
presentsan infinity of varietiesof almosteveryone of thegreatdivisionsof the human
race, so also thereis no lack of able and qualifiedmen to reap thisabundant harvest";
Proceedings oftheAsiaticSocietyofBengal,JanuarytoDecember, 1866 (Calcutta, 1867), 46.
6. As one Britishofficialput it,museums in India could be betterorganized to perform
these scientificfunctions,itwas believed,thanin Europe, "wheremuseumshad grown
up by accretion of legacies and bequests generallytied up with special conditions";
Reporton theConference as RegardsMuseumsin India Held at CalcuttaonDec. 27thto31st,
1907 (Calcutta, 1908), 16.
7. Governmentof Bengal, FinancialDepartment(Industryand Science), Proceedingno.
2.1, May 1874, India OfficeLibraryand Records, London (IOLR), P/186.
8. Michel Foucault writesin TheOrderofThings(New York,1973): "Natural historyin the
Classical age is not merelythe discoveryof a new object of curiosity;it coversa series
of complex operations thatintroducethe possibilityof a constantorder into a totality
of representations.It constitutesa whole domain of empiricityas at the same time
describable and orderable" (158). He attributesthispossibilityforan order,a language,
to a gap thatopened up between thingsand words when thingsseemed to be things
in themselves.It was in this gap, arranged in thejuxtaposition of objects,thata lan-
guage murmured,the taxonomicorder of naturalhistorymade itsappearance (129-
32). Ken Arnold's "Cabinets for the Curious: PracticingScience in Early Modern
English Museums" (Ph.d. diss., PrincetonUniversity,1991), particularlychaps. 6 and
7, chartsthisshift.
9. TheIndian Museum,1814-1914 (Calcutta, 1914), 1-9 passim; see also S. F. Markham
and H. Hargreaves, TheMuseumsofIndia (London, 1936), 123. See O. P. Kejariwal,The
AsiaticSociety ofBengaland theDiscovery ofIndia'sPast,1784-1838 (Delhi, 1988), 85, 102-
23 passim,foran account of strugglesto establishand improvethe museum.
10. Letter from the Secretary,Asiatic Society,8 October 1858, Governmentof India,
Home (Public), 7 October 1859, no. 49, National Archivesof India.
11. The resultsof Edgar Thurston'santhropometricresearchand ethnographictoursare
contained in the monumentalCastesand TribesofSouthern India,7 vols. (Madras, 1909),
a classic of its genre in Victoriananthropology.
12. Markham and Hargreaves,MuseumsofIndia, 13-18. By 1911, therewere 39 museums
spread all over India. For a list of these, see The Conference of Orientalists
Including
Museumsand Archaeology Conference Held at Simla,
July 1911 (Simla, 1911), 99-115. This
figurerose to 105 by 1936.
13. The stresson natural historyand classificationemerges clearlyin records. See Gov-
ernmentof Madras, Educational Department,Administration ReportoftheGovernment
CentralMuseumfortheYear1895-96 (Madras, 1896), appendix E, p. 15; see also Gov-
ernmentof India, Department of Agriculture,Revenue and Commerce (Industrial
Arts,Museums, Exhibitions),Proceeding no. 6, April 1872, "Precisof the Historyof
the GovernmentCentral Museum, Bombay,"IOLR, P/687.
174 REPRESENTATIONS
14. See Carol A. Breckenridge,"The Aestheticsand Politicsof Colonial Collecting:India
at World Fairs,"Comparative Studiesin Society and History32, no. 2 (1989): 195-215.
15. IndianIndustrialandAgricultural Exhibition, 1906-1907: CatalogueofExhibits oftheBengal
AgriculturalDepartment (Calcutta, 1907), iii. On the role of Indian officialsand landed
gentryin organizingexhibitions,see Governmentof Madras, Reporton theAgricultural
Exhibitionsin theProvincesin theYear1856 (Madras, 1856), 41; Moulvi Arshad Ali, ed.,
A Reporton Pagla Mian'sMela withAgricultural and IndustrialExhibition (Feni, 1915), 2;
and Government of Bengal, StatisticalDepartment (Industry and Science), Pro-
ceeding no. 17.1, May 1873, IOLR, P/186.
16. A complete descriptionof the exhibitionand the statementof itsaims, renderingthe
stresson functionmanifest,is providedin SatyaChandra Mukerji,AllahabadinPictures
(Allahabad, 1910), 44-50.
17. For the differencebetween classificationand function,see Foucault, Orderof Things,
217-21,226-32.
18. Accounts and referencesto these appear in Reporton Agricultural Exhibitionsin 1856;
Abdool Luteef Khan Bahadoor, Discourseon theNature,&c., ofa PeriodicalCensus(Cal-
cutta, 1865), vi-vii; and ReportoftheNagporeExhibition ofArts,Manufactures, and Pro-
duce,December1865 (Nagpore, n.d.).
19. Governmentof Bengal, StatisticalDepartment(Industryand Science), Proceedingno.
17.1, May 1873. In Bengal, an annual local fairnamed aftera Muslim saintand mir-
acle worker (the Pagla Mian mela or the Mad Saint's fair) and established by the
famous Bengali poet and an officialin Britishadministration,Nabin Chandra Sen,
was turned into an agriculturaland industrialexhibition;see Reporton Pagla Mian's
Mela, 1-2; see also Nabin Chandra Sen, Amar-Jiban [Bengali], vol. 4 (Calcutta, 1912),
reprinted in Nabin Chandra Rachnabali, ed. Sajanikant Das, vol. 2 (Calcutta, 1959),
428-37.
20. "The Calcutta InternationalExhibition,"HindooPatriot,10 December 1883.
21. We can gauge some sense of the success thateven a local exhibitioncould enjoy from
the followingreport on the agriculturalexhibitionin South Arcot in 1856. It states
that,afterthe registrationof exhibitedarticles,at mid-dayon February20th,
the Exhibitionwas formallythrownopen to the public,the signal fordoing
so being the firingof a salute, on the Collector and the Committeetaking
theirplaces on a platformraised forthe purpose. Upon thisthe crowdswho
had been waitingoutside for some hours streamedin such numbersthat it
was no easy matterfor the Peons assistedby a Guard of Sepoys to preserve
order.The visitorscontinuedto pour throughthebuildinguntilshortlyafter
4 p.m., when further admissions were ordered to cease. It had been
announced publiclythat the place would be lightedup in the evening and
thrownopen to Native femalesonly.A considerable number availed them-
selves of thisopportunity,as the immensecrowdsduringthe day had forthe
most part deterred all but those who had the courage to fighttheirway in.
These evening visitors were not numbered, but those during the day
amounted to upwards of 30,000.
See ReportonAgricultural in 1856, 41-42.
Exhibitions
22. Governmentof Bengal, StatisticalDepartment(Industryand Science), Proceeding no.
17.1, May 1873, IORL, P/186.For attendanceat the Calcutta exhibition,see the Ben-
galee, 15 March 1884.
23. Indian Museum,xliii-xlviii.By 1936, the annual number of visitorsto the Indian
Museum, Calcutta,and the Victoriaand AlbertMuseum, Bombay,was reportedto be
a millioneach; Markham and Hargreaves,MuseumsofIndia,69.
24. Governmentof Madras, Revenue Department,Administration ReportoftheGovernment
CentralMuseumfortheYear1894-95 (Madras, 1895), 2. For equally impressivenumbers
at smaller museums, see Reporton theWorking of theLahoreMuseumbyJ. L. Kipling,
Curator,for1892-93 (Lahore, 1893), 1; and Letter fromthePresident, ProvincialMuseum
Committee, Lucknow, Dated5thJune,1886 (n.p., n.d.), 4.
25. Proceedings oftheAsiaticSociety, 1866, 5.
26. Ibid., 71. 27. Ibid., 82. 28. Ibid., 71.
29. Ibid., 83-85. 30. Ibid., 90. 31. Ibid., 90.
32. Ibid., 91. 33. Ibid., 188-89.
34. Ibid., 190; Proceedings oftheAsiaticSociety ofBengalforNovember, 1867 (Calcutta, 1868),
157-62.
35. Proceedings oftheAsiaticSociety ofBengal,JanuarytoDecember, 1868 (Calcutta, 1869), 29-
31.
36. Donna Haraway, PrimateVisions(New York, 1989), 26-58, also notes the eugenic
impulse (broughton by fearsof a decadence) in the epistemologyand politicsof tax-
idermy at the American Museum of Natural History,New York, but she does not
explore the discourse'senunciativedisjunctures.
37. A similardouble bind emergesin Breckenridge'sargumentthatthe use of nineteenth-
centuryworld fairsby the Britishempire involved an effortto create a transnational
cultureof the disciplinedgaze and aesthetictastebydisplayingobjects,fromcolonies
such as India, marked by their nationalorigins; see her "Aestheticsand Politicsof
Colonial Collecting."
38. On labeling and exhibiting,see Markhamand Hargreaves,MuseumsofIndia, 62-66.
39. Reporton theGovernment CentralMuseumand on theAgricultural and HorticulturalSociety
ofWestern Indiafor1863, WithAppendices, BeingtheHistory oftheEstablishment oftheVic-
toriaand AlbertMuseumand oftheVictoriaGardens,Bombay(Bombay, 1864), appendix
A, 17.
40. Reporton theNagporeExhibition, 27.
41. RecordofCasesTreatedin theMesmeric Hospital,FromJunetoDecember1847, WithReports
the
of Official Visitors (Calcutta, 1847), xxi-xxxiipassim.
42. James Esdaile, Mesmerism in India and Its PracticalApplication in Surgeryand Medicine
(London, 1846), 49.
43. The followingquotationsand account are taken fromibid., 251-52.
44. Letter to the Englishman,30 July 1845, reprintedin Esdaile, Mesmerism in India, 253.
The followingaccount is taken frompp. 253-62 passim.
45. The followingaccount of FatherLafontis takenfromthe biographicalsketchesin the
Empress15, no. 1 (December 1904): 2-3; and "Annalsof St. Xavier'sCollege, Calcutta,
1835-1935," Typescriptcompiled by A. Verstraeten,St. Xavier's College Library,
Calcutta.
46. The Seventeenth Anniversary ReportoftheBurraBazar FamilyLiterary Club,Established in
1857, WiththeAbstracts oftheAnniversary Addressand OtherLectures(Calcutta, 1874), 14.
47. For another account of such lectures,see A QuarterCentury oftheMahomedanLiterary
Societyof Calcutta: A Resume ofIts Work from 1863 to 1889 fortheJubileeoftheTwenty-Fifth
Year(Calcutta, 1889), 4-10 passim. A briefbiographical sketchof Dr. Sircar and his
role in foundingthe IACS appears in Rai Chunilal Bose Bahadur, "Science Associa-
tion and Its Founder,"in ReportoftheIndianAssociation fortheCultivationofScienceand
Proceedings oftheScienceConvention fortheYear1918 (Calcutta, 1920), 35-49.
48. HindooPatriot,10 December 1883.
49. Englishman, 6 December 1883.
176 REPRESENTATIONS
50. "Prayag ki pradurshini,"Sarawati[Hindi] 1, no. 12 (January 1911): 33-36.
51. Pioneer,3 December 1910.
52. The concept of "second colonization"comes fromAshis Nandy,Intimate Enemy:Loss
and Recovery ofSelfUnderColonialism (Delhi, 1983).
53. R. B. Sanyal, HourswithNature(Calcutta, 1896), 84-121.
54. Ibid., 86-88. 55. Ibid., 98. 56. Ibid., 84, 87.
57. The annual reportsof most museums detail these visits.See, for example, Govern-
mentof Madras, Education Department,Administration ReportoftheGovernmentCentral
MuseumfortheYear1896-97 (Madras, 1897), 2.
58. The followingaccount is taken fromthe annual seriesentitledReporton theWorking of
theLahoreMuseum(Lahore, 1892-).
59. Manorama Bose, "Notes on Various Subjects,"IOLR, MSSEur. 178/72.
60. "Diary of Manorama Bose, 1884-1905," entriesfor 18 April, 26 May 1884; 25 July,
30 December 1884; and 23 May 1885, IOLR, MSSEur. 178/69.
61. In the 1930s, the Lahore Museum began screeningsuch filmsas Automobile (Makinga
MotorCar) and Surfing,theFamousSportofWaikikito attractthe uneducated; Central
Museum, Lahore, Annual reportfor 1922-23 to 1936-37.
62. Governmentof Bengal, StatisticalDepartment(Industryand Science), Proceedingno.
17.1, May 1873, IOLR, P/186. This reply was reinvoked later; see Governmentof
Bengal, Financial Department (Industryand Science), Proceeding no. 3.3/5,March
1876, IOLR, P/894.
63. Reporton Pagla Mian'sMela, 2. The reportalso notes that"circusand bioscope perfor-
mances were given under the denominationof scientificinstructiveamusement,"12.
64. Saraswati11, no. 1 (January 1910): 26-27 (mytranslation).
65. Bengalee,17 November 1883.
66. Proceedings oftheAsiaticSociety, 1866, 88-89.
67. ReportonAgricultural Exhibitions in 1856, 41, 59; and Governmentof Madras, Reporton
theAgricultural Exhibitionsin theProvincesin theYear1856, vol. 2 (Madras, 1858), 29, 63.
68. ReportonAgricultural Exhibitions in 1856, vol. 2, p. 51.
69. Edgar Thurston, "Anthropologyin Madras,"Nature,26 May 1898; reprintedin Gov-
ernmentof Madras, Educational Department,Administration ReportoftheGovernment
CentralMuseumfortheYear1898-99 (Madras, 1899), appendix F.
70. Reporton Agricultural Exhibitions in 1856, vol. 2, p. 121.
71. Ibid., 121.
72. Bahadoor, DiscourseonPeriodicalCensus,vi-vii.
73. Conference ofOrientalistsat Simla,117-18.
74. Ibid., 117.
75. Administration ReportoftheGovernment CentralMuseumfor1894-95, 1.
76. Ibid.
77. Administration ReportofGovernment CentralMuseumfor1895-96, appendix E, 14. A very
similardescriptionappears in Markham and Hargreaves,MuseumofIndia,61.
78. Thurston, "Anthropologyin Madras," 26.
79. Colonial science, fromthispoint of view,emerges as a bad imitationof science born
and developed in Europe. See George Basalla, "The Spread of WesternScience,"Sci-
ence156 (1967): 611-22.
80. For the importance of foreignexotic objects in Renaissance England and for their
place in the developmentof museums,see Arnold's "Cabinets forthe Curious." Also
relevantis Steven Mullaney's"Strange Things, Gross Terms, Curious Customs: The
Rehearsal of Cultures in the Late Renaissance,"in Representing theEnglishRenaissance,
ed. Stephen Greenblatt (Berkeley, 1988), 65-92. For the centralityof colonies in
nineteenth-century exhibitions,see Breckenridge,"Aestheticsand Politicsof Colonial
Collecting"; R. W. Rydell,All theWorld'sa Fair (Chicago, 1988); and Paul Greenhalgh,
EphemeralVistas:TheExpositions GreatExhibitions,
Universelles, and World'sFairs,1851-
1939 (Manchester,1988).
81. For persuasiveargumentsagainstsuch binarisms,see Gauri Viswanathan'spowerfully
argued MasksofConquest:Literary Studyand BritishRule in India (New York, 1989); and
Sara Suleri's probing TheRhetoric ofEnglishIndia (Chicago, 1992).
82. For the politicsof disciplinaryregimes and class politics,see Tony Bennett's "The
ExhibitionaryComplex,"NewFormations 4 (Spring 1988): 73-102; and Eilean Hooper-
Greenhill,Museumsand theShapingofKnowledge(London, 1992), 167-90.
83. Bhabha's "Signs Taken forWonders"presentsa brilliantreading of such revisionsand
realignments.
178 REPRESENTATIONS

Science Gone Native - Gyan Prakash

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Science "Gone Native" in Colonial India

Author(s): Gyan Prakash

Science "Gone Native"

IF THE EMERGENCE OF SCIENCE in the late nineteenth century as a

REPRESENTATIONS 40 * Fall 1992 ? THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 153

The Discourse of Colonial Science:

To the British,India was an ideal locusfor science: it provided a rich

Science"GoneNative"in ColonialIndia 155

If one aim of colonial pedagogy was to instructpeasants by exhibitingtheir

The Liminal Man

As colonial discourse assembled and staged India as an object of the

Science"GoneNative"in ColonialIndia 157

Unlike exhibits in museums, living exhibits,suitablyframed in classified

The ExhibitionCommitteeof the CentralProvincesformulatedthe plan to seize

Science"GoneNative"in ColonialIndia 159

If the re-presentationof objects by museums and exhibitionspro-

Science"GoneNative"in ColonialIndia 161

The Second Sight

The rearticulationof the science-superstitionopposition into a non-

Science"GoneNative"in ColonialIndia 163

The textcontinues in this manner for several pages, bewildermentand amaze-

Science"GoneNative"in ColonialIndia 165

'Does not the sightof thesethingsteacha greatdeal?' Munshiramsaid in amazement.

The admirationforscientificagriculture,the bitterrecognitionof the Indian

If an Exhibitionwereheld amongthe remotebarbariansof the SandwichIslands,the

A similar problem existed in India. Here, too, "artisansand agriculturistswill

Science"GoneNative"in ColonialIndia 167

If museums and exhibitionsmade a space for the emergence of the

If Campbell's acknowledgmentof the unbridgeable gap between colonial elites

We can read the strategyof normalizationin referencesto "superstition"and

While the wryhumor of "Oh, thatthiswas possible"and the amused descrip-

Science"GoneNative"in ColonialIndia 169

Interestinglyenough, when describing what visitorsdid inside the museum,

The Significationof Science:

It is temptingto see the "Mujeum gymnashtikshparts"as the price

Science"GoneNative"in ColonialIndia 171

1. Michael Adas's Machinesas theMeasure of Men: Science,Technology, and Ideologiesof

Science "Gone Native"in Colonial India 173

Science "Gone Native"in Colonial India 175

Science "Gone Native"in Colonial India 177

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