HIS282Y1 Lecture Notes - Hindu Law, Chinese Tea, Triangular Trade
Document Summary
Fixing and its double meaning- cementing, gluing, preserving vs. improvement. In some way this is a lense in which to study colonial government, it wants to fix indian society because when things are fixed and not moving they are easier to govern. At the same time there is the idea of improving a savaged civilization, part of the moral claims of the empire. They are in a kind of conflict because one type of thinking is that traditions are being given back and preserved, looking backwards into the ancient past of india. They see what hindu law is and the jurisprudence, a backward looking way. It is also a very selective process because also in some way they are inventing what the traditions are, going through tons of information and selecting which one to use. The other side of it is a forward looking project, the one of improving.
