Mapping the Linguistic Survey of colonial India, 1886-1936
This thesis examines the Linguistic Survey’s mapping of languages in India under George Grierson. Proposed at the 1886 International Congress of Orientalists, the first decade was spent trying to convince the national and provincial governments in India to finance and assist the Linguistic Survey, w...
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| Format: | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| Language: | English |
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2021
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/67062/ |
| _version_ | 1848800382086545408 |
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| author | Jagessar, Philip |
| author_facet | Jagessar, Philip |
| author_sort | Jagessar, Philip |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This thesis examines the Linguistic Survey’s mapping of languages in India under George Grierson. Proposed at the 1886 International Congress of Orientalists, the first decade was spent trying to convince the national and provincial governments in India to finance and assist the Linguistic Survey, which saw Grierson deploying several arguments why it would be in the state’s interest to map language. The first chapter outlines those reasons and then demonstrates how the LSI mobilised an informal network of ‘surveyors’ to map India’s languages under seven years. The second chapter studies the maps themselves, looking at the ways in which the LSI tried to overcome the difficulties of mapping something as mutable and inconsistent as language. The diverse range of maps in the LSI suggests that it experimented with different ways of mapping, to avoid the problem of language maps being interpreted as showing defined geographies and ‘hard and fast’ boundaries. The final chapter considers how the LSI’s map of Oriya was deployed by a linguistic movement pushing for statehood as an established and unequivocal geographical reality, contrary to Grierson’s written explanation of what a language map could, and could not, represent.
This thesis also proposes three ways of understanding ‘mapping’ in researching the LSI’s mapping of language. Just as Grierson mapped a network of ‘surveyors’ and established a scalar approach to surveying language, the first chapter maps the LSI’s local, national and transnational operation and those informal networks which sustained it. The second chapter establishes a way of mapping the Survey’s maps as an experimental exercise. Finally, chapter three maps the political afterlife of language mapping in India and how the LSI’s maps were mobilised in regional, national and international debates over Oriyan statehood. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:50:40Z |
| format | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| id | nottingham-67062 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:50:40Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-670622025-02-28T15:13:53Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/67062/ Mapping the Linguistic Survey of colonial India, 1886-1936 Jagessar, Philip This thesis examines the Linguistic Survey’s mapping of languages in India under George Grierson. Proposed at the 1886 International Congress of Orientalists, the first decade was spent trying to convince the national and provincial governments in India to finance and assist the Linguistic Survey, which saw Grierson deploying several arguments why it would be in the state’s interest to map language. The first chapter outlines those reasons and then demonstrates how the LSI mobilised an informal network of ‘surveyors’ to map India’s languages under seven years. The second chapter studies the maps themselves, looking at the ways in which the LSI tried to overcome the difficulties of mapping something as mutable and inconsistent as language. The diverse range of maps in the LSI suggests that it experimented with different ways of mapping, to avoid the problem of language maps being interpreted as showing defined geographies and ‘hard and fast’ boundaries. The final chapter considers how the LSI’s map of Oriya was deployed by a linguistic movement pushing for statehood as an established and unequivocal geographical reality, contrary to Grierson’s written explanation of what a language map could, and could not, represent. This thesis also proposes three ways of understanding ‘mapping’ in researching the LSI’s mapping of language. Just as Grierson mapped a network of ‘surveyors’ and established a scalar approach to surveying language, the first chapter maps the LSI’s local, national and transnational operation and those informal networks which sustained it. The second chapter establishes a way of mapping the Survey’s maps as an experimental exercise. Finally, chapter three maps the political afterlife of language mapping in India and how the LSI’s maps were mobilised in regional, national and international debates over Oriyan statehood. 2021-12-08 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/67062/1/Mapping%20the%20Linguistic%20Survey%20of%20India%201886-1936%20%5BFinal%5D.pdf Jagessar, Philip (2021) Mapping the Linguistic Survey of colonial India, 1886-1936. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. Indian languages linguistic mapping India George Grierson Linguistic Survey of India |
| spellingShingle | Indian languages linguistic mapping India George Grierson Linguistic Survey of India Jagessar, Philip Mapping the Linguistic Survey of colonial India, 1886-1936 |
| title | Mapping the Linguistic Survey of colonial India, 1886-1936 |
| title_full | Mapping the Linguistic Survey of colonial India, 1886-1936 |
| title_fullStr | Mapping the Linguistic Survey of colonial India, 1886-1936 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mapping the Linguistic Survey of colonial India, 1886-1936 |
| title_short | Mapping the Linguistic Survey of colonial India, 1886-1936 |
| title_sort | mapping the linguistic survey of colonial india, 1886-1936 |
| topic | Indian languages linguistic mapping India George Grierson Linguistic Survey of India |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/67062/ |