Reflections on India: Locating Scottish Orientalism in the Memoirs of John Leyden and James Mackintosh

Abstract

India became the site for colonial representation under the British rule in the nineteenth century. The pejorative terms applied to India as the uncivilised, uneducated and barbaric nation made India the ‘other’ in the colonial discourses. The East India Company played a vital role in structuring the nature of Indian cultural field as several administrators were recruited in India by the Company. The Scottish counterpart under the Company recruited administrators showed different attitude towards India and tried to represent India not through some conjectural means but by studying the richness of Indian culture and native society.

This paper tends to discuss the various approaches by two Scottish administrators– John Leyden (1775-1811) and James Mackintosh (1765-1832) – to represent India by studying the richness of India in the early nineteenth century. Though they came to India as British officials, they exerted a wholesome benevolent attitude towards India and offered a distinguished Scottish attitude to represent the colony. A study of the memoirs of these Scottish scholar-administrators reflects the nature of Scottish orientalism in India and also throws light upon the benevolent attitude of Scottish orientalism for the betterment of the native people in India.

Key Words: ‘orientalism’, ‘hegemony’, ‘Scottish orientalism’, ‘cultural discourses’, ‘Scottish scholar-administrators’