Introduction

Abstract

How coherent were figurations of colonial knowledge? Through what agencies were they produced? How were figurations of knowledge embodied and reproduced in institutions? What relations did structures of colonial knowledge have with power? Questions such as these have elicited some of the most sustained debate in the study of colonialism in South Asia. As a field of inquiry, the study of colonial knowledge systems has been a pathbreaking one in recent decades, with far-reaching consequences across a number of disciplines. The intensity of scholarly activity has engendered lively debate and has in many ways fundamentally changed the very terrain of South Asian studies as a whole, sometimes in unexpected ways. Following the general paradigm shift to “knowledge” as an analytical category across the field of colonial studies, early discussions among South Asian historians were crucially concerned with the particular relations of knowledge systems with state institutions and power. Gradually, however, new questions were raised about the production, implementation, and coherence of this knowledge.