‘An Inversion of Opticks’: Glimpses of English in the Hindustani Scholarship of John Gilchrist (1759–1841)

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 169-193
Author(s):  
Richard Steadman-Jones
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Systematic Study ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Samuel Johnson ◽  
Radical Ideas ◽  
Radical Character ◽  
Asian Language

This paper focuses on the linguistic work of John Gilchrist (1759–1841), one of the first British grammarians to produce a detailed and systematic study of the language known in the 18th century as ‘Hindustani’. An interesting feature of Gilchrist’s grammatical texts is the fact that, within the framework of a grammatical account of a South Asian language, they often include short passages discussing contemporary problems in the analysis of English. In these passages, Gilchrist engages directly with the work of writers such as John Horne Tooke, Samuel Johnson, Robert Lowth, and Thomas Sheridan, taking up a position in relation to their work and drawing upon his research on Hindustani to support or challenge their analyses of English. In one typical example, discussed in this paper, he mobilises evidence from his own work in support of Thomas Sheridan’s innovative account of the vowel in words such as mine and thine, an analysis that characterises this sound as a diphthong rather than a simple articulation. In the light of Gilchrist’s later visibility as a political radical, some commentators have seen his allusions to Horne Tooke as evidence that his linguistic work has a demonstrably radical character. However, the diversity of the thinkers with whom Gilchrist engages suggests that it is better to interpret his interventions in the analysis of English as attempts to build a reputation as a scholar, not only in the colony but in the metropolis as well. As such, the passages in which Gilchrist discusses the nature of English can be seen as political in the sense that they helped him to find a platform from which he could voice his radical ideas. But they do not always constitute a radical account of the language itself, their importance lying in the opportunities they offered for self-promotion and, indeed, self-transformation.

‘An inversion of opticks’

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 169-193
Author(s):  
Richard Steadman-Jones
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Systematic Study ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Samuel Johnson ◽  
Radical Ideas ◽  
Radical Character ◽  
Asian Language

Summary This paper focuses on the linguistic work of John Gilchrist (1759–1841), one of the first British grammarians to produce a detailed and systematic study of the language known in the 18th century as ‘Hindustani’. An interesting feature of Gilchrist’s grammatical texts is the fact that, within the framework of a grammatical account of a South Asian language, they often include short passages discussing contemporary problems in the analysis of English. In these passages, Gilchrist engages directly with the work of writers such as John Horne Tooke, Samuel Johnson, Robert Lowth, and Thomas Sheridan, taking up a position in relation to their work and drawing upon his research on Hindustani to support or challenge their analyses of English. In one typical example, discussed in this paper, he mobilises evidence from his own work in support of Thomas Sheridan’s innovative account of the vowel in words such as mine and thine, an analysis that characterises this sound as a diphthong rather than a simple articulation. In the light of Gilchrist’s later visibility as a political radical, some commentators have seen his allusions to Horne Tooke as evidence that his linguistic work has a demonstrably radical character. However, the diversity of the thinkers with whom Gilchrist engages suggests that it is better to interpret his interventions in the analysis of English as attempts to build a reputation as a scholar, not only in the colony but in the metropolis as well. As such, the passages in which Gilchrist discusses the nature of English can be seen as political in the sense that they helped him to find a platform from which he could voice his radical ideas. But they do not always constitute a radical account of the language itself, their importance lying in the opportunities they offered for self-promotion and, indeed, self-transformation.

Unfree Labor in Colonial South Asia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Major
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
South Asian ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Debt Bondage ◽  
Unfree Labor ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Asian Context

Various forms of labor obligation, coercion, and oppression existed in colonial India, but the supposed dichotomy between “free” and “unfree” labor was rarely absolute. European slave-trafficking, internal trades in women and children, domestic slavery, caste-based obligations for agricultural and other labor, and capitalist systems such as indenture represented distinct but overlapping forms of “unfree” labor in the South Asian context. Enslaved Indians were exported to various European colonial possessions in the 17th and 18th century or provided domestic services within the homes of both the European and Indian elites. Meanwhile, various preexisting local labor relationships such as begar, caste-based obligation, and debt bondage involved elements of coercion, control, and ownership that mirrored some of the characteristics of slavery. These underwent significant changes in the colonial period, as the colonial state both tapped into and sought to reshape the Indian labor market to suit the needs of the imperial capitalist economy.

Great Doctors and Medical Worthies

1988 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 280-284
Author(s):  
D. Emslie-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Royal College ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Medical Knowledge ◽  
Samuel Johnson ◽  
Charles I ◽  
Century Health

After Harvey's visits to Scotland with Charles I the formation of a united Caroline University in Aberdeen was thwarted by the Civil War. In Oxford Harvey instituted a group of medical scientists, forerunners of the Royal Society, who almost explained the physiology of respiration. Harvey had several things in common with Dr Samuel Johnson. Johnson's medical knowledge and contacts are emphasised, examples of 17th and 18th century health regimens are given and Johnson's friendship with Scottish medical men and some others connected with the Royal College of Physicians and the Harveian Society of Edinburgh are described.

scholarly journals INTERROGATING CONCEPTIONS OF ‘MODERNITY’ AND ‘TRADITION’ IN THE PRODUCTION OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT IN SOUTH ASIA•

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Sarwat Viqar
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
New Order ◽  
British Colonialism ◽  
Prescriptive Model ◽  
Colonial Order

It has been argued that concepts of modernity and tradition are historical categories that emerged in the context of imperial encounters with the .other. during Colonization. This paper will show how the contingent nature of these categories becomes apparent when considering the production of the built environment in South Asia. The advent of British Colonialism in the 18th century precipitated a significant change in the urban landscape of South Asian cities. It also created a binary conception of a modern order that was a break from the local or native order of space. From then on, modernity became the institution of a liberal western order and tradition was what was retained by the natives that had been eclipsed by the new order. This trope of the dysfunctional Pre-Modern entered into native, nationalist imaginings of the past as well by establishing a binary between what was and what came after as being forever opposed to each other. In order to assert one, the other had to be negated. The Imperialist narrative achieved this through asserting the inherently moral nature and legitimacy of the Colonial order while the Nationalist narrative strove to recover the .tradition. that had been displaced by the Colonial order. The modern disciplines introduced with Colonial rule did provide a powerful prescriptive model of urban planning that created a privileged position for what has come to be seen as the modern form of the city. However, drawing upon contemporary South Asian urban historiography and research it is argued here that this order was constantly destabilized by native resistance, appropriation, hybridity and accommodation. In doing so, it appears that the production and reproduction of space in the built environment of South Asia constantly challenges notions of a dynamic, all-consuming modernity against a static tradition that needs to be preserved. Keywords: Modernity, tradition, colonial, culture

scholarly journals Gli erbari aretini da Andrea Cesalpino ai giorni nostri

2008 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Systematic Study ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
University Museum ◽  
Over Time

The production of this book has been made possible by the collaboration of a number of scholars and the generosity of the Arezzo Provincial Authority. It provides detailed descriptions of the contents of precious botanical collections amassed by natives of Arezzo, or simply conserved in institutions situated within the territory. The book provides an overview of both herbals of dried plants and painted herbals from the sixteenth century up to the present, starting from the one created in 1563 by the Arezzo doctor Andrea Cesalpino. The first herbal in the world to be organised through systematic criteria, this collection is now in the Botanical Section of the Florence University Museum of Natural History, together with another small eighteenth-century herbal produced by a pharmacist from Cortona, Agostino Coltellini. Conserved in Cortona itself is another eighteenth-century herbal, this one painted by Mattia Moneti, while in Castiglion Fiorentino and Poppi respectively are the intriguing collections of the Hortus siccus pisanus (18th century) and of the Biblioteca Rilliana (late 17th century). Also described in the book is a herbal from the Convent of La Verna (18th century) and the Egyptian herbal of Jacob Corinaldi (19th century), conserved in Montevarchi. Finally there are also the modern herbals, illustrating the continuity over time of a practice that is the foundation of all systematic study. The book is in fact rounded off by an anastatic reprint of the description of the Cesalpino herbal published in 1858, which is still a seminal work for studies such as those contained in this collection.

scholarly journals Marc-Antoine Laugier’s aesthetic postulates of architectural theory

Spatium ◽  
2010 ◽  
pp. 46-50
Author(s):  
Irena Kuletin-Culafic
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Aesthetic Theory ◽  
Architectural Theory ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Decorative Element ◽  
Integrative Process ◽  
Aesthetic Aspect ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Radical Character

Views on architecture that hold a significant position in architectural theory are the ones by Marc-Antoine Laugier, a French theoretician from the 18th century. The research on his architectural theory that have been carried out so far are quite stereotypical and concern Laugier?s concept of primitive hut as his only significant contribution to architectural theory. It is well-known that the concept of primitive hut plays an important role in Laugier?s theory and it is what actually maintained his reputation up to now. However, by singling out this concept as an independent one, one actually neglects all the other aspects of Laugier?s theory. The aim of this paper is to present multidimensionality of Laugier?s architectural aesthetics by crossing the borders of architecture and viewing Laugier?s ideas in cultural, philosophical, religious and historical context, as well as applying the integrative process and considering the spiritual paths of the enlightenment movement in the mid-18th century. A special attention is paid to considering the aesthetic aspect which represents the gist and an inevitable part of Laugier?s architectural theory. His aesthetic theory is important in forming the classicist style, and despite its radical character, it influenced many architects in France and the rest of Europe. We may see Laugier as one of the first modernists considering his structuralist logic of the constructive circuit of architecture and aesthetic modesty of decoration. Laugier?s functionalist attitude that the constructive circuit should at the same time represent a decorative element of architecture confirms the thesis that modernist approach has its roots in the 18th century.

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