@article{THESIS,
      recid = {7245},
      author = {Anavkar, Ishaan},
      title = {The Making of Early Colonial India: A Geographical  Synthesis of Early European Colonial Engagements in India,  1498-1857},
      publisher = {University of Chicago},
      school = {M.A.},
      address = {2023-08},
      number = {THESIS},
      abstract = {In popular opinion, the “colonial period” of Indian  history is said to have begun in the mid-19th century with  the Sepoy Mutiny or Indian Rebellion of 1857, after which  the control of India was transferred from the hands of the  British East India Company to the British Crown to be  governed directly as a Crown Colony: the British Raj.  However, it is clear to scholars that the seeds of colonial  rule had been planted in India well before 1857, as the  East India Company had begun to establish administrative,  military, economic, and social control over the  subcontinent nearly a century earlier. India was already  unified when the Crown took over, yet the geographical  processes that went into making India whole are often taken  for granted. Pre-1857 colonialism was inextricably tied to  some of the greatest transformations in colonial India’s  geography and history, from the fall of the Mughal Empire  to the rise of the British East India Company to the  formation of modern Indian identities. To understand the  subcontinent the British Crown inherited, it is critical to  study in detail the foundations that led up to the Crown’s  takeover. Crucially, studying this period through the  perspective of historical geography helps us gain a better  understanding of its spatial dimensions through an  examination of scale, structure, tension, and change in the  landscape. This thesis intends to provide a fresh,  spatially intensive perspective with which to reframe the  nature of colonial settlements in India in 1498-1857 by  synthesizing what research is available. To this end, the  paper offers a critical analysis of the different ways in  which Indian geography was utilized and represented by  colonial powers, reconceptualizing the ways in which we  understand the nature of early colonial India. This thesis  is thus an exploration of the transformations in the  configuration of European colonial powers in India between  1498-1857 and the rise of the British over other European  powers, which were informed by differentiations in spatial  elements such as settlement patterns, natural land usage,  imperial policies, economic development, and urban  evolution. Examining these phenomena allows us to draw  insightful conclusions on the greater geographical  interactions and processes that typified European colonial  projects across India.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/7245},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.7245},
}