/ '^^//

TRAVEL WRITING AS A MODE OF

CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE:
A STUDY OF SELECTED 19'^ CENTURY TRAVEL
WRITING

THESIS SUBMITTED FOR

THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
IN
ENGLISH
IN THE FACULTY OF ARTS,
VEER NARMAD SOUTH GUJARAT UNIVERSITY, SURAT

RESEARCH CANDIDATE
MIHIR MORI
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
VEER NARMAD SOUTH GUJARAT UNIVERSITY
SURAT

RESEARCH SUPERVISOR
DR. RAKESH DESAI
PROFESSOR & HEAD
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
VEER NARMAD SOUTH GUJARAT UNIVERSITY
SURAT

APRIL, 2013
 Department of English
Veer Narmad South University,
Surat (Gujarat)

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the thesis entitled "TRAVEL WRITING AS A MODE

OF CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE: A STUDY OF SELECTED 19™

CENTURY TRAVEL WRITING" is submitted by Mr. Mihir Mori for the

degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English, Faculty of

Arts, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat. This work has not

been submitted to any other University for any other degree or diploma.

Surat Dr. Rakesh Desai

April 2013 Professor & Head
Department of English,
Veer Narmad South Gujarat University,
Surat.
 Department of English
Veer Narmad South University,
Surat (Gujarat)

DECLARATION

I, the undersign, declare that the thesis entitled "TRAVEL WRITING AS A

MODE OF CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE: A STUDY OF SELECTED

19* CENTURY TRAVEL WRITING", submitted for the degree of Doctor of

Philosophy, in the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Veer Narmad

South Gujarat University, Surat, is my original work. I also humbly state

that no part of this thesis has been submitted for any other degree or

diploma.

Surat Mihir Mori

April 2013 Assistant Professor,
Department of English,
Veer Narmad South Gujarat University,
Surat.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is always difficult to express one's gratitude for others sufficiently. With
utmost humility I express my sincerest of gratitude to my Research Supervisor,
Dr. Rakesh Desai, Professor & Head, Department of English, Veer Narmad South
Gujarat University, Surat, whose ever supportive and scholarly guidance led me
through all roughs in the course of my Ph.D. thesis. It was his benignity that he
allowed me to carry out research on emerging and promising area like. Travel
Writing with reference to the 19"^ century.

My sincere acknowledgement is due to Professor Sara Mills, Research Professor

at the School of Cultural Studies, Sheffield Hallam University, U. K., for taking
pains and extending her timely help by making her copy of the text. Wanderings
of Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque by Fanny Parkes, (edited by Sara Mills &
Indira Chose) available to me, when it was out of print and unavailable.
Procuring this text would not have been possible without the help of Dhara.

I wish to express my warm and sincere thanks to Prof. Avadhesh Kumar Singh,
Director, School of Translation & Training, ICNOU, New Delhi, for providing me
the exposure to the 19"" century literature and Travel Writing during the course
of SAP project at Department of English & CLS, Saurashtra University, Rajkot. I
am equally grateful to Dr. Kamal Mehta, Professor & Head, Department of
English & CLS, Saurashtra University, Rajkot, for his invaluable guidance in
research during UGC SAP programme.

I am also grateful to my colleagues of the Department of English for their kind

support in the course of my work.
I am thankful to Dr. B. J. Ankuya, I/C Librarian and the Central Library of Veer
Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat, and the Library of Dept. of English,
Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat. I also wish to express my sincere
thanks to the Library of Centre for Social Studies, Surat; Library of Rajkumar
College, Rajkot; the SAP Library of Department of English & CLS, Saurashtra
University, Rajkot; Smt. Hansa Mehta Library, M. S. University of Baroda,
Vadodara; Gujarat Vidyapeeth Library, Ahmedabad; Library of DUCT,
Gandhinagar; Central Library of Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar;
Library of B. J. Institute, H. K. Arts College, Ahmedabad; Central Library of
Gujarat University, Ahmedabad; Central Library of Hyderabad Central
University, Hyderabad; and Asiatic Library, Calcutta.

I thank non-teaching staff of the Department of English, Veer Narmad South

Gujarat University, Surat, for their help.

I am grateful to my family members for their constant support and care. And
lastly, I am grateful to the Almighty for its unceasing grace all through these
years.

Mihir Mori
Assistant Professor,
Department of English,
Veer Narmad South Gujarat University,
Surat.
 CONTENTS
Acknowledgements

Chapter I 1
Introduction: Travel Writing with special reference to
the 19* Century Colonial Discourse

Chapter II 37
The Orientalist Gaze at the Colonial Subject:
Fanny Parkes' Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque

Chapter III 72
Transculturation in the Dialogic of Colonial Discourse:
Nandkunwarba's Gomandal Parikram

Chapter IV 102

Towards the making of the Colonial Subject:

John Matheson's England to Delhi: A narrative of Indian Travel

Chapter V 136

Comparing the self and the other in the Colonial Discourse:

Behramji M Malabari's The Indian Eye on English
Life or Rambles of a pilgrim Reformer

Chapter VI 171

Conclusion: Travel Writing as a mode of constructing Knowledge

Selected Bibliography 204

 CHAPTER-I

INTRODUCTION: TRAVEL WRITING WITH SPECIAL

REFERENCE TO
THE 19TH CENTURY COLONIAL DISCOURSE

Geographers present before men's eyes.

How every Land seated and bounded lies.
But the historian, wise traveller
[Describes] what minds and manners sojourn there.
The common merchant brings thee home such ware
As make thy Garment wanton, or .. .fare.
But this hath Traffick in a better kinde
To please and profit both thy virtuous minde.
... Read it and thou wilt make this gain at least.
To love thy one true God, and Country best.
(Henry Ashwood cited in Kamps & Singh, 2001:1)

This poem of admiration forms the part of Edward Terry's A Voyage to

East India, which evidently speaks for all the diverse concerns and inspirations of

Western travelers in the early modem period. Merchants, historians, geographers

or churchmen were all part of the movement of European exploration and

expansion from the 15* century onwards, setting into motion a process of trans-

culturation.

Travel literature aims at signifying a literary value to travel writing. It

characteristically records the experiences of a writer, exploring new lands for

pleasure of travel, and his work, at times, is called a travelogue. Travel literature

can be cross-cultural or intercontinental or may involve travel to different areas

within the same country. Narrative of space-voyage can also form the part of

travel literature. The term. Travel literature, is a very loose generic label and has

always accommodated diverse range of material. And thus. Travel Writing has
sustained an intricate and mysterious relationship with number of intimately

associated genres. As Jonathan Raban observes:

Travel writing is a notoriously raffish open house where

different genres are likely to end up in the same bed. It •
accommodates the private diary, the essay, the short story, the
prose poem, the rough note and polished table talk with
indiscriminate hospitality. (Raban, 1988: 253/254)

Moreover, the problematic of defining the genre is not just limited to its

diversity, in terms of form, it also includes thematic one. As Pattrick Holland and

Graham Huggan argue:

But what, exactly, is a travel book? By which criteria should it

be judged? Who qualifies as a travel writer? And more
specifically, who merits inclusion in a study of this kind?
Travel writing, it need hardly be said, is hard to define, not
least because it is a hybrid genre that straddles categories and
disciplines. Travel narrative run from picaresque adventure to {

philosophical treatise, political commentary, ecological parable, 1

i
and spiritual quest. They borrow freely from history, ,
geography, anthropology and social science, often \
demonstrating great erudition, but without seeing fit to respect '
the rules that govern conventional scholarship. Irredeemably
opinioned, travel writers avail themselves of the several
licenses that are granted to a form that freely mixes fact and

fable, anecdote and analysis. (Pattrick Holland & Graham

Huggan, 1998: 8/9)

 Literary travelogues usually reveal a coherent narrative or aesthetic

instead of just jottings of dates and events as found in typical travel journals.

Travel literature is closely associated with literature of world outside and the

genres employed while describing travel account often overlap with no exact

restrictions. Another sub-genre similar in nature is the guide book, which was

invented in the 19* century. Paul Fussell differentiates between a guide book and

a travel account:

A guide book is addressed to those who plan to follow the

traveler, doing what he has done, but more selectively. A travel
book, at its purest, is addressed to those who do not plan to
follow the traveler at all, but who require the exotic or comic
anomalies, wonder, and the scandals of the literary form
romance which their own time or place cannot entirely supply.
Travel book is a sub-species of memoir in which the
autobiographical narrative arises from speaker's encounter
with distant or unfamiliar data, and in which the narrative—
unlike that in a novel or a romance—claims literal validity by
constant reference to actuality. (Fussell, 1980:203)

Early examples of travel literature include Pausanias' Description of Greece

in the 2"^ century CE, and the travelogues of Ibn Jubayr (1145-1214) and Ibn

Batutta (1304-1377), who recorded their travels across the world. One of the

earliest known records, of taking travel for pleasure or travelling for the sake of

travel and scripting it, is Petrarch's (1304-1374) climb of Mount Ventoux in 1336.

He writes that he went to the mountaintop for the pleasure of seeing the top. He

then narrated about his climb and made allegorical comparisons between

climbing the mountain and his own moral growth in life.

 Travels, undertaken, during the early modem period by Portuguese,
French, English, Dutch, and others to India, Turkey, Africa, and the Americas, t
initiated a series of cultural, economic and military encounters, exchanges, and •
confrontation that are the dynamic precursors to colonialism, as well as its '
aftermath, post-colonialism. Therefore, it becomes interesting to enter the '
problematic of travel writing.

Travel generates a dialogue between one's own self and the other, ij
(

Etymologically, a traveler is one who suffers travail, a word deriving from Latin
tripalium. The narrative offered by a travel book mostly involves a first person's
account delineating author's own observations and/or experiences of a journey in
retrospection. Further, a good travel account permits not only an exterior voyage,
including descriptions of scenery and landscape, but also an interior voyage, a
sentimental or temperamental voyage, which takes place side by side with
external voyage. In doing so a good travel book invites the reader to undertake
three voyages side by side; firstly, voyage abroad, secondly, in the writer's mind
and thirdly, into his/her own consciousness. At the same time, a good travel
book is a first person account of a voyage that can be read for multiple reasons
like, pleasure, its aesthetic value and as a document containing useful
knowledge.

Accounts of foreign travel appeared soon after the invention of writing

around 3200 BCE. The first few fragmentary travel accounts appeared in both
Mesopotamia and Egypt in ancient times. After the shaping of large states in the
classical world, travel writing appeared as an important literary genre on many
lands as they held strong appeal for rulers desiring useful knowledge about their
land as well as others. The Greek historian Herodotus (c.484-425 BC) undertook
and described his travels in Egypt and other places in his quest for the history of
the Persian wars. The Chinese envoy Zhang Qian (in the 2"^^ century BCE)
described much of central Asia as far west as Afghanistan on the basis of travels.
Greek and Roman geographers such as Ptolemy (c. AD 90 - c. AD 168), Strabo
(64/63 BC - ca. 24 AD), and Pliny the Elder (23 AD - August 25, 79 AD)
undertook voyages across the Mediterranean world and also depended on other
travelers to compile vast compendia of geographical knowledge.

During the Middle Ages (about 500 to 1500 CE), trade and pilgrimage
became major reason for travel to foreign lands. Muslim merchants hunted
trading opportunities throughout much of the Eastern continents. They
described lands, peoples, and commodities of the Indian subcontinent, Africa,
Indonesia and Middle East and provided the first written accounts of societies
that they observed across these countries. Primarily, the merchants set out in
search of trade and commerce; and Muslims traveled as pilgrims to Mecca for
hajj and visit the sacred sites of Islam. Since the Prophet Muhammad's
pilgrimage to Mecca, innumerable numbers of Muslims have followed his
footsteps. These countless pilgrims of hajj have related their experiences in their
accounts. Ibn Battuta, one of the best known Muslim travelers, started his travels
with the hajj, but then continued his travels through India, China, Africa, and
Europe, before coming back finally to his home in Morocco. Travelers from
China, Japan or Korea were not quite as prominent as Muslims during the
medieval times, but they also ventured in different capacities. Chinese merchants
regularly travelled to Southeast Asia and India and at times even to East Africa.
East Asian Buddhists undertook distant pilgrimages to Indian subcontinent.
During the 5* and the 9* centuries CE, thousands of Buddhists from China
traveled to India to study from the Buddhist teachers. During these visits they
also collected sacred texts and traveled to Buddhist sites in India. Many written
accounts during this period recorded the experiences of many pilgrims, such as
Faxian (337- c. 424 CE), Xuanzang (c. 602 - 664), and Yijing (635-713 CE). Unlike
the Chinese pilgrims, Buddhists from Japan, Korea, and other lands also
undertook trips abroad because of their interests in spiritual enlightenment.

In Medieval times, Europeans did not travel in such huge numbers as the
Muslim and East Asian travelers during the first half of medieval-age did,
however, number of Christian pilgrims started visiting Rome, Jerusalem,
Santiago de Compostela, and other religious places. From 12* century onwards,
missionaries, pilgrims and merchants from medieval Europe traveled extensively
and wrote several travel accounts. Marco Polo's (1254 - 1324) description of his
travels and stay in China is the best known travel narrative of this time. From
this point onwards, European became more familiar with the Indian and African
subcontinent and the profitable business opportunities that these vast continents
offered. This led Europeans to find new and more direct route to Asian and
African countries.

The Middle-age was almost dominated by Muslim and Chinese travelers

in exploring the world outside. But in post-medieval age, travel and travel
writing was dominated by European explorers, missionaries, and merchants,
who almost ruled this realm during the early modern era (about 1500 to 1800
CE). This does not mean that Muslim and Chinese travelers stopped traveling in
early modern times. But European people in early modern times traveled to the
distant corners of the globe and outnumbered travelers of any other country.
Moreover, during this time, European printing presses brought out thousands of
travel narratives of these travels. These travel accounts described foreign lands
and peoples for a reading public at home looking forward for news about the
world unknown. The volume of travel and its subsequent narrative was so
enormous that several editors, including Giambattista Ramusio (1485-1557),
Richard Hakluyt (1552/1553-1616), Theodor de Bry (1528-1598), and Samuel
Purchas (1577-1626) amassed numerous travel accounts and made them
available in print.

During the 19* century, European travelers made their way to the interior
regions of India, Africa and Amc'rica, and produced fresh accounts of travel
writing. Simultaneously, European colonial administrators generated several
accounts of the societies of their colonial subjects in India and Africa. The 19""
century also witnessed flowing of travel accoimts from colonial subjects from
these continents. Being aware of the scientific and technological developments of
European societies, Asian travelers visited Europe and other countries with a
hope to discover knowledge to reorganize their own countries. Among the most
prominent of these travelers, who made extensive use of their overseas
observations and experiences in their own writings, were Indian reformers and
freedom fighters.

The 20* century witnessed sudden increase, both, in the frequency of

long-distance travel, due to an increase in economic and reliable means of mass
transport, and so in the bulk of travel writing. A great deal of travel took place
for reasons of missionary work, pilgrimage, business, administration and
diplomacy; and subsequently efficient modes of mass transport made it possible
for new kinds of travel to flourish. The most distinguished among them was
tourism, which emerged as a major type of leisure activity for people living in
the world's prosperous societies. Tourism enabled individuals to design their
sojourn away from home to see the distant world and make it familiar. A
different kind of the travel account came up to meet the requirements of these
tourists centric activity. It gave rise to the guidebook, which offered valuable
suggestion on local customs, food, lodging, shopping and details of all the tourist
attractions. Tourism has created enormous economic impact across the world,
but at the same time other new forms of travel have also had substantial impact
in recent times. Recent times have seen iinprecedented action of migration and
this gave opportunity to numerous migrants, who have opted to record their
experiences and articulate their expression about life in foreign lands. The
contemporary times have also seen an exceptional development of cultural and
ethnic consciousness, which led many intellectuals and writers of Diaspora to
visit the homes of their ancestors.

One particular aspect of the travel writing is that usually these narratives
are written for a specific audience. Columbus (1451-1506) wrote for King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, who funded his explorations of the New
World. Captain John Smith (1580-1631) wrote for rich English patrons, who
extended him financial support for his journeys. The fictional narratives are
Written for a general audience, who enjoy literature and its ability to take the
reader beyond the real world. Swift's (1667-1745) Gulliver's Travels (1726) is a
well-known example of this kind of writing.

The chief purpose of travel writing has been to fetch news of the world
outside, and to disseminate knowledge about unknown people and places. As is
the case with all other historical documents, travel narratives are highly
problematic sources of knowledge. There are several reasons why it is impossible :
to accept the versions of travel accounts as truthful record and so at times they ,
are suspected of the truth value accounted by their narratives. At times, travel
writers fail to notice or possibly are not even allowed to observe certain facets of
the societies and their people. Occasionally, they were found casual in their
approach to not to take the trouble of exploring cautiously and meticulously the
societies they visited. On several occasions, it is also found that their
commitment to their own societies led them to either misunderstand or to
misrepresent the lands they visited. As a point in case, in the 19* century, the
Gujarati travel writers, being aware of the social evils of their social and religious
customs, undertook the critique of their own societies as their chief concern and
this led them to overstate the virtues of the foreign lands they visited. Thus, it
can be said that in varying extent, all travel accounts reflect the predisposition,
discrimination, and interests of their writers.

In recent times. Travel narratives have attained a special importance as

historical document; still, it is surprising that researchers have given little
consideration to the analysis of various facets related to travel writing. Though
sporadically, the historians have tried to provide insightful analysis of individual
travelers, and the literary scholars have discussed travel writing as a literary
genre, however, rare attempts have been made to study the nature of travel
accounts in terms of their historical influence, their meaning as expressions of
their times, and the problems they create as historical sources. Thus, an area as
diverse as travel writing has immense potential to explore its varied dynamics in
the light of recent critical and theoretical development.

Edward Said's (1935-2003) Orientalism (1978) claims travel accounts as

documents that justified political and economic expansion, especially 15*
century onwards. Such argument claims travelers as fearless explorers, in most
cases heroic and not always male. By and large, by the end of the 18* century,
when Westerners in general and the English in particular had marked their
domination over the most of the globe, several scholars viewed their traveling
forefathers, who sailed out from home and fetched information about the distant
corners of the world, as agents of modernity. The hundreds of historical travel
 10

accounts, published since 1846 by the Hakluyt Society of London, very aptly,

illustrate and substantiate the above mentioned argument. Richard Hakluyt

(1552-1616) published his own collections of travel accounts in the 16"" century,

and considered travel accounts as efficient tools for seeking knowledge and

promoting political and economic expansion. He states:

Turning to the 107 Psalm, [he] directed me to the 23 & 24 verse,

where I read, that they which go down to the sea in ships, and
occupy by the great waters, they see the works of the Lord, and
his wonders in the deep, & c... I constantly resolved... I would
by God's assistance prosecute that knowledge and kind of
literature, the doors whereof (after a sort) were so happily
opened before me. (Hakluyt, cited in Hulme & Youngs, 2002:
22)

Several such travel accounts, influenced by of Hakluyt's perception of travel and

travel writing, and later published by the Hakluyt society, have contributed to

the bulk of documentation, which tend to legitimize the European presence in

the outside world.

The recent research in the field of Travel Writing also reflects that travel

accounts reflect traveler's interests and fears, while describing foreign lands and

peoples. Edward Said's (1935-2003) influential work. Orientalism (1978), supports

the above mentioned argument. Edward Said opines that European and Euro-

American intellectuals and other experts, including travelers, had systematically

misrepresented Muslim peoples and societies by characterizing them as exotic,

inactive, irrational and effeminate. As Said argues, this characterization derived

not from objective observation but rather from a rhetorical method. This tactic
 11

was employed to misrepresent these peoples and their societies in order to

differentiate themselves from the natives and portray themselves as modem,

dynamic, rational and masculine. Orientalism (1978) interrogates the very

characterizations of Eastern people and their societies in European and Euro-

American travel accounts, and facilitates a distinctive literary analysis of travel

accounts. For instance, in her book. The Witness and the Other World, (1988) Mary

Campbell has deliberated on medieval European travel accounts, which included

works by explorers, pilgrims and merchants. She has read these works in the

light of the European expansion, in the early modern era and subsequent

European domination of the world in modern times. As suggested by her

analysis, the pilgrimage and the pursuit for trade, directly foreshadow crusade

and conquest aspect of travel. This has further led to form Campbell her

argument that how medieval travelers can be considered as agents of European

imperialism. Mary Louise Pratt in her book. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and

Transculturation, (1992) offers a similar analysis of European travelers, who

visited Africa and South America during the 18"" and the 19* centuries. Pratt

argues that accounts of these travelers contributed to imperialism by producing

for imperialist readers a world that was ready for European consumption. She

opines:

Travel books, I argue, gave European reading public a sense of

ownership, entitlement and familiarity with respect to the
distant parts of the world that were being explored, invaded,
invested in, and colonized. Travel books were very popular.
They created a sense of curiosity, excitement, adventure and
even moral fervor about European expansionism. They were, I
argue, one of the key instruments that made people "at home"

• T ie3\
 12

in Europe feel part of a planetary project; a key instrument, in

other words, in creating the "domestic subject" of empire...
empires create in the empirical centre of power an obsessive
need to present and re-present its peripheries and it's others
continually to itself. It becomes dependent on its others to
know itself. Travel writing, among other institutions, is heavily
organized in the service of that need. (Pratt, 2008: 03)

Said, Campbell, Pratt and many other literary scholars have tried

effectively to establish associations between travel writing and imperial

expansion. At the same time, it could be argued that such critical stand may

reduce travel to imperialism and travel writing to imperialist propaganda.

Further, the argument may suggest that they have paid attention so

determinedly on European travel and travel writing that they have lost scope of

the larger comprehensive context of travel and travel writing. As an outcome,

they have presented insightful but nevertheless Eurocentric analyses of

European travelers. Thus, travel and travel writing remain sites of discursive

contention.

There is also an alternative approach offered by Mary W. Helms, an

anthropologist, in her book Ulysses' Sail: An Ethnographic Odyssey of Power,

Knowledge, and Geographical Distance, (1988) in which she recognizes relation

between travel, travel writing, and imperial expansion. But she makes a clear

attempt to situate travel accounts by European travelers in larger universal and

thematic context. Helms is of the opinion that travel to foreign lands and

knowledge constructed from distant lands have often had larger cultural and

political implications in travelers' own societies. On the one hand, they often

served interests of imperialist expansion, and on the other, they directed travel
 13

experience and travel knowledge to raise the travelers' position and influence in
their own societies. Travel to distant parts and writing about them always
reveals some kind of blend of diverse interests, i.e. political, social, economic,
cultural, or some other kind, which indeed fuel the human urge to travel in
search of communication, exchange and construction of knowledge. And thus,
travel and travel writing cannot be reduced only to imperialism or to imperialist
propaganda. Jerry H. Bentley in his book. Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural
Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times, (1993) undertakes a similar approach.
He refers to travel accounts to illuminate processes of cross-cultural
communication and exchange in pre-modem times.

In pre-modern times, it has been observed that travelers' writing, their

own accounts, have perhaps been able to represent their own observations and
experiences far better than ghost writers. However, travelers have been subject to
their own preconception and have often sought to depict themselves in
gratifying light. It has also happened that ghost writers, those who have helped
the traveler to pen down their observations, have sometimes enable travelers
with inadequate literary skill to construct accounts of their experiences. And it is
evident in travelers like Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta, who relied heavily on the
services of such ghost writers. However, there is also other side to this, as is
evident in many cases the ghost writers have improved the readability of many
travel accounts, and in addition, at times, they have also introduced their own
observation into travel accounts. Rustichello da Pisa (13* century), the ghost
writer, who composed Marco Polo's travel account, drew from his own earlier
writings to improvise Marco Polo's descriptions of his experiences.

In addition to the above mentioned problematic, another important aspect

related to travel writing is, the aesthetics of travel writing, which entails the key
 14

issues like: What is the travel writers' perspective? Moreover, does it make any

difference to travel and travel writing if the author is male or female? And what

is the relationship between the travel writer and the world(s) described in the

travel account? Does the travel writer in his/her travel account possess profound

understanding or only superficial acquaintance of the societies and people

observed outside? To what extent do the travelers' religious or cultural

commitments and context shape the travel account? Any attempt to respond to

these questions might point to unexpected directions, but in totality they

contribute to the evaluation of the aesthetics of travel accounts. For example, al-

Biruni, (973-1048) the 11* century astronomer and native.of Iran, spent around

ten years in India as an official. During these years, al-Biruni became extensively

known to Indian culture, traditions and society. In the course of time, he became

keen admirer of Indian sciences, mathematics, and philosophy, but as a

committed Muslim he developed dislike for Hinduism and Indian customs that

were dissimilar to Islamic law and practice. Therefore, his travel account tells as

much about the author himself as it does about the land, culture, religion,

tradition and people he observed during his visit. al-Biruni's case intersects with

the above mentioned questions and further intricate the problematic of aesthetics

of travel writing.

It is found that very seldom have individuals endeavored to know the

larger world out of absolute, disinterested curiosity. Over a period of time in

history, a bunch of interests like, exploration, new opportunities, a sense of

adventure, business, and mission—have accounted for a great deal of travel to

foreign land. This leads to three kinds of possibilities or motives behind travel

across seas: firstly, individuals have explored the far off places to discover and

study the world because they required knowledge that would facilitate them to
 15

exercise control over lands and peoples; secondly, because they sought after
knowledge of places, peoples, and resources that would help them set up
lucrative trade and business; and thirdly, because they were looking for
understanding of distant cultural and religious traditions in order to disagree
with them or co-opt them. Apart from the above mentioned interests that led
individuals to extend their reach in the larger world, there are other reasons
which further intricate the idea of travel in modern times. In recent times,
personal, familial, and cultural interests have also shaped significantly the
motives for exploring and understanding the world. Thus, any research on
Travel Writing does demand particular attention to the motives behind travelers'
explorations into the world.

These motives have often shaped the travel writer's travel accounts, where
they describe their observations and experiences in many different forms, like,
diary, memoir, journal, etc. The writer's choiqe of form has at times influenced
the character of the account. Notwithstanding, writers have made their travel
and sojourn in distant lands the primary focus of their works which often took
the form of a travel account. Noteworthy examples of this pattern of writing are
the travel accounts of Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta, who intended to relate the
things they saw and experienced in foreign lands. As travelers made contact with
new region and people, their writers and editors penned the world on paper for
the emerging marketplace of print. The bulk of new titles in print, including the
old titles reprinted during the rise of modem period indicate that there was a
considerable audience for travel accounts, looking forward to get the news of the
distant world. Norman Douglas very aptly puts this craving for a new kind of
writing:
 16

... the reader of a good travel book is entitled not only to an

exterior voyage, to description of scenery and so forth, but to
an interior, a sentimental or temperamental voyage, which
takes place side by side with that outer one; ... the ideal book
of this kind offers us, indeed, a triple opportunity of
exploration - abroad, into the author's brain, and into our own.
The writer should therefore possess a brain worth exploring:
some philosophy of life... and the courage to proclaim it and
put it to the test; he must be naif and profound, both child and
sage. (Douglas cited in Fussell, 1987:15)

Travel accounts have appeared in other disguised forms as well. Many

travel narratives have taken the form of historical accounts. For example,

Herodotus, (c.480-c.425 B.C.) who is often considered the first travel writer as

well as the father of history, wove travel reports into his History of The Persian

Wars, (c.440 B.C.) Zhang Qian's account of his travels among the Xiongnu

appeared in the official history of the Han dynasty by the Chinese historian Sima

Qian. (145 or 135 BC-86 BC) Bernal Diaz del Castillo's (1492-1585) True History of

the Conquest of New Spain was as much a travel narrative as a record of a military

operation. Travel writings also have appeared notably in diaries, journals, logs,

memoirs, private letters and official correspondence. Christopher Columbus

incorporated a great amount of travel narrative in the log of his first voyage to

the Western world, which can be found in historical account composed by the

Spanish missionary, Bartolome de las Casas. Edgar Snow's Red Star over China

(1937) can be considered travel narrative as well as a personal memoir and also a

political piece. In the above mentioned narratives, accounts on foreign lands and

peoples at times represent discussions that are secondary to the authors'

 17

principal concerns. The oral tradition across the globe also contains the

reflections of travel experiences.

In fact, travel narratives have been so popular with readers through

several ages that many writers have adapted the genre of the travel narrative in

writing works of fiction as well. Kalidasa's Meghdoot (4'V5"' century CE), Homer's

(7'V8* centuries BC) Odyssey, Thomas More's (1478-1535) Utopia, Chinese writer

Wu Cheng'en's (1500-1582) Monkey, Daniel Defoe's (1660-1731) Robinson Crusoe,

the Baron de Montesquieu's (1689-1755) Persian Letters, Jonathan Swift's (1667-

1745) Gulliver's Travels, Samuel Johnson's (1709-1784) Rasselas, Voltaire's (1694-

1778) Candide, and Italo Calvino's (1923-1985) Invisible Cities are only a few

examples of fictional works that either take the form of travel accounts or

incorporate features of the genre.

The various themes dealt by travel writers in their travel account provide

insights into their interests. Those travel writers, whose primary interest is either

business and occupation or the expansion of their own territories have often paid

attention on the strength and weaknesses of the people and societies they visited,

including their political organization, military competence, social structure,

economic efficiency etc. Those with an exact interest in trade or business

opportunities have taken particular interest in the raw material, natural

resources and manufactured products of foreign lands they visited. Apart from

this, social and cultural customs that would be useful for merchants and

businessmen to know are also taken into consideration by the travelers. Those in

search of converting people into a new religious faith have often focused on

religious beliefs, educational institutions, native cultural traditions, and the basic

necessities of life of people and societies including their moral practices.

Nevertheless, writers of travel narratives have at times been blind to those

 18

characteristics of a foreign society that hold little interest for them. For example,
in various travel narratives of pilgrims, recording the experiences of visiting
Jerusalem or making a hajj to Mecca, have dwelled almost exclusively on
religious and spiritual matters. Likewise, merchants involved in trading in
foreign lands often found it difficult or imexciting to record native cultural
values or family life. For example, the Chinese businessman Zhou Daguan,
(1266-1346) traveled to Cambodia in the 13* century, and in a brief account on
his voyage there, he suggests that it was befitting and greatly helpful for Chinese
merchants to get a native wife, who was familiar with native trade practices, but
he showed hardly any interest in the personal life of native society.

Some travel narratives have profoundly influenced historical

developments in their own or later times. Marco Polo's account of his own
travels and Sir John Mandeville's fictitious travels have encouraged Europeans to
venture beyond their nations in search of treasures and profitable opportunities
overseas. One of the most promising examples is Christopher Columbus.
Columbus was fairly familiar with both Sir John Mandeville's and Marco Polo's
narratives, as well as other travel accounts and geographical accounts of his
predecessors and his contemporaries. Columbus took Marco Polo as a guide to
Asian countries and their markets. The Hungarian-British traveler and an
archaeologist Sir Aurel Stein (1862-1943) read Columbus closely to identify
archaeological ruins and find clues to the locations of abandoned sites along the
silk route in Asia.

Some significant travel narratives had little immediate influence. At times,

because they remained unnoticed long after their completion but it is needless to
mention that they offer useful insights into the societies they observed. For
example, Ibn Battuta's travel narrative received little attention until the 19""
 19

century, and in recent times historians have discovered that it offers an

unparalleled perspective on the W"" century Muslim world from West Africa to
India and beyond.

Until the beginning of the 18"^ century, it was found that a traveler's
account was not carefully or systematically structured, but by the middle of IS""
century, a typical pattern had emerged. The travelers started describing their
experiences and observations of the other civilizations from the position
embedded with explicit motifs. Travel Writing, then, was heavily depended on
documentation which had always played an important role during and after
travel, particularly in voyage to overseas. Europeans in general and English
traders and explorers in particular had long been instructed to maintain careful
records of their travels with a purpose to direct the future travelers, who would
follow in their footsteps and augment to the construction of travel knowledge
which was constantly in the process of accumulation.

From the 18* century onwards. Travel Writing became ever more
identified with the interests and preoccupations of European societies. Their
desire was to bring the non-European world into a position, from where that
foreign world can be influenced, subjugated or directly controlled. The last one
was very prominent in the case of Britain. There was some political control of
Britain over other lands which in longer run got translated into different types of
relationships that they imbued in the minds of their subjects, and it got evinced
in the larger framework of colonial policies framed as early as in the 16"' century.
This gave birth to the kind of administration, which, historians have
acknowledged as 'informal empire' or 'unofficial imperialism'. Mainly business,
diplomacy, missionary work and scientific exploration have contributed to the
British expansion and all this purposes have produced its own kind of travel
 20

writing. Growing European technological expertise offered advantages which

made it easier to influence or control non-European lands and societies. In the
midst of increasing scientific and technological superiority came presupposed
intellectual superiority. From 18* century onwards Europeans in general and
British in particular claimed to be able to understand and interpret not only the
landscape they entered but the people as well. Thus, travel writing forms a
complex relationship with the circumstances from which it emerges.

Though, travel and travel writing have always captivated human beings
ever since the dawn of recorded history, travel literature as a genre has been
conventionally regarded as a form of entertainment and recreation rather than as
a subject worthy of serious literary or critical attention. The image of the journey
or voyage, as in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1475), Homer's (7"^ /S"" century
BC) the Illiad, Shakespeare's The Tempest (1610/11), Valmiki's the Ramayana, or in
Coleridge's The Ancient Mariner (1798) has time and again provided as a general
archetype for the human circumstance. There have been unforgettable imaginary
journeys in literature across the globe, e.g. Meghdoot, Gulliver's Travels, Alice in
Wonderland, (1865) etc., and there have been authors, who, while unfolding an
actual journey, conceive things that have never happened. A journey is the most
common metaphor for depicting movement from one point to another. It can be
described in one single expression that can bring together the whole universal
desire for travel throughout the globe, that is, human longing for exploration, as
if this longing is inherent in human beings.

Travel writing as a literary form has moved away from the earlier
periphery of guide-books, journal or log and has come to centre of literary
discourse. The universal appeal to human nature across cultures and societies/
makes travel writing powerful and irresistible. In contemporary times, new
 21

approaches to literary studies such as Orientalism, Colonial and Post-colonial

discourse. Gender studies, and Translation studies have brought travel and
travel writing to the centre of the mainstream critical research. In this context, it
becomes more relevant and useful to evaluate and assess the travel narratives
written in the 19* century.

It is observed that since the 16"^ century, Europeans in general and English
in particular have been sailing to India as people from India have been travelling
to England and Europe. In 1635, East India Company set up a shipbuilding yard
in Surat, India. This indicates the amount of travel for various reasons that must
have been in practice, as early as the 17* century, between India and England.
From the very beginning. Englishmen started writing travel accounts about what
they came across in India. However, their Indian counterpart began writing
about their travels to Britain only after one and a half centuries later. Unlike
colonial masters, however, few in India considered travel to Europe or
knowledge derived from voyage abroad, fascinating. A section of Hindu society,
until the beginning of 20* century, discouraged travel due to a belief in
unavoidable impurity that crossing the sea would entail. However, Indians did
travel across seas, even at the cost of their social boycott. From the 19* century
onwards, a good number of Indians undertook travel to different destinations
within and outside India, although very few complete written accounts of their
travels have survived. Amongst this, only few were published and others have
remained in manuscripts. In contrast to this, from the 16* century onwards, a
number of written records about augmenting knowledge about India were
produced by European writers through reports, journals, diaries, marine logs,
mapping, letters, travelogues, etc. Thus, this accumulation of knowledge about
East became substantial and powerful foundation for colonialism. In comparison
 22

to this, until the beginning of 19"^ century, the Indians travelling to Britain had

access to very few written evidences from their predecessor.

Europeans and Indians have considered travel as an important part of life

since the recorded history. But the amount of travel undertaken and the written

expression of the observations and experiences of those voyages are found in

asymmetrical ways. The Europeans have visited and considered India as a land

of riches and knowledge, ever since their first encounter with India. Based on

these countless voyages an extensive literature about India has emerged over the

centuries. In quest of exploring the wealth of India, the Dutch, the French, and

the Portuguese, right from the late 15"" century, and later the British East India

Company, formed direct transoceanic transportation links connecting to India.

Ever since the time of their earliest visits, Europeans have documented and

disseminated accounts of their journeys to India. Edward Said and many other

scholars have aptly revealed the roots of colonialism in travel narratives in which

the European traveler abroad and the Orientalist at home looked down upon the

'other' non-white subject and claimed special power to represent them.

From the 16* century onwards, Europeans in general and English in

particular, including explorers, merchants, colonial officials, and travelers have

penetrated and disrupted Indian society. Indians, who undertook voyage to the

West, served Europeans in different capacities, as seamen, servants, domestic

help, wives, etc. Their own accounts of their travels and sojourn there remained

oral due to their social, educational and economic status. In the second half of the

18'^ century a small number of English educated Indians visited England as

would be teachers of Britons or else as political or judicial appellants against

them. Interestingly, these varied numbers of early travelers to Europe were

members of minority communities, i.e. Muslims, Parsee or Christians.

 23

These earliest accounts of travels to East by European travelers and

colonial officials filled the libraries and archives on diverse subjects and issues
concerning India. However, it had no equally useful data produced by their
Indian counterparts. In fact, almost all Indian travelers travelling to West
depended for any kind of their prior knowledge on its representation by
Westerners or oral accounts by other Indians until the second half of the 19*
century. This left Indians travelling abroad comparatively unprepared for their
encounter with the unknown territory. At the same time, this lack of certain prior
knowledge freed early Indian travelers to discover the West on their own. Only
in the early 19"" century did Indians begin to publish books in English as well as
Indian languages based on their own visits to Britain. These earliest attempts to
pen down their observations and experiences intended to direct Indians but also
to instruct Britons. Their narratives indicate how Indians in the second half of the
19* century began to reverse the gaze of orientalism and examined England
based on their own first hand observations and at the same time were conscious
of representing India to Britons.

The contemporary scholarly interest in Indian travel writing is largely in

the context of the 19* century encounter between India and Europe, particularly
England. The reason could be because this can serve as marker from when and
where modern travel begun. In his introduction to Other Routes: 1500 years of
African and Asian Travel Writing, Tabish Khair points out:

From the eighteenth century onwards, there was a proliferation

of travel books by Indians—penned not only in English, but
also in other Indian languages like Malayalam, Bangla
(Bengali), Urdu, Hindi and in the past, Persian. However, the
eighteenth century also marked a proliferation of travel writing
 24

in Europe. While the European proliferation has been

thoroughly studied and variously explained, no book length
comparative study has been made of analogous travel writing
in different Indian languages, even though some interesting
line of similarity and difference might exist. This dearth, as
well as the extent and suddenness with which English took
over as the language of the Indian elite in the late nineteenth
and the twentieth century, has consolidated the myth of the
centrality of Anglophone/European travel writing—and world
architectonics—even in the work of scholars who are interested
in retrieving Indian, rather than European, travel text. (Khair,
2005:13)

Therefore, what makes it fascinating to study the 19* century travel

writing is to locate how Indian travel writing flourished in the 19* century and

borrowed freely from the only model that was available to Indians, that was,

English travel writing. However, the volume of travel writing in the last two

centuries has been produced by subaltern groups, and especially by women

travelers. But as far as this specific period is concerned travel writing by women

is not readily available. In England, by the 19* century there were enough titles

by women travel writers to form a distinct category of writing. From the 19*

century onwards Indian women travelled abroad either with a purpose to study

or accompanying their husbands, and some of them have left records of their

voyage, e.g. Cornelia Sorabji, (1866-1954) Pandita Ramabai, (1858-1922)

Krishnabhabini Das, (1864-1919) Nandkunwarba (1861-1935) to name a few

among others. Their prose can be categorized unsentimental, informative, clear

and descriptive. Their primary interest is to record the experience. They are
 25

fascinated by people, culture, society and condition of women across societies.

They do not like to show off their accomplishment despite knowing that they are
pioneers in writing travel narratives in their respective socio-cultural spaces.
They also mention the hindrance in doing so and how they overcome them as
their journeys overcome geographical as well as social odds. However, published
travelogues by Indian women in English and Indian languages are
disproportionately very few. Although substantial research is carried out in
various other forms of literature, like, journals, diaries, letters, autobiographies
and oral records to recuperate a more gendered balanced discourse on Indian
travel writing.

In the light of the above discussion, the present research project aims at
exploring and reading closely the four travelogues: Fanny Parkes' (1794-1875)
Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque (1850), John Matheson's (1817-
1878) England to Delhi; A narrative of Indian Travel (1869), Behramji M Malahari's
(1853-1912) The Indian Eye on English Life or Rambles of a pilgrim Reformer (1893)
and Nandkunwarba's (1861-1935) Goniandal Parikram (1901), which are written by
travelers from different and diverse languages, cultures, background, colors,
gender and so on. To make this study more precise and specific, it makes use of
the edited copy of Fanny Parkes' travels known as Wanderings of Pilgrim in search
of the Picaresque by Fanny Parkes selected, edited and introduced by Indira Ghose
and Sara Mills, published in 2001 by Manchester University Press, to avoid the
inconsistent spellings and print errors. John Matheson's England to Delhi; A
narrative of Indian Travel has been reprinted by Riverstone Press in 2008. Behramji
M Malabari's The Indian Eye on English Life or Rambles of a pilgrim Reformer is
available in print as well as electronic copy. The unabridged version of
Nandkunwarba's Gomandal Parikram is published recently in 2009 by Gujarat
 26

Sahitya Akademi. The text in its abridged edition is out of print, which was
reprinted in 1988 by Gujarat Sahitya Akedemi.

The present research is an attempt to make an inquiry into the travel

writing written during the 19"" century and how and what kind of knowledge
they create. This study aims to explore the two British travelers and the two
Indian travelers, who visited India and Britain respectively in the 19* century.
These travelers invariably constructed some knowledge about people, society,
culture, education, language, law, governance, geography, etc., during their
voyage and sojourn in the foreign land.

Fanny Parkes came to India as a wife of a junior official in charge of ice-

making in Allahabad. She came to India in 1822 and lived almost for twenty four
years and travelled extensively. What gave her edge over other travelers was her
sound knowledge of the language, Hindustani. Being a woman and well versed
in the native language benefitted her to penetrate deeply and visit the forbidden
landscapes of the then Indian society. For twenty four years she lived in India,
and the country never ceased to surprise, intrigue and delight her. Gradually,
during her long stay and as her wandering took shape, Parkes' views began to
change. By the late 1830s she became increasingly critical of the East India
Company, where her husband served. In her published work that criticism was
by necessity muted, but her allegiances are clear. She felt utter depression while
going back to England. It was as if the current of colonization had somehow been
reversed, and the colonizer seems to have been colonized. India had changed
and transformed Fanny Parkes completely. Her impressions revealed in her
travels regarding the people, culture, society, places, religion, the British
presence in India, and about the nation as such are noteworthy. In this context it
 27

becomes necessary to make an inquiry on what kind of knowledge her work

created about the East.

Another British traveler is John Matheson. He was born in Glasgow and

visited India in 1862 which led to the 1869 publication of his travel book, England
to Delhi: A narrative of Indian Travel. As he puts it: "... business, not bookmaking,
was its primary purpose". (Matheson, 2008: vi) But he was strongly impressed by
the Eastern culture and was amazed to see how different it is from the European
life. During his stay he visited different cities, temples, mountains, industries and
commented upon Indian culture, religion, administration, education, especially,
female education, trade and so on. His travel book contains map and almost 82
illustrations drawn in wood. He begins his travelogue by saying: "The theory
that the arts of civilization have destroyed the romance of travel is not one of
universal application". (Matheson, 2008:01) Matheson has tried to provide a very
detailed account of his stay in India. It becomes interesting to read this work
because his chief objective behind travel was business. But, he could not resist
the temptation to put it in words whatever he came across during that time.
Thus, premised on business motif it brings to the fore the inquiry regarding his
• perception of the other through the technique of rhetoric.

From the East, the two travelers that this research project would like to
evaluate are: Behramji M Malabari's The Indian Eye on English Life or Rambles of a
pilgrim Reformer written in English and published in 1893, and Nandkunwarba's
Gomandal Farikram written in Gujarati and published in 1901. Malabari's account
of his three visits to England went through four editions. Behramji M Malabari
was born in Baroda and brought up in Surat. He left Bombay to travel to England
in April 1890. His work is a record of his journey to Britain and his observation of
British life. The witty and humorous tone adopted by the author proved to be a
 28

hit with the reading public, reflected by the fact that the book passed through
four editions. Malabari very minutely observed the European life during his stay.
The book contains his musing over a wide range of issues which are still relevant
today, e.g. he was shocked by the prevalent poverty in British society. He goes
on to describe people, social life, eating and drinking habits, poverty, economy,
health, sexual life, law and order, and the parliament of Britain. However, he is
also very appreciative of Britain. It would be interesting to inquire how
Malabari's travel account intersects with the other through the apparatus of
travel to construct the discourse of knowledge about the self and the other.

Nandkunwarba was a Queen of erstwhile small princely state in Gujarat,

India. She was one of the earliest Gujarati women prose writers. As she herself
makes it clear in the introduction of her travelogue, the purpose of her travels to
Europe was to get rid of diseases from which she was suffering. It was the advice
of her doctors that inspired her to take this travel, which became possible
because her husband accompanied her in her travels abroad. She not only visited
England but other European countries as well. The unabridged edition of her
travels runs into almost 700 pages. She has provided a great number of details of
European life ranging from agriculture, education, customs, museums, and
libraries to reading habits, cleanliness, hygiene, etc. She could get rid of her
illness during this voyage. To keep herself busy during her travels she kept on
jotting down details about the places she visited. She visited Europe three to four
times and this book is an outcome of her all the visits. As revealed by herself in
the introduction she wanted to provide details regarding Europe for the benefit
of other travelers, which is what has primarily inspired her to write this book. It
would be significant to inquire as to how her travel account creates a textual
space for construction of knowledge through constituting its other.
 29

Travel writing emerged as a genre in India during the last two decades of
the 19* century mostly under the influence of English Literature available
through English education system. By the middle of the 19* century, the English
language had been adopted by the influential section of Indians, largely by those
who were exposed to English education system. English was regarded as the
most appropriate and convenient medium of intellectual communication among
the educated Indians as well as with the Englishmen. The travelogues were
therefore written in English as well as in Indian languages. However, they
provide contemporary records of Indian anxiety concerning the forces of cultural
change generated by the British rule. The travelogues written in Indian
languages, further, reveal cultural anxiety and the politics of the relationship
between the conqueror and the conquered with greater intensity. The rapid
emergence and popularity of travel writing in various Indian languages
corresponded with emerging growth of national consciousness, which resulted
in a growing desire to acquire more knowledge about India. India had remained
partly unfamiliar and unknown even to Indians themselves because of its vast
and diverse geographical and cultural landscape.

The Indian travelers and travel writers during the 19* century belonging
to various social rank, profession, gender and age, found it next to impossible to
look at Europe in general and England in particular, with the excitement of a
foreigner visiting a new country. These travelers are completely bound in their
historical position, where they are conscious of their position as representatives
of a subject land. The travels within India, despite the presence of feeling of
political suppression, created a room for celebration of Indian splendor and
grandeur. In many travel accounts, where the focus is on England, the Indian
 30

discomfiture becomes very apparent. The greater parts of such travel writings
are consciously ambivalent and polemical in nature.

The Indian travelogues written in the 19"" century integrated somewhat

naturally and inescapably the discourse of imperialism and nationalism,
affecting the nature of the genre of travel writing itself. It can be argued that
unlike the classical model of travel writing, they do not act as if being an
apolitical and innocent discourse of exploration of the mysterious. They are
directed and propelled by a strong political sensitivity. The travel accounts of
Europeans about India record observations and experiences of a completely
mysterious world with strange social customs and cultural practices. Moreover,
India in their imagination seems to be a world of many languages, religions,
diverse food habits and dresses. Their extensive travel writing describes Indian
nature and men exotic, mysterious and dangerous. This western perception and
traveler's knowledge of India as perceived in many accounts can be considered
as sheer inadequate and at times seriously distorted. India in their knowledge
and imagination for centuries was certainly an area of darkness, a land, strange
and exotic. The narratives about India, including travel writing written by
Europeans in general and English in particular in the 19* century, exhibit this
sense of strangeness and unfamiliarity. And Europe and especially England was
not completely an unfamiliar world to the educated Indians in general and those
who visited England in particular. The well designed English educational system
had facilitated the exposure to the exhaustive knowledge about English history
and culture. Thus, by the middle of the 19"" century, England had almost become
a part of the intellectual landscape for this rank of Indian society. The Indian
travel writing on England can be distinguished by the predictability of
experience, on the one hand and the inevitable conflict with the new and
 31

unfamiliar, on the other. A number of the 19* century travel narratives written

by Indians in English as well as in other Indian languages at one level attempt to

deconstruct some of the myths of English society and life and its superiority over

its Indian counterpart.

This research inquiry aims at exploring the above mentioned four texts,;

which belong to the 19* century, to locate and relocate the issues concerned with

the encounter among the Easterners and the Westerners in the same age,

complexities of the act of seeing in terms of gender, and how these texts as travel I

narratives contribute in the continuing construction or formation of a kind of |

knowledge in their own ways. Travel writing, like a lens, inevitably distorts the

world, which, though, it brings to the sight. Therefore, suspended between fact

and fiction in many ways, travel writing brings its readers a distinctive challenge

that is mainly identified as epistemological in nature. Fussell's distinction

between the explorer, the traveler, and the tourist is worthy of attention here:

All three make journeys, but the explorer seeks the

undiscovered, the traveler that which has been discovered by
the mind working in history, the tourist that which has been
discovered by entrepreneurship and prepared for him by the
arts of mass publicity. (Fussell, 1980:39)

Literary and critical work on travel writing makes an attempt to decode

the text and read it as work of historical and cultural revision. As a category of

writing, travel writing raises certain types of essential questions and

formulations. Such literary criticism of travel writing opens up a plethora of

issues of power, knowledge, gender, representation and identity. Thus, the

reader has to confront with the questions relating to the validity of the
 32

knowledge apparently offered by travel writing, which at the same time

questions the act of representation. The Indians and the British abroad were

negotiating with the borders, literally and figuratively in asymmetrical ways

often affecting the dynamics of each other's cultures. These travel narratives

need to be studied in the light of multidisciplinary approach incorporating the

purely literary aspects of the narratives, the element of social history on both the

sides and the history of the modifications of English ideas carried over to India.

Such critical inquiry requires attention to traveler's aesthetic and moral reaction

to objects and events, the reaction to nature including the effect caused by subtle

seasonal change, the role of nationalism and nostalgia, the use of words and

phrases from native languages, the influence of native proverbs and idioms etc.

As Lady Mary Wortely Montagu complained:

We travelers are in very hard circumstances: if we say nothing

but what has been said before us, we are dull, and we have
observed nothing. If we tell anything new, we are laughed at as
fabulous and romantic. (Montagu, 1906:156)

The motives and images incorporated by travelers constitute a discourse.

This discourse, as Foucault opined, indicates an accumulated archive of

knowledge and imagery, which shapes cultural attitudes and assumption on a

given subject, and that accordingly dictates what is likely to be regarded as true,

and as proper knowledge in that subject area. Travel writing is one such cultural

form which is ingrained in imperialist attitudes and imagery. In Mary Louise

Pratt's words:

Many forms of writing, publishing, speaking, and reading

brought the knowledge into being in the public sphere, and

 33

created and sustained its value. ... Journalism and narrative

travel accounts, however, were essential mediators between the
scientific network and a larger European public. They were
central agents in legitimating scientific authority and its global
project alongside Europe's other ways of knowing the world,
and being in it.... For three centuries European knowledge-
making-apparatuses had been construing the planet above all
in navigational terms. (Pratt, 2008:29)

Thus, Travel Writing cannot be read as a simple account of a voyage to a

country by a traveler in isolation, but has to be read in the light of discourses,

formulated in the given context. Therefore, the production of knowledge through

Travel Writing needs an elaborate scrutiny. As Foucault opines in an essay

namely, 'Prison Talk', 'It is not possible for power to be exercised without j

knowledge, it is impossible for knowledge not to engender power', (Foucault,

1980:52) Travel Writing as a mode of constructing knowledge has to undergo a

detailed scrutiny in this particular context, as travel, was certainly an act of

amassing knowledge. Inherently, it is a mode of constructing knowledge which

is premised on the assumptions of, or access to, or understanding and

appropriating new lands, cultures and people. In this context, European travel

knowledge provided a useful outcome in providing necessary information for

subsequent expansion and proliferation screened through the colonial,

postcolonial and imperial lenses. The thrust area of the present research entails

the enquiry into the processes of knowledge construction in the context of the

19"^ century colonial discourse and how travel as an apparatus is used and

employed by the travelers in the 19"" century, Europeans as well as Indians, in

constituting their other and there by formulating the knowledge of the self. In
 34

this context it endeavours to construe the very act of travel in terms of acquiring
knowledge for the bettering of its traveler and the country to which he or she
belongs.
 35

Works Cited:

Raban, Jonathan. For Love & Money: Writing - Reading - Travelling 1968-1987.
London: Picador, 1988.

Holland, Patrick and Graham Huggan. Tourist with Typewriters: Critical Reflections
on Contemporary Travel Writing. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, 1998.

Hulme, Peter & Tim Youngs. The Cambridge companion to Travel writing.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Campbell, Mary. The Witness and the Other World: Exotic European Travel Writing,
400-1600. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988.

Pratt, Mary Louise. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transcidturation. London and
New York: Routledge, 2008.

Helms, Mary W. Ulysses' Sail: An Ethnographic Odyssey of Power, Knowledge, and

Geographical Distance. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988.

Foucault, Michel. 'Prison Talk', in C. Gordon ed., Powe?'/Knowledge: Selected

Interview and Other Writings 1972-1977 Michael Foucault. New York:
Pantheon Books, 1980.

Fussell, Paul. Abroad: British Literary Travelling Between the Wars. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1980.

Fussell, Paul. ed. The Norton Book of Travel. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1987.

Kamps, Ivo & Jyotsna G. Singh. Travel Knowledge: European Discoveries in Early
Modern Period. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

Jerry H. Bentley Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Coittacts and Exchanges in

Pre-Modern Times. New York: OUP, 1993.

Khair, Tabish & Martin Leer. etl. Other Routes: 1500 years of African and Asian
Travel Writing. Indiana University Press: Indiana, 2005.
 36

Matheson, John. England to Delhi: A narrative of Indian Travel. Reprint. London:

Riverstone Press, 2008.

Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley. Letters. London: J.M. Dent and Co., 1906.
 37

CHAPTER II

THE ORIENTALIST GAZE AT THE COLONIAL SUBJECT:

FANNY PARKES' WANDERINGS OF A PILGRIM IN SEARCH
OF THE PICTURESQUE

The European travel account of the East, including India, steadily

accumulated a corpus of writing since the opening up of the sea-route from
Europe to India. In number of ways, the authors of these books are conscious
that they are participating in the activity of producing new knowledge about the
East. Accounts related to experiences in India, written by the English, increased
rapidly in the second half of the 19* century as more and more British people
came to India either for work or holiday, which was reinforced by the increasing
stability of the British in India and the improving means of communication and
transport between the two countries. Interpreting India to the West, for different
reasons, continues even in present times, in which Indians too have participated.
These travel accounts belong to the literature of self-revelation. Their authors not
only observe and take notes, but also reflect, mull over and proclaim a space,
where the public and private worlds come together and as a result their
observations and self introspection constitute a discourse of knowledge in the
narrative of their travel accounts. The authors in these accounts find an outlet for
intense emotion and obsessions. The majority of authors are aware of speaking to
an audience. They know that their accounts serve ends in terms of constructing
knowledge, spreading information, philosophical inquisition, literary self
expression and persuasion. Fanny Parkes' travel account of twenty four years in
India is representative of this class of writing. As Philip Woodruff aptly
 38

comments on her account, "With sketches, paintings, recipes, oriental proverbs,

accounts of suttees and of visits to the zenana, [it] is surely the cream of all such

books". (Woodruff, 1971:311)

Fanny Parkes (1794-1875) lived in India for twenty four years between

1822 and 1845 as a wife of a member of the Bengal Civil Service. Parkes was

exploring the length and breadth of the country, and on returning to England,

she wrote possibly the most enjoyable and lively travel book, titled. Wanderings of

a Pilgrim, in Search of the Picturesque, during four and twenty years in the East; with

Revelations of Life in the Zenana, published in two volumes in 1850, amounting to

over nine hundred pages with numerous illustrations. It was Parkes' curiosity

and enthusiasm that distinguished her approach to India, and her journal traces

her journey from prudish memsahib, married to a minor civil servant of the Raj,

to unconventional sitar-playing Indophile, from her critique of British rule to her

ardent appreciation of Indian culture.

She was born in Wales, daughter of Anne and Major Edward Caulfield

Archer, 16th Lancers, ADC to Lord Combermere and writer of Tours in upper

India, and in parts of the Himalaya Mountains; with accounts of the courts of the native

princes, &c. (1833) She married Charles Crawford Parkes, a Civil Servant to the

East India Company and accompanied him to India.

During the whole of her stay in India she kept a journal. As she reveals

her intention in the very beginning, her travel account is dedicated to her

mother:

To the memory of my beloved mother, at whose request it was

written. This Narrative is Dedicated: and if any of the friends,

whose kind partiality has induced them to urge its publication.

 39

should think I have dwelt too much on myself, on my own

thoughts, feeling and adventures, let them remember that this
journal written for the affectionate eye of HER to whom
nothing could be so gratifying as the slightest incident
connected with her beloved and absent child. (Parkes, 2001:23)

Her detailed travel account, written in an exuberant style reveals her

candid self. Parkes brings in her account a pre-colonial perspective of Northern

India, its peoples and customs, recording changes in Britain's governing policies

of its subjects, the economic impact of such policies, and domestic problems in

Indian society as she found during her stay for twenty four years in India.

Her meticulous account includes colonial activities in Calcutta, her

attempts at learning Hindustani, farming at Allahabad, Muslim customs, history

of Hindu theology, Europeans' lack of respect for Indian culture, famine in

Kanauj, travelling over mountains, discussing laws governing married women in

England as vmfair, describing Delhi, natural beauty of Indian scenery, Benares,

snake charmers, temples, sugar mills and the list is endless. Parkes' narrative

reflects her admiration and respect for the richness of Indian culture. The travel

account includes a glossary of terms and a collection of translated Indian

proverbs.

Her book is outstanding because Fanny Parkes is at once an observant,

effortless, compassionate and intelligent, and is also moderately without

prejudice as a travel writer in the mid-19th century, because by that time the

British arrogance on the colonized peoples had colored almost all printed

material about the colonized written in the English language; this book is one

rare exception. It is astonishing, because the writing style of Parkes is amazingly

 40

conterhporary, because unless one is reminded, it would be impossible to guess

that these journals were written almost 175 years ago. Her observations cover

almost all aspects of a European living and travelling in the early 19th century

India.

Fanny Parkes was a lady of exceptional personality, cultured, attentive

and enterprising, who could exercise a very facile pen. Her travel account stands

as the best and most fascinating account of Indian life in the early part of the last

century. Douglas Dewar describes, thus, Fanny Parkes as a traveler of immense

importance, in his book Bygone days in India:

Mrs. Fanny Parkes came out to India in 1822 as the wife of an

Indian Civilian going out to India to join the Company's
Service. She resided in the Country for more than 20 years,
spending the greater part of that period at Allahabad and
Cawnpore. In 1833 she visited Mussoorie. Her book is an
Anglo-Indian classic. It contains a great detail more than notes
on current events and descriptions of the social life of the
English in India. In it there are chapters dealing with thug-s
and the Hindu and Muhammadan religions. She discourses on
such multifarious subjects as the Gardner family, life in the
Zenana and the useful plants of India. (Dewar, 1922: 95)

Parkes was an enthusiast and an eccentric when it came to her love for

India, which is imprinted on almost every page of her book. From her first

arrival in Calcutta, she wrote:

On arriving in Calcutta, I was charmed by the climate; the

weather was delicious; and nothing could exceed the kindness

 41

we experienced from our friends. I thought India a most

delightful country, and could I have gathered around me the
dear ones I had left in England, my happiness would have been
complete. (Parkes, 2001:31)

That initial intuition was reinforced by her longer stay in India. During the

twenty four years she lived in here, India never ceased to surprise, intrigue and

delight her, and she was never before as happy as when off on another journey,

exploring new parts of the country. Partly it was the beauty of the place that

hypnotized her. She found Indian men "remarkably handsome", while her

response to the landscape was no less admiring:

The evenings are cool and refreshing ... The foliage of the trees,
so luxuriously beautiful and so novel, is to me a source of
constant admiration. (Parkes, 2001: 34/35)

But it was not just the way the place looked. The longer she stayed in

India, the more Parkes fell in love with the culture, history, flowers, trees,

religions, languages and peoples of the country, and the more she felt possessed

by an overpowering urge to pack her bags and set off to explore, as she writes,

"In December, the climate was so delightful, it rendered the country preferable to

any place under the sun; could it always have continued the same, I should have

advised all people to flee unto the last". (Parkes, 2001:33) It is this joy, excitement

and even liberation in travel that Parkes managed to communicate so well, in

striking contrast to the haughty boredom of so many of her male counterparts. In

the same way, it is her unquenchable curiosity and love for the country that

immediately engages readers and carries them with her as she discovers her way

across India on her own. She is deliberately dismissive of the dangers of dacoits
 42

or thugs or wild animals, while on her way to discover the enticing India; she

turns her hand to learning the sitar, enquiring about the intricacies of Hindu

mythology, trying opium and collecting Hindu statuary, butterflies, zoological

specimens preserved in spirits, Indian aphorisms and Persian proverbs - all with

unstoppable delight.

Even when she disliked a particular Indian custom, she often found

herself engaged with intellectual aspect of it. Watching the Churuk Puja at the

end of chapter one in her travel account, when devout Hindus attached hooks

into the flesh of their backs and were swung about on ropes hanging from great

cranes for the amusement of the crowds below, she wrote, "I was much

disgusted, but greatly interested". (Parkes, 2001: 37) The longer she stayed in

India, the more she was Indianised. The professional memsahib, herself the

daughter of a colonial official, who came to India to look after her colonial

administrator husband, was gradually transformed into a fluent Urdu speaker,

who spent less and less of her time at her husband's mofussil (up-country)

posting, and used more and more of her time in travelling around to visit her

Indian friends. Aesthetically, she grew slowly to prefer the Indian dress to that of

the English one. At one point, watching celebrations at the Taj Mahal, she writes:

...crowds of gaily dressed and most picturesque natives were

seen in all directions passing through the avenue of fine trees,
and by the side of the fountains to the tomb: they added great
beauty to the scene, whilst the eye of taste turned away pained
and annoyed by the vile round hats and stiff attire of the
European gentlemen, and the equally ugly bonnets and stiff
and graceless dresses of the English ladies. ...I cannot enter the
Taj without feeling of deep devotion: the sacredness of the
 43

place, the remembrance of the fallen grandeur of the family of

the Emperor...the solemn echoes, the dim light, the beautiful
architecture, the exquisite finish and the delicacy of the whole,
the deep devotion with which the natives prostrate themselves
when they make their offering of money and flowers at the
tomb, all produce deep and sacred feelings; and I could no
more jest or indulge in levity beneath the dome of the Taj, then
I could in my prayers. (Parkes, 2001:243/244)

Gradually but for sure, over the years as she lived in India, Parkes' views

began to change. As she assumed at first that good taste was the defining

characteristic of European civilization and especially that of her own people, she

found her position being challenged by what she came to regard as the

philistinism of the English in India, and by the beauty of the country.

After staying in India for twenty four years and penetrated deep inside

the life in India, she bids farewell to this second home of her by saying:

And now the pilgrim resigns her staff and plucks the scallop-
shell from her hat, ~ her wanderings are ended—she has
quitted the East, perhaps forever: — surrounded in quite home
of her native land by the curiosities, the monsters, and the idols
that accompanied her from India, she looks around and dreams
of the days that are gone. The resources she finds in her
recollections, the pleasure she derives from her sketches, and
the sad sea waves, her constant companions, form for her a life
independent of her own life. 'The narration of pleasure is better
than the pleasure itself.' And to those kind friends, at whose
request she has published the history of her wanderings, she
 44

returns her warmest thanks for the pleasure the occupation has
afforded her. She entreats them to read the pilgrimage with the
eye of indulgence... (Parkes, 2001: 390/391)

At the end of her travels, Parkes looked forward to meeting her family in

England. Yet when she finally set foot in England again, her return was a

moment not for jubilation, but of despair and disappointment, she writes:

We arrived at six o'clock. May flowers and sunshine were in

my thoughts. It was bitterly cold walking up from the boat ~
rain, wind and sleet, mingled together, beat on my face.[...]
Everything on landing was so wretchedly mean, especially the
houses, which are built of slate stone, and also slated down the
sides; it was cold and gloomy - no wonder on first landing, I
felt a little disgusted. (Parkes, 2003:350/351)

When she arrived home, her mother could barely recognize her. She states:

The happiness of those moments must be passed over in

silence: she laid back her hair from the forehead and looking
earnestly at me said 'My child, I should never have known you
- you look so anxious, so careworn!' No wonder ~ for years
and anxiety had done their work. (Parkes, 2003: 351)

It was as if the current of colonization had somehow been reversed: the

colonizer had been colonized. India had changed and transformed Fanny Parkes.

She could never be the same person again.

She waded into the thick of things, sailing up and down the Ganges,

traveling in palanquins through dangerous jungles, plumbing the veiled secrets

 45

of zenanas or royal harems. Parkes' journals show clearly where her sympathies
lay. She did not patronize the people she met; instead she let them transform her,
which is evident in instances like, while learning to play the sitar, or speak Urdu,
or to eat with her own hands, until she could no longer distinguish herself from
them, considering herself as one of them. Fanny Parkes emerges one of the best
travel writer in the 19"" century, combining her enthusiasm with critical
detachment. She could talk of the death of forty- seven gram-fed sheep and
lambs from smallpox and describe the fineness of grapes in the same breath. She
was obsessed by the urge to travel even up to the Gangotri, the source of the
Ganges. The same obsession urged her to narrate all that she saw: the elaborate
process of making ice on freezing nights and storing it carefully in deep pits; the
complement of servants working in a private family- fifty- seven at a cost of
pound 290 per annum. When Fanny Parkes finally returned to London on a
similar freezing and rainy day, she found that everything on landing seemed so
wretchedly mean.

During the colonial period in India, British travelers adopted various ^

forms of travel writing texts, such as letters, diaries, travelogues, scientific ori
i
geographical exposes, and novels. Usually those texts reflected an attitude of
racial superiority and were often forms of propaganda that perpetuated British
imperial expansion. When the mercury touches 45 degrees in Delhi, it is difficult
to imagine an English memsahib getting off the ship in India in the early 19*^
century and exclaiming that she was charmed with weather. But then Fanny
Parkes was not one to fear high temperatures - or for that matter, thugs, tigers, or
typhoid. The wife of a junior official of the East India Company, Parkes, refused
to live in the segregated splendor of colonial British stations, away from the
natives. Armed with nothing more lethal than a sketching pencil, she gave
 46

herself up to the pleasure of becoming a vagabond, visiting myriad places across

India.

Fanny Parkes starts as a somewhat bad-tempered but very lively

memsahib in India. In the beginning of her stay she critically opines about the

typical manner of the natives about their musical instruments and ways of

worship. But gradually, these first impressions led this Anglo Indian playing

sitar very melodious, and passionately witnessing the celebrations in the honor

of the birth of Krishna and exploring various legends connected to this god. She

turns out to be a very keen student of Hindu mythology, rituals and

iconography. In the course of time, she gathers remarkable store of information

on these subjects. As she says that she became such a keen observer of Hindu

rituals and customs that her friends anticipated her becoming almost Indian to

find her some day at pooja in the river. As K. K. Dyson notes in A Various Universe

about the influential study of 19"" century journals, which Parkes had

undertaken:

In 1939, her collection of Hindu images was far superior, she

claims, to that of the British Museum. She was well-read in
publications on India and the bibliography she provides at the
end of the book is impressive. (Dyson, 2002: 290)

This is apparent in the way Parkes begins her account with invocation to

Lord Ganesh and states:

'Whatever the wandering traveler says, he does so from having

seen that of which he speaks'. So many admirable works have

appeared of late, illustrating scenes in India, both with pen and

pencil, that I offer these sketches in all humility, pleading the

 47

force of example. [...] For four and twenty years have I roamed
the world, ~ 'I neither went to Mekka nor Mudina, But was a
pilgrimage nevertheless'. The Frontispiece represents the idol
Ganesh, the deified infant whom I have invoked. (Parkes, 2001:
27)

Besides her religious and mythological inclinations she became an

admirer and expert in cooking Indian dishes. She becomes fond of various

preparations of fish, including Hilsa fish. Her various visits to her friend. Colonel

Gardner, made her glad to eat Indian food all the time. She opines:

The dinners at first consisted of European, as well as native

dishes dressed after English fashion; and as all the guests were
of same opinion. Colonel Gardner had the kindness to banish
European dishes from the table. (Parkes, 2001: 266)

She turns out to be a great fan of Indian clothes and becomes critical about

the way English men and women dress, which she considers ugly and graceless.

Her love for Indian dressing is reflected in the lines quoted below:

In Europe how rarely - how very rarely does a woman walk

gracefully! Bound up in stays, the body is as stiff as a lobster in
its shell; that snake-like undulating movement, - the poetry of
motion - is lost, destroyed by the stiffness of the waist and hip,
which impedes the free movements of the limbs. A lady in
European attire gives me the idea of a German manikin; an
Asiatic, in her flowing drapery, recalls the statue of antiquity.
(Parkes, 2001: 259)
 48

She further writes:

English dresses are very unbecoming, both to European and

Asiatics. A Musulmani is a horror in an English dress; but an
English woman is greatly improved by wearing a native one,
the attire itself is so elegant, so feminine, and so graceful.
(Parkes, 2001: 261)

After staying for seventeen years in India she visits England once and her

response to the English clothing is noteworthy. In January 1839, Fanny Parkes

visited England. She only returned to Calcutta in April 1844, with her husband

from Cape of Good Hope, where her husband had been sent for convalescence.

On this visit to England after seventeen years in India, she could not hold back

her annoyance at the female clothing of the times:

What can be more ugly than the dress of the English? I have
not seen a graceful girl in the kingdom: girls who would
otherwise be graceful are so pinched and lashed up in corsets,
they have all and everyone the same stiff dollish appearance;
and that dollish form and gait is what is considered beautiful.
(Parkes, 1850: II: 332)

Equally she had developed high regards for the paraphernalia that are

used in Indian homes which was completely foreign thing for a Westerner. This

can be traced in her enthusiasm for charpoy:

It is most luxurious couch imaginable, and a person

accustomed to the charpai of India will spend many a restless

 49

night ere he can sleep with comfort on an English Bed. (Parkes,

2001:262)

Parkes acquired her knowledge of the zenana from her closeness with the

Gardner family and the family of the Maratha princess Baiza Bai. Her

descriptions of these families are important records on the domestic lives of

upper class Indians in the first half of the 19"^ century. They also include

impressive portraits of few individuals with whom she came in contact with, for

example, the remarkable Colonel Gardner and the old Begam, his wife; their son

James and his wife, Mulka Begam. Parkes became an avid admirer of old Colonel

and wished to have his portrait. He also introduced Parkes as his adopted

daughter to others. She was so awestruck and overwhelmed by Colonel

Gardner's personality that she wanted to write his biography. Her conversation

with the women of Gardner family provides very rare glimpse of the life of

zenana. The wife of Colonel Gardner is full of praise for English women. But at

the sometime they find Fanny different from other English women. These

women of zenana are astonished about the habits of other European women and

Parkes, particularly, while describing their habits, like dining with men who are

not relatives, with uncovered faces; to move on horseback with pleasure, that too

attended only by one or two attendants; sleeping in the dark without any fear

and that too without being guarded by attendants; sitting alone in their room,

writing, and not being ur\happy when not surrounded by others.

Fanny Parkes had exceptional opportunity to acquire information about

life inside zenana. This was such an exclusive place where many travelers to East

had no access, especially men. It was a place, where modern science had not yet

entered, and the life was governed by nature and superstition. As Parkes

observes that, though women in zenana suffered less at childbirth than European
 50

women, but ironically, in zenana, giving birth to son was of inestimable value and

giving birth to a girl child was considered almost a calamity. However, even the

mother of a son was not likely to remain long without a rival in the heart of her

husband, and still the sole pride of a woman's life consisted in having had a

grand wedding. Parkes notes:

Nothing can exceed the quarrels that go on in the zenana, or

the complaints the begams make against each other. A common
complaint is 'Such an one has been practicing witchcraft
against me.' If the husband make a present to one wife, even if
it be only a basket of mangoes, he must make the same exactly
to all the other wives to keep the peace. A wife, when in a rage
with her husband, if on account of jealousy, often says, 'I wish I
were married to a grass-cutter,' i.e. because a grass-cutter is so
poor he can only afford to have one wife. My having been
married some thirty or forty years, and never having taken
another wife, surprises the Musulmans very much, and the
ladies all look upon me as a pattern: they do not admire a
system of having three or four rivals, however well pleased the
gentlemen may be with the custom. (Parkes, 2001:170)

Parkes became affectionate admirer of Baiza Bai. She had a feeling of

admiration for Baiza's confident expressions, freedom of mind and independent

nature. Baiza Bai was the widow of Daulat Rao Sindhia and an able lady with

political ambitions in a male dominated world. This leaves Parkes more

sympathetic towards Baiza Bai and the two had a series of dialogue on the issues

concerning women. Parkes states:

 51

A Hindoo widow is subject to great privations; she is not

allowed to wear gay attire or jewels, and her mourning is
eternal. The Baiza Bai always slept on the ground, according to
the custom for a widow, until she became very ill from
rheumatic pains; after which she allowed herself a hard
mattress, which was placed on the ground; a charpai being
considered too great a luxury. [...] Speaking of the privation
endured by Hindoo widow, her highness mentioned that all
luxurious food was denied them, as well as a bed; and their
situation was rendered as painful as possible. She asked me
how an English widow fared? I told her, 'An English lady
enjoyed all the luxury of her husband's house during his life,
but on his death, she was turned out of the family mansion, to
make room for the heir, and pensioned off; whilst the old horse
was allowed the run of the park, and permitted to finish his
days amidst the pastures he loved in his prime." The Hindoo
widow, however young, must not marry again. The fate of
women and of melons is alike. 'Whether the melon falls on the
knife or the knife on the melon, the melon is the sufferer'.
(Parkes, 2001:311)

Parkes was adventurous at heart, which was visible in her love for horse

riding. She was introduced to Baiza Bai as a person as fond of horses as a

Mahratta. She displayed her skills of riding a horse to Baiza Bai, who was

surprised to see Parkes' English style of riding a horse with crooked legs. On

Baiza Bai's suggestion Parkes made an attempt to ride the horse in Mahratta

style, after wearing proper Mahratta costumes. To this experience Parkes

responds:
 52

I thought of Queen Elizabeth, and her stupidity in changing the

style of riding for women. En cavalier, it appeared so safe, as if
I could have jumped over the moon. (Parkes, 2001:309)

Her acquaintance with Baiza Bai provides a great insight into the lives of

women in the 19* century India. At the same time she makes an attempt to give

an account of various cultural practices, which have affected the condition of

women across continents. She states:

The Mahratta ladies lived in parda, but not in such strict

seclusion as the Musalmani ladies; they are allowed to ride on
horseback veiled; when the Gaja Raja goes out on horseback,
she is attended by her ladies; and a number of Mahratta
horsemen ride at a certain distance, about two hundred yards
around her, to see that the kurk is enforced; which is an order
made public that no man may be seen on the road on pain of
death. The Hindoos never kept their women in parda, until
their country was conquered by the Muhammadans; when they
were induced to follow the fashion of their conquerors; most
likely, from their unveiled women being subject to insult.
(Parkes, 2001:310)

The picturesque sights of India fascinated Parkes beyond words. Her

travel account is sparkling with verbal depiction of such sights. She was

enthralled by people in groups, the colors of their clothes, their prayers, ghats,

temples, boats, trees, lights and shadows. On her visit to Mirzapur she indicates

how little she bothers about the comforts of this life:

 53

We found we ought to have stopped at the ghat off

Cantonments, as there bread, butter, meat, &c., could be
procured ; but what cared I for such creature comforts when I
saw the ghats in the early morning ? We crossed the river, and I
went out to sketch them. There are two fine ones, built of stone,
that lie close together, and a number of temples are upon them,
placed at intervals upon the cliff, from the river to the top of
the high bank, and very beautiful they are. (Parkes, 1850 11: 445)

She chased visual beauty with some self-indulgence and also enjoyed the

grandeur of storms, rivers and temples. As the title of her work indicates, she

was in search of the picturesque and this preoccupation of hers is also very

evident at the end of her travel:

This wandering life is very delightful: I shall never again be

content 'to sit in a parlour sewing a seam,' which the old song
gives forth as the height of feminine felicity. (Parkes, 2001:390)

Fanny Parkes was candid in her fondness for her Allahabad home. During

her stay for such a long period in India, she underwent a kind of transformation.

She develops a dual allegiance for India as well as England. This is clearly visible

when she returns to England for a visit after being away from home for almost

seventeen years. Her travel account is amusing, warm, extremely loaded with

colorful details and has a consciously cultivated exotic tone. She profusely uses

Indian words and phrases. Her narrative combines Indian proverbs and idioms

into her language, frequently giving an Indian touch to the master's language.

Her prose is lyrical, rhythmic and rich with poetic style.

 54

Any representation is subject to suspicion and more so when the person

who represents is a British woman. The stereotypical view of the memsahib and
British women in India at large is quite negative. They are considered narrow-
minded, biased and they dislike Indians for their prudery. They were suspected
for marital infidelity and thus their representation has always been challenged.
As J. Stanford points out:

Women had always a great deal of time on their hands in

which to brood about the heat and the futility of their lives, the
lurking dangers, the snakes, and the diseases, their children at
home and above all their hatred of letting any child grow up in
India, with a chi-chi accent and all sorts of undesirable
precocious ways which it had picked up from ayahs and
bearers. (Stanford, 1962:127)

Thus, many historians like Hyam and others are of the opinion that the
moment British women began settling in India, the relations with Indians
declined noticeably. Although, this attitude can be challenged as an
oversimplification of the situation and blaming British women for any kind of
change. The gradual enhancement of British in India brought about many
changes and the British women became a symbol of these changes, which is
evinced in the relation between British and the Indian women. But this presence
of British women in India cannot be considered as homogenous group as they
have been repeatedly depicted. Fanny Parkes' writing is noticeably distinct from
that of her contemporaries. As it is evident in the account of her contemporaries
like Emily Eden or Emma Roberts, her relationship with her contemporaries was
quite ambivalent in nature. Emily Eden writes in her book Up the Country: Letters
from India, first published in 1866:
 55

We are rather oppressed just now by a lady, Mrs. Parkes, who

insists on belonging to our camp...she has a husband who
always goes mad in the cold season, so she says it is her duty to
herself to leave him and travel about. She has been a beauty
and has remains of it, and is abundantly fat and lively. At
Benares, where we fell in with her she informed us she was an
independent woman. (Eden, 1866:125)

During the first half of the 19"^ century when Parkes visited India, British

women had been accompanying their husband for various reasons. They not

only visited India but lived here and many a times brought up their children

here. So by the time Parkes arrived in India there was substantial presence of

well-established population of British men and women. The British women of

the middleclass belonging to such groups came into contact with servant,

merchants, English educated Indians and at times with the members of royal

families, which were vanishing gradually because of the increase of British

penetration in India. But in general, their contact with Indians was quite limited

to their relationship with their many servants with whom they had to

communicate on day to day basis. Thus, this could be one of the reasons of their

stereotypical view of Indians, which is apparent in many travel accounts of 19'^

century. But not all British women had the same opinion to this cliche of

memsahib as can be found in Parkes' writing. At the same time, because of her

position within the colonial discourse, she is inevitably involved in colonial

process of 'other-ing'. Though, Parkes does not escape from racism, her writing

is remarkably different from the writings of many other British women on this

account.
 56

She informs that she cherished exploring India at times in company of her
husband and mostly alone when her husband was preoccupied with work. She
talks of time, spent mostly alone, travelling across country generally in the upper
part of India. Her narrative is rich with description of trips to Ganges, visit to Taj
Mahal, exploring cities like Delhi, Allahabad, Lucknow and also her expedition
to Himalayas. Throughout her account she exhibits voracious inquisitiveness for
Indian life and customs. And like any other traveler keeps comparing people,
their habits, cultures, rituals, festivals, etc. Her love for India makes her learn to
speak Urdu and to learn playing sitar as well. Her, account addressed to her
mother is packed with necessary background iaformation on subjects like Indian
mythology, customs, religion and details about various important places with
keen scholarly eye. Her work serves purpose of a compendium of information on
India on a range of subjects as diverse as collection of Indian proverbs, Indian
cuisines to recipes of making perfumed tobacco cakes, etc. However, her avid
craving for everything Indian is not just limited to fact-gathering, which in fact as
she considered, was far superior to any museum. Much of her account consists of
references of collection of idols, butterflies, fossil bones and also of zoological
collection, which she preserves very meticulously. In fact, for Parkes, describing
this process of collection was central activity during her stay and wanderings.

The main thrust of Parkes' account is on the picturesque, which as an

aesthetic mode of writing originated in the 18* century. It entered travel writing
as a rhetorical tactic to serve definite purpose for the traveler. The concept of the
picturesque brings in question the classical ideas about the aesthetic ideal of the
beautiful. The picturesque was an aesthetic category in response to the Classical
model. In the course of time, the concept of the picturesque became less effective.
As Elizabeth Bohls opines in Women Travel Writers and the language of Aesthetics,
 57

"the high water-mark of the Picturesque coincided with a revolution in rural

management: the large-scale enclosure of the English countryside, a movement

that accelerated with the advent of the industrial revolution in the mid-

eighteenth century." (Bohls cited in Mills, 2001) In this process, the landscape is

represented as a material object, a composition of color, shade and light. And the

traveler is one who positions himself or herself at a distance from the landscape.

The distance was deployed as a strategy in political agenda. It though apparently

despised the rapidly vanishing countryside in Britain, in the wake of

industrialization, at deeper level the picturesque provided an idealization of the

old order of the social system and thus hide the stark affects of industrialization

on social reality in the 19"" century England. In the words of Bermingham, "the

quest for the picturesque can be considered as a move to erase the social

realization in an idealization of an old world order." (Bermingham cited in Mills,

2001) Therefore, the picturesque is foreseen based on a power distance between

the observer and the observed or those who represent and those who are

represented. This becomes even more strong and heightened when the

picturesque is used in the context of colonialism. As Bohls opines:

Aesthetic discourse disclosed a heightened potential for

contributing to the colonial project [...] as traveler began to
inscribe the concept of disinterested contemplations on the
landscape through scenic tourism. (Bohls, 1995:48)

Idealization becomes key ingredient in such travel writing which involves

the idea of the picturesque within the colonial context. In such case the past gets

idealized. Edward Said has categorically argued how idealization of the Oriental

past contributes to Orientalism, a Western tactic of recognizing Western

perception as superior over Orient. This is how many Western travelers were
 58

appropriating the existing Orient as perishing and culturally deteriorating. It

further implied that these places and monuments of the orient need to be taken

care of and they are represented as relics by a superior race. Sara Suleri in this

context observes Fanny Parkes' representation of the relics of the orient:

The shrines that Parkes seeks out are already relics, experiences
to be represented with an elegiac acknowledgement of their
vacated power. (Suleri, 1992: 83)

As Parkes makes it clear in the title of account, she projects herself as a

pilgrim in search of the picturesque. According to her, India offers infinite source

of the picturesque. She states during one of her voyages down the Ganges:

How much I enjoy the quietude of floating down the river, and
admiring the picturesque ghats and temples on its banks! This
is the country of the picturesque, and the banks of the river in
parts are beautiful. (Parkes, 2001:147)

Parkes attempts to represent the image of India that is still aesthetically

beautiful picture. Thus, it can be said that the picturesque invariably involves

covetous implication that can be not seen apparently. As Copley and Garside

observes:

The discourse of the Picturesque intersects with and is shaped

by the discourses of colonialism at various points. (Copley and
Garside, 1994:06)

Apart from this the Picturesque is also used to appropriate the location for

aesthetic consumption. Parkes' craving for collecting souvenir from India can be
 59

seen as a project of the Picturesque. Where, the observed objects and information

is oxidized and made available for the commodity consumption. As many recent

critics have observed, Parkes' account is organized in the shape of a random

collection of aesthetic experiences. As Sara Suleri opines:

Her two volumes map out an omnivorous and often maniacal

consumption of the picturesque in all of its manifestations.
(Suleri, 1992:88)

When read closely, Parkes' text indicates her sympathy towards everything

Indian but that needs to be read with a caution. In Parkes' travel account she

seems to be very sympathetic towards culture, religion, condition of the nation

and its people. But at the same time sympathy and enthusiasm ends with

differentiating one from the other. For example, she keeps reminding the readers

about the differences such as between Hinduism, Islam and Christian practices.

On her use of many religious symbols and their significance, Sara Suleri argues:

Much as Parkes' picturesque dehistoricises the subcontinent

into an amorphous aesthetic space, it further desacralizes each
icon that Parkes represents into an allegory of colonial
ownership: at the end of the pilgrim's wanderings, Ganesh sits
in Great Britain with a zoological composure, god no longer of
writing but of the literal appropriation that Parkes' narrative
delineates. (Suleri, 1992:85)

Hence, Parkes in 'dehistoricing' India, assumes a very complex position

operating at three levels from an authorial position: as a traveler, as a woman

traveler and as an English woman traveler; whose narrative provides insights

into enchanting India evincing it as a source of aesthetic amusement for an

 60

English woman who desires to view her object from a particular distance and

that allows her to create a textual space for her aesthetic experience. Here, her

orientalist gaze at an object being observed bears a twofold objective: firstly, her

orientalist gaze produces knowledge about India as an imperial subject reveling

the secrets of the colonized country' (Blunt, 1994:43) and secondly, it also allows

her to critique the orientalist apparatus, used particularly by male writers, for

constructing knowledge about India, and introduces a position for configuring

different aspects for knowledge construction from gender perspective. In this

context Ghose argues in the following words the case of the picturesque:

The aesthetics of the picturesque offers women travelers a

mode of perception ideally suited to women's self-image in
colonialism. Originally a movement in landscape art, the
picturesque is increasingly deployed as a rhetorical strategy in
travel literature, evoked in the service of simultaneous
imaginative appropriation of the other and detachment from
the other. While not by any means restricted to women, it
serves to epitomize women's position in empire. (Ghose,
2000:11)

Thus, as suggested by Ghose, the authorial position of a woman traveler like,

Parkes, through the rhetoric of the picturesque is informing a counter position

for a British woman traveler in annals of Orientalist discourse from a gender-

specific way.

Parkes' travel account is packed with a plethora of information, although,

calling herself a pilgrim, she suggests a definite stance she takes for providing

information about India. In doing so she gives an impression of an amateur and

 61

wants to attain all the privileges that an amateur can exercise, which even can

affect any kind of judgment in building her perception. Thus, such discourse

involves number of issues including the perception of feminine gender. As Suleri

cautions:

Given the censored status of their discourse, what literally

modalities allow even nonfictional texts by women writers to
embody the veiled realities of colonial panic? How,
furthermore, does the act of autobiography dilute or reify male
historiography, as it inscribes a female and foreign body onto
an Indian landscape? Despite the ostensible privacy of the
picturesque—its impulse to be anecdotal rather than
historical—could such a genre signify an Anglo-Indian
breakdown of the boundaries between official and intimate
languages? If so, the figure of women writer as amateur could
emblematize an tmofficial fear of cultural ignorance shared
equally by male and female imperialists, converting
amateurism into an elaborate allegory through which Anglo-
Indian examines in hiding colonialism's epistemological limits.
(Suleri, 1992:82)

Thus, the position of being amateur is intricate with critical inquiry

interrogating the 'epistemological limits' of the knower, the colonizer. In many

ways it facilitates the knower to perceive the object of knowledge in fragments,

and thus decontextualizes the information from the overall framework of

context. This lack is evinced in modalities used by the Orientalist male writers in

constructing knowledge about India. The repercussions are intricate in analyzing

the authorial position of a woman traveler like Parkes, and they are further
 62

informed by her stance of being a British woman during the colonial period.

Indira Ghose provides the following analysis with regard to the above matter:

By constructing themselves as busy collecting picturesque

scenes or curios or flowers, looking on while men managed the
dirty business of politics, women travelers epitomize the stance
of British women in empire - as located outside of historical
and material conditions. (Ghose, 2000:09)

It is evident that in the given colonial setup, for any women traveler there

were few alternatives apart from employing the Picturesque as a tool to deal

with the encounter with the colonized country. The British women in early the

19"" century had very limited role to play in the areas of administration, oriental

scholarship or moving exclusively for the purpose of travel. This led Parkes to

use extensively the details from other experts on India. She writes in the initial

chapter of her account about her limitations as a woman travel writer:

I am reading Captain Mundy's Sketches in India, a much more

amusing journal than I can write. I have no tigers to kill, no
hurdwar to visit; nor have I even seen the taj. His journal is
very spirited, very correct, and very amusing; I am pleased to
hear the praises bestowed upon it in England. (Parkes,
2001:190)

Parkes' complete focus on the picturesque denies her the freedom of

describing any other issue with such microscopic details. She hardly informs the

reader about the larger political events that took place because of the British

presence in India, for example, the increasing discontent and unrest. The India

she visited is one where the British have already strengthened their hold. Her
 63

desire to meet the natives and increase contacts with them reveals her sense of

anachronism. Just after few years she left India, the first signs of discontent or

unrest became visible in events of 1857, which is now known as the Indian war of

independence. Even when she refers to few historical events, her focus is on how

those events affect the British population in India. Moreover, she also provides

valuable details regarding the condition of the life of British in India in the first

half of 19"^ century, especially, how everyday life was lived by British man and

women.

Although, what makes Fanny Parkes travel narrative exclusive is her

observations about zenana or harem, to which any male traveler had no access at

all. Here, only women traveler had the privilege to construct any kind of

knowledge about the Orient. In general, the male writers have always projected

this area as a sexualized zone. In fact, these zenana were actually not sexualized

zones but these spaces were simply areas where women had some kind of

privacy and need not fear of the presence of any unknown males. But since male

travelers had no firsthand experience or access to these places, they projected

them as dark or sexualized. Many women travelers have contradicted such

stereotypes in their account. Parkes is no exception. However, to some extent she

does describe these places in the same eroticized discursive framework as male

travelers do. But at the same time she does not subscribe to this stereotype

completely. On her first visit to a zenana in the begging of her travel narrative she

writes:

It was the most amusing sight, as I had never witnessed the

interior of a zenana before, and so many women assembled at

once I had never beheld. [...] But the present king's wives were

most superbly dressed, and looked like creatures of the

 64

Arabian tales. Indeed, one was so beautiful, that I could think

of nothing but Lalla Rookh in her bridal attire. (Parkes, 2001:77)

In this description Parkes is astonished at the sight of zenana, which

reflects her perception about such a place in terms of pleasure and fantasy. This

perception differentiates her from many other women travelers, who projected

harem for the voyeuristic male fantasies. Her description of these otherwise

inaccessible places comes from her firsthand experience of her various visits to

zenana, which makes her account authentic. During her visits to Colonel

Gardner's family or her association with Maratha queen Baiza Bai, she comes up

with the finest description of these interiors of Indian homes. Her conversations

with Baiza Bai reveals her outspoken attitude, which almost remains absent in

the narratives of other women travelers. This is where she transcends the

boundaries of the picturesque and shows her genuine concern and anger

towards the British projection of India.

Further, what makes her account interesting is her responses to the events

which took place in the surroundings. One of the most touching sights in her

narrative is her depiction of a mound covered by memorials to women, who

have committed sati. At this moment she expresses her anger against the

injustice towards women in both Britain and India. She observes:

The spot interested me extremely. It is very horrible to see how

the weaker are imposed upon; and it is same all over the world,

civilized or uncivilized. [...] The laws of England relative to

married women, and the state of slavery to which those laws

degrade them, render the lives of some few in the higher, and

of thousands in the lower ranks of life, one perpetual sati, or

 65

burning of the heart, from which they have no refuge but the
grave... It is this passive state of suffering which is most
difficult to endure, and which is generally the fate of women to
experience. (Parkes, 2001:382)

Here, Parkes' stand is somewhat different from that of some feminists,

which is based on a projection of Englishwomen as superior to the Indian

women. Parkes in her scrutiny of the sati issue and its relation to English

women's position considers English women to be as oppressed as Indian

women.

Parkes' travel account is significant and important document for the

representation of 19"" century British perception of India and it also provides

opportunity to study the role of travel writing in producing and circulating

knowledge of the other. Edward Said has argued about the representation of the

Orient in his Orientalism. He is of the opinion that Western travelers, scholars and

artists have used Orient as a foil on which they could project their own cultural

desires and anxieties. In addition to this view, in the case of a woman traveler,

the travel also adds to the factor of emancipation of women. The act of travel

empowered women to raise their voice and fight against the constraints of the

gender norms. This process liberated women to some extent from the confines of

domesticity. Indira Ghose states that this writing process of their travel account

facilitated them to produce a public self, which again provided more access to

the public sphere. In her Women Travelers in Colonial India she writes that:

In fact, women's travel writing radically assert a female

identity in the public sphere in a two-fold way: by producing a

 66

public self in print and by locating the traveler's persona in the

public world of travel. (Ghose, 2000: 08)

In Parkes' case this process is quite visible in her views on issues of

women. And she visualizes the prospects of writing this travel account to
facilitate others with the knowledge of her findings. Such production of
knowledge was associated with the relation of power in the colonial discourse in
which women participated through their travel writing. The colonial enterprise
in the first half of 19* century was strengthening the colonial rule through the
production of scientific knowledge. At the same time Parkes had accumulated
her account of the Picturesque.

This quest for knowledge for Parkes can be considered the result of a
Victorian episteme, where a system of organizing knowledge came into existence
within a particular culture. The 19* century travelers like Parkes made an
attempt to bring a transparent way of organizing information. By doing this she
contributes in representing the world which expanded during the time of high
British imperialism. Here, the construction of knowledge regarding colonized
countries facilitated the process of affirming power over them. It becomes
evident from Parkes' writing and the responses of her contemporaries that she
was conscious about presenting herself as knowledgeable. For example, her vast
knowledge about culture, religion, rituals, flora & faima and her linguistic
acumen exhibits her knowledge about those areas. In doing so, Parkes faces the
challenge of deciding which way to present one's own self. For instance, when it
comes to describing plants in India, Parkes decided to describe plants using their
Latin names, the British names and the indigenous names. Because using only
 67

one out of these three would have put her in certain ways of presenting herself.

For example, she explains the Neeni tree in the following manner:

The neem is a large and beautiful tree, common in most parts

of India (melia azadirachta), or margosa-tree... The bacain, or
maha nimbi (melia sempervivens) a variety of the neem-tree, is
remarkably beautiful. (Parkes, 2001:66)

Thus, Parkes consciously tries to situate herself with much wider scale

than limiting herself merely to Eurocentric discourse. She categorically displays

her indigenous knowledge by including the symbolic and religious function of

flora and fauna within the native community. This stand makes Parkes

exceptional in the 19* century travel writing as not many travelers to East have

attempted the same methodology. This could be one of the reasons how Parkes'

obsession for collecting and constructing knowledge led to hostile relations

between Parkes and many of her contemporary travelers. As J. Robinson opines:

Much of the amusement of the other British wives, Fanny

became an avid and knowledgeable student of Hindu life and
history, and her book is heavy with old Indian proverbs and
mythology. She speaks of 'us Indians' and counts 'the native
ladies of rank' amongst her dearest friends. (Robinson,
1990:219)

Therefore, by being faithful to scientific knowledge, she tries to connect

herself with indigenous culture and its relation with the British community in

India. She contributes in producing a great deal of conventional knowledge

about India. For example, as she revels in the title, she claims to produce

exclusive knowledge about the interiors of zenana, the place where only women
 68

have access to. In doing so, she leaves remarkable information about the lives

and condition of women in 19* century India.

Women's association with construction of knowledge has always been a

problematic area, which is quite apparent within the colonial context. And so,

women travel writers seem to construct particular forms of knowledge due to

social restraints at the level of discourse, where an act of doing it, at first instance,

itself becomes more important unlike male travelers for whom just doing it is

considered important. In the case of Fanny Parkes it becomes important for her

to talk about the untouched realm of the world of the interiors of zenana in India.

The recent discourse on imperialism is deeply indebted to Michel Foucault's

work on the interrelation of knowledge and power. Travel writing within the

imperial context constructs knowledge about the colonized country. During the

colonial times the scientific knowledge had wider acceptance and visibility in

comparison to other forms of knowledge. However, travel writing also

constructs a great amount of commonsense knowledge. In Parkes' case such

knowledge is about the life in India, its people, especially women, and the

domestic life lived by British visitors as well as natives. As Alison Blunt & Gillian

Rose opines:

Much travel writing implicitly proposes a set of commonsense

assumptions to which the reader is supposed to assent. Given
the gendered nature of imperialism at a stereotypical level, it is
quite clear that information produced within this context will
itself be profoundly gendered. (Alison Blunt & Gillian Rose,
1994:34)
 69

To sum up, it can be said that Fanny Parkes' Wanderings of a Pilgrim in

Search of the Picturesque presents a model for positioning the presence of British
women in British India. It also embodies the power relations embedded within
the social structure of English society, which assigned the role of spectator to
women in the imperial project of British colonialism. Parkes' travel account is
significant in a sense that it intersects with textual space for women's writing in
relation to their men counterpart. In doing so her travel account is subverting the
modes of constructing knowledge in the imperial project of colonialism. Parkes
in discerning the orient as 'other' entails a complex relation with her 'other' (the
orient woman), and in knowing her 'other' she unfurls the process that defined
her own position in periphery as the other of her male counterpart in English
society. Thus, her travel book enables her not only to map the 'othering' of the
orient, but also the 'othering' of her own self in the imperial project in British
India and at home. So travel as an act provided the apparatus to English women
in locating the discourse of other about the self (at home and also in British India)
in the guise of the other (orient other). In this sense travels in India became a tool
in the hands of English women to emancipate them from the margins of
patriarchal structure at home, and thus constructing the knowledge of self in
relation to its every 'other' at home and in India. Thus, Parkes's travel account
defiantly transcends the boundaries of stereotype, and employs the picturesque,
as a technique implying the use of acquisitive connotation, and a detached
perception from the colonial reality.
 70

Works Cited:

Bermingham, A. Landscape and Ideology: The British Rustic Tradition, 1740-1860.

Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.

Blunt, Alison and Gillian Rose. eds. Writing Women and Space: Colonial and
Postcolonial Geographies. New York: The Guilford Press, 1994.

Bohls, Elizabeth. Women Travel Writers and the Language of Aesthetics. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Copley, S and P. Garside. eds. The Politics of the Picturesque: Literature, Landscape
and Aesthetics Since 1770. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Dewar, Douglas. Bygone Days in India. California: University of California, 1922.

Dyson, K. K. A Various Universe. New Delhi: Oxford, 2002.

Eden, Emily. Up the Country: LettersfromIndia. London: Virago, 1866.

Ghose, Indira. Women Travelers in Colonial India: Tlie Power of the Female Gaze.
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Ghose, kidira & Mills, Sara, eds. Wanderings of Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque
by Fanny Parkes. London: Manchester University Press, 2001.

Parks, Fanny. Wanderings of Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque: during 24 years in

the East, with revelations of life in the Zenana. 2 vols, London: Pelham
Richardson, 1850.

Robinson, J. Wayward Women: A Guide to Women Travelers. Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 1990.

Said, Edward. Orientalism. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978.

Stanford, J, ed. Ladies in the Sun: The Memsahib's India 1790-1860. London: Galley
Press, 1962.
 71

Suleri, Sara. The Rhetoric of English India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1992.

Woodruff, Philip. The Man who ruled India. Vol. 1, The Founders, London:
Jonathan Cape Paperback, 1971.
 72

CHAPTER III

TRANSCULTURATION IN THE DIALOGIC OF COLONIAL

DISCOURSE: NANDKUNWARBA'S GOMANDAL
PARIKRAM

For years I cherished the hope that one day I would go

to England,
the abode of liberty and freedom
I would go to that country where there is freedom in
every house.
To that country where there is freedom in every house
0 Mother Bengal! Many of your sons go there in order
to receive education.
Why then. Mother, can't we, your daughters, go there?
And illuminate our hearts with knowledge?
We too are human beings, and have eyes;
But we are blind and live in cages.
With what difficulties have I come out of one of these
cages!
1 have come out. Mother, to fill my heart with the nectar of
Knowledge.
By Krishnabhabini Das in England e Banga Mahila
(Murshid, 1983:85/86)

These lines by Krishnabhabini Das in her account, England e Banga Mahila, of

her travels to England during the second half of the 19"^ century, expresses the

varied concerns of Indian women travelling abroad in general and England in

particular for various reasons. An increasing number of critical studies in recent

years have devoted attention to the 19* century women travel writers, often seen

as a neglected group. It's only after the advent of critical theory that some efforts

have been made to rediscover women travelers of the 19* century even at the

behest of the feminist revival to provide an alternative to male centered history.

 73

Women travelers are categorized as different from their male counterparts on

two accounts, firstly, they differ from other more conventional women, and

secondly, from male travelers who use the journey as a means of discovering

more about their own manliness.

Travel writing in Guajarati emerged to prominence during the second half

of the 19"" century. These earliest travelogues provide fascinating insights in

understanding the changing Indian perceptions of Europe in general and

England in particular. The first Gujarati travel account on England appeared in

1861 and during the span of next forty one years there are as many as eight travel

accounts on England, either exclusively on England or about the visit to England

along with other countries. The Guajarati travel writers of this time, irrespective

of their social status, profession, gender and age found it next to impossible to

look at England with the excitement of a foreigner visiting a new country. They

are totally bound by their historical location, where they are conscious of and

fully occupied with their status as representatives of a subject nation. This new

genre of narrative was undoubtedly influenced by the western model of travel

writing and exposure to English education. Surprisingly, a few essays and

articles were written almost during the same time in Guajarati in support of

going abroad by the leading reformers of the time, as crossing the sea was

prohibited on religious grounds by a section of society.

The first ever recorded travel account on England appears in Guajarati in

1861 by a Parsee writer, Dosabhai Faramji Karaka, under the title. Great Britain

khatene Musafari (Travel to Great Britain). It is followed by England ni Musafari nu

Varnan (An Account of Travels to England) by Mahipatram Nilkanth in 1864 and

England man Pravas (Travels to England) by Karsandas Mulji in 1866. After that

appeared lesser known travel accounts by the travelers like Khan Bahadur Shekh
 74

Yusufali and Faramji Dinshaji Pi tit on England and Europe. The first travel
account in Gujarati by a woman traveler appeared in 1902 by Nandkunvarba,
titled as Gomandal Parikram. (Circumnavigation across the World)

Nandkunwarba, a Queen of erstwhile small princely state in Gujarat,

India, visited Europe and other countries for more than four times in the later-
half of 19* century. She was one the of earliest Gujarati women prose writers.
She herself makes it clear in the introduction of her travelogue that the purpose
of her travels to Europe was to get rid of prolong illness from which she was
suffering. It was the advice of her doctors that inspired her to take these travels,
which she undertook with her husband. She not only visited England and other
Europeans countries but also Japan, Korea, China, Russia, America and the list is
endless. The unabridged edition of her travels runs into almost 700 pages. She
has provided a great number of details of European life ranging from agriculture,
education, customs, museums, and libraries to reading habits, cleanliness and
hygiene. Surprisingly, she could get rid of her illness during this voyage. To keep
herself busy during her travels she kept on jotting down details about the places
she visited. And she reveals in the introduction that providing details regarding
Europe for the benefit of other travelers has inspired her to write this book.
Needless to mention that the discipline of travel writing in Guajarati language
was in a formative stage.

Nandkunwarba was the first Gujarati woman travel writer who traveled
very extensively across continents in the 19* century. Her account gives an
impression that she was very well exposed to the world outside in terms of
cultures, languages, societies, geography, history, etc. Her knowledge of English
language and literature seems very sound as they are reflected in the kind of
references she has provided in the text. She fondly remembers her visit to Oxford
 75

and Cambridge universities, and her meeting with Max Muller, Sir Monier

Williams and Sir William Hunter. She is highly ambivalent throughout her

travelogue; appreciative as well as critical of the land she visited, which is found

in many of the 19'*" century Guajarati travelers. Like any other Guajarati 19""

century traveler, she is constantly comparing nations, society, people, customs,

traditions, conducts etc. However, she is not apparently critical about the

presence of British in India. One of the reasons could be that she herself belongs

to a kingly state and that complicates her subject position, and so it seems that

she does not feel like commenting on such crucial issue. On the contrary, she

does not find anything wrong in India being ruled by a superior nation like,

England. She was equally influenced and affected by the colonial power as many

of her contemporaries, like, Karsandas Mulji and Mahipatram Nilkanth and so

considers nothing wrong in appreciating the then British rule in India. But at the

same time she is reminded of the great heritage of her own country and feels that

Hindustan should awake from a long sleep.

Gomandal Parikram opens with her description of her voyage from

Mumbai to London. She provides a detailed account of her observations and

experiences during her journey by sea. She depicts how Mumbai has become an

important place. She states:

Our circumnavigation began from very beautiful city, Mumbai.

Because, these days it seems that Mumbai port has become the
centre of the entire world. It is a centre of great rush, activity
and strangeness. The name of the city, which has been derived
from the local incarnation of the Goddess Mumba, fascinating
deity, has successfully proved worth associated with its name.
And that is why it's most appropriate for one, who has the
 76

curiosity to see sights full of wonder and enthralling places of

the world, to set out from this fascinating city. [...] The sun
rises from the East. But, in contemporary times it seems that
light coming from West lightens the countries of East and so,
we felt intense inclination for traveling towards it.
(Nandkunwarba, 2009: Oiy

This attempt to record the details of circumnavigating the globe itself

deserves attention as it was unthinkable during the time in which

Nandkunwarba, being a woman, was writing. The notions held by some castes in

the 19"" century Gujarati society, made it difficult, even for men to cross the sea,

and so travelling across continents was in itself an achievement in this context.

Thus, this travel account is exceptional in many ways.

The fall of Maratha, in the beginning of the 19* century, led expansion of

the British rule in Maharashtra and various other parts of Gujarat. The gradual

introduction of English education system spread out the awareness about the

social evils in the Gujarati society, which finally resulted in the reform movement

in Gujarat. The early 19"" century literati and reformists of Gujarat like Narmad,

Dalpatram, Karsandas Mulji and many others talked about the importance of

English education and travelling abroad. For instance, Karsandas Mulji in 1852

read his essay, titled, 'Deshatan' before Buddhivardhak Sabha, and Kavi

Dalpatram wrote a piece of prose titled 'Vilayat man Java Vishe' (About Visiting

England) in 1860. They extensively wrote about the benefits of visiting other

foreign nations and learning the best from their people and societies. This shift

proved very significant in making the people understand the evils of their own

Translation from Gujarati into English of Nandkunwarba's Gomandal Parikram is done by the researcher in
this Dissertation.
 77

societal customs and it could be removed only through reform. And for that the

model that was set before them was the one which was found in societies abroad.

Here, travelling to the West and writing about it became very important. These

early travel writers were conscious about their role as they were the catalyst in

constituting knowledge about the West, which proved vital source for the

reforms at home. Nandkunwarba's attempt was to put before natives the best of

the other world in best possible manner. In her introduction to Gomandal

Parikram she states:

In the year 1892, I fell ill badly. To the extent that the best
doctors believed that I may not survive. Finally, doctors
advised that extensive sea voyage and staying in countries like
England could be the only remedy to get cured of the diseases
that I was suffering from, else there was no hope. I got
disheartened after knowing this. No the one can guess the kind
of uncertainty I was going through. On one hand, I strongly
believed in exploring all possible ways to get cured of the
disease and on the other hand my mind was grappling with the
ideas to overcome thoughts like whether to take such sea
voyage which was never undertaken by me or if carried out,
will that suit me and if at all it suits me, will it yield expected
outcome. At that moment, my confusion was lessened by the
encouragement provided by my husband and it gave me
immense support. I decided to take the risk of crossing the sea
despite the opposition by my relatives and others because he,
my husband, agreed to accompany me. (Nandkunwarba, 2009:
07)
 78

This passage gives insight into the strong personal traits of the travel
writer. She seems to possess all the qualities that are inevitable for a traveler. She
is adventurous, curious, brave, courageous, observant, well read and well
informed about the wider world. This travel proved rewarding to her for two
reasons: firstly, she could get rid of the disease during her sojourn to various
lands; and secondly, she could visit various lands, people, cultures, societies and
could produce such voluminous travel narrative of her observations and
experiences. She states in the preface to her travel account:

I have not been able to exactly describe the colorful images that
my mind has been receiving. However, I have tried to
incorporate the major observations that have been engraved in
my mind. (Nandkunwarba, 2009: 08)

She has traveled abroad for three or four times and observations and
experiences of those various sojourns have been incorporated in this travel
narrative. She has dedicated this travel narrative to the women of India which
indicates her deep interest in the empowerment of women. Her travel narrative,
Gomandal Parikram integrates her travels to many Eastern and Western countries
but her travel to Europe occupies the major part of the work. Amongst these
countries, the major part of the narrative is occupied by countries like England,
Scotland and Ireland. The reason could be the advice of her doctors to stay in
country like Scotland for the betterment of her health and as India was occupied
by British under the reign of Queen Victoria, it indicates a curiosity of a subject to
visit the nation of the masters. Apart from above mentioned three countries, she
traveled to France, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Sweden,
Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Russia, Greece, America,
Turkey, Japan, China, Australia and Sri Lanka. Thus, she can be called the first
 79

Gujarati woman globetrotter, travelling and keeping an account of such a large

number of places.

The title of her travel narrative is very symbolic. In ancient Indian

scriptures, the earth is metaphorically seen as cow. And so it is believed that
circumnavigating a cow or the earth leads to the same beneficial consequences.
The travel writer has very patiently traveled to number of countries in East and
West. After staying for an extended period of time in Scotland and getting rid of
the illness she undertook travel to Europe and other far of lands like China. The
unabridged text is divided into twenty four chapters. The detailed description of
the places visited by traveler indicates the kind of leisure she must have had at
her disposal. The narrative packed with minute details reveals the unhurried
attitude of the traveler. The travel narrative has a peculiar style throughout the
work as evident in the detailed description of observations, experiences of places
visited and historical and geographical significance of places, people, societies,
culture, etc. She has maintained a fine balance by providing the particulars about
the traveling experience of the journey undertaken and has also furnished details
about the places she visited. It is evident from the kind of meticulous details that
the narrative contains about places, that she must have, to the best of her
capacity, conducted an extensive research, both, before, undertaking this travel
and then in writing about it. She has attempted to portray the images that her
mind might have received during her travel. Moreover, this experience of
visiting the foreign countries is simultaneously interwoven by the similar
references of experience of life at home.

The description of the travel narrative gives insights into contemplative

and intellectual persona of the traveler. Like many 19* century Indian travelers,
she also follows the methodology of comparative analysis in the course of her
 80

account. What makes this travel account distinct is that the journey described

here was carried out during the time of high British imperialism. Being queen

herself, Nandkuvarba, forms a new subject position, one that is different from

other native subjects and still assumes the role of representative of a colonial

subjects, as is evident in her profound admiration for the colonizers and the

colonial nation. During her visit to Windsor she meets Queen Victoria at her

castle, and not surprisingly, she is full of admiration, and feels grateful for the

fact that she could meet the Queen. She says:

The major attraction that brings one here is the royal palace.
The Queen herself lives here... The third part of the castle is
inhabited by the Queen. A special permission is needed for
those who wish to visit it. It allows visitors only when the
Queen is away from the castle, however, such permission is
rarely given. We had the privilege to have glimpses of the
palace. The Queen met us first in that castle. She is quiet and
kind by nature. She talked to us on a variety of subjects. And
she took great care of us. The Queen is very simple. She has
grown old but possesses good health. (Nandkunwarba, 2009:
30)

During this meeting, it does not seem that Nandkunwarba represents

herself as being a representative of a royal class herself. Even otherwise, she has

taken utmost care throughout her travel narrative to not to sound as the Queen

of Gondal but as a traveler. She is accompanied by her husband. King

Bhagvatsinhji. But even he is mentioned only twice in the entire travel narrative.

King Bhagvatsinhji himself was an ardent litterateur and a model patron of

literature in his time. He became instrumental in giving shape to

 81

Bhagwadgomandal, a voluminous encyclopedia of Gujarati language and

literature. He visited England in 1883 for higher education and he penned his

observations and experiences during this stay in England in his travel account, A

Journal of My Visit to England published in 1885.

Nandkunwarba as a traveler is exceptional in many ways. Unlike many of

the 19"" century Indian travel writers she is not completely awestruck by the sight

of everything foreign. Her narrative is a fine blend of admiration as well as a

critique of what she observes and experiences. She is not carried away by the

typical occidental notion. She is quite courageous to put forward her candid

perspective. When she comes across the famous Kohinoor diamond studded in

the crown of Queen Victoria, the love for her own nation becomes apparent. She

becomes aware of the deteriorating condition of India under the British rule as

the most of India is now part of British Empire. She indicates her likes and

dislikes in a very refined tone and language. In her description of the city of

London and elsewhere it becomes explicit. Like many other 19''' century travelers

she has given a detailed account of England, Scotland and Ireland. She is full of

admiration when she describes the major cities, educational institutions and

beauty of landscape. Her account of England in the chapter two begins with

introducing the city of London, as:

No foreigner can remain without being enthralled while '

visiting England. I suspect if there is any nation on this planet
as industrious as this. If at all the true character of
industriousness needs to be found, one has to visit its foremost
city London. Here, the industrious temperament can be found
in its full bloom. A visit to London makes one suspect whether
it's heaven on earth or what? (Nandkunwarba, 2009:17)
 82

She delineates in her account details about the places, crowded roads,

modes of transportation, British Parliament, etc. As a representative of a princely

state, she is full of admiration for the British rule over its colonies including

India. After singing the praises of London she comments on the darker side of

the city. In doing so, she created a new subject position for herself, who shares a

very complex relation with her masters. On the one hand she attempts at creating

a position for negotiation with the masters and on the other she is informing to

the colonial discourse.

She admits that though English keep one exclusive day for worshipping

God, i.e. Sunday, still the city is bursting with immorality and roguery. She gives

a few examples which expose the double standard of living there. She says:

Sunday is considered a very pious day in England. It is a day of

relaxation and worship of God and so factories, places of
recreation and shops remains'close... In India, on the days of
religious importance people set out to sell new merchandise
and are filled with enthusiasm. Its complete opposite is found
here... In short, in this extended city there are more provisions
of getting deteriorated than of ascending. The one who is
awakened need not fear of anything. But there is no way out
for a person who is impolite and feeble who is allured by the
ways of life here. (Nandkunwarba, 2009: 26)

Thus, she is very vocal about what she cannot accept. There are times in

the course of her travel where she takes explicit stand. She says about life in

London:
 83

The foremost trait to identify the city of London is its

chimneys... it discharges so much of smoke that if one sets out
wearing clean clothes in the city in no time the clothes gets
soiled. Evan the face gets blemishes by the smoke... it can be
said about the London city that it is as rich as it is poor; as clean
as it is dirty; the way it is inhabited by clever and educated
people in the same ways its filled with uneducated and stupid;
as one can find the examples of morality, the example of
immorality too is in abundance. (Nandkunwarba, 2009: 28)

Apart from London, Nandkuwarba extensively depicts other smaller

places like Greenwich, Hampton, Richmond, Windsor, Dower, Hastings,

Portsmouth, Wetmore, Osborn, Southampton, Plymouth, Bristol, Bath,

Cheltenham, Hartford, Chester, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Carlyle,

Newcastle, Durham, York, Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Litchfield, Birmingham,

Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford, Bedford, Cambridge, Canterbury, and the list is

endless. She has furnished the details of these places with the social, political,

historical, geographical, literary and culture specific significance. In doing so, she

lets the reader become a co-traveler in the process of reading her travel narrative.

While visiting a particular place she invariably tries to refer to literary

significance of that place or famous people associated with it. For example, on

her visit to Litchfield, she is reminded of Doctor Johnson and Edison. While

visiting the educational institutes she observes:

There is an educational institute here that offers free education.

Renowned Doctor Johnson and Edison were educated at this

place. Doctor Johnson is known for his compendium on

English language. He was a scholar. He was a fine poet and a

 84

critic and his linguistic acumen was such that many fail to
imitate him even now. He was a supporter of truth and because
of his good conduct he came to be known as 'the sage of
Litchfield'. In his time (1709-1784), there was a group of
intellectuals in England. Doctor Johnson was the leader of the
group... Edison was also a very lucid writer and people are
still captivated by his writing. And contemporary scholars
prefer his manner of speaking and writing even more.
(Nandkunwarba, 2009: 56)

As she reaches Stratford-upon-Avon, she is reminded of William

Shakespeare. She remembers it as a birthplace of Kalidas of England. According

to her hundreds of people visit this place every year, as pilgrimage, because of

this great poet and dramatist. She states, during her visit to Oxford, she meets

Professor Max Muller, Sir Monier Williams and Sir William Hunter. Here, she

provides exhaustive details about the significance of the place, its educational

institutes and famous individuals like William Johns, John Locke, Ben Johnson,

and many others who have studied at Oxford. She gives an account of many

educational institutes, libraries and museums. She comes across the building of

Indian Institute and states:

On East side there is the building of the Indian Institute. The

purpose of this building is to impart information about India to
young Englishmen and to unite the interest of both the nations.
The purpose is noble. The Gondal State has contributed to the
cause to some extent and so one of its beautiful drawing rooms
is named as the 'Drawing Room of Gondal'. It is also
imperative that one has to see to the necessity of welfare of
 85

both the nations. By Divine grace Hindustan has come under

the British rule. Both the countries have diverse traditions and
customs. Equally they have different belief systems and social
intercourse. Both have dissimilar religious belief system. And
yet both are connected with each other due to their relationship
of one being protector and the other being protected. And so
the one who is patron can be benefited only by implementing a
system of polity in which the dependent's welfare is carried out
in comprehensive way. (Nandkunwarba, 2009: 64)

After describing each place and the country she passes concluding

remarks at the end of that particular visit. This can be considered a distinct

pattern of her travel narrative where she brings together her observations on

society, place, inhabitants, lived life, culture, history, system of polity, customs,

traditions, and famous individuals from diverse fields and tries to give a

scholarly comparative perspective by placing it side by side with its Indian

counterpart. During her visit to Cambridge, she remembers famous writers and

scholars like Edmund Spenser, John Milton, Samuel Pappy, Newton, Francis

Bacon, John Dryden, Macaulay, Lord Byron, Thackeray, Tennyson, Oliver

Cromwell etc., and talks about their association with Cambridge University.

Here, she especially mentions educational institutes for women and points out its

significance in the following words:

It is not that foundation of education for women was laid in

England much before it was laid in Hindustan. On the

contrary, Hindustan has had women of extraordinary

knowledge much before anybody in England knew what

knowledge is. And some of them had excelled due to their

 86

superiority in learning in such a way that the ancient

compositions have acknowledged them as acharya (women of
learning/preceptor) and even after ages they are still
remembered almost every day. The tradition of their learning is
extended till modern times. (Nandkunwarba, 2009: 68)

Nandkunwarba, throughout her account, has not expressed her objection

to the British rule in India. However, she does not want to compare the system of

polity of the two countries. But her ambivalence is quite apparent when she says:

Under the British rule the earlier system of polity became

obsolete and a new system of polity was introduced, which
sounds misfit for the present Indian scenario. But because such
system of polity has been there for long, the people have
become habituated to it. Here, the attempt is not to compare
the two systems of polity. It should not be surprising if the
English system of polity does not suit the ancient Hindustan,
although the same system of polity may suit the people of
England. However, England has benefited a lot due to same
system. Here, its benefits are not received the way they should
have been. The reason is the benefits of that system are not
completely introduced here. I strongly believe that the rule of
English system of polity in Hindustan will be considered
successful only if the People of Hindustan get all the rights that
people of England are entitled; the way in which laws are
formed there by the consent of people, here also laws should be
formed by the consent of people; the way justice prevails in
England here too it should prevail in the same way, the
 87

discrimination based on the color of skin should be eliminated;

the sentiments of the people of Hindustan should be given
similar amount of respect as the people of England are given
on their land; people will have to be made to forget that
Hindustan is won with the power of sword and it should be
conveyed that the welfare of Hindustan and England is one, as
people of both nations are subject of one king, and as a result of
this there will not be any disparity of one being favorite and the
other not; and the people of two countries will develop
brotherhood among each other. (Nandkimwarba, 2009: 97) '

Then, Nandkunwarba narrates her observations and experiences of

visiting more than twenty three countries and hundreds of places. Her next stop

in this journey is Scotland and she is amazed to see the landscape, mountains,

rivers, lakes and the grandeur of the country. She takes special note of the

bravery of the Scottish people. She met Queen Victoria twice during her visit to

Scotland. She was honored with the title of C.I by the Queen herself at their

meeting in the castle of Balmorals. After this she visits Ireland. She found the

people of Ireland courteous, brave, simple, generous, contented and good host.

The next country she describes is France. And like many 19"^ century

Gujarati travelers she opines that Paris is the most beautiful city in the world. But

if given choice she would prefer to live in London. She visited the famous

museum Louvre in Paris. She is impressed by the liveliness of the French people.

She fondly remembers Napoleon and incorporates the details of the French

history while talking about France. The next halt is Switzerland. She is taken

aback by the environment of the country. She praises the nature and the beauty

of the landscape of this nation. In Rome she visits the places as a pilgrim. She
 88

narrates the present Rome in Italy with reminisces of its grand past. After paying
visit to many churches of Rome she calls the city, Banaras of Europe. After
travelling to Milan, Venice, Florence and Rome in Italy, Nandkunwarba
describes her travels to Belgium, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal
and Spain. Before moving to Russia she travels to Germany, Austria and
Hungary. The Russia she visited was under the reign of Tsar Nicolai II. Her
husband Bhagvatsinhji, the king of Gondal state was invited to attend the
coronation ceremony of Tsar Nicolai II. This coronation ceremony took place on
26"" may, 1896. She narrates her experience of being part of this coronation at a
great length. From here onwards the travel narrative comprises of her travels to
Turkey, Greece, America, Japan, China, Australia and Sri Lanka before coming
back to her hometown, Gondal in India.

The British started accumulating the knowledge about India as early as

from the 16* century, in contrast to this the Indians had no knowledge of
England or its culture, people and society. Thus, the first Indians when they
traveled, they encountered the foreign places and their culture as unknown
terrains. It was only from the 16* century onwards that the Indians began to
travel to England and return with firsthand knowledge of distant land. This
knowledge about England at times supplemented but often contradicted the
English self-representation in India. However, this accumulation of knowledge
largely remained oral or in unpublished forms until the 19* century. This lack of
well defined body of knowledge led many Indian travelers to discover Britain in
the 19* century without any prior knowledge of the place. For example in
Nandkunwarba's travel narrative it is quite apparent that her point of reference
to know British life, culture and society is her exposure to British history, polity
and literature. At the same time Indian travelers to the West contributed to the
 89

body of knowledge about themselves and their homelands. The travel experience
of Indian travelers, men in general and women in particular, travelling abroad,
varied in their historical as well as their gender, class, ethnicity, and individual
contexts.

The range and variety in the style of the 19* century Indian travel writing
by men and women is also remarkable. To some extent this variety seems to have
premised on distinctions like gender, social class, age, and religion of the
traveler. The 19* century Indian women travel writing seems much more
complex than previous studies have suggested and there is a need to recognize
the diversity in their account. Surprisingly, not all women travelers were from
middle class, as in the case of Nandkunwarba, and given that not all of them
shared the same ideological standpoint. What makes the travel narratives by
these women travelers exceptional is their sensibility of representation as a
woman. Their modesty in their accounts of the societies, people, culture and
representation of living conditions of the women is noteworthy. For example,
Nandkunwarba's Gomandal Parikram provides serious and detailed social
documentation in the most effortless linguistic framework. There is no strong
authorial presence in the travel account and any self-dramatizing or desire to
reinvent oneself and certainly no desire to see travel as means of escape from the
reality at home.

The history of travel writing in general is associated with the history of

mapping and surveying. Gillian Rose in her study Feminism and Geography: The
Limits of Geographical Knowledge opines that the idea that everything is knowable
and possible to map is essentially a patriarchal concept. Women travelers across
the continents invariably had to write about their experiences from within a
convention that denied them a definite role. However, women did travel in
 90

various roles like - wives, sisters, and daughters of missionaries, diplomats or

envoys, scientists, explorers, etc. The reasons other than this which made them
undertake travel were like; travel became an apparatus for understanding and
exploring the self, as individuals in search of the unforeseen or for leisure at
times alone or often accompanied, for personal of professional reasons. These
women did not hurry their experiences and observations in silence rather they
chose to write about it and inform to the discourse of travel from a gender
perspective. It is equally noteworthy that not all narratives by women travelers
could avail the opportunity of publication. This disparity reflects the
dissimilarity in terms of equality between men and women in the 19"" century,
where men primarily occupied the public sphere, leaving women in margins.

The very diversity of women's travel writing resists straightforward

categorization. The search for self expression and knowing the world primarily
define the quest for travel in the 19"" century. As far as stylistic features are
concerned there is no way that women travel writing can be differentiated from
that of male writers. Although, the difference might be evident in emphasis or in
selection of material, etc. Travel writing is always necessarily a product of a
particular time and a particular culture, and in this context travel narrative by
Nandkunwarba becomes more interesting and diverse. The act of seeing or the
'gaze' in this travel account makes the inquiry more fascinating. Here what is
important is how women, through apparatus of travel from different region,
culture, religion, society and languages redefine themselves in the world outside
home territories. Thus, travel writing as discourse is more complex than ever
thought of.

The 19"" century witnessed a great deal of cultural exchange between

Indians and Britons which proved an equally enriching experience on either side.
 91

And to a great extent travel and travel writing facilitated this process of

exchange. The 19"" century Indian travel narratives about the larger world in

general and England in particular records the process of transculturation within

the contact zone, which gets articulated in terms of difference. Gomandal Parikram

unfurls an interesting reading as Nandkunwarba imagines the world in which

she travels, it not only discloses a new world but also reveals the multitudes of

the traveler's world within, i.e. self. The reading of Nandkunwarba's Gomandal

Parikram allows a critical inquiry into the dialogic of transculturation in the

context of colonial discourse. Nandkunwarba's travel narrative generates the

exchange of dialogue were communication is defined in terms of differences,

which is further facilitated by the contact zone where the self and the other

encounter, confront, and contest each other. The process allows the textual space

in the formation of dialogue between the dominant and the dominated, where

the dominated receive the dominant culture, filtered through the modes of

interpretation. As Mary Louise Pratt argues in her influential work. Imperial Eyes:

Travel Writing and Transculturation:

If one studies only what the Europeans saw and said, one I
reproduces the monopoly on knowledge and interpretation ,
that the imperial enterprise sought. This is a huge distortion, I */
because of course that monopoly did not exist... This is why |
the term transculturation appears... Ethnographers have used i
this term to describe how subordinated or marginal groups
"select and invent from materials transmitted to them by a
dominant or metropolitan culture. While subjugated peoples
cannot readily control what the dominant culture visit upon
them, they do determine to varying extents what they absorb
 92

into their own, how they use it, and what they make it mean.
Transculturation is a phenomenon of the contact zone. (Pratt,
2008: 07)

With this theoretical framework one can argue that the natives at the

receiving end of British imperialism did indulge in knowing and interpreting by

using the tools of the masters. Here, Nandkunwarba indulges in a similar act of

knowing the world outside, especially the West, and interpreting societies and

cultures using the tool of travel, which invariably constructs knowledge about

the West. Gomandal Parikram offers enough material to locate how the subject on

the receiving end of empire makes use of the metropolitan mode of

representation. Her minute observations offer a comparative framework to

understand the English as well as Indian society, culture, customs, tradition,

people and so on. As a representative of colonized nation she is not ashamed of

anything Indian but at the same time she is conscious of degeneration of her own

society. However, she doesn't leave out a single chance to be vocal about the

superiority of Hindustan and thus, her narrative does create a counter mode of

constructing and modifying the knowledge about India. Thus, for

Nandkunwarba every encounter with the foreign culture turns into a contact

zone, a space in which people, geographically and historically separated, come

into contact with each other and set up a relationship informed by the power

relation. As Pratt opines:

A "contact" perspective emphasizes how subjects get

constituted in and by their relations to each other. It treats the

relations among colonizers and colonized, or travelers and

"travelees", not in terms of separateness, but in terms of co-

presence, interaction, interlocking understandings and

 93

practices, and often within radically asymmetrical relations of

power. (Pratt, 2008: 08)

Thus, for Nandkunwarba the act of seeing is paired with act of knowing

the 'other' and this createsthe premise for contact zone_where the idea of the

other is not only confronted but also contested by colonial discourse. From

Pratt's perspective Nandkunwarba's travel narrative, Gomandal Parikram, could

be interpreted as a dialog or an interaction into the framing of the idea of subject

in relation to its other. This is reflected in Nandkunwarba's selective choices,

where she does not out rightly reject the foreign model of living life but she

makes choices which are substantiated by explaining her stand as a colonial

subject. For example, the entire travel narrative is full of references delineating

the condition of women iii different parts of the world and comparing them with

their counterpart in Hindustan. For English women she opines:

It is believed that English people consider the rank of men and

women equal. Both are to help each other. They are the
partners of the pleasures and miseries of worldly life.
Nevertheless, the women are considered superior in many
ways... The convenience of women is taken care of in almost
all matters. The relation between men and women in
Hindustan is somewhat different. The husband enjoys godly
status in relationship and the wife assumes the role of a
devotee ... The women in Hindustan do not consider
themselves being subject to injustice if considered inferior to
men. They have been moulded to think that the welfare of their
own self, their husband and the family lies in supporting such
conviction. Therefore, the people in the West think that the
 94

condition of women in Hindustan is terrible and is subject to

great brutality etc., but that is not the reality. In fact, people in
general do not know what really the substance of women is...
The wise imderstands the worth of a woman. They look upon
them with due respect. (Nandkunwarba, 2009: 90)

As it gets reflected here, Nandkunwarba instead of being biased on either

side tries to rise above discriminatory attitude. She also mentions that Indian

women hardly show any interest in the world outside and remains obsessed

with the world of their family and surroundings. And women in the West

remains acquainted with the larger world by reading newspapers and other such

activities. And they do not like to remain idle. She considers British women

physically more powerful than Indian women, and further she explains that the

British women have developed a healthy habit of exercise which is why they are

strong and healthy. However, she despises the sort of exercises done by women

which are primarily suitable to men. But somehow she dislikes the exercise of

men done by women. She opines that women should do exercise or play games

that suit their gender. So she is skeptic about the idea of competing men in

everything. But she appreciates how English women help their family by taking

care of the family in every possible way and taking special care in educating their

children. She strongly believes that English women have no match in the entire

world as regards their courteous nature and politeness. During her travel to

Germany, she notes:

In Germany men and women both are educated but German

women do not exercise the same kind of rights that English

women do in the matters of family life or law... the husband

owns the property of her assets. In the absence of husband the

 95

son becomes the owner. The law does not take into
consideration the rights of the women... The German notion of
the freedom of women is somewhat similar to the Hindu belief.
(Nandkunwarba, 2009: 329/330)

In this way the contact zone in which she deliberates on various issues in a

comparative framework as regards women's condition in India and in other

parts of the world, actually unfolds the complexity entailed in the set of beliefs

and thus brings out a different persona of Nandkunwarba as a traveler. Her

response to the condition of women at large is quite diverse and varies from

place to place. For the women in America she says that:

Some sort of manliness can be found in women because of

growing up in a free nation and learning about the claims of
equality of the rights with the men. In the women of America
there is combination of the beauty of woman and manly vigor.
The women of Europe are somewhat different in this matter.
America is gradually moving ahead of Europe on all the fronts
because of its women. (Nandkunwarba, 2009: 428)

Thus, Nandkunwarba as a representative of a colonized nation resists any

simple categorization as regards women's travel writing. She makes use of the

knowledge that has been facilitated by the masters but subverts what she is

unable to accept. Travel writing is an explicit work of cultural translation, where

the traveler represents and translates the foreign into something known.

Needless to mention that a travel narrative like Gomandal Parikram is just as much

a representation of the home culture of the traveler as it is a representation of the

foreign culture that the travel writer visits. In doing so the travel writer is
 96

involved in a conscious act of producing meaning and knowledge from personal

experiences. In Nandkunwarba's case, she is the first Gujarati woman travel
writer to write about her experiences in a coherent and intimate narrative style.
Nandkunwarba's narrative apparently deals with her experiences and
observations about the English culture and society, but as it proceeds on
comparative framework, it in the course of doing so, unfurls, simultaneously, the
culture of the subject nation. In this sense Nandkunwarba's travel narrative
involves twin subject positions: firstly, as a traveler from a subject nation; and
secondly, as a woman traveler which makes it even more complicated in terms of
understanding and analyzing cultural differences and multiple shades of those
differences entailed in the confluence of two cultures. In this way Gomandal
Parikram exhibits much about the culture of the travel writer as that of the subject
that is in focus.

Even though towards the end of the 19* century the restrictions on
crossing the sea had relaxed for Hindu men, which had diverse repercussions on
the position of women in society and as a traveling subject. Mostly, purpose of
travel for women was limited to visit relatives or to take pilgrimage. Travel for
the sake of travel or to explore the strange and unknown places or to gain
knowledge or learning were never considered the criteria for women to
undertake travel. However, the colonial structure of India provided better
opportunities of travel or mobility within India as well as across continents. The
men from elite class due to their easy access to English education began to
pursue travel for various reasons and at times they were accompanied by their
wives as well. Nandkunwarba had that privilege of being the Queen of a kingly
state and thus she belonged to a different and elite class of travelers during the
19'*" century in India. As Meredith Borthwick opines:
 97

One consequence of this mobility was that such women were

brought into direct contact the larger, impersonal society
beyond the normal narrow scope of the antakpur [women's part
of the house] and its immediate locality. (Borthwick, 1984: 232)

This coming into contact with the larger and impersonal society in a way

provided opportunity for empowering women in India. Nandkunwarba sounds

quite advance in her perception to undertake travel for a specific reason like

improving her health but as she mentions that the Gomandal Parikram is an

outcome of her three or four visits to different nations that she describes in her

travel narrative. As she reveals in her introduction that despite the opposition by

family members and relatives regarding crossing the sea it was her husband who

supported her by accompanying her in these travels. Most Indian women, who

traveled to foreign countries in the 19'^ century went either for education or to

accompany their husband. Surprisingly, her husband is almost invisible in the

travel narrative and only mentioned twice in the entire work. From her narrative

she emerges as an independent woman. This shows that in doing so,

Nandkunwarba succeeds in transcending twofold strata of her subject position:

firstly, as a subject from elite class during the colonial rule; and secondly, as an

independent woman contesting the patriarchal structure at home. Further,

Nandkunwarba's case is intricate in understanding the position she forms as a

colonial subject, through her travel account. She belongs to an elite class, rather a

ruling class, which predated the colonial rule in India. The relation that she

shares with the British in India is suggestive of the intricate power relations

between a past ruler and a present ruler. This shift from present to past, in terms

of a ruling authority, has changed Nandkunwarba's relation with her natives, in

Gondal in particular, and in India in general. Her subject position under colonial
 98

rule, in defining the 'other' in English, brings her closer to her own natives,
forming an identity in terms of 'we' and 'us', which is why this move forms an
interesting trajectory towards national consciousness in Nandkunwarba.
However, Nandkunwarba's position of power in the past bears an implicit effect
into the making of her position of a colonial subject, because it creates a textual
space for Nandkunwarba in her travel account, where she, along with the sense
of admiration, contests the modes of colonialism in India. Which is why, she
recommends the British, to rule India not by sword, but by accord in treating the
natives with the sense of dignity and equality. Nandkunwarba's distinct subject
position is revealed by her message of dignity and equality for the natives, and
also by the tone adopted by her where she assumes her position of being an
equal with the British and indirectly advices them on their colonial policies.

When Nandkunwarba takes the above discussed stance of being a colonial

subject to define the 'other' in English; she further takes an inward journey while
defining her second other in the occidental woman, i.e. the English woman. She,
though not explicitly, deals with the identity formation of a colonial subject in a
gender-specific way. She does appreciate the English woman on many accounts
but also criticizes them from being very different from their Indian counterpart.
She very strongly advocates the traditional values associated with a social
identity of a woman at home. According to her the social space assigned to and
identified with the woman at home, in relation to their male counterpart, is in
accordance with the traditional norms and that they need not be understood in
terms of hierarchy and power relations. Nandkunwarba does appreciate the
'different' in the English woman from her Indian counterpart, and also evinces
an inclination towards the sense of appropriation, but does not transcend the
social construct of a woman in textual and/or social space. Thus,
 99

Nandkunwarba's concept of gender does not intersect with the male counterpart

as the 'other'. This lack further iiiforms her subject position in India as a woman

of elite class, performing a specific role in her power regime, though in a very

limited way. This is why, her second other in terms of male counterpart does not

get defined as her own position as a woman of an elite class does not, perhaps,

necessitate the assertion of self definition. This also indicates that she was very

much aware of her position of being a queen of erstwhile kingdom in Gondal, in

Gujarat, and her subject position never drifted from this stance while dealing

with the issues related to woman, either in India or abroad.

However, Nandkunwarba's Gomandal Parikram can be seen as an attempt

of self-discovery through a physical journey to make sense of the larger world.

Her travel narrative significantly contributes to the body of Indian travel writing

towards the end of 19* century as a part of the process of constituting the self,

identity and the national consciousness. This power to represent one's own self is

very close to actualizing the political power. Indian travel writing creates the

'Self as compared to Edward Said's thesis of Western travel writing which

creates an 'Other'. Tzvetan Todorov states in The Morals of History:

The I does not exist without a you. One cannot reach the
bottom of one-self if one excludes others. The same holds true
for knowledge of foreign countries and different cultures: the
person who knows only his own home always runs the risk of
confusing culture with nature, of making custom the norm, and
of forming generalizations based on a single example: one-self.
(Todorov, 1995: 66)
 100

Thus, Nandkunwarba's self-knowing-apparatus takes her to the larger

world and familiarizes her with the knowledge of foreign lands and cultures.
And Gomandal Parikram turns out as a powerful gaze in terms of defining the
other through the encounters, relations and confrontations with the English
people and their culture. As Nandkunwarba's the 'other' gets more defined in
terms of the English, her 'self is indicative of a move towards the national
consciousness.

Thus, the act of travel, and travel narratives written during the 19*
century, were about the gaze of power. The 19* century Indian travel narratives
help to locate how the movements of Indian traveler were effectively frozen
under the narrative gaze. The corpus of the 19* century Indian travel writing
significantly distorts the post-colonial perception of travel as Euro-centric travel
as evident in Steve Clark's perception:

To a certain extent, however, travel writing is inevitably one-

way traffic, because the Europeans mapped the world rather
than the world mapping them. (Clark, 1999: 03)

Thus, it is evident from the corpus of the 19* century Indian travel writing
that the world was mapped by the non-European peoples as well. And
Nandkunwarba's Gomandal Parikram is nothing but an attempt to remap that
world.
Works Cited: W '"'-^^

Borthwick, Meredith. The Changing Role of Women in Bengal 1849-1905. P r i n f e t o S ^ ^

Princeton University Press, 1984.

Murshid, Ghulam. Reluctant Debutante: Response of Bengali Women to Modernization,

1849-1905. Rajshahi: Rajshahi University, 1983.

Nandkunwarba. Gomandal Parikram. Gandhinagar: Gujarat Sahitya Akedemi, 2009

(reprint).

Rose, Gillian. Feminism and Geography: The Limits of Geographical Knowledge. London:
Polity, 1993.

Pratt, Mary Louise. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. London: Routledge,
1992.

Clark, Steve. Travel Writing and the Empire: The Post-colonial Theory in Transit. London:
Zed Books, 1999.

Todorov, Tzvetan. The Morals of History, trans. Alyson Waters. Minneapolis: University
of Minnesota Press, 1995.
 102

CHAPTER IV

TOWARDS THE MAKING OF THE COLONIAL SUBJECT:

JOHN MATHESON'S ENGLAND TO DELHI: A NARRATIVE
OF INDIAN TRAVEL

At the very outset, John Matheson in his text, England to Delhi: A narrative

of Indian Travel (1870), expresses his outright purpose for travel in Shenstone's

words: "The proper means of increasing the love we bear our native country is to

reside some time in a foreign one", (Matheson 1870: ii) as the "absence makes the

heart grow fonder". (Matheson 1870: 237) The act of travel in the 19"^ century,

thus, unfurled the avenues of exploring the other worlds in the wake of

nationalism giving rise to colonialism and British imperialism. As Matheson puts

it:

We Britons, for example, pale-faced inhabitants of a northern

latitude, as we shiver under the first attack of winter, are
supplied by modern invention with the means of effecting an
immediate change in the outward circumstances of our
existence. We cannot of course remove the clouds that obscure
the sun, or withdraw from the earth its covering of snow; but,
leaving such phases of nature behind us, we can pass, with
what our fathers would have deemed a supernatural speed,
into the fields of light that shine below the southern horizon.
(Matheson, 1870:1/2)

The latter part of the above quotation underlines very unusual element in the

human history, which indicates the formation of a very episteme of knowledge.

 103

and the ways of constructing it. The invasion of science in the 19"' century made

it possible to explore the other worlds and in doing so characterized the travel as

a way of constructing knowledge. Matheson considers the element of 'speed' as a

mark of boon endowed by the discoveries in science which differentiates the

travel in the 19"" century from that of those carried out in times before it. Further,

Matheson regards this possibility of travel with an unusual speed as a sign of

achievement by the human race which could only have been imagined by his

forefathers in terms of supernatural. He aptly quotes Thomas Hood in the

chapter titled, 'A Ship at Sea' to highlight the unprecedented aspect of speed

associated with a voyage through sea by ship and how this ability to do so has

changed the worldview:

I am Power, I am Might, I am Steam

On the far distant seas, through the storm and the spray.

Unflinching, swift-darting, I speed on my way.

With a pulse that ne'er stops, and with fins that ne'er tire.

A Leviathan filled with a soul that is Fire!

Wind and tide strive in vain; I cleave sternly as Death,

Through the tempest above and the wild waves beneath;

And the long-trailing smoke floats away o'er the main

As I lash the dark waters to foam in disdain. (Matheson, 1870:

46)

As argued in Edward Said's Orientalism, the underlying motif of the

colonial discourse was based on the way/s the East was imagined, particularly, in

contrast to the West. These ways of imagining provided the West the space to

create and place the orient in contrast to themselves, which it in turn enabled

them in positioning and justifying the appropriations and representations of East

 104

in their ways of imagination. Travel writing during the 19"' century emerged as a
significant discipline providing the framework for imagining and creating the
colonial subject into an enchanting landscape, which though allures the viewer
but only in a way of making it a landscape for European worldview.

John Matheson in his England to Delhi: A narrative of Indian Travel portrays

the picture of India in its vivid elements encompassing the physical elements of
landscape and cultural landscape of India. The first category includes the
elements like mountain, sea, desert, the Mofussil, the hills and plains, rivers,
weather, etc.; and the latter comprises of the human element with its motley i
forms of cultural, political and social aspects, like Asiatic creeds, the Parsees' [
faith and sepulture, the tank and temple, female education, institution of'
marriage, indigenous industry, the architecture, the Mogul dynasty in India,
caste structure in India, Mutiny of 1857 and the repercussions on land and its
people, the development of railways, print media, educational development,
trade customs, etc., all with a significant mark of British interventions in
enhancing the role of the Raj as a harbinger of advancement and progression on
the colonial land and its subjects. Matheson has given detailed account of
different places that he visited in India along with a map and eighty-two
illustrations to add to the effect of word pictures portrayed in his narrative about
the travel in India. Matheson undertakes his voyage through the places like
Bombay, Materan, Ceylon, Madras, Orissa, Calcutta, Allahabad, Delhi, the
Mofussil, Agra, Cawnpore, Lucknow and Mirzapore, chiefly for the purpose of
business, as he himself mentions in the preface to his book:

The journey described in the following pages was undertaken

from a desire to form some personal acquaintance with a
country chiefly known to me through the medium of a close
 105

mercantile connection. In other word, business, not

bookmaking, was its primary object. (Matheson, 1870: vii)

However, immediately after clarifying his objective behind travel to India,

he sets the tone of his travelogue by informing his reader about the spectacular

effect that India bore in his mind, while imagining the colonial subject and his

land with an undercurrent of an orientalist's perspective:

No one, however, who visits our Eastern empire can fail to be

forcibly impressed with the novelty of its aspect, and with the
strong contrast which it presents to the ordinary routine of
European life. (Matheson, 1870: ii)

The surface meaning of the above lines entails a sense of wonder and

appreciation from the position of a European viewer of India, but reversed gaze

of the colonial subject reveals the strategies of the ruler in imagining the colonial

subject in terms of contrast which arouses the sense of wonder not with the

endnote of respect but as a source of entertainment which turns the object being

viewed as ridiculous. This reading of the above lines could be verified in

Matheson's own words, in continuation of the above lines:

The result to this feeling, in my case was a series of jottings

made on the spot, and designed for the information or
entertainment of friends at home... (Matheson, 1870: viii)

Further, this account was prepared for press as an after-thought after

seven years of Matheson's return to his native country. Matheson's decision to

make it public was not only for the sake of keeping a record of his travel through

India in 1860s; but his account becomes a very significant document, which
 106

intends to bear "the existing situation of affairs in British India."

(Matheson, 1870: viii) This travelogue was published in a book form in 1870,

which informs that Matheson might have visited India in the early 1860s,

immediately after Indian Mutiny of 1857, which records the earliest and most

important voice of resistance by the natives against the British Raj in India. The

Mutiny had alarmed the Raj, as the natives had realized by that time the

unjustified ways and means maneuvered by the Raj in governing the colonial

subject. Matheson's concern in this context is reflected in his preface:

Indeed, my aim has been simply to afford those who are not
conversant with the subject, and who may choose to
accompany me through these incidents of travel, a passing
glimpse of the social features and material resources of that
wonderful Indian continent with which the welfare of our own
country is now so intimately associated. (Matheson, 1870: ix)

However, his account does bear the affect of travel in terms of charismatic

experience. He says, "The Theory that the arts of civilization have destroyed the

romance of travel is not one of universal application". (Matheson 1870: 1) The

rhetorical beginning of his travel account bears the mark of romantic zeal and

enthusiasm associated with the act of travel. He further adds to the enticing

experience of travel to India when he unfurls the historic site in its multiple

facets in his account. He informs:

There is not subject more charming than the romance of

history, no place more attractive than the scene of its events.
The chronicle of perished empires may be regarded as man's
enduring storybook, when that of childhood has ceased to
 107

interest. It is wanting, no doubt, in the greater characters who

were wont to excite our admiration and awe - the Giants and
Demons, Genii and Fairies, working miracles and magic to the
utter subversion of reason and the material laws. These
legendary creations so fascinating to the youthful mind soon
pass away from the sphere of life, leaving no witness behind
them. Nevertheless, such a tale as that of the Moguls,
illustrated by the records of their grandeur - stupendous
castles, gorgeous halls, and jeweled thrones - almost awakens a
spark of the old enthusiasm. Who indeed could stand at the
gateway of the North-West without feeling desirous to advance
in order to explore the richest archives of India and the gilded
sepulchers of her kings? (Matheson, 1870: 277)

Matheson, lured by the above image of India, further continues that, "It

was naturally, then, with a pleasant feeling of anticipation that we took our way

'up-country'". (Matheson 1870: 278) In the chapter titled, 'The Threshold of the

East', Matheson compares the British India with that of Mughal empire, and

observes the contrast in the following lines:

National greatness now-a-days can only be built on a healthy

condition of the social system, and may be considered
impracticable in a country whose ruler is its landlord, and
where, above all, woman's part in life is ignored and herself
enslaved. That false, miserable arrogance of manhood on the
part of the mighty lords of Islam hangs a millstone round the
neck of every country they inhabit, and clogs the steps alike of
moral and material advancement. The creed of Mahomet is
 10

essentially more than a mere profession of faith. It is not the

religion of peace but of aggression. The intoxicating delights of
Paradise are not for those Mussulmans who, while cherishing
their own belief, desire to live at peace with other men. On the
contrary, the Koran teaches that the highest exercise of faith is
to make war against the unbeliever. (Matheson, 1870:12)

Thus, he views the contrast in Mughal and the British empire and justifie

in a sense the British presence in India. Moreover, amongst other invaders alsi

the British held the strong foothold in India in the 19* century he avers:

Thus, the French and Portuguese scarcely retain a footing in the

country, and as the rulers of these native States - Rajah,
Thackur, Nawab or Maharajah - are more or less under our
control, it may be said that the British scepter is supreme
among the numerous races of the Indian plains. (Matheson,
1870: 88/89)

Along the lines of development, Matheson notes, how the Anglicization c

India enable them to own it as their own:

...the increased facility of internal conveyance arising from the

rapid spread of railways, it is only reasonable to conclude that
the field is becoming more and more our own in the gradual
extinction of the handloom, and those other rough old modes
of native manufacture which still hold their ground in the more
retired rural districts. (Matheson, 1870: 82)
 109

Matheson's account registers the moment in history when the idea of

British India is taking its shape in the larger framework of colonial discourse in

India. The image of India being created in the given illustration is like that of

alluring one, which Matheson expresses through the words of Mrs. Norton in the

following manner:

Our palm-trees are there with their stately stems;

Our birds have a plumage like coloured gems;
The fire-flies shine when the world's at rest,

And the lotus gleams bright on the Ganges' breast.

Oh! There lies a warm glory beyond the sea -
Hindoostan, Hindoostan, we return to thee! (Matheson, 1870:

233)

Matheson's account traces an important trajectory of images about the

natives, the way it was imagined by the colonizers with regard to their social,

cultural, religious and political systems and using those images as apparatus of

colonial policies.

Amongst other things, one of the ways of imagining the natives was based

on their dressing habits and finding and element of weirdness inherent in it.

Exhibiting this aspect, Matheson uses Dr. Forbes Watson's investigations with

regard to the modes of dress prevailing among the people of India:

.. .he informs us that there are at least two sects who consider
the use of clothes immoral as a violation of the law of nature!
He also calculates that of the 200,000,000 people in India now
more or less under British rule, about 20,000,000 are destitute of
clothing of any kind. (Matheson, 1870: 69)
 110

Matheson's information ending with exclamation mark indicates his

inability to accept as a matter of fact the custom related matter of a particular

tribe. Not only that but the data provided informs the oblique meaning in terms

of numbers given by the doctor conveying the insolvent condition of only and of

10% of the ruled population out of the overall populace under British rule.

Moreover, while describing the women folk of India Matheson's

orientalist gaze is evident in the following lines:

In the all important matter of ornament, the splendor of

bracelets and anklets made of bright coloured beads, and
glittering rings for the ears and toes, minister to that universal
feminine desire, which in her case broidered sleeves and silk
stockings would fail to gratify. But unfortunately the list of
decorations includes the disgusting nose-ring which
everywhere throughout the three Presidencies disfigures the
female countenance as an indispensable requisite of
fashionable adornment, and which, being generally of large
size, and attached to one nostril only, assumes the appearance
of an unwholesome excrescence. (Matheson, 1870: 71)

Matheson does begin with a note of appreciation but immediately he

looks down upon a particular aspect of a customary ornament of women and

expresses his contempt for it. These details are important as they function as

markers of rupture underlining the rupture at a cultural level. It is important to

note that this rupture constitutes an orientalist's view of the other's culture

which underestimates the culture of colonial subject compared to that of his own.

Needless to say, it appreciates the rupture in the culture of a colonial set up.
 Ill

which finally aids in discharging the colonial policies with greater ease. One such

instance is found in the following words by Matheson, when he says:

It is only a natural result of the advanced social condition of

Bombay that these dealers should, generally speaking, be
superior to the members of their class elsewhere in India.
(Matheson, 1870: 73)

And thus, Matheson appraises the Bombay dealers to their counterparts in

other parts of India, especially Madras and Bengal. Further, while describing the

business conduct in India, particularly in Bombay, he informs that this

transactions are done through 'Broker' who is either paid by a commission

received from the buying or selling dealer, which he calls, "an extremely bad rule

by the way", (Matheson, 1870:73) but that he is accountable for the debts to his

employers, this method is much improved in comparison to that which prevailed

in Calcutta during those times. However, the Par see community in business

demeanor is way ahead, according to Matheson, which is evident in the

following lines:

As an Indian city, Bombay possesses this interesting

peculiarity, that the Parsee community occupy, by reason of
their number, intelligence, and wealth, a prominent position in
the prosecution of its commerce and the regulation of its
affairs. The Parsee broker of Bombay is a man of mark in the
mercantile system, and not without reason, as everyone knows
who has made his acquaintance and seen him 'in harness.' He
is indeed a highly capable man of business; affable, sober.
 112

punctual, vigilant, his eye bright and his head cool and clear.
(Matheson, 1870: 74)

Parsees are being evaluated as intelligent in their business dealings by

Matheson but, he expresses his contempt as regards business demeanor in

communities other than Parsee. The negotiation begins with the offer being made

by the buyer and "the process is usually enacted by means of signs given with

the joined hands of buyer and seller hidden under a handkerchief, or bit of cloth

called the 'ipachoori'", (Matheson, 1870: 74) and the dealing continues until the

buyer reciprocates to the gestures of seller and deal is confirmed by "a

simultaneous ebullition of well affected irritation and disgust!"(Matheson 1870:

75) In contrast to this he informs how the British influence is evident in the

domain of business and the progressive outcome of it results into an introduction

of machinery in Indian commerce: "Machinery - a product of our own country

and a perishable commodity, which, as it thus appears, is even in India

superseding manual labour..." (Matheson, 1870: 81) Matheson's account of

progress of commerce in Bombay during colonial period expands the colonial

policies in the 19* century India. In his view the shift from manual labour to the

machinery produce is a sign of development and this development enables the

colonizer to assume a superior position over his subject. Further, Matheson's

consideration regarding the overall development of the country is based on the

commercial advancement in the country:

...as regards the commercial advancement of British India, that

the imports and exports of 1868 representing the value of the

'foreign trade,' exceeded the enormous sum of 101,000,0001

sterling, having thus... Among the important works, in

addition to irrigation schemes, accomplished during the past

 113

ten years, several thousand miles of good roads have been

constructed throughout the ten provinces. (Matheson, 1870: 84)

However, he does admit his appreciation of Indigenous industry and calls

the 'tradespeople' of India 'clever craftsman' (Matheson, 1870: 465), and that

"many splendid works bear testimony to their skill as artists, architects, masons,

Wrights, builders and decorators". (Matheson 1870: 465) He has further given a

detailed account of Indigenous industry where he talks about different types of

dying cloth, woodcuts, paper-making, indigo farming, cotton cultivation, etc.,

and with regard to the last product Matheson expresses his sense of gratitude

towards Hindoos, as he acknowledges that "we owe our knowledge of its

manufacture to the Hindoos". (Matheson, 1870: 270) The proliferation of the

modern commercial transactions is meticulously recorded by Matheson in his

travel account. The following statements aptly substantiate this point:

Import and exports of Madras, as shown by the yearly

statistical tables, - a traffic in native growths of cotton, indigo,
pepper, sugar, grains, together with cloth, yearns, beer, wine,
metals, and the many other importations... (Matheson, 1870:
189)

And,

... we know precisely that of the whole foreign trade of British

India, amounting, as has been stated, last year to the
magnificent sum of 101,000,0001 sterling, that of Calcutta alone
constituted about one-third. (Matheson, 1870: 241)
 114

Other than commerce, he emphasizes on the role of educational

institutions, established by the government with a specific and strategic purpose

of "imbuing the native mind with that knowledge which is the source of its own

supremacy". (Matheson, 1870: 89) Matheson's words traces the trajectory of the

orientalist discourse in the 19"" century which premises on constructing

knowledge about the orient. This intent is aptly reflected in Edward Said's

words, he writes: 'the orient', 'the oriental' and 'his world' is a 'creation' (Said

1995: 40) of the European hegemonic power structures to establish itself as a site

of power. In Foucauldian terms, "the core of Said's argument resides in the link

between knowledge and power..." (Ashcroft and Ahluwalia 2009: 56) As Said

elucidates, "knowledge gives power, more power requires more knowledge, and

so on..." (Matheson, 1870: 36) Matheson's description about the natives, in terms

of their social, religious, commercial and political systems, premises on the motif

of constructing knowledge about the natives. The knowledge created is

apparently and obviously the way the British devised their mode of

understanding and knowing the native subjects, and it was used as pedagogy for

making the natives understand themselves through this constructed knowledge.

In codifying this pedagogy the role played by the educational institutions was

very vital as it creates a platform for the comparative analysis for episteme of

knowledge systems in colonial framework from colonial perspective, which is

apparent in the following description:

...the three universities of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, all '

modeled on the London plan. ...The leaven of knowledge

which such a system of tuition is incorporating with the mass

of native ignorance and bigotry, is working out a great, and '

perhaps rapid, change in the moral aspect of the country, the

 115

more so as the golden tide of British bounty is flowing towards '

these seminaries with yearly increasing strength, and still \
multiplying their number. Thus the hideous structure called I
Brahminism is now everywhere confronted with real temples
of learning, wherein grave conclaves of dark-visaged youths in
turbans and puggeries may be seen from day to day bending
over the Bible, volumes on science and art, geographical or
geological charts, treatises on astronomy or natural history, and
other standard guides to knowledge. (Matheson 1870: 90)

The culmination of this strategy is evident, as Matheson writes, "the

laborers among the village communities of northern and central India, and the

ryots of the southern and western districts, have begun indeed to realize the

value of British skill..." (Matheson 1870: 92) Moreover, as Matheson notes, the

middle and better classes of Hindoo, Mahometan, or Parsee extended helping

hand to the raj not only in advancing their commercial and agricultural affairs,

but also in official administration of British rule. Matheson writes, "This

companionship is undoubtedly the best foundation on which to build the fabric

of our power in India..." (Matheson 1870: 93) and he records that "this year, we

find 329 European and 320 native names" (Matheson 1870: 111) in 'Bengal

Directory', who served at different administrative positions in British India.

Madras, says Matheson, like Bombay thrives with the educational

establishments. He quotes the 'Almanack' which gives a list of twenty-six

Government and public institutions. The Calcutta city was mushrooming with

several institutions, as Matheson writes:

 116

The organization of Calcutta life, like that of Bombay and

Madras, is distinguished by a long and noble list of charitable
societies and hospitals, together with institutions educational,
ecclesiastical, mechanical, geological, agricultural, or medical,
all flourishing under a mixed system of native and European
patronage. (Matheson, 1870: 264)

Matheson further gives account of the proliferation of educational

institutions, particularly schools and colleges, in different parts of India; "...the

several languages of India were taught in these seminaries; but the University,

rightly or wrongly, does not recognize any other than the English tongue as the

medium of high-class education". (Matheson 1870: 265) Further he observes the

benefit of the education system in reforming the evil customs of the marriage

ceremony of the natives: "... a change in the immemorial marriage customs of

the people of India will be among the earliest fruits of the educational system

now in progress". (Matheson, 1870: 381)

But with regard to female education, Matheson writes, no attempts had

been made in this direction up till 1854. And after that several attempts had been

made in different parts of India, particularly in three presidencies, to establish

female schools. And amongst them, Matheson notes that in Bombay the female

education has achieved an advanced state in comparison to other parts in India.

But, such a project was not that easy to initiate as "the prejudice entertained by

Hindoo girls of high caste against mixing with their humbler sisters in the social

scale" (Matheson, 1870: 383) that is why, Matheson notes "...the native ladies, the

wives and daughters of the zemindars and other members of the higher class,

were gradually induced to forego their habits of seclusion" (Matheson 1870: 383)

and in doing so he acknowledges the contribution of the menisahibs, European

 117

ladies everywhere throughout India, who were the warm supporters of the

educational cause. Matheson's account of development of the female education

added an important facet to the social structure contesting the idea of public

sphere and women's place in it in India in the 19* century. Though, "much

difficulty", writes Matheson, "has also attended the effort to induce educated

native females to become teachers in these seminaries, such an occupation being

at open war with their social rules". (Matheson 1870: 383) Moreover, Matheson

does give account of the social evils associated with the marriage in different

parts of India; he calls the system of marriage "a mixture of confusion and

barbarity" (Matheson 1870: 384) as he found:

...the practice among certain Hindoos of enriching themselves [

at the sacrifice of the interest and happiness of their daughters, ;
whom they ungrudgingly give in marriage to the highest | |^(Q1J

bidder, not matter if he be old and infirm,' we hear of a tribe |

I
among whom the value of a bride is definitely fixed at a pair of j
oxen, a cow, and seven rupees. Elsewhere, on the contrary, j
whole clans exist whose habit it is to accept no wife without a \
considerable dowry. (Matheson, 1870: 384)

Thus, Matheson juxtaposes two different views which predicate in either

ways objectifying predicament of women in the social structure, which becomes

even worse in the case of a widow, who has to undergo the horrors of self-

sacrifice 'from the bereaved wife'. (Matheson 1870: 386)

Matheson, on continuation of the previous note, is further surprised the

way education got linked with marriage:

 118

A great demand has arisen for bridegrooms who have taken a

university degree! ... if the popular voice speaks true, these
graduates may secure eligible wives and dowries solely by
reason of such potent initials. (Matheson, 1870: 386)

Matheson finds that the women of the houses are "doomed to seclusion

by the tyranny of their creed". (Matheson 1870: 245) On the subject of women's

position in the Indian society he quotes Simonides and Wordsworth respectively:

On earthly goods the best is a good wife;

A bad, the bitterest curse of human life. (Matheson 1870: 378)
Shalt show us how divine a thing
A Woman may be made. (Matheson 1870: 378)

The concurrent view about the orient being imagined as wild and enticing

based on Temple's theory of climate added to the formation of East as primitive

and savage. This image of the East is manifested in Sir William Jones views on

East, as noted by Rene Wellek in his history of literary history:

...while extreme heat was considered detrimental to the

growth of literature... sometimes East and West were
contrasted, in which case the East was identified with the South
and considered favourable to the 'warmth of imagination.'
...Addison assigned 'extravagant imagery' to the 'warmer
climates'... Sir William Jones praised the climate of Yemen in
recommending Arabian poetry and spoke of the immoderate
heat of the East as disposing the Eastern people to a life of
indolence, which gives them full leisure to cultivate their
talents. He made the alternative suggestion that the sun has a
 119

direct, physical influence on the imagination. (Wellek, 1941:

55/56)

Matheson's view in the above matter coincides with Wellek's, when he

writes "The people of India are children of the sun by habit as well as by birth",

and accordingly their life pattern emerges as 'theatre of action'. (Matheson 1870:

494) In his travelogue the above image of the orient is evaluated in the following

words from Essay on Man, and thereby, the image of the orient is created in the

following words:

Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutored mind

Sees God in clouds, ore hears him in the wind.

Chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd. (Matheson, 1870:

99)

The Indian is being considered as 'poor' for his believing in God in the

various forms and for that he is evaluated further as 'untutored mind'. The

clouds and winds, the forms of nature, are very close to and part of human life

but still relation of man to that nature holds different equation in the West, it

positions the forms of nature close to the Almighty, but not on equal pedestal

with Him, this difference constructs the image of the other for the orient to the

European mind. Ganesh Devi quotes Milton Singer's experience related to the

perception of God to the Indian mind:

Before I went to India, I knew these stories as occurring in

printed books called the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the
Bhagvatapurana, parts of which I had read in translation. This
knowledge gave me a welcome sense of recognition when I
 120

heard some of the stories, but it did not prepare me for the rich
variety of ways in which they are told and retold. Seldom did I
come across an Indian who had read these stories as I did,
simply in a book. This is not how they learn them and it is not
how they think of them. There is a sense of intimate familiarity
with the characters and incidents in references made to
Harishchandra, Rama and Sita, Krishna, Arjuna, and Prahalada
as if the world of the stories were also the everyday world...
The cultural and physical landscapes are literally and
imaginatively printed with them. (Devy, 1998: 31)

The basis on which the structure of the system of belief rests in the West is

in contrast to that of prevailing in Hindostan, according to Matheson. In the

West, "Odin, 'the chief of gods', with his terrible son Thor, as worshipped by the

early Saxons..." he says, "have all passed away like a dream, while the wild

fancies of the Ramayana, more ancient than them all, are still devoutly cherished

by the people of Hindostan". (Matheson 1870: 101) Matheson observes the

condition of unchanged ancient forms of devotion of the people of Hindostan as

'condition of stagnation'. Moreover, in his view, for monkeys being reputed as

the lineal descendants of Hanuman by Hindoos, "affords some idea of the

monstrous character of the Hindoo faith" (Matheson 1870: 101), and believing in

"some of the silliest fancies of ancient mythology, such as the worship of so-

called sacred rivers, plants, and animals..." (Matheson 1870: 105) is ridiculed by

him as a system of faith. As regards Benares being considered as 'holy city' by

the Hindoos, he condemns the belief of the Hindoos in the following words:

The monstrous fabric of superstition gives no sign of decay,

and Benares is at this moment, as in days of dynasties that have
 121

long passed away, regarded as the very gateway of Heaven by

the piously disposed among 140,000,000 souls. (Matheson,
1870: 309)

This belittling of the natives' creed/belief system further strengthened the

hegemonic power structures in India in the name of emancipatory measures

undertaken by the Christian missionaries and education system introduced in

the 19"^ century India. Matheson writes:

Education, as it spreads, will assist in preparing the native

mind for the reception of divine truth; and there are some who
think that, even now, a more general diffusion of friendly
intercourse with the people, accompanying the publication of
gospel precepts, would strengthen the efforts of those who are
engaged in the good work of Christianizing India. (Matheson,
1870:107)

In the above mentioned 'good work of Christianizing India' he

acknowledges the role of those natives who, "having made themselves

conversant with our Scriptures, are in the habit of attempting to ridicule some of

the sacred truths they inculcate". (Matheson 1870: 106) Further, 'Christianizing

India' is being considered as the equivalent to 'the welfare of Hindostan' and

Hindooism as a religious framework is considered as "antagonistic to the

civilizing policy of British rule". (Matheson 1870: 107) But the climate theory has

just worked otherwise in Madras as regards 'Christianizing India'. Though

Matheson notes his doubt, when he says, "if the theory be true that the climate

influences the mind", he conforms the effect of it being very perceptible in

Madras because here, according to him, "...in nearly all of these, the native and
 122

foreign elements are conjoined, even welded together, by a very hearty mutual

feeling", and further, the "...machinery of Christian proselytism exists largely in

Madras". (Matheson 1870:198)

Other than religious system the landscaping of India also entails the image

of the wild and enticing, as is apparent in Matheson's description of Orissa:

... Orissa, with its isolated population of 4,000,000, still

dwelling apart in the shadow of a barbarous faith, amidst vast

jungles, trackless forests, and deep, rolling rivers, haunted by

monstrous forms of life - in a country, too, where the

temperature during the hot season reaches 115 Fahr. in the

shade, and whose plains are alternately withered by heat and

flooded with water. (Matheson, 1870: 222)

For Matheson, physical landscape embodies the cultural landscape of

Orissa which is apparent in his uncouth and uncanny description of the god of

Juggernauth:

... the chief of Juggernauth... still exists, enthroned in state like

some demon of romance... the god himself is known as a
rough, painted figure, about six feet high, with a very black
face, great white eyes, a red mouth, a snout-like nose, and arms
without hands. (Matheson, 1870: 223/224)

As Juggernauth represents an image of god, such description of the

Juggernauth also traces the trajectory of Indian art being perceived as monstrous.

Matheson's depiction of goddess Doorga also runs through the same note of

uncanny description: "... a doll figure decorated with wreaths of the golden
 123

flower just mentioned, as seated within a receptacle very much resembling an

English drawing-room grate adorned for the summer months". (Matheson 1870:

312/313) The criticism almost takes the form of disgust when he describes the

scene at the ghaut of Ganges:

Landing at the great ghaut we found very steps embellished

with the representation of deities. Gods and goddesses, black,
white, and brown, sprawled at our feet, extending tmsightly
limbs and heads to be trodden upon... (Matheson 1870: 317)

Matheson later explicating the idea of the 'Hindoo Pantheon' (Matheson

1870: 317) writes, "such an incident illustrates the strange tenacity of belief with

which the people of India cling to the traditions of their country". (Matheson

1870: 333) With regard to such stubbornness of the natives in their religious

practices, Matheson regrets that, such delusions have not "yet yielded to the

influence of European civilization". (Matheson 1870:345/346)

In constituting the colonial subject, along the lines of religious and social

apparatus, the extensional elements of geography are used to represent the

intentional character of the subject. Matheson writes: "In these regions of the sun,

life and vegetation are supported by a system of wells and tanks, which

everywhere, in town or country, form prominent features in the landscape".

(Matheson 1870:131) These wells and tanks are intrinsic part to native's life as it

is hooked up with their social and religious scheme. As Matheson states, "To

construct and to endow (either or both) a tank or temple is a favorite object of

ambition in India". (Matheson 1870: 134) Further, Matheson describes the

landscape of India in 'The Heights of Kenery', 'Materan Mountain' and 'Malabar

And Palke' with sense of wonder tinged with derision as regards the cultural
 124

aspect of these landscapes. Nevertheless, as regards natural, physical landscape

he admits that there is no parallel to Materan in the West:

Materan dwells in a land of silence as well as sunshine, exalted

far above the earth, amidst flowery walks and dense shrubbery,
in company with great humming-bees and gorgeous birds and
butterflies - a truly romantic retirement, of which the western
world affords no example. (Matheson, 1870:144)

But his critique of social and religious conventions/practices, prevalent

before and under British rule, is very stark:

...very ancient laws relating to property and to social habits

immemorial in India continue to prevail. When the country-
became a British possession at the downfall of Tippoo Sahib,
slavery and its persecutions were abolished, but the people still
retain their old caste distinctions and strange conventional
rules. Among the Hindoo inhabitants are the Namburies, or
Brahmins; the Tiars, who till the soil; the Malears, magicians or
conjurors, and the Patiars, or lowest class, who once were
slaves. Besides these... we find the Nairs, ...next in rank to the
Brahmins, and ridiculously inflated with a sense of superior
dignity. (Matheson, 1870:147/148)

But his critique of cultural landscape of India builds a framework for the

British policies for establishing their Raj in India. So immediately after

enumerating the above mentioned details, he defines the role of the British rule

in India:
 125

Thanks to the humanizing influence of British rule, the time has

gone by when a Nair felt himself impelled to avenge a
supposed insult to his order by striking down with his sword
the too unobservant Tiar who might, however unconsciously,
obstruct his path... (Matheson, 1870:148)

He assigns the British rule in India a role of civilizing and humanizing the

Indians in terms of refining their social, religious and cultural conventions and

practices. By and large, John Matheson's account of his travel premises on

devising an apparatus of constructing knowledge about the colonial subject

which very conveniently cater to the needs of colonial policy in the context of

colonialism. And Matheson's position as a knower sanctions his way of knowing

his subject (who is to be known) in a particular manner that allows the knower to

establish his knowledge when verified by the larger scheme of colonial policies.

In this regard Matheson aptly quotes Justus Moser's words:

The knowledge of the natural advantages or defects of a

country form an essential part of political science and history.
(Matheson, 1870:188)

Matheson's observations about the religion, social and political domains

have availed him with the position of a knower, whose known attains his

subjecthood according to the norms and parameters of his knower. Matheson

introduces Mr. W. W. Hunter as a redeemer, who produced the first volume of

the 'History of Rural Bengal' the first history of its kind about Indian people in

India. The knower gets the privileged position over the known because the

knower is constructing knowledge about the object of inquiry (known). And the

knowledge that is constructed by the knower gets verified and becomes

 126

knowledge with reference to the frame which he uses as a reference point. With

regard to Matheson's account of travel in India, the India becomes an object of

inquiry (object to be known) for Matheson, a knower, and his account in the form

of book becomes the constructed knowledge which gets verified through the

citation incorporated in the text, which legitimate the observations and findings

of knower in making the object known. One such example of understanding the

presence of clouds, unlike that in the West, appears:

For it must be remembered that the sun-obscuring clouds are

not regarded with disfavor here as in England, but are on the
contrary hailed with the welcome that might be accorded to
angels with healing in their wings. (Matheson, 1870: 216/217)

The relation of the physical landscape with that of the cultural one

becomes very uncanny for Matheson in a situation like given below:

We hear, not without interest, from time to time of rain having

fallen in some portion of India, brightening our mercantile
prospects by reviving the sun-stricken soil; but we do not and
cannot realize the extent to which that chief of earthly blessings
in such a country affects the lot of the laboring poor.
. (Matheson, 1870: 227)

The sense of wonder expressed by Matheson in the following lines is

tinged with irony as they depict the interiors of the Calcutta city where "the

picture of human existence" has "no parallel in Western life" (Matheson 1870:

245). He delineates in satirical vein a very minute account of the place where

natives live and how they live, and he names it a 'human existence' which does

not have its counterpart in the West:

 127

Rows of low brick buildings, serving as shops and storerooms,

earthen huts, cottages formed of cane and mats, together with
wooden dwellings sustained on bamboo piles, all confusedly
mingled, run on for miles, the narrow street between being of
course crowded and noisy, as well as stifling with heat and
dust. Here in small lowly recesses, ... whole families, down, it
may be, to the third generation, dwelling under the same roof.
(Matheson, 1870: 245)

Similar attitude is expressed towards native's English writing, and

Matheson distinguishes between the English of the English people and the way it

was acquired and used by the educated natives in the journals and news papers:

Prince Albert died of fever on Saturday (14th), so announced

the ill-fated telegram of the "Times" of Tuesday last.
...Providence has so willed it, and his ways, howsoever the
frailty of human affections may refuse to acquiesce in them, are
past finding out. Mortal plummet cannot fathem, and all we
can now do is to mourn and deplore over the melancholy
occurrence. .. .'The sun of Prince Albert has gone down while it
was yet day'. (Matheson, 1870: 462)

Further, Matheson uses the printed material like journals {Friend of India,

Bombay Municipality Report, etc.), newspapers, reports by different public and

government institutions as an evidence for his observations and documentation

purposes in his account. For example he quotes from 'Friend of India' to inform

the growth of population in British India:

 128

A writer in the 'Friend of India' calculates that, during the past

century, the entire inhabitants, including those of the suburban
and Howrah municipalities, 'have increased from a quarter of a
million to upwards of a million, the pure European residents
from five hundred to twenty thousand, and the mixed and the
other Christians from seven hundred to twenty thousand'.
(Matheson, 1870: 241)

Further, Matheson's account offers important glimpses into the

ambivalence that was obliquely represented by the people of India through print

media. He quotes Sumachar Durpan, the first newspaper in Calcutta in 1818,

Sumachar Chundrika, Koh-i-Noor, Chabuk, Mufid-ul-Alam, Som Prakash, Hitoishinee,

Unjumun Hind, Soodhaburshun Gazette, Probhakur, etc.

Matheson's observation about the social practice informs the issue of

untouchability and caste discrimination in Indian society. He describes as to how

certain group of people becomes outcaste in Indian social structure on the basis

of the domestic work they do in domestic spaces. These domestic spaces imbue

the idea of margin, according to Matheson, and that he finds most ridiculous and

weird. He refers to this social discrimination operative at and from domestic

spaces:

Hence the heterogeneous constitution and ridiculous rules of

domestic service throughout the country. The lithe fellow who
wields the broom will perhaps shrink from touching a dish
which had been used for the family dinner. If a rigid
Brahminist, he will guard his own food from the slightest
contact with alien hands. He may start at the sound of his
master's voice, or cringe and crawl as if he were unworthy to
 129

stand before him, but may nevertheless choose to treat the

great sahib's very shadow as pollution, by secretly casting
away the meal of rice on which it had chanced to fall.
(Matheson, 1870: 242-43)

These lines are exemplary of the social fact that, what does it mean to be

Brahmin and how does it codify the idea of being legitimate in its code of

conduct being Brahmin. Matheson calls this the "idea of Grotesque fancies that

pervade the traditions of the Brahminical faith". (Matheson 1870:149)

The animals being used by the natives for means of transportation is

found by Matheson very brutal. He pities the bullocks being used in cart; he

observes that the way they are treated by their masters/natives is very cruel. He

observes that these arumals are exploited to the extent that in "...sustaining the

entire weight of the load - a load in most cases so excessive that the animals

visibly writhed under the pain it inflicted". (Matheson 1870: 243) He also found

that the "...letters or characters with which each animal was branded had been

so brutally impressed as to be literally written in blood!" (Matheson 1870: 243), for

this cruel act he describes such people as "...savagely indifferent to the sufferings

of the animals under their charge". (Matheson 1870: 244) Matheson, further

informs that a 'Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' had been

formed in Calcutta, and "under its human action, I believe, a great reformation

has recently been effected". (Matheson 1870: 243/244) And he regrets that in the

matter of violence against animals a great urgency was also required in other

parts of the country to sensitize the 'ignorant native' towards the animals. But it

was not that easy for the present government to change the natives' customs and

practices, as he writes:
 130

A righteous Government cannot fulfill its mission in Calcutta

or elsewhere without frowning down enormities which,
however natural to the ignorant native, or rooted in the habits
of his race, are not less an outrage on that higher civilization
the virtues and blessings of which we are inviting him to share.
(Matheson, 1870: 244)

As Matheson explains the agenda of improving the natives with reference

to the above mentioned matter, he assumes the role of the government towards

civilizing the natives. In defining the role of the government, the positioning of

the relationship of the government with that of the native, not only empowers

the government with privileged position but it also entails the hegemonic power

structures in establishing the British raj in India. However, in spite of the above

mentioned agenda, the British people often found naitives resisting and not

complying with the British strategies. For instance, Matheson finds that the

method of business transactions are almost same in Calcutta like that in Bombay

and other parts of country, but this method, according to him, is hardly affected

by the British ways of dealing with business transactions. In other words, he

notes that the wave of change had not affected business matters in India:

I need scarcely add that such business rules do not exist in

these days through the choice of British mercantile firms in
India but of necessity, the force of native habit in this matter
having so far resisted the innovating hand of change.
(Matheson, 1870: 25Q)

Matheson registers all the entry points where in the British policies could

imbue the colonial strategies in the native's space of living, - with regard to
 131

socio-pohtical and religious aspects - with a sense of pride. But when it came to

the points of departures, when the natives did not get affected by the British

policies, and chose to continue with their native practices in above mentioned

fields, got embodied in the form of resistance by the natives. Matheson finds

such resistance in many practices that the natives continued in spite of forces of

reform constantly being at work by the colonial rule. The resistance marks the

discontinuities or the points of departure from the colonial modernity, embodied

in several reform projects by the rulers. The resistance also contests the idea of

colonial modernity in the 19* century India. This unwillingness to change

created the opposite other for the West and further it was framed in the name of

'fanaticism and superstition' of the natives, apparent not only in their socio-

religious practices but also in the customs of trade. Matheson notes, "...it is

strange to observe how widely the laws of modern commerce are blended with

the vagaries of Indian usage". (Matheson, 1870: 251) He criticizes the socio-

religious practices affecting the trade in the following incident:

In the present year, Glasgow shippers of certain fancy goods

were advised by their correspondents in Calcutta that such
fabrics would be unsalable for a time, the cause not being one
of those which regulate the laws of supply and demand as
indicated by Adam Smith or any similar economist, but being
due solely to the fact that March and April were held to be
unlucky months for marriages, as predicated by the priesthood
of Benares. (Matheson, 1870: 251)

He calls such superstitions ridiculous and thinks of such details as unworthy for

his account and concludes that it was the "waste of time" for him to deal with

such "ridiculous details born of Oriental fancy". (Matheson, 1870: 253)

 132

The bizarre description of Indian social practices, religion and a culture

thereby enables the British raj devise their policies of colonialism in the name of

reform and civilization. Matheson quotes Rousseau and premises his argument

of growth in relation to the British presence in India, he writes, "The science of

governing is merely a science of combinations, of applications, and of exceptions,

according to time, place, and circumstances". (Matheson, 1870: 495) In the light of

this argument he, finally, defines the role of British rule in India in the following

words:

It is an axiom in political economy, that no country can attain to

a condition of solid peace and prosperity apart from the unity
of its people. The aim, therefore, of British rule in India is
nothing less than the creation of a national life. For in this lies
the unparalleled difficulty of the situation, that our Eastern
empire more resembles a continent than a state, and that the
millions now our countrymen comprise alien races, whom
many generations of a common lot have failed to consolidate or
reconcile. (Matheson, 1870: 495)

He traces the sources of this social disunion from the invasions of Aryans

and chronicles in a sense the political events which took place so far on the land

of India, including the British rule. Along the lines of this trajectory he outlines

down the line different ethnicities prevailing in India and concludes that, 'the

people of India' is not referring any homogenous group of one race, rather it is

"peninsula inhabited by men of various origin and widely different character".

(Matheson, 1870: 496) And considers it to be the 'Herculean task' for the British

people to gather these fragmented social systems into one 'fabric of a state'
 133

(Matheson, 1870: 497), and to illustrate this distinction he gives the following

example:

.. .it may be held that the whole Western world does not supply
an instance of typical contrast so marked as that existing
between the lean, weakly denizen of Southern Bengal and the
broad robust Sikh of the Northern frontier. The ethnical
distinction between these two infinitely transcends any
dissimilarity in feeling, habit, ore religion that exists among the
nations of Europe. (Matheson, 1870: 496/497)

Matheson finds this diversity as one of the major problems in advancing the

British policies in India.

Matheson's account records that crucial moment in history when the

British were threatened with the progress of the political developments at a

global level, but it found solace in the fact that Matheson records: "The security

we derive from the enmity existing between Mahommedan and Hindoo is

enhanced by the dissensions prevailing in the Mahommedan body itself".

(Matheson, 1870: 517) However, he reposes the faith in his own system and

counts on the positive side of it:

...the power which has been slowly but surely raising India
above the shadows of ignorance and mysticism into the light
and liberty of day. So noble is the vocation allotted to
commerce in the economy of national life - so faithless are
those of its followers who debase it with the word of falsehood
or the act of fraud! (Matheson, 1870: 522)
 134

Matheson's final postulation not only regains the faith in British polices,

but it also links the commerce with development with the 'national life'. Further,

he confers the garb of nobility to the British rule in India which claims to impart

the knowledge of modern science and history to the native Indians at the risk of

'creating a power capable of discarding (their own) sovereignty' (Matheson,

1870: 523) from India. With these words Matheson positions the ruler above the

ruled and the knower, superior to the known. His positioning enabled the ruler

to look at the ruled through the lens of contrast; as the "Magnitude is rendered

more imposing by contrast". (Matheson, 1870: 246) And finally Matheson

concludes his travelogue with a note of contentment, where he assumes the

empowered natives discarding the British rule from their land, he writes, if so:

The world's business will pursue its course; and posterity,

tracing the footsteps of British rule in India, will say that here a
great nation acted a noble part on the stage of human progress.
From the fulfillment of a purpose at once so stupendous and
beneficent, England might be well content to retire; not for the
barren enjoyment of a name, however grandly and worthily
earned, but for the display of her energies in other fields or
labour, and the diffusion of fresh blessings among mankind.
(Matheson, 1870: 523)

Matheson again resumes his rhetorical tone, as he had employed in his

beginning, to end his travelogue in romanticizing the ideal end of the British

Empire in India bestowing the mankind with a noble deed indeed!

 135

Works cited:

Devy, G N. Of Many Heroes: An Indian Essay in Literary Historiography. Mumbai:

Orient Longman, 1998.

Majumdar, G. Ed. The History and Culture of the Indian People: British Paramountcy
and Indian Renaissance. Vol. 10. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1991.

Matheson, John. England to Delhi: A Narrative of Indian Travel. London: Longmans,

1870.

Vijayasree, C, Meenakshi Mukherjee, etl. Nation in Imagination: Essays on

Nationalism, Sub-Nationalism and Narration. Hyderabad, Orient Longman,
2007.

Vishwanathan, Gauri. Masks of Conquest: Literary Studies and British Rule in India.
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Wellek, Rene. The Rise of English Literary History. America: The University of
North Carolina Press, 1941.
 136

CHAPTER V

COMPARING THE SELF AND THE OTHER IN THE

COLONIAL DISCOURSE: BEHRAMJI M MALABARFS THE
INDIAN EYE ON ENGLISH LIFE OR RAMBLES OF A
PILGRIM REFORMER

Behramji M Malabari's The Indian Eye on English Life or Rambles of a pilgrim

Reformer was written in English and published in 1893. Malabari's account of his
three visits to England went through four editions. Behramji M Malabari was
born in Baroda and brought up in Surat. He left Bombay to travel to England in
April 1890. His work records his journey to Britain and his observation of British
life. The witty and humorous tone adopted by the author proved to be a hit with
the reading public, reflected by the fact that the book passed into four editions.
Malabari very minutely observed the European life during his stay there. The
book contains his musing over a wide range of issues which are still relevant
today, e.g., his shock at the poverty in British society. He goes on to describe
people, social life, eating and drinking habits, poverty, economy, health, sexual
life, law and order and the parliament of Britain. At the same time he is very
appreciative of Britain. Malabari's observation mainly takes into account the
dynamics of social life of England. Being a reformist himself, he provides a
comparative critique of a variety of subjects that comes under his purview.

Before Malabari, Mahipatram Rupram Nilkanth (1860) and Karsandas

Mulji (1863) had visited England and documented their travels in the form of
travelogue. Their accounts premised on constructing knowledge of the West with
a view to illumine the East with the light of reform and reconstituting the subject
 137

formation under colonial rule. An attempt at defining their positions as travelers

and colonial subjects, entailing the hegemonic power structures under colonial

rule, is aptly recorded in the following translations by Tridip Suhrud from

Mahipatram's England ni Musafari nu Varnan, and Karsandas Mulji's England ma

Pravas respectively:

I have no words to describe the joy that I experienced on

setting foot in England. Such joy is to be expected when what
was difficult to achieve even in a dream is realized.
(Bhattacharji, 2008:84)

As one stepping out of dark into the bright sun the eyes dazzle
at the light, similarly the visitor is enlightened by the power of
their knowledge. (Bhattacharji, 2008:84)

Nilkanth was sent to England by the British government (as its employee),

and was convinced of the superiority of the British culture and society over its

Indian counterpart. Whereas Karsandas Mulji does portray positive and darker

side of English life for his Indian readers thus, writes Suhrud, he "does not lose

sight of the reformist agenda" (Bhattacharji, 2008:87) and is able to represent

"British society in a polychromatic and multilayered manner, which was not

available to the pioneer Mahipatram". (Bhattacharji, 2008:87) Malabari, being a

Parsee, unlike his Hindu predecessors, Mahipatram and Karsandas Mulji, did

not have to face the social taboos related to crossing the seas and also food habits.

However, in this regard he was also not the first Parsee fellow to visit a foreign

land, which is evident in the fact that he met many Parsee friends in England,

who have settled there. So he writes:

 138

A trip to London has been my dream for years, a hope long

deferred. More, indeed, than wish or hope, it has been a faith
with me, to be rewarded in the fullness of time. (Malabari,
1895:01)

Behramji Malabari, as educated elite, forms a very complex relationship

with the British people and with his own people in India as a colonial subject in

the 19* century. His understanding of being a social reformer, a poet, a journalist

and a traveler in the 19"" century is premised on his position of being educated

elite advantaged by English education system. The influence of English

education created a new perception for the educated elites, like Malabari, to form

"altered relation to their own land" (Grewal, 1996:142) and also to the English

people in India and abroad. As Gauri Viswanathan argues, the English education

created a historical consciousness that "was intended to bring the Indian in touch

with himself, recovering his true essence and identity from the degradation to

which it had become subject through native despotism." (Viswanathan, 1998:134)

Further such an education also presented itself as "restoring Indian youth to an

essential self and, in turn, reinserting him into the course of Western

civilization." (Viswanathan, 1998:134) The following lines, by Inderpal Grewal,

suggest how Malabari, as a colonial subject, and as a product of colonial

modernity, corresponds to the influence of English education and its affect on his

act of travel:

In an essay in TJte Indian Spectator that explains his

methodology in works such as Gujarat and Gujaratis and The

Indian Eye on English Life, Malabari writes that he has not

absorbed European notions of travel and that he has never

been to Europe. Yet even without travelling to Europe, his

 139

English education taught him how to be a travelling subject,

that is, to utilize a binary epistemology for the construction of
the Self. Thus he maps his "home" within a framework of
colonial modernity that is particular to upper-class and caste
Indian men. (Grewal, 1996:150/151)

Malabari, before undertaking his travel maps his own homeland through

the lens of colonial modernity, in doing so his understanding of the present of

India intersects within the framework of colonial modernity, which then further

translates its past and future with reference to the present congealed in the

colonial modernity. His usage of the 'binary epistemology for the construction of

the self in his travel account is evident fron:\ the following lines which inform

about his ramblings over Indian continent as a traveler, translating his act of

travel in terms of constructing sites of knowledge of India, traversing through

past, present and future:

By the end of 1889 I find I have rambled over nearly the whole
of the Indian Continent, comparing its past with the present,
and catching a glimpse of the future, as afforded by the!
comparison. (Malabari, 1895:01)

Thus, Malabari, in order to understand the 'essential self rambles through

the whole of the Indian continent and compares its past with its present and

analyses what India was and what it is now, in the process of doing so he

addresses the issues of 'identity', 'self and the 'other' and that he attempts to

know through his ramblings in England and other parts of Europe. His.

apparatus is to know the self, i.e. the colonial subject, with reference to the other.
 140

i.e. the colonizer and construct a knowledge of the past and there by developing

avenues of reform in the future. Malabari notes:

What could be more natural for a student of humanity, a

pilgrim in search of the truths of life, than that of he should
now wish for a look at the other world, beyond the seas, whose
fortunes are so closely knit with those of his own country?
(Malabari, 1895:1/2)

Malabari's comparative method not only creates knowledge about India's

past and present but it also comprehends the disparity of the self-representation

of the British on the colonial land. This disparity further reinforces the

understanding of the self for the natives, as "There is so much to learn and to

unlearn form contact with a different civilization, more robust and more real, in

spite of its 'falsehood of extremes'." (Malabari, 1895:02) Thus, for Malabari

comparative method offers the resolution to the construction of knowledge as,

according to him, "No study is so absorbing for man as a study of human

progress; no method so successful for it as the comparative method." (Malabari,

1895:02) Moreover for Malabari the comparative method enables one to admire

foreign lands and monuments without being "ashamed of your own". (Malabari,

1889:25) Thus for Malabari, the knowledge of one's own past becomes a

prerequisite to understand the civilization of the other which in turn informs to

the understanding of historical consciousness of the self. Malabari links these

undercurrents with his idea of travel in his essay on travel and writes:

I honour you for your desire to examine the arts, sciences and

philosophies of the West: but you cannot do this with

advantage to yourself and the world unless you have already

 141

made yourself familiar with the national systems. (Malabari,

1889:25) .

Malabari's call for being 'familiar with the national systems' creates a new

position for him as a colonial subject, particularly as an educated elite whose

views and perception about subject position are framed by English education

system. As Grewal points out:

...these influences interact with local cultural formations and

practices to reconstitute colonialism for colonial hegemony and
new subject positions that become available to the Indian
middle classes. (Grewal, 1996:143)

Malabari's position as a native traveler and a colonial subject is informed

by the 'practices to reconstitute colonialism' under the influence of 'colonial

hegemony' which creates a new subject position for him as an educated elite,

which is apparent when he dedicates his travel book. The Indian Eye on English

Life or Rambles of a pilgrim Reformer, "To The Women of England in Grateful

Remembrance of 1890", (Malabari, 1895: ii) and further his position gets defined

when he assumes his audience as mainly being English people, to whom, as

mentioned in the preface of his travel book that it is, "...offered to the British

Public by a stranger in blood, in creed, and in language; by a student" (Malabari,

1895: vii) in continuation he writes:

In contrasting the New Civilization with the Old, the writer

cannot pretend always to maturity of experience or soundness

of conclusion. All that he claims is a friendly conversation, in

open council, with Englishmen on the one hand and Indians on

the other. (Malabari, 1895: vii)

 142

Malabari's suspicion regarding his own conclusions in the matter of his

experience of the other civilization shows his ambivalence towards his relation
with the British in India and abroad, and further it also enables him to claim a
'friendly conversation' with the Englishmen and the Indians as well. In this
context Malabari's position in terms of class and gender, his approval of colonial
rule as necessary for progress and his awareness of his different audiences
accounts for his understanding of complexity of relations with the colonizers and
the colonized as a colonial subject. Though for the colonizers the colonized are
the 'natives', but the term represents the multiple subject positions as held by
Malabari and his Hindu predecessors, Mahipatram Nilkanth and Karsandas
Mulji.

The title of Malabari's travel book. The Indian Eye on English Life or Rambles
of a pilgrim Reformer, implies that he undertakes his travel to England as a pilgrim
and not merely as a traveler; this sets a tone to his travel account. His objective
behind having 'friendly conversation' with the Englishmen is to give impetus to
the reform movements in India. And in perusing his reform agenda Malabari
embarks on his pilgrimage to Europe to pay homage to this source of reform and
modem civilization. Malabari's visit to England as a pilgrin\ unfurls different
aspects of the English life, which provides him apparatus of comparative method
to understand and analyze English life and its Indian counterpart. This
'comparative method' was also essential to the understanding of the colonial
discourse, it not only became a mode of constructing knowledge but it also
informed the better understanding of the constituents of knowledge
construction. As Grewal argues, this "constituent, pervasive, and ongoing
construction of knowledge as an understanding of the division between "native"
 143

and "English" or "European" was one that informed all discourses in the colonial

context". (Grewal, 1996:142)

Malabari observes the English life very closely in its social, religious,

political and economic aspects and compares them with their Asiatic / Eastern /

Indian counterpart. While doing so, Malabari comprehends Europe's counterpart

in different terms like Asiatic, Eastern, and Indian, This usage also suggests the

alternatives for the subject position imagined by Malabari in implying either the

equivalent or the substitute aspect for each term. For example, the title of the

book uses the term Indian as a coimterpart of the English, as regards religion

Eastern is used, and Asiatic corresponds to the social-economic facets of English

life. In any case, equivalent they are not, and so not substitutes also, but they

inform more of the imperial position of the English in relation to their colonial

subject/s. Malabari's work primarily premises on the line of negotiation,

constantly negotiating the familiar / known with the strange / unknown situating

his movement/s through Europe as a traveler and a colonial subject. In this

regard, Malabari suggests:

If England will learn to govern India more and more in

accordance with natural conditions, she will not only be amply
repaid for the task in itself, but will find a market for her goods,
of almost every description, ten times larger than she is likely
to find elsewhere. The experiment is as glorious as it is
profitable to both. I do not expect a political millennium to be
reached to-morrow, any more than I expect a disruption to
overtake us at once. (Malabari, 1895:69-70)
 144

Thus, Malabari offers a negotiation also to the colonizers and asks them to

'govern India more and more in accordance with natural conditions' to get the

maximum benefit of the colonial land. He then also goes on to explain to the

English that it will not be possible for them to rule India by sword, he writes:

Take my advice, dear Colonel; put your sword into a barrel of

vinegar. It will improve vinegar and steel alike, and give you
time to read up your school books of history again. How long
can one nation rule another merely by the arm of flesh? Long
may England continue to rule us, not by the sword, but by the
rod. (Malabari, 1895:70)

Malabari's subject position informed by colonial modernity enables him to

subvert the powerful gaze of the colonizer and in doing so he is contesting with

the colonial policies of the British in India. However, the stance of Malabari could

also be interpreted as supporting the British by proposing the alternatives in

revising the colonial policies. In doing so his subject position is imbued with the

sense of appropriation. But the logistics of the argument proposed above is also

tinged with the anger and the protest, implementing a move towards national

consciousness.

A move towards national consciousness is also indicative of identity

formation of nation and its natives in manifold ways. One such way is argued by

Malabari, when he appeals to the Englishmen:

Strange it may sound, I hold that it is as bad for us to be given

more consideration than our due, as it is to be given less

consideration. We should be treated exactly as equals, if we

deserve to be. You must not give us less than our due; and pray
 145

don't give us more either - in the shape of words or otherwise.

(Malabari, 1895: 65)

Here, the idea of equality is reinforced by an appeal to the Englishmen to

treat their Indian counterpart as their equals, and by emphasizing on the merit of

equality he is also forging an idea of self esteem of the natives as colonial

subjects. Further, he continues that "The Englishman cannot understand why I

resent patronage from a superior race." (Malabari, 1895:65) But he wants his own

people to understand the implications of these 'patronages' as they also create

divide amongst the natives as some are favoured and the other are disfavoured.

So to avoid this discrimination even amongst natives he pleads to his own

people:

I appeal to my own people, to the educated portion thereof, to

say if they love to wear the badge of inferiority. These remarks
apply with equal force as between Natives and Natives; as, for
instance, between Mahomedans and Hindus. (Malabari,
1895:66)

As in the case of individual so with the nation, Malabari asks the British

not to 'patronize but befriend us', (Malabari, 1895:69) and allow the Indians to

participate "in the conduct of public affairs" at least to "those of us who are

competent for it". (Malabari, 1895:67) Malabari, while arguing for the inclusion of

the Indians in the public and administrative affairs, creates a decisive divide

between the natives, those who are exposed to the English education system and

those who could not avail the benefit of it. And further, he categorizes the earlier

one as being qualified and competent, who meet the criteria, and so being

eligible to administer the public affairs. In drawing this argument Malabari's

 146

implicit view becomes very obvious that those who are not exposed to the

English education system are not eligible to participate in the public affairs. By

proposing this view, Malabari' position as a colonial subject becomes intrigue

with conflicting views; on the one hand he seems to align with the British in

weighing the importance of English education system in India and on the other

he appears to side with the colonized, natives, as he is making a case for the

natives, by proposing the British an idea of reconstituting the sphere of public,

where the sphere, the public and their relation gets redefined through the

inclusion of the natives in the public administration. Further, according to him,

this move would work in the interest of the Englishmen, as the inclusion of the

natives in the governing and administrative aspects of their rule is finally going

to help them in gaining the better position as a ruler:

.. .within the measure of our capacity and the circumstances of

the country, there should be an approximation in the methods
of government between India and England, with equality as
the basis both of public administration and personal
intercourse. (Malabari, 1895:67)

Thus, Malabari reinforces the idea of equality by arguing for the "approximation

in the methods of government between India and England" not only on

administrative grounds but also on personal fronts. Malabari's stance is

suggestive of two contradictory positions; colonizer and colonized cannot be

equals, and equals cannot be colonized; but by proposing the idea of equality

Malabari seems to have been contesting the very relation between the colonized

and the colonizer and the way it reciprocates with formations of the self and the

other under colonial rule. Malabari also proposes to the English that if they do

not include the natives in the governing and administrative positions, they run
 147

the risk of "'compound ignorance'" i.e. "an ignorance that knows not it is

ignorant". (Malabari, 1895:68)

Malabari, thus, puts forward the prospective negotiation between the

colonized and the colonizer, which, according to him might bring welfare to both

the parties iiivolved in it, for "There is so much to learn and to unlearn from

contact with a different civilization..." (Malabari, 1895:2) In this Malabari has, it

seems, chosen the words, 'learn' and 'to unlearn' from a 'different civilization',

very carefully. While he is emphasizing learning aspect, he, at the same time, is

underlining the unlearning aspect as well. This shows that he was not, in his

appreciation of the English, completely taken away by the sense of awe and

admiration, which is what, is very explicit in his predecessors like Mahipatram

Nilkanth and Karsandas Mulji. Malabari also pinpoints the word 'different

civilization' which deliberately inserts the other as alternatives of English

civilization, in doing so, Malabari as a colonial subject, evinces mode of free

critical inquiry while dealing with the master's civilization and culture.

Nonetheless, for Malabari, certainly, the British rule is indispensible for the

present India:

India is poor, ignorant, and superstitious. But what can she not
do with her numbers, if the numbers once acquire cohesion? It
is difficult, however, to say whence the cohesion is to come -
from politics or from religion. Politics cannot mould the social
and domestic life of a people, as religion does. But religion in
India is dead or decaying in the ranks where it is most potent
for a wide-felt constructive influence. (Malabari, 1895:125)
 148

Malabari, like many of his contemporaries, considers the corrosion in

political affairs and religion in India to be the root cause of degeneration in

Indian society. However, he does assign a superior role to religion in moulding

the social and domestic life of the people in comparison to political set u p in

India. In doing so Malabari also scrutinizes the essential traits of Indian society

and thus mapping the contours of Indian identity. This move towards

understanding the 'self is not towards the individual self but towards the

collective self, which represents the 19* century India within the framework of

political and religious practices. But Malabari in mapping the self of the colonial

subject intersects with contours of the English life, forming the other of the

Indian self, and thereby reinforces the constituents of the Indian self using the

comparative methodology in understanding one with reference to the other. He

undertakes the journey as a pilgrimage to learn and unlearn about the human

progress and in the process of doing so he constructs a knowledge using

comparative method about India and the English life. In this context Malabari

writes.

With London for its vantage ground, let the pilgrim look at the
world's fair around. If he have eyes, he can see a panorama of
happiness and misery spread out in wild profusion before him.
If he have ears, he may hear the throbs of this great big heart of
the universe, pulsating with the highest aspirations and the
lowest passions of humanity. (Malabari, 1895:2)

Malabari in projecting the image of the British within the framework of

two extremes marks a stark contrast not only in comparison to its Indian

counterpart but also with reference to its own self-representation in India. In

doing so he employs the strategy of rhetoric with twofold objective; firstly in

 149

positioning his own self as a pilgrim, who has set out for a journey to England

and other European countries; and secondly, in appraising London as 'big heart

of the universe' and that which is 'pulsating with the highest aspirations ...of

humanity'. This positioning of the 'self and the 'other' reciprocates with each

other in terms of hierarchy and power relations, where the self does not get

undermined under the title of pilgrim, because of the cultural and religious

connotations associated with the term, in India and in West as well. However,

Malabari's position as a colonial subject is significant in introducing a shift in

appropriating the power position through exercising a powerful gaze at his

'other', as evinced in representing the image of London as an incongruous

composition, 'pulsating with the highest aspirations and the lowest passions of

humanity'. This stance of Malabari as a colonial subject is aptly evaluated in the

following words by Susheila Nasta, quoted in Other Routes: 1500 Years of African

and Asian Travel Writing edited by Tabish Khair. He quotes:

By writing the metropolis through Indian eyes, he [Malabari]

was both able to confront his initial Anglophilia as a Bombay
Parsi, being seduced like many others who followed him by the
imagined attractions of the English 'mother-land' whilst at the
same time deconstructing its image, as a journey to an illusion.
Malabari carefully maps the social geography of London for his
Indian readers, but he also seriously criticized the contradictory
realities of the heart of darkness within the Britain that he
encounters, according to Nasta. (Khair, 2005:368)

As far as Malabari's reform agenda was concerned he was an ardent

supporter of the colonial rule as he saw it as a source of reform and progress and

intends to bring the same in his own land. Malabari's move in the direction of
 150

reform is also suggestive of the effect of the colonial modernity, which also

entailed the issues of examining the tradition in relation to its past and present.

In doing so he is restoring a sense of the past and offers the binaries of the past

and the present in order to understand a twofold objective; firstly the process of

decay in social and religious practices, and secondly, to appreciate and thereby

appropriate the past in forming the constituents of the 'self. His act of travel

does create a traversing site to know the 'self and the 'other' informing the

colonial discourse, as Grewal comments:

Malabari, a fervent supporter of colonial rule, saw modernity

not only in terms of progress and reform of tradition, but also '\
as a past and a present that was being lost, literally and 1
metaphorically, through lack of appreciation (i.e., through a j
nonappreciation of history) as well as through colonization. !
Travel, as a mode of understanding and as a discourse of
power that constructs authenticity through separation and
alienation from what is tradition, was a means to regain that
land, and it created subjects such as Malabari with complex
modes of cormection to European constructs as well as an
emerging notion of Self and community. (Grewal, 1996:144)

Malabari's detailed observations about the social, religious, political and

economic aspects also entail a complex relation of a colonial subject with that of

the colonial episteme. Malabari's travel account claims to know the English life

and constitutes knowledge about it, which corresponds to the claims made by

the British to know the Indian life and constituting knowledge about it. The

British policy of knowing the colonial subject informs the discourse of

colonialism and the travel accounts by the people like Malabari uses the same
 151

apparatus to know the other, i.e. his colonizer, but with a difference informing

the counter discourse to the colonialism. But the counter discourse to the

colonialism often was formed under the garb of ambivalence. In case of Malabari

this ambivalence gets translated in 'a love-hate affair with the British' as pointed

out by Tabish Khair in Other Routes: 1500 Years of African and Asian Travel Writing.

In the beginning of his travel account Malabari expresses his exuberance about

his travel to abroad. He captures the moment of departure for London in the

following lines:

...the Imperator weighs anchor, and for the first time now I feel
sure that I have left for the Land of Freedom, the land of my
youthful dreams, which holds so much that is precious to me
personally, and so much more that is of greater value to the
land of my birth. (Malabari, 1895:08)

The first thing that he marks about the English life is their way of

organization. He writes:

The principle of division of labour is so well maintained, that

there is not the slightest friction observable amongst officers or
men... there is not grumbling as to overwork, ... Every hand
seems to know his work; its why, when, and who. Every hand
goes through the work cheerfully, humming or whistling a
tune, or smiling... How much we Indians differ from
Europeans in the matter of organization! We hardly
understand the word. (Malabari, 1895:08)

Not only this, but he goes to the extent of saying that "I doubt if we have it

in our vernaculars". (Malabari, 1895:08) Good Organization is, he says, what

 152

'includes order, discipline, presence of mind', and further he evaluates it in terms

of "the best form of individual and collective responsibility." (Malabari, 1895:09)

Thus, he admires this aspect of the English life, and argues that in no other way

we, Indians, are so inferior to the English but organizing skills. But he brings

home the idea of organization as a part of Indian culture and traces its origin in

the system of caste in India. He argues:

...the root-idea of our system of caste is so akin to modem

organization! Caste in India was once the most perfect type of
organization. (Malabari, 1895:09)

This suggests the interesting turn in the line of his argument, which directs

towards India's past, when the caste was a part of organic system of societal

structure, unlike today as representative of barrier and discriminations. In the

same context he continues:

Others seem to have borrowed from us both the idea and the
institution. How fallen we are from our original selves!
(Malabari, 1895:09)

Malabari's move towards revisiting the site of the past is suggestive of his

historical consciousness, which claims to the method of organization and a sense

of having past. It also positions the sense of the past intersecting with the idea of

emancipation from the present deteriorated condition of India. He, in taking

recourse to the past is suggesting the gap of intervening period during which the

Indian society underwent outrageous changes in terms of imderstanding the

division of caste system. He does not directly trace the trajectory of the idea of

caste system as to how it traveled through time, but he certainly points out the
 153

gape which needs to be scrutinized in order to understand the present

predicament of socio-cultural and political state in the 19* century Indian society.

He despises the attitude of caste which opposes the idea of a foreign travel in his

times, in tongue-in-cheek manner, he avers:

Caste loves contentment - to let things alone. Foreign travel

brings discontent, under the happiest of circumstance. The
priestly law-givers of India were shrewd enough to see the risk;
in their day perhaps the evil out-weighed the good. We are
now living under totally different conditions. If the educated
Hindu is sufficiently educated to conciliate the reasonable
prejudices of his elders, he has little to nothing to lose from
crossing the Kala pani (Black Waters), and certainly a great
deal to gain. (Malabari, 1895:10/11)

Thus, Malabari's observations about the 'organizing skills' make him regard the

English practice and despise its Indian counterpart, but his objective is not only

to critique rather he intends to imbue the mind of the natives with the sense of a

better understanding of the past, which might make them revive their historical

consciousness and thereby bring reform in the socio-cultural norms of the then

society. Thus, his move in the direction of reviving the past is indicative of

revisiting the site of colonial episteme and thereby constructing the counter

discourse informing the colonialism.

Malabari's observations about the position of the women in the English

society are noteworthy as they entail the important implications of women's

education in England and in India, positioning their presence as constituting the

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other half of societal structure. Malabari strikes a very stark contrast in this

regard:

Woman is a presence and a power in Europe. In Asia woman is

a vague entity, a nebulous birth absorbed in the shadow of
artificial sexuality. (Malabari, 1895:22)

Malabari despises the very social construct of Asian society which marginalizes

women in the name of fake norms which are artificial constructs of the society.

He further argues that "Reform in such matters comes very slowly; but come it

must". (Malabari, 1895:154) Women in England, he observes, are in no way

inferior to their male counterpart, but that is not the case with the women in

India. He states:

What strikes you most about Englishwomen is their look of

health, strength, elasticity, all proclaiming a freedom of mind,
to begin with. How they walk, and talk, and carry themselves
generally! How they rush in and out, saying good-bye with the
right hand turned towards themselves, meaning what our
women in India always say "vehela avjo," come back soon!
(Malabari, 1895:31)

Malabari does portray both the aspects of women's position in England,

brighter and darker but his conclusions, overall stress on the brighter side of it.

He writes:

Of course, there is a bright side to the picture, probably the

brightest that painter ever painted for humanity. The number

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of happy marriages must doubtless be much larger in this

country than in India. (Malabari, 1895:77)

The reason behind this 'happy marriages', according to him, is the equal

status gained by women in English society. That is why, when Malabari noticed

the women amongst crowds he was shocked by their code of conduct in public

spaces:

The crowds of women in the streets, walking rapidly past,

pushing and elbowing everyone who stands in the way, all
intent on business or pleasure, are a sight not likely to be soon
forgotten. (Malabari, 1895:28)

Then he admits:

For me it is a sight more striking than attractive. After all a

woman's place is at home rather than in the street. (Malabari,
1895:28)

This stance of Malabari does speak of his Indian Masculinity informed by

English Education. On the one hand, Malabari's emphasis on the education of

women at home explicates his position of being an educated elite benefited by

English education system, and on the other, he is stunned at the site of the free,

liberated, educated and empowered women in foreign country, who position

themselves in public space at par with their male counterpart. He is astounded at

the sight of independent women articulating their own spaces, is something that

he confronts as a male which is informed by his Indian Masculinity. However,

though perturbed implicitly by his Indian Masculinity, he counts the fact that

proper education is must for women at home as it defines a participatory role in

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the overall reform agenda of Indian society. The above lines do suggest that the

freedom is earned by the English women in England, of which Indian women

can't even think of because of the lack of proper education. But, Malabari also

portrays the other side of the picture and notes that, in England women do have

benefit of proper education but it is still in the state of transition, which is evident

in the fact that it still continues to treat the unheard voices like Maggie in an

uncivilized and brutal manner. As Malabari observes, "In nine cases out of ten,

however, she is a victim." (Malabari, 1895:160) This also informs the phony self-

representation of the English in India as they advocate the cause of women in

India but do not respond to the same issues at home, i.e. England. It is in this

regard that Malabari interrogates the colonial episteme and exclaims, "What an

ironical race the English are!" (Malabari, 1895:224)

On that note, Malabari critiques the English for their imposition on the

foreign traveler to converse with them in English:

Is it not curious that the average Englishman, who scorns to

pick up foreign languages while travelling, insists upon
foreigners speaking to him in English? You observe this
everywhere on the Continent, as also in India... In no other
respect, perhaps, does the imperial instinct of the Anglo-Saxon
seem to be more imperiously asserted. (Malabari, 1895:13)

This remark is also suggestive of the complexity of position gained by persons

like Malabari as a product of colonial modernity, who as a colonial subject can

evince the powerful gaze at the 'imperial instinct'. Malabari's ability to converse

with the masters in English enables him to critique them in compelling a foreign

traveler to use English as a means of communication, at the cost of inconvenience

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on the part of communicator/ a traveler from foreign land. In this instance,

Malabari's explicit critique is suggestive of his awareness of his position as a

colonial subject, as distinct from other native subjects, as his position is informed

by English education system that enables him to converse with the masters in

their own language, as it matters to the English to know something about them

in English, which cannot be done by a native who cannot speak English. Thus,

the critique in other than English language is futile on two grounds: firstly, as in

vernacular, the message does not get across as the most of the English people do

not understand it; and secondly, it is not important for them to know what has

been said about them in vernacular, which further implicitly pinpoints the

position of the vernacular that is not at par with English as a language. The

implications of this position, informing the colonial discourse, are aptly reviewed

by Grewal in the following words:

Malabari's complex positionality becomes apparent especially

in his understanding and utilization of travel. While travel
conveys to Malabari the "real India" in terms of its distinction
from what is English, the reforming imperative then utilizes
modernist ideas to construct difference within European
notions of history. The distinctions between Self and Other,
"home" and "abroad," modem and traditional all constitute
forms of distancing within colonial modernity that come from
the Western epistemological tradition, and specifically in
Malabari of history as an unbiased and objective construct. This
utilization of difference works also in anticolonial nationalism
as it utilizes modernity. (Grewal, 1996:145)
 158

Malabari, then notes, that the Englishmen cannot speak Bengali half so

well as the Bengalis speak English. Rather the Englishmen play havoc with the

Indian vernaculars whenever they happen to use it. Further, in tongue-in-cheek

manner, he talks about the weather of England connecting it with the disposition

of the Englishmen. He notes:

The climate of a country reflects itself pretty clearly in the

temper, habits and general surroundings of the people... The
people seem to be as changeable and restless as the weather.
They are always on the move. Watch them where you like, at
home or aboard, they seem to be full of the question - what
next? No amount of walking, riding, sight-seeing satiates them
- they will have something more, something, if possible, in
another line. (Malabari, 1895:40)

As mentioned in the above lines, on the one hand Malabari underlines the

discomfort disposed by the English people in their nature as not being satisfied

by the things they do and on the other he supports the case with the counter

argument. In the given context he clarifies for the English for being so by saying

that "It is mainly the climate, and the peculiar mode of life the people have to

live in obedience to climatic influences, that make them so keen about

everything". (Malabari, 1895:40) This ambivalent position is also suggestive of

the supposition of the two different audiences that he might have assumed

before writing his travel account, though it apparently creates the impression of

being written only for the English audience as addressed by him in his preface to

his travel account.

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Another instance, where Malabari very tactfully deals with disposition of

the English people, with regard to their being not very good as friends is when

he writes:

An Englishman's friendship appears to be as fickle as his

weather. It is warm and gushing for the moment, but lacks
constancy. (Malabari, 1895:127)

In London "they don't have time to dive after a drowning friend", rather

one gets angry if one happens "to sink ...in the muddy waters of life". (Malabari,

1895:127) In contrast to the Englishmen's disposition Malabari displays the

Asiatics in the following manner:

But genuine friendship, such as we warm-blooded Asiatics

cherish, laying down our lives and fortunes for one another, is
seldom to be met with among a people so differently situated
in climate, habits of life and associations. Life is too hurried to
enable them to cultivate true friendship... he lives in a state of
perpetual tension - one pursuit chasing away another; this
interest making room for that, day after day, hour after hour.
(Malabari, 1895:127-28)

But the whole business of the friendship is summed up in one line when

he says, "if the ordinary Englishman gives you no friendship of the right sort, he

expects none from you." (Malabari, 1895:132) But, Malabari was disappointed by

some of his English friend abroad who did not pay much attention to the matter

with which he had approached them with great hope. But as regards, the English

people in this matter, he proposes a relief in the fact that if the Englishmen do not

spare any time to listen to his matter, then it is the problem of the pace of life.
 160

which spares no time for them for such activities, and that they would have done

same to their own brothers for the lack of time. So Malabari is satisfied with the

explanation that at least they do not discriminate between one being English and

India in this regard, at least. Malabari's critical examination with regard to the

issues related to organization, women's position in the society, the problem of

language and friendship with the English not only represent the English life but

the comparative mode (as they are constantly compared with their Indian

counterpart) claims the fact that they are knowable by the colonial subject, from a

position created by educated elite like Malabari. In this connection Grewal notes

that the travel accounts by the men like Malabari:

...reveals a rather different focus and subject position that

argues that European epistemology's effect was the focus not
on the family or familial relation but rather on the description
of a culture and society as one that was mappable and
knowable through authorial mobility, distance, and
comparative skills. (Grewal, 1996:143)

The other time when Malabari was invited by his friends in England to

come to the House of Commons and attend the discussion of the Indian Budget,

he is extremely surprised by the code of conduct displayed by the Englishmen in

the House of Commons. He is reminded of Indian national institutions like

Diwan-i-Khas and Diwan-i-Am, and he writes:

How like our Diwan-i-Khas and Diwan-i-Am of old are these

House of Parliament! And yet how much more unlike, both in

themselves as national institutions, and in their modes of

transacting business! After seeing what little I have seen of

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British parliamentary life I have no reason to be ashamed of the

manner or the spirit of similar work done in India - for
instance, in the days of Akbar. (Malabari, 1895:219)

Further, he makes an important remark on the Englishmen's policy of not

including the natives in the administrative matters related to their rule in India.

He points out:

Akbar welcomed even Zoroastrians and Christians to help to

build up the unity of his Empire and add to the happiness of
his subject. When will enlightened Christians England admit
Indians to the Councils of the Empire, or to the Command of
Army? (Malabari, 1895: 219/220)

Malabari is very sad to see the way the questions related to the British rule

in India were viciously brushed away by Mr. Fowler, the finance minister of the

time. Malabari was sad to see the future of India in the hands of atrocious

persons like Mr. Fowler. He repents, "The Indian debate has been a sore

disappointment to me, intensified by the look of blank despair in Mr. Dadabhai's

face." (Malabari, 1895:222) At this moment he also urges to his fellow brethrens

in India to take it as a wakeup call and rise for her own rights. As Malabari puts

it:

Never in my life have I realized India in this position of utter

helplessness. My poor country, such is thy fate; and such it will
remain till thou knowest how to help thyself." (Malabari,
1895:221)
 162

These are moments of disillusionment for Malabari and he wonders that

how poor the English politics seems to be where "Nothing Succeeds Like

Success." (Malabari, 1895:224) Malabari's appeal to his own countrymen to know

'how to help thyself is embedded with the idea of exploring and knowing one's

own self by undertaking an inward journey and initiating a dialogue between the

past and the present self in the process of introspection to identify the

problematic entailed in the formation of the present self. In this context

Malabari's travel is symbolic of twin journey: he, within the comparative

framework constitutes the other, which functions as a point of reference to

comprehend the self, which is suggestive of outward journey; and then he

replaces the English other with the native's other in relation to his own past, this

shift is indicative of inward journey mapping the contours of one's own self, not

with reference to its external other but the internal counterpart concealed imder

the veil of past, He also goes to the extent of saying that "the honour of the

Empire or the wellbeing of the people was a mere incident of its eternal party

strife, rather than its one pre-arranged object, as students of constitutional history

are tempted to believe." (Malabari, 1895:224) Another instance of the same sort is

recorded in the travel account where a politician happens to ask Malabari, "How

long are we to endure our royalty?" To which Malabari responds:

"For ever," I reply in easy good faith. My fair querist looks

daggers. As we are not likely to meet again, I may well explain
myself to you. The world is groaning under the burden of so
many unrealities, that any more added to it is sin against one's
soul. (Malabari, 1895:146)

He further continues to answer the person in the fit of anger:

 163

Why are you in such a hurry for the advent of a republic? Has
it done much for Europe? Even in the new world, with so many
favourable conditions, how much real good has it been able to
do for the people, with all its eagerness for the greatest
happiness of the greatest number? Is not monopoly of various
kinds still the bane of republican America? Let us put up with
half-pleasant facts rather than court the pleasantest of fictions.
(Malabari, 1895:146)

Malabari, assuming the position of a colonial subject different from his

other natives, despises the English for their belief system. He asserts that, "If this

be your English culture of the 19* century, let us remain ignorant in India."

(Malabari, 1895:75) He hits a blow at the self-indulgent form of worship and

writes:

I had much rather that India remained superstitious enough to

worship her stone-god. That means something of self-sacrifice;
it lifts the worshipper out of himself. The worship of self is the
worst form of idolatry. (Malabari, 1895:75)

Malabari is thus, very critical of the fake attitude of the English towards

the forms of worship. Malabari critiques the English religious practices, which

according to Malabari lacks the very element of faith in religion:

Knowledge is sweet-bitter at its best; faith is sweet always.

Doubt may do good as a tonic in small doses. Knowledge may

serve as a stimulant, when it does not satiate and pall upon the

taste, as it too often does. Faith is the only elixir of life, that

satisfies without disappointing. (Malabari, 1895:105/106)

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This appeal of Malabari, as a pilgrim notes his implicit regard to the

element of faith in the process of constructing knowledge. He by exposing the

evils of the English religious practices implicitly persuades his own countrymen

to reconcile with the evils entailed within their own socio-religious systems.

He calls the false illustration of self-representation of the British in India a

material progress that the English have achieved and therefore he critiques its

hollowness. More than being angry he pities such a predicament of the

Englishmen and writes:

And what are the royalties of Europe that we should envy

them? They have to wear a sort of gilded livery; to live on the
sufferance of others. During the day they go through a dizzy
round of duties; through restlessness, long vigils, and perhaps
constant dread, at night. They have few hours that they may
call their own; many hours they are at the mercy of the footman
and the fop. Have they not to eat and drink and sleep almost
under prescription? I doubt if they can smile officially, without
written orders; though they may weep to their hearts' content
without the slightest mention of their misery in The Court
Circular. Poor souls, I am sure I pity them with all my heart.
And should they ever be in need of copper, they are welcome
to their large quantity of brass placed before them in
anticipation. (Malabari, 1895:148)

Here, Malabari very explicitly scrutinizes the English life through Indian

eye and criticizes the materialistic nature of the English life. He not only critiques

but also puts forward a logical argument before the native that as there is so

much to learn from the British there is equally so much to unlearn from them.
 165

Malabari assigns a very important role to the press and media in bringing

the public awareness in India and abroad as well. As regards England he

eulogizes the power of press:

What a power the Newspaper Press of England is! Perhaps the

greatest power of our times - greater than church, greater than
state, if it will only know how to use itself. As it is, the Press
declares wars, and concludes peace. It makes and mars
ministers. It exercises an almost super-regal power over
royalty. But is powerful for evil as much as for good. For good
or evil, however, it is a power to be reckoned with. (Malabari,
1895:207)

Malabari has aptly evaluated the power of press in the 19* century not

only in England but also in India; as it is rapidly developing as a medium of

connecting people, unlike the traditional modes of being connected either on

religious or social grounds. This further forges the sense of collective self in the

mind of people, which then expands the territories of individuals from narrow

boundaries of social constructs to the national fronts. It also directs the

individuals' moves in the formation of a relation between a nation and identity.

In the following comparative analysis of the press in England and in India as

regards the role that they play in their respective countries:

I think the British Press helps more in stimulating than in

educating public opinion. And some of its very faults, in

politics and religion, seem to add to its power of stimulating

the opinion of the country. Long live the Press of England!

(Malabari, 1895:207)
 166

The same shall I say of the Press in India, Anglo-Indian and

Native. Long may it live! - fighting and blundering, and
sometimes plundering; but often showing its teeth to tyranny.
With all its shortcomings, what a stride the vernacular press
has taken during my brief experience of fifteen years!
(Malabari, 1895:207/208)

Malabari observes the agency of press playing the role of 'stimulating'

rather than 'educating public opinion', which indicates the affect of the press on

the receiving end, i.e. public, and the way it directs the collective move

responding to the formations of national identity in the larger framework.

Malabari notes that the role of the press in India is also fulfilling, more or less,

the same kind of objective in India society; it has created a common platform to

address and to respond to the matter in public spaces. First and foremost, it

forged the sense of something being public, in which anybody as public can

participate and respond to it, in doing so it created a position for public

transactions, where the large number of people can participate at the same time

in forming their views and reviews affecting the larger framework of social

constructs. Thus, Malabari comprehends the role of the press in the larger

agenda of reform movement. He comments on the Native Press in India:

They enjoy a most enviable position. They must use it well if

they wish to benefit their country. It is as much to the British
love of freedom as to their own merits that they owe this
position. They must remember that the press in India enjoys
greater liberty than the press on the Continent of Europe
generally. (Malabari, 1895:209/210)
 167

However, Malabari does point out the drawbacks of press in England but

on the whole, he underlines the significant role that the press has to play in the

formation of collective self informing the move towards the nation formation.

The press in India, according to Malabari facilitates natives to be in terms with

their own selves as it holds mirror to the natives for comprehending the state of

present predicament of their being a colonial subject and the possible reasons

behind it and the repercussions it might have in the larger context of national

fronts. He acknowledges the contribution of the British government in

encouraging the proliferation of press in India. While he evaluates the presence

of the British in India as a source of knowledge and freedom, as a pilgrim, he

pays a tribute to London as a final destination for salvation of Indian

predicament, in the following words:

With all its unattractiveness, London is still a Mecca for the

traveler in search of truth, a Medina of rest for the persecuted
or the perplexed in spirit. Though centre of perpetual motion, it
is still the Persepolis of human grandeur in repose. To the
searcher after enlightenment is a Buddha-Gaya; a Benares for
the sinner in search of emancipation. Damp, dirty, noisy
London, thou art verily a Jerusalem for the weary soldier of
faith. (Malabari, 1895:2)

Though Malabari assumes the position of a pilgrim in appraising the

British, he at the same time, as a colonial subject assesses, as suggested by

Grewal:

For Malabari, this destination is one of a pilgrimage that is to

resolve the condition of colonial modernity that leads to being

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perplexed or ambivalent. England becomes the place where the

potential and failure of "humanity" is visible; what is clear is
that these are notions adjudicated with the help of colonial
epistemology. Thus Malabari writes that London is "pulsating
with the highest aspirations and the lowest passions of
humanity. With all its unattractiveness, London is still a Mecca
for the traveller in search of truth, a Medina of rest for the
persecuted or perplexed in spirit... to the searcher after
enlightenment it is a Budh-gaya; a Benaras for the sinner in
search of emancipation. (Grewal, 1996:153-154)

Thus, Malabari while mapping the positionality of the English as the

'other', striving within the borders of two extremes, initiates the discourse of

powerful gaze constituting the knowledge about the other from the perspective

of a colonial subject. His attempt can be seen in terms of deconstructing the

knowledge of the other and at the same time reconstructing the knowledge of the

self informing the colonial discourse in the context of the 19"" century.

In these lines, Malabari seems to encapsulate the British presence in India.

As a colonial subject he is creating a new position by exploring the multitudes of

positioning imperial T through Indian 'eye'; informing the course of knowing

the 'self through the discourse of the 'other'. Malabari's The Indian Eye on English

Life or Rambles of a pilgrim Reformer translates the act of travel into a traversing site

which forms the trajectories of knowing the 'self and knowing the 'other'

through undertaking an inward and outward journey. In the process of knowing

the 'other' Malabari's travel account creates a position for a colonial subject for

subverting a powerful gaze at the colonizer, and illustrates the disillusioned state

of the other, which informs the self-representations of the British in India to the
 169

English themselves and to the natives. Through this travel accovmt Malabari is

preparing his natives to imbibe the constituents of the 'self and then embark on

a journey to know the 'other'. This prepares a ground for a comparative

framework in the formation of knowledge construction. In doing so, Malabari

addresses to his countrymen:

You are prepared to receive it, and thus received, your

knowledge will fructify. But when knowledge is thrust upon
you without previous discipline, that is, without your being
made fit for it, it will lie inert and unleavened. What is the use
of visiting foreign countries when you know nothing of your
own? When you go to Europe, ignorant of your won national
life, you will miss those thousand points of comparison and
contrast, those thousand shades of difference, those thousand
beauties and blemishes that modem European civilization
presents. At best you will look at things, not see or see through
them. Knowledge is best acquired, take my word for it, by the
comparative method. (Malabari, 1889:23/24)

Thus, Malabari argues that the subversion of the powerful gaze is possible

only if, one has acquired knowledge about one's own system which enables one

a position of being a 'self constituting the 'other' through a comparative

framework.
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WorksCited:

Malabari, Behramji, M. Gujarat and Gujaratis. Bombay: Fort Printing Press, 1889.

Malabari, Behramji, M. The Indian Eye on English Life or Rambles of a pilgrim

Reformer. Bombay: Apollo Printing Works, 1895.

Grewal, Inderpal. Home and Heram: Nation, Gender, Empire and the Cidtures of
Travel. Duke University Press: U S, 1996.

Suhrud, Tridip. 'Indian Eyes on English Life' in Bhattacharji, Shobhana. ed.

Travel Writing in India. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 2008.

Khair, Tabish. & Martin Leer. etl. Other Routes: 1500 years of African and Asian
Travel Writing. Indiana University Press: Indiana, 2005.

Viswanathan, Gauri. Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British Rule in India.
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989.
 171

CHAPTER-VI

CONCLUSION: TRAVEL WRITING AS A MODE OF

CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE

The journey in space symbolizes the passing of time, physical

movement symbolizes interior change; everything is a journey,
but as a result this "everything" has no specific identity. The
journey transcends all categories, up to and including that of
change in oneself, and in the other, since as far back as the most
remote antiquity, journeys of discovery (explorations of the
unknown) and journeys home (the reappropriation of the
familiar) have been found side by side. (Todorov, 1995: 60)

As Todorov explicates the journey as change, the act of travel defines its

space in terms of exteriority and inferiority, knowing the 'unlcnown' and the

'known' through the apparatus of change. The change is a journey or a

movement from the known to the unknown, which in turn traces the process of

change. The change in relation to the unknown explores the 'other' and in

relation to the known appropriates and reappropriates the familiar, 'self. The

third possibility which entails within the complex dialogic of change is that it,

through the institution of comparative methodology facilitates the intersection

between known and unknown; self and other. In other words, it allows the

reciprocation between the known and the unknown, where both of them

illuminate each other. The process entails a dialogue between the 'self and the

'other', which is informed by the intersection between the temporality of

sequential dialogue of exteriority, the unknown and the other with that of the

spatial exchange with the inferiority, the known and the self respectively. The
 172

intersection between temporality and spatial is premised on a comparative

method and it entails the process of constitution of knowledge.

The British occupation of India gave them an access to a new world which
they attempted to comprehend through their own framework of knowledge. For
the 19th century educated Englishmen and women, this new world was
knowable through the senses, which made them record the experiences of the
world within and outside. From 16* century onwards, the world turned into a
hunting ground for knowledge which employed various ways to acquire it.
While some took their exploration by the roads, others by the sea, while some
remained in their humble abodes reading books and hearing fantastic stories. In
the recorded history many took to traveling for the acquisition of knowledge
carried out through the plethora of accounts, narratives, and stories that now
make up the travel canon. After reading the travel narratives, it is evident that
the acquisition of knowledge is both a leading theme and a leading motive for
the exploration of foreign cultures and an unknown territory. Throughout the
years, men have determined that knowledge is power, seeking to acquire it in
every corner of the earth. There is no doubt that traveling is, in essence and
inevitably, a learning experience. No matter the motivations or intentions,
knowledge is an undeniable part of travel as evident in the majority of the travel
narratives.

From 16* century onwards, Europeans have been associated with

knowledge-making- apparatus through exploring the planet in all navigational
terms. This knowledge is constructed, disseminated and brought into public
sphere through many forms of writing, publishing, speaking, and reading. The
idea of profit was the sole aim in the beginning of this knowledge making
project.
 173

In the context of the 19* century, travel narratives emerged as a mode of

constructing knowledge, about the self and the other. European travelers to the
East used the travel as an apparatus of constructing the knowledge of the 'other',
where the colonized self of the subject was conceptualized as the 'other'
informed by the differences, from what 'self is not, i.e. the negation of the self.
The construction of the 'other' is intricate with the edifice of the self to the extent
that it aids and reinforces,the construction of self, as Frantz Fanon puts it, "the
European has only been able to become a man through creating monsters and
slaves." (Fanon, 1967:22)

Fanny Parkes' account evinces a plethora of information about India in

religious, social and political contexts in the backdrop of 19* century under
colonial rule. Parkes' awareness of her subject position as a colonizer, observing
her object, the natives as colonial subject, is evident in her mode of adjectivising
her observations of the object as the 'other' in terms of picturesque. The
colonized 'other' is perceived in terms of the picturesque, the one that appeals to
senses in terms of experience. The Picturesque further conceptualizes the mode
of perceiving the other with an inherent distance between the viewer and the
object. The distance also processes the object in terms of other and the 'othering'
of the object, is thus marked by differences.

Fanny Parkes' object is othered in a twofold manner; firstly in marking the

difference between colonizer and the colonized, representing herself and the
natives, respectively, and secondly, within the colonial subject epitomizing her
other in Orient woman as different from their English counterpart. When Parkes
encounters her other as a native subject under colonial rule, her mode of
perceiving the 'other' in terms of picturesque is marked by her position of being
colonizer. She codifies her position of being a viewer from a distance, who is
 174

enchanted by the strange and bizarre ways of being of the natives, accustomed to

their religious and social behaviour. She participates in various social and

religious customary practices as a passive viewer, who is conscious of his

position of being a stranger and an outsider. For instance, while attending one of

the religious rituals, she says, "1 was much disgusted, but greatly interested".

(Parkes, 2001: 37) Farkes' position within colonial framework is intricate with

imperial project, as she is constructing a reality about the other as perceived by

her subject position. In doing so she is an imperial knowledge about the 'other'

that makes the 'other' as a knowable object in a particular maimer informing the

larger discourse of colonialism. Parkes' gaze of being an orientalist, at such

instances in her travel account, makes her object knowable. Further the gaze

enables the view in fragments, where objects are seen in their spatial order, and

which is what makes it picturesque. She is enthralled by imagining India as

confluence of differences; the people in different groups, of different religions, of

different social norms, different colours of clothes, of different forms of prayer,

different climate, lights and shadows inhabiting under one roof. Thus, Parkes

attaches the aesthetic value to her picturesque. But it is also marked by her

imperial subject position which is evident in her collection, as K. K. Dyson notes

in A Various Universe:

In 1939, her collection of Hindu images was far superior, she

claims, to that of the British Museum. She was well-read in
publications on India and the bibliography she provides at the
end of the book is impressive. (Dyson, 2002: 290)

Parkes' claim to have known India through certain ways of amassing

information and her detailed bibliography is suggestive of twofold intent: firstly,

in Foucauldian sense its claim to knowledge that enables or authorizes the power
 175

position of the knower; and secondly, it legitimizes the knowledge through the
logistics of citations. In this context Parkes performs the role of colonial agency
by making her object knowable in the larger framework of colonial discourse.

As regards, knowing the 'other' in orient woman as her counterpart in the

19* century, Parkes' position of an imperial subject is formed by a gender
perspective, which intersects with the technique of picturesque employed by
women travelers in the 19* century as an apparatus of knowing the self through
the process of appropriation or reappropriation. As in case of picturesque, where
the objects are decontextualized and gazed in spatial order, though as a part of it
but detached from the whole of temporal structure, so was the situation of
English women in the larger framework of colonial project. As Indira Ghose
argues that while English women were busy in collecting picturesque scenes
from cultural landscape of India, men managed the "business of politics", and
thus British women were "located outside the historical and material condition
of the imperial project". Ghose, 2000:09) As, women were excluded from colonial
project they had very limited role to play in the areas like administration and
oriental scholarship about the orient. So, in the given colonial set up they had
very limited tools to use to articulate their encounter with the colonized country
and so they employed picturesque as a technique to frame their perception of the
other. Thus, women travelers, like Fanny Parkes, epitomize the British women's
position in empire and this is what links them with their Indian counterpart,
orient women. They associate with them when constructing the self in gender
specific way and disassociate with them when positioned as native subject in the
larger framework of imperial project. But, the sense of association is strongly
articulated when Parkes observes that women's condition in comparison to their
men counterpart, whether in India or at home, is marginalized and degraded by
 176

force. She avers that women are marginalized as weaker section of society which

is what legitimizes the force per say of patriarchy, she writes, "It is very horrible

to see how the weaker are imposed upon; and it is same all over the world,

civilized or uncivilized". (Parkes, 2001:382) This remark by Parkes also informs

to the false self-representation of the British in India. And it intends to critique

the civilized more than the uncivilized world, and in doing so she is

interrogating the very idea of being civilized, contesting the colonial policies at

the root of imperial project. In this context Todorov's concept of inward journey

is applicable to Parkes' case where she is constructing the knowledge of the

'other' which in turn is employed by her as a mode of confronting the knowledge

of the 'self as constructed at home. It is in this context that her 'other' in orient

woman intersects with the idea of familiar and known with which she tends to

appropriate and reappropriate the sediments of colonial reality from a gender

perspective. As travel creates a textual space for Parkes to address the issues

related to gender and 'self she calls herself as a pilgrim, who could undertake an

inward journey in search of 'self under the guise of the discourse of the 'other'.

Parkes' travel could be summarized in her own words when she asserts her

journey as a pilgrimage:

'Whatever the wandering traveler says, he does so from having

seen that of which he speaks'. So many admirable works have
appeared of late, illustrating scenes in India, both with pen and
pencil, that I offer these sketches in all humility, pleading the
force of example. [...] For four and twenty years have I roamed
the world, ~ 'I neither went to Mekka nor Mudina, But was a
pilgrimage nevertheless'. The Frontispiece represents the idol
 177

Ganesh, the deified infant whom I have invoked. (Parkes, 2001:

27)

Nandkunwarba's Gomandal Parikram is the first travel account in Gujarati

by a woman traveler which appeared in 1902. Nandkunwarba, a Queen of
erstwhile small princely state in Gujarat, India, visited Europe and other
countries for more than four times in the later-half of 19* century. She was the
first Gujarati woman travel writer who traveled very extensively across
continents in the 19* century. Her account evinces that she was very well
exposed to the world outside in terms of cultures, languages, societies,
geography, history, etc. Her knowledge of English language and literature was
very sound as it gets reflected in the kind of references she has provided in the
text. She fondly remembers her visit to Oxford and Cambridge universities, and
her meeting with Max MuUer, Sir Monier Williams and Sir William Himter.
However, she is highly ambivalent throughout her travelogue; appreciative as
well as critical of the land she visited, which is found in many of the 19* century
Guajarati travelers. This stance of Nandkunwarba is suggestive of her awareness
of being a colonial subject, who resorts to ambivalence as alternative to articulate
the space from margins. She, like n\ost of the Guajarati the 19* century reformers
and/or travelers, was aware of processes of marginalization by the colonial
policies, which were impinged upon the colonial subjects. She under the garb of
ambivalence seems to offer the terms of negotiation to the colonizers. She writes:

I strongly believe that the rule of English system of polity in

Hindustan will be considered successful only if the People of
Hindustan get all the rights that people of England are enititled;
the way in which laws are formed there by the consent of
people, here also laws shall be formed by the consent of people;
 178

the way justice prevails in England here too it should prevail in

the same way, the discrimination based on the color of skin to
be eliminated; the sentiments of the people of Hindustan
should be given similar amount of respect as the people of
England are given on their land; people will have to be made to
forget that Hindustan is won with the power of sword and it
should be conveyed that the welfare of Hindustan and England
is one, as people of both nations are subject of one king, and as
a result of this there will not be any disparity of one being
favorite and the other not; and the people of two countries will
develop brotherhood among each other. (Nandkunwarba, 2009:
97)

She, like Malabari, argues that the natives should be considered by the

English as their equals and that India cannot be ruled by sword rather both of

them seem to offer the alternative of negotiation and ask the British to change

their policies and think of the 'welfare' of both the nations. Though both,

Nandkunwarba and Malabari belong to the elite class in India but their subject

position differs in a way that they share a subject position with their own natives.

Nandkunwarba belonged to the privileged position of being a queen of a

Princely state in Gujarat, India, though she remained the queen during the

British rule but she had lost the power position of governing her own people.

This implies the intricate position of her being a colonial subject where she aligns

with her native subjects under British rule and thus identifies her 'other' in the

British, implicitly suggesting the making of the nation in self-consciousness.

However, she is not apparently critical about the presence of British in India.

This further complicates her subject position as a colonial subject and it also
 179

informs to the dialogic of ambivalence, where a dialogue is exchanged between

two cultures and the nations in terms of negotiation. One of the ways of

negotiation is also offered by adapting to the 'other' by appropriating with the

culture of the 'other'. She, again like Malabari, proposes to adapt the quality of

industriousness of the English, but as regards, education of women in India, she

holds the view that the education in Hindustan for women is introduced at a

very early stage, while comparing with the education of English woman she

says:

It is not that foundation of education for women was laid in

England much before it was laid in Hindustan. On the
contrary, Hindustan has had women of extraordinary
knowledge much before anybody in England knew what
knowledge is. And some of them had excelled due to their
superiority in learning in such a way that the ancient
compositions have acknowledged them as acharya (women of
learning/preceptor) and even after ages they are still
remembered almost every day. The tradition of their learning is
extended till modern times. (Nandkunwar"ba, 2009: 68)

Thus, she while using the tool of comparative method, creates a textual space for

counter argument for proposing the case of India before the British rule. This is

also evinced when she takes a stand of being selective while reviewing the

position of Occident women in comparison to her Indian counterpart. She though

appreciates the Occident women with regard to their being bold, healthy and

independent, but at the same time she carefully chooses the qualities, which she

would want native women to adopt from them at home. She despises certain

qualities of Occident women and unlike Fanny Parkes, evaluates the woman's
 180

role in societal structure as being subordinate to their male counterpart. She very

strongly advocates the traditional values associated with a social identity of a

woman at home. According to her the social space assigned to and identified

with the woman at home, in relation to their male counterpart, is in accordance

with the traditional norms. Thus, Nandkunwarba does appreciate the 'different'

in the English woman from her Indian counterpart, and also evinces an

inclination towards the sense of appropriation, but does not transcend the social

construct of a woman in textual and/or social space. Thus, Nandkunwarba's

concept of gender does not intersect with the male counterpart as the 'other'.

This lack further informs her subject position in India as a woman of elite class,

performing a specific role in her power regime, though in a very limited way.

This is why, her second other in terms of male counterpart does not get defined

as her own position as a woman of an elite class does not, perhaps, necessitate

the assertion of self definition. This also indicates that she was very much aware

of her position of being a queen of erstwhile kingdom in Gondal, in Gujarat, and

her subject position never drifted from this stance while dealing with the issues

related to woman, either in India or abroad.

Nandkunwarba is also contesting the validity of knowledge created by the

orientalist about the orient. She interrogates the way the women's position in

India is perceived and understood by the orientalist scholars and pronounces

that all that is known by the English about the orient woman is not true. She

writes:

The husband enjoys godly status in relationship and the wife

assumes the role of a devotee ... The women in Hindustan do

not consider themselves being subject to injustice if considered

inferior to men. They have been moulded to think that the

 181

welfare of their own self, their husband and the family lies in
supporting such conviction. Therefore, the people in the West
think that the condition of women in Hindustan is terrible and
is subject to great brutality etc., but that is not the reality. In
fact, people in general do not know what really the substance
of women is... The wise understands the worth of woman.
They look upon them with due respect. (Nandkunwarba, 2009:
90)

In doing so Nandkunwarba is also contesting the very idea that the

colonial subject as an object is knowable by the colonized and that the knowledge

constructed about the orient by the Occident can be challenged by the colonial

subject.

However, her travel account does create a space for women at home in

public sphere, which was usually formed by male intelligentsia at home. In

doing so her 'other' gets articulated in a very mild way in the male counterpart at

home. But this position is not very strongly articulated by Nandkunwarba as is

the position of being a colonial subject in a dialogue with the Occident culture in

a selective mode appropriating and negotiating with the other at the same time.

Her dialogue with the 'other' culture uses comparative method as an apparatus

for appropriating and/or negotiating with the 'other' in Occident woman and

English culture in the backdrop of colonial rule in India in the 19th century.

Thus, Nandkunwarba's dialogue in terms of appropriating and

negotiating with the 'other' is premised on the differences which she finds in two

cultures, societies, religions and peoples of two nations. In doing so she offers a

word of advice to the natives, as is evident in the following lines:

 182

Sunday is considered a very pious day in England. It is a day of

relaxation and worship of God and so factories, places of
recreation and shops remains close... In India, on the days of
religious importance people set out to sell new merchandise
and are filled with enthusiasm. Its complete opposite is found
here... In short, in this extended city there are more provisions
of getting deteriorated than of ascending. The one who is
awakened need not fear of anything. But there is no way out
for a person who is impolite and feeble who is allured by the
ways of life here. (Nandkunwarba, 2009: 26)

Thus, Nandkunwarba, as suggested by Gillian Rose in her Feminism and

Geography: The Limits of Geographical Knowledge, is creating a counter position for

women at home and abroad, to the idea that everything is knowable and possible

to map is essentially a patriarchal concept. She is deconstructing the very idea

that everything is knowable as a patriarchal concept. Through her travel

narrative she is creating a textual space for women and the woman's position of

a knower in the project of knowledge construction in the given set up the 19th

century colonialism. Further, in the context of Mary Louise Pratt's argument,

given below, Nandkunwarba is also attributing a position of a knower to the

colonial subject and thus contesting the very Euro-centric worldview regarding

the categories like knower, known and knowledge:

If one studies only what the Europeans saw and said, one

reproduces the monopoly on knowledge and interpretation

that the imperial enterprise sought. This is a huge distortion,

because of course that monopoly did not exist... This is why

the term transculturation appears... Ethnographers have used

 183

this term to describe how subordinated or marginal groups

select and invent from materials transmitted to them by a
dominant or metropolitan culture. While subjugated peoples
cannot readily control what the dominant culture visit upon
them, they do determine to varying extents what they absorb
into their own, how they use it, and what they make it mean.
Transculturation is a phenomenon of the contact zone. (Pratt,
2008: 07)

It is in this context that Nandkunwarba's travel narrative is participating

in the larger context of transculturation and proposing a dialogue in terms of

either appropriation or negotiation informing the alternative positions of a

colonial subject in colonial and imperial projects, where a colonial subject also

assumes the position of knowing its 'other' and making it knowable and

mappable through an apparatus of travel.

Like Nandkunwarba, Malabari also uses the travel as an apparatus for

constructing knowledge and while expressing his love for travel and its aesthetic

experience, Malabari writes:

Travelling has been to me at once a luxury and a torment.

Motion was, I believe, the first conscious enjoyment of my
infancy. And the love of it has grown with my growth. I love
motion above every other amusement think it ... the elixir of
life. (Gidumal, 1888: 281)

For Malabari, in spite of all the troubles, if they are, he calls it 'the elixir of

life'. He has travelled extensively in India, particularly in Gujarat and

Kathiyawar, in India. Then he undertook travel to foreign countries and aligned

 184

his thinking in terms of differences informed by the very act of travel. In this

sense Malabari used the travel as an apparatus of to know 'other' and also the

'self, but he regards the knowledge of the self as precondition before acquiring

knowledge of the other. He suggests that the advantage of travelling to the

foreign country could be availed only if one has acquired knowledge about one's

own system. He addresses his countrymen, that in so doing:

You are prepared to receive it, and thus received, your

knowledge will fructify. But when knowledge is thrust upon
you without previous discipline, that is, without your being
made fit for it, it will lie inert and unleavened. What is the use
of visiting foreign countries when you know nothing of your
own? When you go to Europe, ignorant of your won national
life, you will miss those thousand points of comparison and
contrast, those thousand shades of difference, those thousand
beauties and blemishes that modern European civilization
presents. At best you will look at things, not see or see through
them. Knowledge is best acquired, take my word for it, by the
comparative method. (Malabari, 1889:23/24)

Thus, according to him, knowledge is best acquired, only if acquired through

comparative methodology. This entails the necessity of positioning the other as a

point of reference which makes comparison possible. What Todorov argues, with

regard to this point of reference, coincides with Malabari's view on acquiring

knowledge through comparative framework. Tzvetan Todorov in The Morals of

History, states the importance of knowing the other in order to reinforce the idea

of self:
 185

The I does not exist without a you. One cannot reach the
bottom of one-self if one excludes others. The same holds true
for knowledge of foreign countries and different cultures: the
person who knows only his own home always runs the risk of
confusing culture with nature, of making custom the norm, and
of forming generalizations based on a single example: one-self.
(Todorov, 1995: 66)

Todorov's emphasis on knowing the self with reference to the other corroborates

Malabari's concept of knowing the other with reference to the self. Malabari in

detail offers his observations about the social, religious, political and economic

aspects of English life and compares it with its Indian counterpart. In doing so

his position as a colonial subject entails a complex relation with that of the

colonial episteme. Malabari's travel account claims to know the English life and

constitutes knowledge about it, which reciprocates to the claims made by the

British to know the Indian life and constituting knowledge about it. The British

policy of knowing the colonial subject informs the discourse of colonialism and

the travel accounts by the people like Malabari uses the same apparatus to know

the other, i.e. his colonizer but with a difference informing the counter discourse

to the colonialism. But the counter discourse to the colonialism often was formed

under the garb of ambivalence. In case of Malabari this ambivalence gets

translated in 'a love-hate affair with the British' as pointed out by Tabish Khair in

Other Routes: 1500 Years of African and Asian Travel Writing. Further, Malabari's

position of being a colonial subject is informed by the colonial modernity; his

understanding of being a social reformer, a poet, a journalist and a traveler in the

19"" century is premised on his position of being educated elite advantaged by

English education system. The influence of English education created a new

 186

perception for the educated elites, like Malabari, to form 'altered relation to their

own land' (Grewal, 1996:142) and also to the English people in India and abroad.

As Gauri Viswanathan argues, the English education created a historical

consciousness that "was intended to bring the Indian in touch with himself,

recovering his true essence and identity from the degradation to which it had

become subject through native despotism." (Viswanathan, 1998:134) Further

such an education also presented itself as "restoring Indian youth to an essential

self and, in turn, reinserting him into the course of Western civilization."

(Viswanathan, 1998:134) The following lines, by Inderpal Grewal, suggest how

Malabari, as a colonial subject, and as a product of colonial modernity,

corresponds to the influence of English education and its affect on his act of

travel:

In an essay in The Indian Spectator that explains his

methodology in works such as Gujarat and Gujaratis and TJie
Indian Eye on English Life, Malabari writes that he has not
absorbed European notions of travel and that he has never
been to Europe. Yet even without travelling to Europe, his
English education taught him how to be a travelling subject,
that is, to utilize a binary epistemology for the construction of
the Self. Thus he maps his "home" within a framework of
colonial modernity that is particular to upper-class and caste
Indian men. (Grewal, 1996:150-151)

Malabari's move towards revisiting the site of the past, with regard to the

method of organization, is suggestive of his historical consciousness, which

claims to the method of organization interlinked with a sense of having past. It

also positions the sense of the past intersecting with the idea of emancipation
 187

from the present deteriorated condition of India. He, in taking recourse to the

past is suggesting the gape of intervening period during which the Indian society

underwent outrageous changes in terms of understanding the division of caste

system. Thus, his move in the direction of reviving the past is indicative of

revisiting the site of colorual episteme and thereby constructing the counter

discourse informing the colonialism.

His advice to the British regarding revising the policies of government in

India also fortifies his method of interrogating the colonial episteme through

comparative framework. He asks the British to rule India by 'rod' and not by

'sword'; he advises the colonizers to include administrative affairs; he, further,

asks the British not to 'patronize but befriend us', (Malabari, 1895:69) and allow

the Indians to participate "in the conduct of public affairs" at least to "those of us

who are competent for it". (Malabari, 1895:67) Then he proposes a link of

negotiation for the British rule in India, in the following lines and informs his

position of being a colonial subject with powerful gaze masked under the garb of

ambivalence; in this sense ambivalence facilitates the voice from the margins

supported by textual space:

If England will learn to govern India more and more in

accordance with natural conditions, she will not only be amply
repaid for the task in itself, but will find a market for her goods,
of almost every description, ten times larger than she is likely
to find elsewhere. The experiment is as glorious as it is
profitable to both. I do not expect a political millennium to be
reached to-morrow, any more than I expect a disruption to
overtake us at once. (Malabari, 1895:69/70)
 188

Take my advice, dear Colonel; put your sword into a barrel of

vinegar. It will improve vinegar and steel aUke, and give you
time to read up your school books of history again. How long
can one nation rule another merely by the arm of flesh? Long
may England continue to rule us, not by the sword, but by the
rod. (Malabari, 1895:70)

In above words, on one hand, Malabari is able to interrogate the power

structures inherent in the colonial policies, and he is supporting the colonial rule,

on the other. In doing so, Malabari's Indian eye has an undercurrent of pun, his

Indian 'eye' intends to reciprocate with the English life and Indian T with that of

Imperial T . The positioning of these binaries creates a textual space for forming a

counter discourse to colonialism, though operating from margins. However,

Malabari is sentient of the fact, that the future of India is closely interlinked with

that of England. And so undertakes the journey of knowing the other as a

pilgrim, expressing his hope for the betterment of both the nations. He calls

himself as:

a student of humanity, a pilgrim in search of the truths of life,

than that of he should now wish for a look at the other world,
beyond the seas, whose fortunes are so closely knit with those
of his own country? (Malabari, 1895:1/2)

As Malabari carries out his task of knowing the other through

comparative method, he discerns depressing aspects of English life and despises

the English for imposing on native to converse only in the English language, he

says, "In no other respect, perhaps, does the imperial instinct of the Anglo-Saxon

seem to be more imperiously asserted". (Malabari, 1895:13) He also criticizes the

 189

English for the disparity of the self-representation of the British in the colonial
India. So he advises his natives, "There is so much to learn and to unlearn form
contact with a different civilization, more robust and more real, in spite of its
'falsehood of extremes'." (Malabari, 1895:02) Malabari in projecting the image of
the British within the framework of two extremes marks a stark contrast not only
in comparison to its Indian counterpart but also with reference to its own self-
representation in India. In doing so he employs the strategy of rhetoric with
twofold objective; firstly in positioning his own self as a pilgrim, who has set out
for a journey to England and other European countries; and secondly, in
appraising London as 'big heart of the universe' and that which is 'pulsating
with the highest aspirations ...of humanity'. This positioning of the 'self and the
'other' reciprocates with each other in terms of hierarchy and power relations,
where the self does not get undermined under the title of pilgrim, because of the
cultural connotations associated with the term. However, Malabari's position as
a colonial subject is significant in introducing a shift in appropriating the power
position through exercising a powerful gaze at his 'other', as evinced in
representing the image of London as an incongruous composition, 'pulsating
with the highest aspirations and the lowest passions of humanity'.

As regards, women's position in Europe, he says:

Woman is a presence and a power in Europe. In Asia wom.an is

a vague entity, a nebulous birth absorbed in the shadow of
artificial sexuality. (Malabari, 1895:22)

Here, Malabari despises the very social construct of Asian society which
marginalizes women in the name of fake norms which are artificial constructs of
the society. He further argues that "Reform in such matters comes very slowly;
 190

but come it must". (Malabari, 1895:154) He was astounded by the site of women

amongst crowds and comments:

The crowds of women in the streets, walking rapidly past,

pushing and elbowing everyone who stands in the way, all
intent on business or pleasure, are a sight not likely to be soon
forgotten. (Malabari, 1895:28)

Then he admits:

For me it is a sight more striking than attractive. After all a

woman's place is at home rather than in the street. (Malabari,
1895:28)

This stance of Malabari does speak of his Indian Masculinity informed by

EnglishEducation. On the one hand, Malabari's emphasis on the education of

women at home explicates his position of being an educated elite benefited by

English education system, and on the other he is stunned at the site of free,

liberated, educated and empowered women in foreign country who position

themselves in public space at par with their male counterpart. He is astounded at

the sight of independent women articulating their own spaces, is something that

he confronts as a male which is informed his Indian Masculinity. However,

though perturbed implicitly by his Indian Masculinity, he counts the fact that

proper education is must for women at home as it defines a participatory role in

the overall reform agenda of Indian society. The above lines do suggest that the

freedom is earned by the English women in England, of which Indian women

can't even think of because of the lack of proper education. But, Malabari also

portrays the other side of the picture and notes that, in England women do have

benefit of proper education but it is still in the state of transition, which is evident
 191

in the fact that it still continues to treat the unheard voices like Maggie in an

uncivilized and brutal manner. As Malabari observes, "In nine cases out of ten,

however, she is a victim." (Malabari, 1895:160) This also informs the phony self-

representation of the English in India as they advocate for the cause of women in

India but do not respond to the same issues at home, i.e. England. It is in this

regard that Malabari interrogates the colonial episteme and exclaims, "What an

ironical race the English are!" (Malabari, 1895:224)

He asserts that, "If this be your English culture of the nineteenth century,

let us remain ignorant in India." (Malabari, 1895:75) He hits a blow at the self-

indulgent form of worship and writes:

I had much rather that India remained superstitious enough to

worship her stone-god. That means something of self-sacrifice;
it lifts the worshipper out of himself. The worship of self is the
worst form of idolatry. (Malabari, 1895:75)

Thus, there are moments of disillusionment for Malabari and he wonders

that how poor the English politics seems to be where "Nothing Succeeds Like

Success." (Malabari, 1895:224) Malabari's appeal to his own countrymen to know

'how to help thyself is embedded with the idea of exploring and knowing one's

own self by undertaking an inward journey and initiating a dialogue between the

past and the present self in the process of introspection to identify the

problematic entailed in the formation of the present self. In this context

Malabari's travel is symbolic of twin journey: he within the comparative

framework constitutes the other, which functions as a point of reference to

comprehend the self, which is suggestive of outward journey; and then he

replaces the English other with the native's other in relation to his own past, this
 192

shift is indicative of inward journey mapping the contours of one's own self, not

with reference to its external other but the internal counterpart concealed under

the veil of past. He also goes to the extent of saying that "the honour of the

Empire or the wellbeing of the people was a mere incident of its eternal party

strife, rather than its one pre-arranged object, as students of constitutional history

are tempted to believe." (Malabari, 1895:224) So, he notes:

Never in my life have I realized India in this position of utter

helplessness. My poor country, such is thy fate; and such it will
remain till thou knowest how to help thyself." (Malabari,
1895:221)

But, finally he evaluates his travel to England as a pilgrim in the following lines:

With all its unattractiveness, London is still a Mecca for the

traveler in search of truth, a Medina of rest for the persecuted
or the perplexed in spirit. Though centre of perpetual motion, it
is till the Persepolis of human grandeur in repose. To the
searcher after enlightenment is a Buddha-Gaya; a Benares for
the sinner in search of emancipation. Damp, dirty, noisy
London, thou art verily a Jerusalem for the weary soldier of
faith. (Malabari, 1895:2)

Malabari while mapping the positionality of the English as the 'other',

striving within the borders of two extremes, initiates the discourse of powerful

gaze constituting the knowledge about the other from the perspective of a

colonial subject. Thus, Malabari argues that the subversion of the powerful gaze

is possible only if one has acquired knowledge about one's own system which
 193

enables one a position of being a 'self constituting the 'other' through a

comparative framework.

Like Malabari, travel to Matheson does bear the affect of charismatic

experience. He says, "The Theory that the arts of civilization have destroyed the

romance of travel is not one of universal application". (Matheson, 1870:01)

Matheson begins his travel account with these rhetorical words, which evinces

the mark of romantic zeal and enthusiasm associated with the act of travel. He

further adds to the enticing experience of travel to India when he unfurls the

historic site in its multiple facets in his account. He informs:

There is not subject more charming than the romance of

history, no place more attractive than the scene of its events.
The chronicle of perished empires may be regarded as man's
enduring storybook, when that of childhood has ceased to
interest. It is wanting, no doubt, in the greater characters who
were wont to excite our admiration and awe - the Giants and
Demons, Genii and Fairies, working miracles and magic to the
utter subversion of reason and the material laws. These
legendary creations so fascinating to the youthful mind soon
pass away from the sphere of life, leaving no witness behind
them. Nevertheless, such a tale as that of the Moguls,
illustrated by the records of their grandeur - stupendous
castles, gorgeous halls, and jeweled thrones - almost awakens a
spark of the old enthusiasm. Who indeed could stand at the
gateway of the North-West without feeling desirous to advance
in order to explore the richest archives of India and the gilded
sepulchers other kings? (Matheson, 1870: 277)
 194

The lines above suggest that Matheson was lured by the image of India, the way

it is represented as a site of history. Moreover, his act of travel is also informed

by imperial project in the larger context, which is defined in the words of

Shenstone's words: "The proper means of increasing the love we bear our native

country is to reside some time in a foreign one", (Matheson 1870: ii) as the

"absence makes the heart grow fonder". (Matheson 1870: 237) The act of travel in

the 19* century, thus, provided the means of exploring the avenues of knowing

the other worlds in the wake of nationalism giving rise to colonialism and British

imperialism.

Further, the travels, according to Matheson, in the 19* century were

informed by the discoveries in science, which indeed gave impetus to expanding

territories in imperial project. Matheson considers the invasion of science as a

boon, which made it possible to explore the other worlds, particularly, the

discovery of 'speed', he says, has changed the concept of travel as different from

that of carried out before the 19* century. In the process of doing so it develops

the act of travel as an apparatus of constructmg knowledge about the other.

Matheson's 'other' is defined in his oriental, which under the guidance of the

imperial instinct, was made knowable. Matheson's objective in writing in his

travel account, as given below, is to make the orient other accessible to his own

people:

Indeed, my aim has been simply to afford those who are not

conversant with the subject, and who may choose to

accompany me through these incidents of travel, a passing

glimpse of the social features and material resources of that

wonderful Indian continent with which the welfare of our own

country is now so intimately associated. (Matheson, 1870: ix)

 195

Here, Matheson and Malabari both implicitly reflect the same surmise

with regard to correlation that the two countries establish in the wake of

colonialism and particularly, British Empire. Matheson and Malabari, both, being

representatives of, colonizer and the colonized respectively, are conscious of

corollary of power relations between two countries, and still anticipating the

welfare of one being closely associated with another. However, the appeal has

implied connotations; the colonizer is appropriating the colonized informing the

colonial policies and the colonized is appropriating the colonizer informing the

counter discourse to colonialism. The scheme of appropriation has its

implications articulated in the discourse of Orientalism, in terms of representing

the colonized through the device of imagination. As argued in Edward Said's

Orientalism, the underlying motif of the colonial discourse was based on the

way/s the East was imagined, particularly, in contrast to the West. These ways of

imagining provided the West the space to create and place the orient in contrast

to themselves, which it in turn enabled them in positioning and justifying the

appropriations and representations of East in their ways of imagination. Travel

writing during the 19* century emerged as a sigiiificant discipline providing the

framework for imagining and creating the colonial subject into an enchanting

landscape, which though allures the viewer but only in a way of making it a

landscape for European worldview. The way Matheson through his travel

narrative creates a textual space to imagine the other from a colonizer's

perspective is given below:

No one, however, who visits our Eastern empire can fail to be

forcibly impressed with the novelty of its aspect, and with the

strong contrast which it presents to the ordinary routine of

European life. (Matheson, 1870: ii)

 196

Lured by the 'novelty' of Eastern Empire, thus, John Matheson in his

England to Delhi: A narrative of Indian Travel portrays the picture of Hindoostan

through the physical and cultural landscape. The first category includes the

elements like mountain, sea, desert, the Mofussil, the hills and plains, rivers,

weather, etc.; and the latter comprises of the human element with its motley

forms of cultural, political and social aspects, like Asiatic creeds, the Parsees'

faith and sepulture, the tank and temple, female education, institution of

marriage, indigenous industry, the architecture, the Mogul dynasty in India,

caste structure in India, Mutiny of 1857 and the repercussions on land and its

people, the development of railways, print media, educational development,

trade customs, etc., all with a significant mark of British interventions in

enhancing the role of the Raj as a harbinger of advancement and progression on

the colonial land and its subjects. Matheson has given detailed account of

different places that he visited in India along with a map and eighty-two

illustrations to add to the effect of word pictures portrayed in his narrative about

the travel experience in India. Matheson's account registers the moment in

history when the idea of British India is taking its shape in the larger framework

of colonial discourse in India. The image of India being created in the given

illustration is like that of alluring one, which Matheson expresses through the

words of Mrs. Norton in the following manner:

Our palm-trees are there with their stately stems;

Our birds have a plumage like coloured gems;
The fire-flies shine when the world's at rest,
And the lotus gleams bright on the Ganges' breast.
Oh! There lies a warm glory beyond the sea -
 197

Hindoostan, Hindoostan, we return to thee! (Matheson, 1870:

233)

Matheson's account traces an important trajectory of images about the

natives, the way it was imagined by the colonizers with regard to their social,
cultural, religious and political systems and using those images as apparatus of
colonial policies.

Matheson's observations about the natives and their social, cultural,

religious and political systems are heavily loaded with citations, like Fanny
Parkes, legitimizing the validity of it. In doing so his travel account not only
evinces Matheson's ways of imagining India but it also informs the way India
was imagined then by the colonizers as such under imperial project. It also
brings to the fore the kind of images, which were in circulation in the 19"" century
about the orient. While describing the dressing habit as was prevailing among
the natives, and the religious rituals as practiced in certain parts of Hindoostan,
Matheson particularly observes them as bizarre and uncouth, forging the image
of the natives being uncivilized. However, as regards women's position in India,
Matheson's observations are valid and true. He critiques the barbaric practices
like satee and the dowry system as well. In this context he has acknowledged the
contribution of Memsahibs in promoting the cause of education in India, in
general, and for women in particular.

The business demeanor of the natives, except for the Parsee community, is
also criticized by Matheson. Further, in his considering the Parsees as bring
advance community is informed by the fact that most of the Parsees were
benefitted by English education system. Thus, he evinces the English education
 198

system as a decisive device employed by the colonizers in civilizing the natives.

He writes:

...the three universities of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, all

modeled on the London plan. ...The leaven of knowledge
which such a system of tuition is incorporating with the mass
of native ignorance and bigotry, is working out a great, and
perhaps rapid, change in the moral aspect of the country, the
more so as the golden tide of British bounty is flowing towards
these seminaries with yearly increasing strength, and still
multiplying their number. Thus the hideous structure called
Brahminism is now everywhere confronted with real temples
of learning, wherein grave conclaves of dark-visaged youths in
turbans and puggeries may be seen from day to day bending
over the Bible, volumes on science and art, geographical or
geological charts, treatises on astronomy or natural history, and
other standard guides to knowledge. (Matheson 1870: 90)

The English education system was used with a twofold objective: firstly,

introducing to the natives the new episteme of knowledge through the British

empiricism, and secondly, to put in contrast with the Indian episteme of

knowledge system, in terms of lack, which constructs a particular image of the

natives informed by colonial policies. The natives are made to confront

themselves through this image, informed by lack, and thus, their minds are

imbued with the sense of inferiority. In this context the English education system

was thus introduced as a source of knowledge to the natives. This perception

with inbuilt lack went into the making of colonial modernity forming the colonial

subjects according to the requirements of colonial policies. For formation of this

 199

new colonial subject, Matheson notes, "Thanks to the humanizing influence of

the British". (Matheson, 1870: 148) Thus, John Matheson's account of his travel
premises on devising an apparatus of constructing knowledge about the natives,
and in doing so he assigns the British rule in India a role of civilizing and
humanizing the Indians in terms of refining their social, religious and cultural
conventions and practices.

Matheson registers all the entry points where in the British policies could
imbue the colonial strategies in the native's space of living, - with regard to
socio-political and religious aspects - with a sense of pride. But when it came to
the points of departures, when the natives did not get affected by the British
policies, and chose to continue with their native practices in above mentioned
fields, got embodied in the form of resistance by the natives. Matheson finds
such resistance in many practices that the natives continued in spite of forces of
reform constantly being at work by the colonial rule. The resistance marks the
discontinuities or the points of departure from the colonial modernity, embodied
in several reform projects by the rulers.

Matheson's travel account partake the orientalist discourse in the 19"^

century which premises on constructing knowledge about the orient. This intent
is aptly reflected in Edward Said's words, he writes: 'the orient', 'the oriental'
and 'his world' is a 'creation' (Said 1995: 40) of the European hegemonic power
structures to establish itself as a site of power. In Foucauldian terms, "the core of
Said's argument resides in the link between knowledge and power..." (Ashcroft
& Ahluwalia, 2009:56) As Said elucidates, "knowledge gives power, more power
requires more knowledge, and so on..." (Matheson, 1870:36) Matheson's
description about the natives, in terms of their social, religious, commercial and
political systems premise on way of constructing knowledge about the natives.
 200

The knowledge created is apparently and obviously the way the British devised

their mode of understanding and knowing the native subjects, but it in turn was

used as pedagogy for making the natives understand themselves through this

constructed knowledge. In the given context, Matheson defines the role of the

British rule in India in the following words:

It is an axiom in political economy, that no country can attain to

a condition of solid peace and prosperity apart from the unity
of its people. The aim, therefore, of British rule in India is
nothing less than the creation of a national life. For in this lies
the unparalleled difficulty of the situation, that our Eastern
empire more resembles a continent than a state, and that the
millions now our countrymen comprise alien races, whom
many generations of a common lot have failed to consolidate or
reconcile. (Matheson, 1870: 495)

Thus, under the garb of the orientalist gaze Matheson proposes the

framework of constituting the colonial subject along the lines of British policies,

which further reinforces the knowledge of 'self through constructing the 'other'

in terms of contrast through the apparatus of imagination. In this sense

Matheson's travel account partake the orientalist discourse creating the other

through the apparatus of travel.

Like Matheson, Malabari also uses the act of travel as an apparatus for

creating its 'other', through the position of being a colonial subject informed by

the colonial modernity. But, Malabari extends his positionality by reversing the

gaze at the colonized and constructing the 'other' and in doing so proposes the

counter discourse to colonialism. Like Malabari, Nandkunwarba also through the

apparatus of travel reverses the gaze at the colonized also creates the textual
 201

Space for knowing the 'other' and in doing so she, by extending her positionality,
becomes the knower and makes her 'other' as knowable and mappable.
Moreover, Malabari and Nandkunwarba's travel narratives are also intersecting
with the discourse of the other as constructed by colonizers, which are more of
representations of their own images about the natives rather than reality. So their
narratives are also an attempt to intervene with the discourse of colonialism and
provide the rectified reading of the 'other' (of the natives as created by the
colonizers) partly informed by the colonial modernity and partly by nationalist
project. In this sense their narratives are not only constructing the knowledge of
the English as the 'other', but they also present the rectified reading of the 'self.

Fanny Parkes' narrative partly falls in line with Nandkunwarba's and

partly with Matheson. As regards constructing the 'self from a gender
perspective she reciprocates with Nandkunwarba. But she employes her
orientalist gaze in constructing the knowledge about the 'other', in doing so her
travel asccount, like Matheson's, partake in the imperial project of knowledge
construction about the natives. But in creating her orient 'other' her employment
of the technique of the picturesque suggests more of, ironically, the process of
'othering' of her own position, as a British woman, who was denied any role in
the project of imperialism in the 19* century. Thus, both Parkes and Matheson
imagine their colonial subject as exotic 'other' but Parkes, in doing so, also maps
her own position as the 'other', coinciding with the orient 'other'. Thus, Parkes
seems to share the marginality of the natives, but without leaving her orientalist
position.

Parkes, like Nandkunwarba and Malabari, considers the act of travel as a

pilgrimage to the 'other' land, discovering in the process the knowledge about
the 'self. All the three travel writers have encoded their travel in the name of
 202

pilgrimage: Parkes notes, "For four and twenty years have I roamed the world, —
'I neither went to Mekka nor Mudina, But was a pilgrimage nevertheless'"; in
Nandkunwarba the very title refers to the ancient Indian scriptures, where the
earth is metaphorically seen as cow, and so it is believed that Gomandal parikram
i.e. circumnavigating a cow or the earth leads to the same beneficial
consequences; Malabari also uses the metaphors like Mecca, Medina, Buddha-
Gaya, Benares and Jerusalem for the city of London and considers himself as a
pilgrim, "the weary soldier of faith". (Malabari, 1895:2)

Thus, these travel writers by employing the metaphors of pilgrimage for

the act of travel, position the travel as an apparatus for constructing the
knowledge. Travel was a mode of knowledge gathering based on the promise of
and an access to and comprehending the new lands, people and cultures. Thus,
the 19* century witnessed various modalities through which knowledge was
constructed as evinced here in the selected four travel narratives. Here, travel as
a pilgrimage can be considered one such attempt to construct a discourse of
travel knowledge in the context of gender and colonialism informed by the
colonial context of 19* century.
 203

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