ABSTRACT
Geography introduced race as a systematic theme in understanding human civilization as hierarchical. In all three of the analyzed genres, the pedagogical view of civilization, and, at times, a combination between the pedagogical and the environmental views, constituted the most often used lenses through which authors explained civilizational difference. Urdu articles on civilization often pointed out the existence of an innate ability to progress, which was the basis of civilization. The geography textbook-author Munshiram combined a fixed racial use of habsi with the expression of paternalistic civilizing intentions towards uncivilized people of the world. Even the more ambivalent Sir Sayyid leaned towards this position: while he had first stated that blacks could not get civilized he eventually concluded that all uncivilized people of the world would some day “naturally” embrace civilization.
