ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the 'official enquiry' that was so central to the manufacture of the colonial archive and its role in both cataloguing and – however imperfectly – subjugating imperialism's subaltern populations. It is overriding theme is a somewhat sceptical one, in so far as it contends that the imperial quest for power through knowledge was tempered at certain critical junctures by the need to accommodate the interests of 'subaltern' informants. The chapter describes the notional 'strong arm' of imperial control was compromised to a degree by the 'blind eye' necessitated by the day-to-day exigencies of imperial rule. It begins by discussing some of the key texts relating to the knowledge–power nexus in the colonial context. The chapter develops the general points raised in this discussion with specific reference to a particular historical instance: that of an elaborate and lengthy enquiry conducted by Dutch colonial officials based in Java around the mid- nineteenth century.
