ABSTRACT
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw increased contact between rapidly expanding ‘West’ and ‘non-Western’ societies, manifested especially in the form of colonial encounters. However, ‘European’1 interaction with the ‘Orient’ did not begin with colonialism, with sound evidence of much pre-colonial and nonhegemonic (J. Abu-Lughod 1989) interaction. This chapter explores a facet of this encounter through detailed analysis of a single empirical case. I demonstrate how pre-colonial interaction, colonialism and the discipline of anthropology crystallized both a geographical space (i.e. India as a legitimate culture area) and an intellectual space (‘Indians’ as exotic human others) for subsequent social scientific investigation. This recognition carries important consequences for contemporary efforts to indigenize anthropology in India.
