Scottish Orientalism
Scottish orientalism refers to the collective views of a group of Scottish scholars of oriental languages, informed by the Scottish Enlightenment, and applied to the culture and administration of the Indian subcontinent though the East India Company, from the end of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century. The word "orientalist" is recorded in English from 1779. In its early days and in relation to India (rather than the Ottoman possessions) it connoted not only proficiency in languages of India, but also study of the culture, and advocacy of administration of the existing legal systems and customs. This attitude was opposed by both evangelical and Utilitarian critics. Background Scottish dominance within British orientalism at the end of the 18th century—the period after the death of Sir William Jones in 1794—was almost complete: the only leading exception was Henry Thomas Colebrooke. Rendall's theory Rendall has identified a group of Scottish oriental scholars, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Scottish People
The Scots ( sco, Scots Fowk; gd, Albannaich) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic-speaking peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland (or ''Alba'') in the 9th century. In the following two centuries, the Celtic-speaking Cumbrians of Strathclyde and the Germanic-speaking Angles of north Northumbria became part of Scotland. In the High Middle Ages, during the 12th-century Davidian Revolution, small numbers of Norman nobles migrated to the Lowlands. In the 13th century, the Norse-Gaels of the Western Isles became part of Scotland, followed by the Norse of the Northern Isles in the 15th century. In modern usage, "Scottish people" or "Scots" refers to anyone whose linguistic, cultural, family ancestral or genetic origins are from Scotland. The Latin word ''Scoti'' originally referred to the Gaels, but came to describe all inhabitants of Scotland. Cons ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mark Wilks
Colonel Mark Wilks (1759 – 19 September 1831) was a Manx soldier, historian and East India Company administrator who worked in southern India principally in the princely state of Mysore. He was the acting Resident at the Wodeyar Court. Life He was born at Kirk Michael vicarage in the Isle of Man, the son of Rev. James Wilks and Elisabeth Christian, and came from a lineage of Manx gentry. He was named after his godfather, Bishop Mark Hiddesley. He purchased cadetship through Sir Henry Fletcher, in the court of the Directors of the East India Company in 1781 at the age of 18, joining the Madras Army. He was commissioned an officer in 1782 and like others, he was trained at Fort St. George, he picked up Persian. He translated the Persian poet Nasir-ud-din's work '' Aklak-i-Naseri'' into English. Wilks served as a secretary to the Military Board in 1787, accompanying Sir Barry Close on a diplomatic mission to Mysore. His early education included Greek and Latin classics which ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alexander Hamilton (linguist)
Alexander Hamilton (1762–1824) was a British linguist who was one of the first Europeans to study the Sanskrit language.T. K. John, "Research and Studies by Western Missionaries and Scholars in Sanskrit Language and Literature," in the St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India, Vol. III, Ollur richur2010 Ed. George Menachery, pp. 79–83 He taught the language to most of the earliest European scholars of Indo-European linguistics. He became the first professor of Sanskrit in Europe. In India Hamilton seems to have been born in India, but Scotland is not impossible. He was a first cousin of his namesake, American statesman Alexander Hamilton. He became a lieutenant in the navy of the East India Company and arrived in 1783.''History of Linguistics. History of Linguistics. Vol. IV, pg. 67. Nineteenth-Century Linguistics by Giulio Lepschy'', by Anna Morpurgo Davies While stationed in India he joined the Asiatic Society of Bengal founded by Sir William Jones and Sir Charles Wilkins ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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William Erskine (historian)
William Erskine (8 November 1773 – 28 May 1852) was a Scotland, Scottish orientalist and historian. Life He was born at Argyle Square in Edinburgh the son of David Erskine, a lawyer and Clerk to the Signet, and his wife Jean Melvin. He attended the Royal High School (Edinburgh), High School, then studied Law, receiving a doctorate from University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh University. He went to Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1804 where he was master in equity in the recorder's court. In 1809 in Madras (now Chennai), Erskine married Maitland Mackintosh (1792-1861), daughter of Sir James Mackintosh and his first wife Katherine Stuart. They had fourteen children, one of whom, Frances, married the statistician and civil servant Thomas Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer. Another daughter, Mary, was head nurse in the Naval Hospital at Therapia during the Crimean War, and looked after Florence Nightingale while she recovered from illness. Erskine's sister-in-law, Mary Mackintosh, married the em ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mountstuart Elphinstone
Mountstuart Elphinstone (6 October 1779 – 20 November 1859) was a Scottish statesman and historian, associated with the government of British India. He later became the Governor of Bombay (now Mumbai) where he is credited with the opening of several educational institutions accessible to the Indian population. Besides being a noted administrator, he wrote books on India and Afghanistan. His works are one the pertinent examples of the colonial historiographical trend. Early life Born in Dumbarton, Dumbartonshire (now Dunbartonshire) on 6 October 1779, educated at the Royal High School and raised a member of the Church of England. He was the fourth son of the 11th Baron Elphinstone, by Anna, daughter of Lord Ruthven, in the peerage of Scotland. Having been appointed to the civil service of the British East India Company, of which one of his uncles was a director, he arrived at Calcutta (now Kolkata) early in 1796 where he filled several subordinate posts. In 1799, he ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Crawfurd
John Crawfurd (13 August 1783 – 11 May 1868) was a Scottish physician, colonial administrator, diplomat, and author who served as the second and last Resident of Singapore. Early life He was born on Islay, in Argyll, Scotland, the son of Samuel Crawfurd, a physician, and Margaret Campbell; and was educated at the school in Bowmore. He followed his father's footsteps in the study of medicine and completed his medical course at the University of Edinburgh in 1803, at the age of 20. Crawfurd joined the East India Company, as a Company surgeon, and was posted to India's Northwestern Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), working in the area around Delhi and Agra from 1803–1808. He saw service in the campaigns of Baron Lake. In the East Indies Crawfurd was sent in 1808 to Penang, where he applied himself to the study of the Malay language and culture. In Penang, he met Stamford Raffles for the first time. In 1811, Crawfurd accompanied Raffles on Lord Minto's Java Invasion, which o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Edinburgh University
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1582 and officially opened in 1583, it is one of Scotland's four ancient universities and the sixth-oldest university in continuous operation in the English-speaking world. The university played an important role in Edinburgh becoming a chief intellectual centre during the Scottish Enlightenment and contributed to the city being nicknamed the "Athens of the North." Edinburgh is ranked among the top universities in the United Kingdom and the world. Edinburgh is a member of several associations of research-intensive universities, including the Coimbra Group, League of European Research Universities, Russell Group, Una Europa, and Universitas 21. In the fiscal year ending 31 July 2021, it had a total income of £1.176 billion, of which £3 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hindu Culture
Hinduism () is an Indian religions, Indian religion or ''dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the Major religious groups, world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global population, known as Hindus. The word ''Hindu'' is an exonym, and while Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, many practitioners refer to their religion as ''Sanātana Dharma'' ( sa, सनातन धर्म, lit='the Eternal Dharma'), a modern usage, which refers to the idea that its origins lie beyond human history, as revealed in the Hindu texts. Another endonym is ''Vaidika dharma'', the dharma related to the Vedas. Hinduism is a diverse system of thought marked by a range of Hindu philosophy, philosophies and shared concepts, rituals, Hindu cosmology, cosmological systems, Hindu pilgrimage sites, pilgrimage sites, and shared textual sources that discuss theology, metaphysi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The History Of British India
''The History of British India'' is a three-volume work by the Scottish historian, economist, political theorist, and philosopher James Mill, charting the history of Company rule in India. The work, first published in 1817, was an instant success and secured a "modicum of prosperity" for Mill. Mill categorized Indian history into the Hindu, Muslim and British periods on the basis of dominant political powers and their religious affiliations. Mill noted that he had never been to India and was unable to speak any Indian languages, though he claimed that this improved the work's moral objective. In the work, Mill frequently denounced Hindu culture and traditions, and it has been seen by historians as an example of anti-Indian sentiments in Britain during the period. Genesis James Mill began writing a work on the history of Company rule in India in 1808, expecting it to take him about seven years, but its completion proved to take instead twelve years, with three substantial volume ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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James Mill
James Mill (born James Milne; 6 April 1773 – 23 June 1836) was a Scottish historian, economist, political theorist, and philosopher. He is counted among the founders of the Ricardian school of economics. He also wrote ''The History of British India (1817)'' and was one of the prominent historians to take colonial approach. He was the first writer to divide Indian history into three parts: Hindu, Muslim and British, a classification which has proved surpassingly influential in the field of Indian historical studies. Mill was the father of John Stuart Mill, a noted philosopher of liberalism and utilitarianism, and a colonial administrator at the East India Company. Biography James Milne, later known as James Mill, was born in Northwater Bridge, in the parish of Logie Pert, Angus, Scotland, the son of James Milne, a shoemaker and small farmer. His mother, Isabel Fenton, of a family that had suffered from connection with the Stuart rising, resolved that he should receive a firs ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stadial History
Conjectural history is a type of historiography isolated in the 1790s by Dugald Stewart, who termed it "theoretical or conjectural history," as prevalent in the historians and early social scientists of the Scottish Enlightenment. As Stewart saw it, such history makes space for speculation about causes of events, by postulating natural causes that could have had such an effect. His concept was to be identified closely with the French terminology ''histoire raisonnée'', and the usage of "natural history" by David Hume in his work ''The Natural History of Religion''. It was related to "philosophical history", a broader-based kind of historical theorising, but concentrated on the early history of man in a type of rational reconstruction that had little contact with evidence. Such conjectural history was the antithesis of the narrative history being written at the time by Edward Gibbon and William Robertson (historian), William Robertson. Stewart defended it as more universal in its app ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism in social science and anthropology—as well as in colloquial English discourse—means to apply one's own culture or ethnicity as a frame of reference to judge other cultures, practices, behaviors, beliefs, and people, instead of using the standards of the particular culture involved. Since this judgment is often negative, some people also use the term to refer to the belief that one's culture is superior to, or more correct or normal than, all others—especially regarding the distinctions that define each ethnicity's cultural identity, such as language, behavior, customs, and religion. In common usage, it can also simply mean any culturally biased judgment. For example, ethnocentrism can be seen in the common portrayals of the Global South and the Global North. Ethnocentrism is sometimes related to racism, stereotyping, discrimination, or xenophobia. However, the term "ethnocentrism" does not necessarily involve a negative view of the others' race or indicate a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |