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Beginning at the turn of the sixteenth century and ending at the close of the eighteenth, the history of Catholic Orientalism is about knowledge produced in and about South Asia, disseminated through the global networks of the early modern Portuguese empire. An integral part of the Portuguese imperial network, this Catholic information order established in Asia, refers to both knowledge practices and the archives.
From the first colonial censuses and gazetteers, to texts on religion of the Indian pagans that came from the Catholic missionaries - multiple sources and polyglot archives lie at the heart of this work. Physicians, merchants, missionaries and royal officials were, for three centuries, active producers of information. These actors, moving through space and time, with divided loyalties, often disregarded national divisions and wore many a different hat.
From the mid eighteenth century onwards, the British Empire changed the map of knowledge about South Asia. To this end, Catholic Orientalism was both assimilated and discarded for being tainted by unreasonable Catholicism and for being too close to the equally unreasonable native Indian point of view.
ISBN - 9780199452675
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Pages : 424
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