Terrestrial Lessons: The Conquest of the World as Globe, by Sumathi Ramaswamy

Terrestrial Lessons: The Conquest of the World as Globe centres on the history of the terrestrial globe in the Indian subcontinent, and examines how the European preoccupation with terrestrial sphericity came to be an Indian concern.Ramaswamy raises the important question: does this object have the same history elsewhere and everywhere, and with the same affects and effects?Ramaswamy provides a much-needed alternative history of this "worldly" object, which serves to fill a significant gap in the existing literature.While the notion of the world as a globe has been extensively examined and studied in the Western context, the question arises, what occurs when this conception of our earth travels elsewhere?Moreover, what are the implications when the globe, as a symbol of the educated, enlightened, and modern, is received in a colonial context?Significantly, Ramaswamy's work makes a meaningful contribution to the field of South Asian Religions.In her study, Ramaswamy highlights the disparity between, on the one hand, the Western enlightenment and Christian understanding of the earth as spherical, and on the other, the multiple Hindu conceptions of the earth, for example, the idea of the flat Earth as resting upon an animal variously imagined as a turtle, elephant, or a multi-headed cobra.In her analysis of the confrontations between European and native conceptions of the earth, Ramaswamy coins the term "cartographic evangelist" (61) which she uses to describe a figure who is involved in the task of "geographic catechism" (16).Many Europeans living and working in colonial India took up the mantel of guiding young Indians away from the "darkness" of their false ancestral knowledge into the European "light" in the form of the "the Gospel of Modern Earth" (61), as Ramaswamy aptly phrases it.Ramaswamy illustrates not only how the spherical world became an object to be both surveyed and mastered by the colonial British, but also came to represent the superiority of European scientific knowledge.She convincingly argues that these beliefs cannot be untangled from the Christian notion of God as not only the creator of the universe but also the spherical earth and the life which inhabits it.In this context, Ramaswamy interprets the globe as becoming an instrument of conversion which strikes down the very foundations of Hinduism and serves to wean the young Hindu child away from their native idols.Ramaswamy traces the history of the terrestrial globe in colonial India and, through extensive archival research, is able to relate key accounts of Indian encounters with this object.Her command of the history and sources across the regions of both North and South India is impressive.Moreover, a notable feature of Ramaswamy's book is the remarkable images and photographs which have remained

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