Abstract

In the second half of the eighteenth century, several servants of the English East India Company published accounts of what they deemed to be the original and ancient religion of India. Drawing on what are recognised today as the texts and traditions of Hinduism, these works fed into a booming enlightenment interest in Eastern philosophy. At the same time, the Company’s aggressive conquest of Bengal was facing a crisis of legitimacy and many of the prominent political minds of the day were turning their attention to the question of empire. In this lecture, Jessica Patterson will situate these Company works on the ‘Hindu religion’ in the twin contexts of enlightenment and empire. Exploring some of the themes and figures in her recent monograph, Religion, Enlightenment and Empire: British Interpretations of Hinduism in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Dr Patterson will offer an account of the role of heterodox religious approaches to Indian religions for enlightenment thought, East India Company policy, and contemporary ideas of empire.

Biography

Jessica Patterson is a historian of eighteenth and nineteen-century intellectual culture and political thought, with a particular emphasis on enlightenment and empire. She took her first degree in History, at the University of Cambridge. She then completed the MA in the History of Political Thought and Intellectual History, offered by Queen Mary University of London & University College London. Following this, her AHRC funded PhD was completed at the University of Manchester, where she was a President’s Doctoral Scholar. Prior to joining the History Faculty at Cambridge in 2020, she held posts in intellectual history, at Queen Mary, and the history of political thought, at King’s College London.

Location

Bushuis/ OIH, room E1.02

Registration

No registration is needed, unless you want to participate online. In that case, send an e-mail to: info@globalintellectualhistory.org.

About the Seminar

The Utrecht/Amsterdam Seminar Global Intellectual History is a platform for researchers from different faculties and departments at the University of Amsterdam and Utrecht University who are working in the field of intellectual history and related disciplines. These include, among others, the history of historical, legal and political thought, conceptual history, the social and cultural history of ideas, as well as research at the intersection between intellectual history, institutions, politics, and practices.

Worldwide, intellectual history is moving into new, exciting directions. Tapping into new source materials, covering longer stretches of time, dealing with broader geographical spaces, making comparisons and drawing connections on a global scale, as well as combining established and new (digital) methods, both young and up-coming as well as established experts are in search for new answers – and perhaps more importantly – new questions. The Utrecht/Amsterdam Seminar Global Intellectual History contributes to this development by providing a venue for presenting and discussing frontline research.