British oYcers received for their photographs, the names of these low-paid
Indians (at least 28 in the 1870s) were not revealed (Guha 2002: 97). For the
highest ranks of the Survey no Indians seemed to fulWl the necessary criteria
until the reorganization of this institution in 1901 (Stiebing 1993: 215).
Among the earliest appointments was an assistant, Beglar, who is described
as a Eurasian. Purna (Poorno) Chandra Mukherji and Bhagvanlal Indraji were
two of theWrst Indians to work at the Survey (Chakrabarti 1988: 116).
Another Indian scholar who excelled was the art historian Shyamacharan
Srimani. In 1874 he published a book in which he argued that Indian art was
earlier and superior to Egyptian and Greek styles, partly on the basis of its
Aryan character. He saw the Muslim invasion as ending the glorious days of
Indian art (Guha-Thakurta 2004: 146–8). Also, the Bengali scholar Rakhaldas
Banerjee (1885–1930) initiated his career in archaeology in the years before
the Second World War (Guha-Thakurta 2004: ch. 4).
UNDERSTANDING FRENCH INDOCHINA THROUGH
KHMER AND CHAM ANTIQUITIESIn contrast to the early modern presence of the British and the Dutch in South
and Southeast Asia, French colonialism in the area only took place much later.
Contacts had existed earlier: from the sixteenth century there were French
traders and missionary undertakings, and various kinds of political assistance
had been provided (Boudet & Masson 1931: 11–31). The formation of French
Indochina needs to be understood both within the context of the change in
the character of nationalism and the frenzy for new colonial territories evident
in the second half of the nineteenth century. Until the 1860s, nationalism in
France had been based on a perception of the country as large and strong. The
earliest colonies established in the north of Africa from 1830 had been
described to start with as an enlargement of France (Chapter 9). The trans-
formation of the character of nationalism and imperialism changed this
understanding. Nations were no longer judged to be powerful based on size
and rhetoric, but on economic power and political might. The colonies meant
new markets, and the low cost of labour provided huge economic beneWts to
the metropolitan centres that, in the logic of capitalism, were used to continue
enlarging the colonial territories. In the 1860s the process of formation of two
new large states sharing frontiers with France, Italy and especially Germany
threatened her position in Europe. France’s weakness was blatantly demon-
strated by her defeat by Germany in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. The
articulation of a new discourse of national regeneration was founded in the
230 Colonial Archaeology