Table of Contents ; List of Figures; Acknowledgments; Note on Transliteration; Chronology; 1. A Plot Discovered; 2. 1700: Between Microhistory and Macrostructures; 3. 1800: Through the Veil of Poetry; 4. 1900: Lexicography and the Self; 5. 1900: Grasping at Straws ; Conclusion ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index
Summary
Prior to the nineteenth century, South Asian dictionaries, glossaries, and vocabularies reflected a hierarchical vision of nature and human society. By the turn of the twentieth century, the modern dictionary had democratized and politicized language. Compiled ;scientifically" through historical principles," the modern dictionary became a concrete symbol of a nation's arrival on the world stage. Following this phenomenon from the late seventeenth century to the present, Negotiating Languages casts lexicographers as key figures in the political realignment of South Asia under British rule and
