session 8 (reading)

Question 1

Who is the author of “Taking stock of the Franks”?

Answer 1

Sanjay Subrahmanyam

Question 2

What does the article study?

Answer 2

South Asian views of Europeans (“Franks”) and Europe, c.1500–1800

Question 3

What concept does the article treat these views as part of?

Answer 3

A wider South Asian “xenology” – ways of thinking about foreigners and foreign lands

Question 4

Geographical focus – name the two main regions.

Answer 4

South India (Kerala) and Northern India / Mughal empire core

Question 5

What is the main question the article asks?

Answer 5

Whether South Asian views of Europe are autonomous and complex, or always hybrid/mestizo and shaped by Europeans

Question 6

First stage – how do “Franks” appear in early sources?

Answer 6

As strange and violent maritime actors in the Indian Ocean

Question 7

Second stage – what do these images become?

Answer 7

More elaborate geographical and political images of “Europe.”

Question 8

Third stage – what happens by the late 18th century?

Answer 8

Indians write first-person travel accounts of Europe

Question 9

Fill in the blank: Are these views autonomous and complex, or always “______ / mestizo”?

Answer 9

hybrid

Question 10

What does “reversing the gaze” mean?

Answer 10

Showing natives looking at Europeans, not only Europeans describing others

Question 11

Which two scholars inspired this approach?

Answer 11

Wachtel and Gruzinski

Question 12

What problem does Subrahmanyam identify in South Asian historiography?

Answer 12

South Asians are imagined as objects of European travel writing, not observers in their own right

Question 13

What is Subrahmanyam’s big claim about 1500–1800 South Asia?

Answer 13

It produced a rich, multilingual corpus on Europeans (Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, Malayalam)

Question 14

What is the double image of Europeans in the Mughal world?

Answer 14

Marvels + menace

Question 15

Why marvels? Name one example. Phase 1

Answer 15

They brought organs, clocks, paintings, exotic animals, new fruits, tobacco

Question 16

Why menace? Phase 1

Answer 16

Seen as a violent maritime power in Goa, with naval attacks near Surat

Question 17

What famous episode involves tobacco?

Answer 17

Asad Beg Qazwini defends tobacco by invoking Frankish learning

Question 18

What shift happens in Phase II?

Answer 18

From local “Franks” → a structured image of Portugal/Europe

Question 19

Indo-Persian writers start to place Europe inside what? Phase 2

Answer 19

A wider global history, not just local enemy narratives

Question 20

How are Europeans portrayed regarding navigation and artillery? Phase 2

Answer 20

Praised for navigation/artillery, but criticised as unclean and cowardly on land

Question 21

How do vernacular texts portray Europeans? Phase 2

Answer 21

As wondrous “white-faces” but also impure or demonic figures (ambivalent image)

Question 22

What is the biggest change in Phase III?

Answer 22

Indians travel to Europe and describe it directly

Question 23

Europe becomes a mirror for what? Phase 3

Answer 23

Self-critique of both European and Indian societies

Question 24

What do travel accounts describe in detail? Phase 3

Answer 24

Cities, parliaments, industry, manners

Question 25

Indian writers compare what two things? Phase 3

Answer 25

Discipline vs decadence, strong institutions vs political disunity, etc

Question 26

How do Christian authors from Kerala use their journeys?

Answer 26

To attack foreign church control, arguing for local clergy autonomy

Question 27

What kind of xenology of “Franks” did South Asians develop?

Answer 27

Rich, multi-layered xenology

Question 28

Name the three main images of Europeans in this xenology

Answer 28

Conquerors/deceivers, bearers of wonders, members of a complex European world

Question 29

What is the key feature of these views across time?

Answer 29

They are diverse, changing, not a single stereotype

Question 30

Big takeaway: What did early modern South Asia not do?

Answer 30

It did not just receive European representations; it produced its own ways of seeing and classifying Europe