Scripting the Modern: The Materiality of Fort William College Translations and the Rise of Vernacular Print Culture in the early 19th Century

Abstract

This research explores the pivotal role of Fort William College (est. 1800) in shaping the linguistic and cultural modernity of South Asia through the lens of materiality and print culture. By focusing on the college’s translation projects in the early 19th century, this study argues that the transition from a traditional manuscript culture to a mechanized print paradigm was not merely a change in medium, but a fundamental "scripting" of the modern vernacular. The college served as a colonial laboratory where the collaborative efforts of British Orientalists and Indian scholars (munshis and pundits) led to the systematic standardization of prose in languages such as Urdu, Hindi, and Bengali. The core of this inquiry examines the materiality of the translated text—the shift toward movable type, the formalization of typography, and the mass distribution of printed books. These physical attributes of the text provided a new sense of fixity and authority to the vernacular, facilitating its ascension over the previously dominant classical languages like Persian and Sanskrit. By analysing representative translations, the paper demonstrates how the requirements of colonial pedagogy and administration necessitated a "plain" prose style, which subsequently laid the foundation for modern literary expression in India. Furthermore, the study situates these developments within the broader context of early 19th-century print culture, viewing Fort William College as a precursor to the "print capitalism" that later fuelled nationalistic and social reform movements. Ultimately, the research concludes that the college’s translation legacy represents a critical juncture where colonial technology and indigenous linguistic traditions intersected to produce a durable, printed modern identity for the Indian vernaculars.