William Hodges
Topic: Peasant and Tribal Resistance under Company Rule · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Colonialism and the Countryside"
Meaning
William Hodges was a British artist of the late 18th century. He sailed with Captain Cook on Cook's second voyage (1772–75) and then came to India. In 1782 he toured the Jangal Mahals with Augustus Cleveland, the Collector of Bhagalpur. His aquatints (prints made from etched copper plates) showed the Rajmahal hills as wild, beautiful and exotic. He painted in the picturesque style, which looked for rough, natural landscapes untouched by modern life. His pictures matter because they show how the British saw the Paharias' world: as charming scenery, not as a homeland under threat.
Example
Hodges' aquatints of the Rajmahal hills (c. 1782) show calm forests, rocks and quiet hill villages. Around the same years, the Company's forest clearance and wars against the Paharias were destroying that same landscape.
Don't confuse with
- Francis Buchanan: a Company surveyor, not an artist. He toured the region in 1810–11 and wrote about how the land could be made profitable.
Related concepts
- Paharia
- Rajmahal hills
- Shifting cultivation
- Augustus Cleveland
- Paharia pacification policy
- Stipendiary chief
- Aquatint
- Picturesque