Hindustan as a Geographic and Political Concept in Qing Sources,1700–1800

Abstract

This article examines Chinese and Manchu-language sources on Sino-Indian contact during the 18th century, concentrating on those—chiefly produced on the basis of intelligence arriving via Xinjiang—that describe ‘Hindustan’. During the 18th century, ‘Hindustan’ was an evolving political and geographic concept for Qing observers. At first used in Chinese transliteration primarily by a small cohort of Chinese Muslim scholars, the term rose to prominence during the empire’s westward expansion in the 1750s. In subsequent decades, geographers, officials, and even the Qianlong Emperor analysed its name, location, historical identity and other characteristics. A central issue in these debates was the relationship between newly-prominent ‘Hindustan’ and older conceptions of ‘India’. The intersection of geographic terms and concepts from multiple linguistic and cultural backgrounds, central to interpretations of ‘Hindustan’, was a general feature in the formation of geographic worldviews during the era of Qing expansion, and an important element shaping Chinese understandings of India in the relatively neglected period between 1650 and 1850.