The accounts of Buchanan

Francis Buchanan was a surgeon and a botanist in the employ of the British East India Company. His detailed journals and reports are a rich source of information about the Indian countryside in the early nineteenth century. But to read his accounts as simple, neutral observations would be a mistake. Every piece of information he recorded was shaped by the purpose for which he was sent.

The Company's Man on a Mission

Buchanan was not a lone traveller driven by curiosity. He moved with a large retinue — draughtsmen, surveyors, palanquin bearers, and coolies — all paid for by the East India Company. The Company bore these heavy costs because it needed the specific information Buchanan was instructed to collect. He had clear, written orders about what to look for and what to record.

When he arrived at a village with this army of people, the local inhabitants immediately saw him as an agent of the sarkar (the government). This perception was accurate. As the Company consolidated its power and expanded its commerce, it systematically searched for natural resources it could control and exploit. It organised surveys of landscapes and revenue sources, sent out voyages of discovery, and deployed geologists, geographers, botanists, and medical men to gather intelligence. Buchanan was one such individual — an extraordinary observer, but an observer with a specific agenda.

What Buchanan Observed and Why

Buchanan’s observations were obsessive and highly selective. Everywhere he went, he focused on:

• Geology and soil: He carefully noted the stones, rocks, and different strata and layers of soil.
• Commercially valuable minerals: He searched for and recorded signs of iron ore, mica, granite, and saltpetre.
• Local production techniques: He observed and documented local practices of salt-making and iron-ore-mining.

When he described a landscape, he rarely described it simply as it was. Instead, he described how it could be transformed and made more productive. His reports are filled with suggestions about what crops could be cultivated, which trees should be cut down, and which ones should be grown.

This mindset made him inevitably critical of the lifestyles of forest dwellers. He believed that forests had to be cleared and turned into agricultural lands. For him, a "productive" landscape was one that generated revenue and raw materials for the Company.

A Concrete Example: The Santhals

Buchanan’s account of the Santhals reveals his bias clearly. He wrote that they were "very clever in clearing new lands, but live meanly." He described their huts as small, slovenly, and poorly built — with no fence, walls made of small sticks plastered with clay, and flat roofs with very little arch. He saw their way of life as inferior and in need of "improvement."

Another Example: The Lower Rajmahal Hills

Passing through a village in the lower Rajmahal hills, Buchanan wrote that the view of the country was "exceedingly fine." He praised the winding rice cultivation in the narrow valleys and the cleared lands with scattered trees. But then he added what he felt was missing: "all that is wanted is some appearance of progress in the area and a vastly extended and improved cultivation, of which the country is highly susceptible." …