ERC Starting Grants:

Musical Transitions to European Colonialism in the

eastern Indian Ocean

Dr Katherine Butler SCHOFIELDKing’s College London, UK

ERC Starting Grants

Singapore

Penang

Melaka

Musical Transitions to Colonialism

Overall Aims• To produce a comprehensive connected history of the transition

between pre-colonial and colonial musical fields.

• Focus on the eastern Indian Ocean: India and the Malay World in the period of British expansion, c.1750-1900.

• From Muslim courts to British colonialism; from Persianate knowledge systems to post-Enlightenment rationalism.

• KEY DEBATE: The extent and nature of colonialism’s impact on the cultures and knowledge systems of the colonised.

• KEY HYPOTHESIS: That there was a gradual and incomplete transformation of musical fields and knowledge systems, not the radical disjuncture that is currently postulated.

• KEY METHODOLOGY: Archival (& field) research in Asian and European languages; combining ethnomusicology and history.

Methodology: Three Case Studies• “Vertical” transitions:

chronological, from pre-colonial Muslim courts in North India and Malay World to British colonialism.

• “Horizontal” trans-itions: geographical, between India and the Malay World.

• Awadh Case Study

• Malay Case Study

• India-Malay CS

Innovative Aspects

This project will be the first to:

• Address the critical period of transition from pre-colonial to colonial musical knowledge systems in South & Southeast Asia, c.1780-1870.

• Conduct in-depth archival research on Indian and Malay music that connects and combines European- and Asian-language sources and critically examines their relationships over time.

• Consider India and the Malay World as an inter-regional arena for the purposes of studying Asian musics under colonialism.

• Produce a detailed history of music in the Malay World before c.1870.

Research Team

Principal InvestigatorAdministrative Assistant (20%)

ACS

Principal Investigator

3 Visiting Fellows

1 PhD student(under PI’s supervision)

MCS

MCS Post-Doc

0.5 Visiting Fellow

1 PhD student(under PI’s supervision)

IMCS

IMCS Post-Doc

Principal Investigator

0.5 Visiting Fellow

BudgetOverall: €1,181,555

Major items of expenditure:

• Salary costs (Personnel): €705K• Travel and subsistence for visiting fellows (ODC: Other): €89K• Travel and subsistence for research trips (ODC: Travel): €152K

Subcontracting:

• First-draft translations: €16K• Audit: €7.5K

Application process• Sept 2009: Preparation of application (deadline December).

Close consultation with KCL research office, discussion with prospective team members, preparation of budget, writing of grant proposal, drafts read by senior members of department.

• Apr 2010: Informed of shortlisting.

• May 2010: Interview in Brussels. 10 min presentation and lengthy Q&A with large panel of senior scholars in arts and humanities broadly.

• July 2010: Awarded the grant in principle; enter Grant Negotiation. Editing and rewriting of application documents in line with suggestions from expert reviewers.

• Sept 2010: Grant Agreement signed

• Jan 2011: Grant started

With thanks to the European Research Council

Contribution to the Field• To provide new histories that more comprehensively explain

the transformation of Indian and Malay music cultures in their encounter with colonial power.

• To contribute to resolving the wider historiographical issue of the relationship between indigenous and European knowledge systems in the transition to colonialism.

• To reawaken ethnomusicology to the advantages of comparative research between interconnected regions.

• To add a new dimension to the emerging history of the Indian Ocean after 1750.

ActivitiesMonths 0-24

• Appoint post-docs & admin asst (0-6); PhD students (13)

• Bulk of data collection from Europe, India, Malay world

• Bulk of visiting fellow research visits

• First-draft translations of major sources

• Year 1 team meeting• Year 2 mid-point conference• External conference papers• PI coordination & reporting

Months 25-48• Collection of outstanding

data and pics for publication• Bulk of analysis of archival

and audio/visual data• Preparation of major

deliverables for publication• Year 3 team meeting• Year 4 final public

conference• External conference papers• PI coordination & reporting

DeliverablesMonths 0-24

• Methodological article based on Year 1 research (PI, PDs)

• Review article based on Year 2 conference (PI, PDs)

• MCS article (VF)• Set up and populate

bibliographical database of 18C & 19C Indian & Malay sources (AA)

• Internal meeting reports & ERC annual reports (PI/AA)

Months 25-48• Continue and complete

database• 2 PhD theses (submit 48)• 3 books, 1 per case study(PI,

PDs, VFs) (draft MSS 42-45)• IMCS article (PI)• Edited volume/journal issue

based on Year 4 conference (Team) (draft MS 48)

• Internal meeting reports & ERC annual reports (PI/AA)