Our textbook view of the history of modern physical science (meaning: physical theory and all its applications to problems in astronomy, geodesy, experimental physics, etc.) focuses heavily on theoretical innovations and crucial experiments by European scientists. When explaining advances and discoveries outside of Europe, historians have long appealed to a mere "diffusion" (Kapil Raj) of pre-figured bodies of knowledge. My research on physical geodesy made me realize just how narrow this account is. Precision surveying, astronomy, and gravimetry in South Asia long constituted a relatively autonomous and stable field of science, contributing some of the most important data for studying the earth's figure and gravity field; an extremely prestigious problem that was pursued by the likes of Laplace, Gauss, and Poincaré. In my research, I investigate the unique socio-epistemic circumstances enabling, constraining, and shaping geodetic investigations in South Asia, which I consider an essential element of the history of physics at large. Scientists had to balance a variety of conflicting institutional interests, ranging from the East India Company's imperial expansionism to the political interests of semi-independent regional rulers. Moreover, geodesy was not merely pursued by British scientists but involved major contributions by rarely recognized figures like the Bengali mathematician Radhanath Sikdar and the Bengali instrument maker Syed Mir Mohsin.