The Imaginary Institution of India: Politics and IdeasFor decades Sudipta Kaviraj has worked with and improved upon Marxist and subaltern studies, capturing India's social and political life through its diverse history and culture. While this technique has been widely celebrated in his home country, Kaviraj's essays have remained largely scattered abroad. This collection finally presents his work in one convenient volume and, in doing so, reasserts the brilliance of his approach. As evidenced in these essays, Kaviraj's exceptional strategy positions Indian politics within the political philosophy of the West and alongside the perspectives of Indian history and indigenous political thought. Studies include the peculiar nature of Indian democracy; the specific aspects of Jawaharlal Nehru's and Indira Gandhi's regimes; political culture in independent India; the construction of colonial power; the relationship between state, society, and discourse; the structure of nationalist discourse; language and identity formation in Indian contexts; the link between development and democracy, or democratic functioning; and the interaction among religion, politics, and modernity in South Asia. Each of these essays explores the place of politics in the social life of modern India and is powered by the idea that Indian politics is plastic, reflecting and shaping the world in which people live. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Structure | 39 |
On the Structure of Nationalist Discourse | 85 |
Copyright | |
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administration analysis argument Bankimchandra Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay Bengali bhadralok Bhudev Bhudev Mukhopadhyay British rule caste causal Chatterjee coalition cognitive collective colonial power complex concepts Congress consciousness constitution construction context create critique cultural Delhi democracy democratic diglossia distinction dominance earlier economic elections electoral elite emerged equally essays Europe European existence fuzzy Gandhi hegemony Hindi Hindu society Hinduism history of India ibid idea identity ideological imperial Indian history Indian nationalism Indian politics Indian society Indira Gandhi initiatives institutions intellectual interesting internal Kaviraj kind language linguistic logic Marxist modern modernist Muslim narrative national movement nationalist Nehru object Oxford University Press Partha Chatterjee parties past policies practices precisely principles question radical regime regional relation rulers Sanskrit Satavahanas Shiv Sena shows significant social groups social theory social world story strategy structure subaltern Subaltern Studies theoretical thinking tical tion traditional understand utilitarian Uttar Pradesh vernacular Western writing