The Nation and Its Fragments

The Nation and Its Fragments PDF Author: Partha Chatterjee
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691201420
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
In this book, the prominent theorist Partha Chatterjee looks at the creative and powerful results of the nationalist imagination in Asia and Africa that are posited not on identity but on difference with the nationalism propagated by the West. Arguing that scholars have been mistaken in equating political nationalism with nationalism as such, he shows how anticolonialist nationalists produced their own domain of sovereignty within colonial society well before beginning their political battle with the imperial power. These nationalists divided their culture into material and spiritual domains, and staked an early claim to the spiritual sphere, represented by religion, caste, women and the family, and peasants. Chatterjee shows how middle-class elites first imagined the nation into being in this spiritual dimension and then readied it for political contest, all the while "normalizing" the aspirations of the various marginal groups that typify the spiritual sphere. While Chatterjee's specific examples are drawn from Indian sources, with a copious use of Bengali language materials, the book is a contribution to the general theoretical discussion on nationalism and the modern state. Examining the paradoxes involved with creating first a uniquely non-Western nation in the spiritual sphere and then a universalist nation-state in the material sphere, the author finds that the search for a postcolonial modernity is necessarily linked with past struggles against modernity.

The Nation and Its Fragments

The Nation and Its Fragments PDF Author: Partha Chatterjee
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691201420
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
In this book, the prominent theorist Partha Chatterjee looks at the creative and powerful results of the nationalist imagination in Asia and Africa that are posited not on identity but on difference with the nationalism propagated by the West. Arguing that scholars have been mistaken in equating political nationalism with nationalism as such, he shows how anticolonialist nationalists produced their own domain of sovereignty within colonial society well before beginning their political battle with the imperial power. These nationalists divided their culture into material and spiritual domains, and staked an early claim to the spiritual sphere, represented by religion, caste, women and the family, and peasants. Chatterjee shows how middle-class elites first imagined the nation into being in this spiritual dimension and then readied it for political contest, all the while "normalizing" the aspirations of the various marginal groups that typify the spiritual sphere. While Chatterjee's specific examples are drawn from Indian sources, with a copious use of Bengali language materials, the book is a contribution to the general theoretical discussion on nationalism and the modern state. Examining the paradoxes involved with creating first a uniquely non-Western nation in the spiritual sphere and then a universalist nation-state in the material sphere, the author finds that the search for a postcolonial modernity is necessarily linked with past struggles against modernity.

A Possible India

A Possible India PDF Author: Partha Chatterjee
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
Summary: Post 1947 political situation in India.

Empire and Nation

Empire and Nation PDF Author: Partha Chatterjee
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231152205
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
This book considers the politics of the Protestant Unionist Loyalist population in Northern Ireland during and following the peace process, and the political positioning of the main organizations representing organizations representing them as they inch towards a post-conflict society. Throughout the contemporary period, unionism has remained multilayered in its responses to key political events, sometimes reacting in complex and fractured ways that make it difficult for those outside that world to comprehend. One central question, however, remains. However, remains. How, if at all, has unionism changed following the political accord and the establishment of devolved government? The book sets out in detail how senses of identity and political processes are understood within unionism and how unionists and loyalists interpret these as a basis for social and political action. Using a wide range of sources the book highlights how new (and often competing) political discourses emerging from within have caused the reorganization of unionism, especially in response to those political groupings, which became known as `new loyalism' and `new unionism'. The book further investigates the dynamics behind the social and political fractures within unionism, identifying various fractions within contemporary unionism and loyalism and suggesting reasons for the flux within unionist politics.

Lineages of Political Society

Lineages of Political Society PDF Author: Partha Chatterjee
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231527918
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
Partha Chatterjee, a pioneering theorist known for his disciplinary range, builds on his theory of "political society" and reinforces its salience to contemporary political debate. Dexterously incorporating the concerns of South Asian studies, postcolonialism, the social sciences, and the humanities, Chatterjee broadly critiques the past three hundred years of western political theory to ask, Can democracy be brought into being, or even fought for, in the image of Western democracy as it exists today? Using the example of postcolonial societies and their political evolution, particularly communities within India, Chatterjee undermines the certainty of liberal democratic theory in favor of a realist view of its achievements and limitations. Rather than push an alternative theory, Chatterjee works solely within the realm of critique, proving political difference is not always evidence of philosophical and cultural backwardness outside of the West. Resisting all prejudices and preformed judgments, he deploys his trademark, genre-bending, provocative analysis to upend the assumptions of postcolonial studies, comparative history, and the common claims of contemporary politics.

The Truths and Lies of Nationalism as Narrated by Charvak

The Truths and Lies of Nationalism as Narrated by Charvak PDF Author: Partha Chatterjee
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438487789
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Written in the voice of the mythical atheist, naysayer, and general all-purpose heretic of Indian philosophy, The Truths and Lies of Nationalism as Narrated by Charvak presents a completely new way of telling the history of Indian nationalism. Severely criticizing the doctrines of both Hindu nationalism and pluralist secularism, it examines the ongoing debates over Indian civilization and recounts in detail how the present borders of India were defined by British colonial policy, the partition of 1947, and the integration of the princely states and the French and Portuguese territories. The emphasis is not so much on the state machinery inherited from colonial times but on the moral foundation of a new republic based on the solidarity of different but equal formations of the people. After a trenchant critique of the present-day conflicts over religion, caste, class, gender, language, and region in India, the book proposes a new politics of revitalized federalism. Intended for a general readership, and eschewing academic jargon, this book will be of interest to anyone concerned about the future of India.

Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World

Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World PDF Author: Partha Chatterjee
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 9780816623112
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
"If it isn't obvious from the title of this book that this is going to be full of postmodern jargon, it becomes clear quite quickly that Chaterjee prefers difficult terms like 'problematic', 'thematic' and 'discourse' without always defining them - he even admits his admiration for Rorty, Barthes, Foucault and Derrida. Nonetheless, underneath all of this verbiage is a strong and convincing argument about the three stages of nationalism in India: the moment of departure (epitomized by Bankimchandra Chatttopadhyay), the moment of manoeuvre (Gandhi) and the moment of arrival (Nehru). Chatterjee clearly shows how nationalism in India was akin to Gramsci's concept of the 'passive revolution' - i.e. merely a drive towards independence, not towards transforming or breaking up colonial instutions. He argues that, instead of supporting nationalism, we should instead challenge the marriage between reason and capital. From the title of this book one might expect Chatterjee to draw links to other anti-colonial nationalisms but he doesn't; rather he only discusses India (not even other parts of South Asia). While this approach doesn't really make this book too useful for examining anti-colonial nationalisms in general, for someone like me who has never read a book on Indian nationalism this is a good introduction." -- from Amazon.ca.

A Princely Impostor?

A Princely Impostor? PDF Author: Partha Chatterjee
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691090313
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description
In 1921 a traveling religious man appeared in eastern British Bengal. Soon residents began to identify this half-naked and ash-smeared sannyasi as none other than the Second Kumar of Bhawal--a man believed to have died twelve years earlier, at the age of twenty-six. So began one of the most extraordinary legal cases in Indian history. The case would rivet popular attention for several decades as it unwound in courts from Dhaka and Calcutta to London. This narrative history tells an incredible story replete with courtroom drama, sexual debauchery, family intrigue, and squandered wealth. With a novelist's eye for interesting detail, Partha Chatterjee sifts through evidence found in official archives, popular songs, and backstreet Bangladeshi bookshops. He evaluates the case of the man claiming, with the support of legions of tenants and relatives, to be the long-lost Kumar. And he considers the position of the sannyasi's detractors, including the colonial government and the Kumar's young widow, who resolutely refused to meet the man she denounced as an impostor. Along the way, Chatterjee introduces us to a fascinating range of human character, gleans insights into the nature of human identity, and examines the relation between scientific evidence, legal truth, and cultural practice. The story he tells unfolds alongside decades of Indian history. Its plot is shaped by changing gender and class relations and punctuated by critical historical events, including the onset of World War II, the Bengal famine of 1943, and the Great Calcutta Killings. And by identifying the earliest erosion of colonialism and the growth of nationalist thinking within the organs of colonial power, Chatterjee also gives us a secret history of Indian nationalism.

Routine Violence

Routine Violence PDF Author: Gyanendra Pandey
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804752640
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
This book investigates the ideological and political conditions that allow, and sanction, the undisguised political violence of our times. It is concerned with the regnant demands of nationalism and of history writing, and the unity and uniformity upon which these insist.

Fragments of Development

Fragments of Development PDF Author: Suzanne Bergeron
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472021567
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
By tracing out the intersection between the imagined space of the national economy and the gendered construction of "expert" knowledge in development thought, Suzanne Bergeron provides a provocative analysis of development discourse and practice. By elaborating a framework of including/excluding economic subjects and activities in development economics, she provides a rich account of the role that economists have played in framing the contested political and cultural space of development. Bergeron's account of the construction of the national economy as an object of development policy follows its shifting meanings through modernization and growth models, dependency theory, structural adjustment, and contemporary debates about globalization and highlights how intersections of nation and economy are based on gendered and colonial scripts. The author's analysis of development debates effectively demonstrates that critics of development who ignore economists' nation stories may actually bolster the formation they are attempting to subvert. Fragments of Development is essential reading for those interested in development studies, feminist economics, international political economy, and globalization studies.

Nationalism and the Postcolonial

Nationalism and the Postcolonial PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900446431X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
The contributions in Nationalism and the Postcolonial examine forms, representations, and consequences of ubiquitous nationalisms in languages, popular culture, and literature across the globe from the perspectives of linguistics, political science, cultural studies, and literary studies.