1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910808993403321

Autore

Kaviraj Sudipta

Titolo

The imaginary institution of India : politics and ideas / / Sudipta Kaviraj

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, : Columbia University Press, c2010

ISBN

1-282-89787-X

9786612897870

0-231-52651-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (309 p.)

Disciplina

306.20954

Soggetti

Political science - India - Philosophy

Nationalism - India

Postcolonialism - India

India Social conditions 1947-

India Politics and government 1947-

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. On State, Society, and Discourse in India -- 2. On the Construction of Colonial Power: Structure, Discourse, Hegemony -- 3. On the Structure of Nationalist Discourse -- 4. Writing, Speaking, Being: Language and the Historical Formation of Identities in India -- 5. The Imaginary Institution of India -- 6. A State of Contradictions: The Post-colonial State in India -- 7. Government and Opposition: Fifty Years of Indian Independence -- 8. The Reversal of Orientalism: Bhudev Mukhopadhyay and the Project of Indigenist Social Theory -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

For 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.