{"product_id":"castes-of-mind-9780691088952","title":"Castes of Mind","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen thinking of India, it is hard not to think of caste. This work argues that caste is, in fact, neither an unchanged survival of ancient India nor a single system that reflects a core cultural value. It traces the career of caste from the medieval kingdoms of southern India to the textual traces of early colonial archives.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Massively documented and brilliantly argued, \u003ci\u003eCastes of Mind\u003c\/i\u003e is a study in true contrapuntal interpretation. Nicholas Dirks is a subtle unraveler of the dense, many-layered fabric of India's colonial and modern history as they converge in the idea and practice of caste. Even for the nonspecialist, the results of this gripping book are remarkable to behold. No one before Dirks has examined the ways in which caste gathers from as well as ignores the complex realities and hierarchies of Indian society. Neither reductive nor schematic, the notion of caste that emerges here is genuinely original.\"\u003cb\u003e—Edward W. Said\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments ix  Abbreviations xv  PART ONE: THE \"INVENTION\" OF CASTE 1  One: Introduction: The Modernity of Caste 3  Two: Homo Hierarchicus: The Origins of an Idea 19  Three: The Ethnographic State 43  PART TWO: COLONIZATION OF THE ARCHIVE 61  Four: The Original Caste: Social Identity in the Old Regime 63  Five: The Textualization of Tradition: Biography of an Archive 81  Six: The Imperial Archive: Colonial Knowledge and Colonial Rule 107  PART THREE: THE ETHNOGRAPHIC STATE 125  Seven: The Conversion of Caste 127  Eight: The Policing of Tradition: Colonial Anthropology and the Invention of Custom 149  Nine: The Body of Caste: Anthropology and the Criminalization of Caste 173  Ten: The Enumeration of Caste: Anthropology as Colonial Rule 198  PART FOUR: RECASTING INDIA: CASTE, COMMUNITY, AND POLITICS 229  Eleven: Toward a Nationalist Sociology of India: Nationalism and Brahmanism 231  Twelve: The Reformation of Caste: Periyar, Ambedkar, and Gandhi 255  Thirteen: Caste Politics and the Politics of Caste 275  Fourteen: Conclusion: Caste and the Postcolonial Predicament 297  Coda: The Burden of the Past: On Colonialism and the Writing of History 303  Notes 317  Index 359","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48865517109591,"sku":"9780691088952","price":37.8,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780691088952.jpg?v=1722274348","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/castes-of-mind-9780691088952","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}