Description
Book SynopsisWhat is colonialism and what is a colonial state? In exploring these questions, Ranajit Guha points out that the South Asian colonial state was a historical paradox. Britain may have ruled India as a colony, but it never achieved hegemony over most of the population, collaborating with the nationalist elite but never persuading the masses.
Trade ReviewRanajit Guha is, arguably, the most creative Indian historian of this century. His works have deeply influenced not only the writing of subcontinental history, but also historical investigations elsewhere, as well as cultural studies, literary theories, and social analyses across the world. -- Amartya Sen
Aside from its obvious relevance to Indian history, Guha's book is a brilliant example of revolutionary historical method, new perspectives on nationalist history, and theoretical inventiveness in the procedures of historical research. -- Edward W. Said
Over the years, the result of this endeavor has been the production of an eclectic brand of ideological theories, an incisive critique of the existing Indian historiography, and a renewed theoretical fervor, as this book itself epitomizes, for retrieving the history of the "subaltern" past – their revolutionary political moments and cultural class consciousness. -- Amalendu K. Chakraborty * Journal of World History *
Table of ContentsPreface Note on Transliteration PART 1: Colonialism in South Asia: A Dominance without Hegemony and Its Historiography I. Conditions for a Critique of Historiography Dominance and Its Historiographies Containment of Historiography in a Dominant Culture Where Does Historical Criticism Come From? The Universalizing Tendency of Capital and Its Limitations The General Configuration of Power in Colonial India II. Paradoxes of Power Idioms of Dominance and Subordination Order and Danda Improvement and Dharma Obedience and Bhakti Rightful Dissent and Dharmic Protest III. Dominance without Hegemony: The Colonialist Moment Overdeterminations Colonialism as the Failure of a Universalist Project The Fabrication of a Spurious Hegemony The Bad Faith of Historiography IV. Preamble to an Autocritique PART 2: Discipline and Mobilize: Hegemony and Elite Control in Nationalist Campaigns I. Mobilization and Hegemony Anticipation of Power by Mobilization A Fight for Prestige II. Swadeshi Mobilization Poor Nikhilesh Caste Sanctions Social Boycott Liberal Politics, Traditional Bans Swadeshi by Coercion or Consent? III. Mobilization For Non-cooperation Social Boycott in Non-cooperation Gandhi's Opposition to Social Boycott Hegemonic Claims Contested IV. Gandhian Discipline Discipline versus Persuasion Two Disciplines- Elite and Subaltern Crowd Control and Soul Control V. Conclusion PART 3: An Indian Historiography of India: Hegemonic Implications of a Nineteenth-Century Agenda I. Calling on Indians to Write Their Own History II. Historiography and the Formation of a Colonial State Early Colonial Historiography Three Types of Narratives Education as an Instrument of Colonialism The Importance of English III. Colonialism and the Languages of the Colonized Indigenous Languages Harnessed to the Raj Novels and Histories Beginnings of an Indigenous Rationalist Historiography An Ideology of Matribhasha IV. Historiography and the Question of Power An Appropriated Past The Theme of Kalamka Bahubol and Its Objects V. A Failed Agenda Notes Glossary Index
