Description
Book SynopsisPresents a critical survey of the practices of archaeology, art history, and museums in nineteenth- and twentieth-century India. This book features essays that look at the processes of the production of lost pasts in modern India: pasts that come to be imagined around a growing corpus of monuments, archaeological relics, and art objects.
Trade ReviewGuha-Thakurta has the rare ability to present extremely passionate issues in clear prose and to offer a well-thought-out position...This wonderful book will surely play an essential role in all future discussions of Indian art. -- David Carrier CAA Reviews This is an important new scholarly work... An astutely written analysis. -- Helen Asquine Fazio Journal of Asian Studies This is an important book for all libraries with collections in art history, archaeology and South Asian studies. -- Lynn Zastoupil Journal of Asian History Tapati Guha-Thakurta's book is a far-reaching study whose implications go well beyond in the case of India. -- Julie F. Codell Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History Compulsory reading for those who study South Asia. Contemporary South Asia Guha-Thakurta provides the most penetrating and conceptual frame for the institutional history of Indian art. -- Valdas Jaskunas ACTA Orientalia Vilnensia
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. The Colonial Past 1. The Empire and its Antiquities: Two Pioneers and Their Scholarly Fields 2.The Museum in the Colony: Conserving, Collecting, Classifying Part II. Regional Frames 3. Interlocuting Texts and Monuments: The Coming of Sge of the 'Native' Scholar 4. Between the Nation and the Region: The Locations of a Bengali Archaeologist 5. Wresting the Nation's Prerogative: Art History and Nationalism in Bengal Part III. National Claims 6. The Demands of Independence: From a National Exhibition to a National Museum 7. 'For the Greater Glory of Indian Art': Travels and Travails of a Yakshi Part IV. The Embattled Present 8. Art History and the Nude: On art, Obscenity, and Sexuality in Contemporary India 9. Archaeology and the Monument: On Two Contentious Sites of Faith and History Notes Bibliography Index
