Partha Chatterjee is one of the world's greatest living theorists on the political, cultural, and intellectual history of nationalism. Beginning in the 1980s, his work, particularly within the context of India, has served as the foundation for subaltern studies, an area of scholarship he continues to develop.
In this collection, English-speaking readers are finally able to experience the breadth and substance of Chatterjee's wide-ranging thought. His provocative essays examine the phenomenon of postcolonial democracy and establish the parameters for research in subaltern politics. They include an early engagement with agrarian politics and Chatterjee's brilliant book reviews and journalism. Selections include one never-before-published essay, "A Tribute to the Master," which considers through a mock retelling of an episode from the classic Sanskrit epic, The Mahabharata, a deep dilemma in the study of postcolonial history, and several Bengali essays, now translated into English for the first time. An introduction by Nivedita Menon adds necessary context and depth, critiquing Chatterjee's ideas and their influence on contemporary political thought.
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- I: Empire and Nation
- 1: Whose Imagined Community?
- 2: The Constitution of Indian Nationalist Discourse
- 3: History and the Nationalization of Hinduism
- 4: The Fruits of Macaulay’s Poison Tree
- 5: Of Diaries, Delirium, and Discourse
- 6: The Nationalist Resolution of the Women’s Question
- 7: Our Modernity
- 8: A Tribute to the Master
- 9: Those Fond Memories of the Raj
- 10: Beyond the Nation? Or Within?
- II: Democracy
- 11: Democracy and the Violence of the State: A Political Negotiation of Death
- 12: Secularism and Toleration
- 13: Satanic? Or the Surrender of the Modern?
- 14: Development Planning and the Indian State
- 15: We Have Heard This Before
- III: Capital and Community
- 16: A Response to Taylor’s ‘Modes of Civil Society’
- 17: A Brief History of Subaltern Studies
- 18: The Colonial State and Peasant Resistance in Bengal, 1920–1947
- 19: On Religious and Linguistic Nationalisms: The Second Partitionof Bengal
- Index
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