Empire and Nation: Selected Essays

by Partha Chatterjee, Nivedita Menon

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231152211
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	05/10/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Partha Chatterjee is professor of political science at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, and professor of anthropology at Columbia University. His books include The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the World, A Possible India: Essays in Political Criticism, and The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories.

Nivedita Menon is professor of political theory at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. She is the author of Recovering Subversion and editor of Gender and Politics in India.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction Nivedita Menon 1

Part I Empire and Nation

1 Whose Imagined Community? (1991) 23

2 The Constitution of Indian Nationalist Discourse (1987) 37

3 History and the Nationalization of Hinduism (1991) 59

4 The Fruits of Macaulay's Poison Tree (1985) 91

5 Of Diaries, Delirium, and Discourse (1996) 111

6 The Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question (1989) 116

7 Our Modernity (1994) 136

8 A Tribute to the Master (2001) 153

9 Those Fond Memories of the Raj (2005) 161

10 Beyond the Nation? Or Within? (1997) 164

Part II Democracy

11 Democracy and the Violence of the State: A Political Negotiation of Death (2001) 181

12 Secularism and Toleration (1994) 203

13 Satanic? Or the Surrender of the Modern? (1988) 236

14 Development Planning and the Indian State (1994) 241

15 We Have Heard This Before (1990) 267

Part III Capital and Community

16 A Response to Taylors 'Modes of Civil Society' (1990) 275

17 A Brief History of Subaltern Studies (1998) 289

18 The Colonial State and Peasant Resistance in Bengal, 1920–1947 (1986) 302

19 On Religious and Linguistic Nationalisms: The Second Partition of Bengal (1999) 340

Index 359

What People are Saying About This

Dipesh Chakrabarty

Partha Chatterjee is one of the foremost scholars on Indian politics and political culture. Many of his essays have been discussed and debated but published elsewhere, so it is immensely useful to have so many collected in one place. I recommend this volume with enthusiasm.

— Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago