Notions of nationhood in Bengal : perspectives on Samaj, c. 1867-1905
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Notions of nationhood in Bengal : perspectives on Samaj, c. 1867-1905
（Philosophy of history and culture, v. 29）
Brill, 2009
Available at / 2 libraries
-
No Libraries matched.
- Remove all filters.
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 363-377) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This book reopens the debate on colonial nationalisms, going beyond 'derivative', 'borrowed', political and modernist paradigms. It introduces the conceptual category of samaj to demonstrate how indigenous socio-cultural origins in Bengal interacted with late-colonial discourses to produce the notion of a nation. Samaj (a historical society and an idea-in-practice) was a site for reconfiguring antecedents and negotiating fragmentation. Drawing on indigenous sources, this study shows how caste, class, ethnicity, region and community were refracted to conceptualise wider unities. The mapping of cultural continuities through change facilitates a more nuanced investigation of the ontology of nationhood, seeing it as related to, but more than political nationalism. It outlines a fresh paradigm for recalibrating postcolonial identities, offering interpretive strategies to mediate fragmentation.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Nationalist Ideologues, Ideas and their Dissemination
2. Recreating a Jati
3. Samaj and Perspectives on Unity
4. Caste, Class and Internal 'Others': 'Lower Orders' in Bengal
5. Contiguous Ethnicities
6. Sub-Regional 'Essences' and the Regional Self
7. From Region to Nation: The Idea of India
Conclusion
Bibliography
Glossary
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"