The construction of history and nationalism in India : textbooks, controversies and politics
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The construction of history and nationalism in India : textbooks, controversies and politics
(Routledge advances in South Asian studies / series editor, Subrata K. Mitra, 17)
Routledge, 2012
- : pbk
Available at 1 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
"First published 2010"--T.p. verso
Includes bibliographical references (p. [193]-222) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Most studies on nations and nationalism argue that history, or more precisely a 'common past', is crucial for the process of national identity building. However, the existence of one or more concurrent narratives for the construction of this identity is often not accounted for, and there are cases where the 'common past' or a 'collective memory' is no longer shared.
This book centres on the construction, elaboration and negotiation of the narratives that have become official history in India. These narratives influence politics and the representation of the nation. Depending on the chosen definition of the nation, over 160 million Muslim Indians are either included or excluded from the nation, and considered as 'foreigners from inside'. The author shows that beyond the antagonism of two representations of history, two conceptions of the Indian nation - secular and Hindu nationalist - confronted each other during the history textbook controversy between 1998 and 2004. The diverging elements of the two discourses are underlined, and surprising similarities are uncovered. Yet, in contemporary India this convergence remains overshadowed in political debates as the definition of the political has been shaped by the opposition between these two visions of the nation. This book analyzes and questions the conception of the school textbook as a tool of national construction and more generally highlights the complexity of the link between historiography, nation-state and nation-building.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1. Nation, Religion and History 2. Textbooks, Teachers and Students 3. The Debate in Context 4. Enemies and Defenders 5. Perspectives and Silences 6. General. Conclusion
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