Nationalism in India: Texts and Contexts

Description

This book offers interdisciplinary perspectives on nationalism in India and examines the ways in which literary-textual representations intervene in debates regarding Hindu, Muslim and other forms of Indian nationalism. The book interrogates questions of nationalism and nationhood in relation to literary and cultural texts, historic-linguistic contexts and new developments in queer nationalism and ecological nationalism. It adopts a nation-wide emphasis, including chapters on Northeast India and other regions that have been historically underrepresented in studies of Indian nationalism. Moreover, the volume explores a rich variety of literary works by various writers over the past two centuries that have created, enshrined and contested ideas pivotal to the development of Indian nationalism. Located in a range of disciplines, contributors bring extensive expertise in Indian literature, language and culture to the question of nationalism. The chapters challenge many of the accepted ideas on nationalism and critically examine the politics behind such nationalisms. Moving beyond an approach to Indian nationalism based exclusively in the historicist-political paradigm, this timely book challenges established ideas in Indian nationalism and critically examines the politics of nationalisms in terms of textual representations. The book will be of interest to researchers working on South Asian studies, including Indian culture, history, literature and politics. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of contributors Dedication Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Interdisciplinary perspectives on Indian nationalism 2. The founder of Hindu nationalism?: The representation of Shivaji in Philip Meadows Taylor’s novel Tara 3. Nation-in-translation: Interrogating the ethno-cultural discourse of “nation-ness” in the Bengali novel Anandamath 4. Proto-nationalist spectacle on nineteenth-century Bengali stage 5. From revolt to rustication: Urdu and the Indian national imagination (1857–1947) 6. Divided nations, unified sensibilities: Tales of the woe of the partition of the Indian subcontinent 7. The question of language in the mothering of a territory: Understanding conflicts in embodiment of territories in a multilingual space 8. Nationalism through the glorification of a precolonial Indian past in the work of Chandamama 9. Re-examining nationalism and Hindu religious rhetoric in India: A reading of Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness 10. Unacceptable citizens: Queer communities and homonationalism in India 11. The “queer nation” – moving beyond boundaries?: A study of select South Asian novels 12. The expression of ecological nationalism in the lyrical narratives of Bhupen Hazarika 13. “This Is Our Homeland. Out With Foreign Infiltrators”: A study of geography, nationalism and ethnicity in Mitra Phukan’s The Collector’s Wife 14. Reconfiguring Indian nationalism Index