E-Book Overview
For decades Sudipta Kaviraj has worked with and improved upon Marxist and subaltern studies, capturing India's social and political life through its diverse history and culture. While this technique has been widely celebrated in his home country, Kaviraj's essays have remained largely scattered abroad. This collection finally presents his work in one convenient volume and, in doing so, reasserts the brilliance of his approach.
As evidenced in these essays, Kaviraj's exceptional strategy positions Indian politics within the political philosophy of the West and alongside the perspectives of Indian history and indigenous political thought. Studies include the peculiar nature of Indian democracy; the specific aspects of Jawaharlal Nehru's and Indira Gandhi's regimes; political culture in independent India; the construction of colonial power; the relationship between state, society, and discourse; the structure of nationalist discourse; language and identity formation in Indian contexts; the link between development and democracy, or democratic functioning; and the interaction among religion, politics, and modernity in South Asia. Each of these essays explores the place of politics in the social life of modern India and is powered by the idea that Indian politics is plastic, reflecting and shaping the world in which people live.
E-Book Content
The Imaginary Institution of India
The Imaginary Institution of India Politics and Ideas
Sudipta Kaviraj
Columbia University Press New York
Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © 2010 Sudipta Kaviraj All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kaviraj, Sudipta. The imaginary institution of India : politics and ideas / Sudipta Kaviraj. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-231-15222-8 (cloth : alk. paper)— ISBN 978-0-231-15223-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)— ISBN 978-0-231-52651-7 (ebook) 1. Political science—India—Philosophy. 2. Nationalism—India. 3. Postcolonialism—India. 4. India—Social conditions—1947– 5. India—Politics and government—1947– I. Title. JA84.I4K4 2010 306.20954—dc22 2009049464
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. This book is printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
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Nilanjana
Contents
Introduction 1 On State, Society, and Discourse in India
1 9
2 On the Construction of Colonial Power: Structure, Discourse, Hegemony
39
3 On the Structure of Nationalist Discourse
85
4 Writing, Speaking, Being: Language and the Historical Formation of Identities in India
127
5 The Imaginary Institution of India
167
6 A State of Contradictions: The Post-colonial State in India
210
7 Government and Opposition: Fifty Years of Indian Independence
234
8 The Reversal of Orientalism: Bhudev Mukhopadhyay and the Project of Indigenist Social Theory
254
Index
291
The Imaginary Institution of India
Introduction
T
hese essays were written over a long period of time, in answer to a single but vastly complex question. How does one try to understand coherently the internally diverse historical field of what we call Indian politics? Although published as academic papers, these essays were written primarily to clarify questions to myself, not to instruct others. For a long time I tried to fi