The Secret Life of Another Indian Nationalism: Transitions from the Pax Britannica to the Pax Americana

Description

Nationalism is among the most influential ideas that has shaped the 'Metamorphoses of the Political' in the long twentieth century. This book focuses on exclusivist Indian nationalism and identifies its distinction from inclusivist nationalism. It highlights shifts in 'another Indian nationalism' over the last two centuries as the geopolitical context has transitioned from the Pax Britannica to the Pax Americana and its war on terror. The books braids the following three strands together: first, a majoritarian nationalist ideology called Hindutva; second, the making of popular history as a precolonial epic is highlighted, depicting the defeat of the last Hindu Emperor by a conquering Muslim Sultan purportedly leading to eight centuries of Hindu enslavement and third, the 'reconversion' of a community by the Visva Hindu Parishad with consequences for Lived Hinduism and Indic civilisation with its complex identities.

Shail Mayaram is Professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi and Co-Director of the International Center for Advanced Study (ICAS-MP). Some of her publications include Against History, Against State: Counterperspectives from the Margins (2003); Resisting Regimes: Myth, Memory and the Shaping of a Muslim Identity (2016, 2nd edition) and Israel as the Gift of the Arabs: Letters from Tel Aviv (2015).

'This magisterial book brings together history, ethnography and political theory to compose a remarkable argument about the ways in which colonial administrative knowledge made a deep contribution to the transformation of vernacular nationalism into Hindutva hyper-nationalism. Shail Mayaram's book brings Rajasthan into the deep history of postcolonial Hindu fundamentalism in India and deals a decisive blow to the orientalist fantasy of Rajasthan as an Indian setting for the Game of Thrones.' Arjun Appadurai, New York University 'This deeply thoughtful book excavates out of layers of received colonial and national renderings of Indian pasts, practices of popular history and folk religion that shine a ray of hope on an India otherwise consumed by narratives of a struggle-to-death between a hyper-masculine and majoritarian Hindu nationalism symbolised by Savarkar and an ethical one associated with Gandhi. Mayaram offers a judicious blending of fieldwork and historical research in the Merwara region of Rajasthan to find yet another India that comes into view only when we shift our focus away from the state and towards the domain of the everyday and the popular. A remarkable contribution to the history of the present.' Dipesh Chakrabarty, The University of Chicago 'The Secret Life of Another Indian Nationalism is a fearless exploration into many different archives that have a compelling story to tell of paths taken or not taken in the history of empire and of different nationalisms in India. Shail Mayaram's deep engagement with the dispersed archives that criss-cross with the official archives have much to teach us on questions of theory and method. Accessing experiences that have left indelible traces in vernacular tracts, folklore and stories that grow around local sites, this book opens new paths of discovery and recovery that are thought-provoking even when, and especially when, they challenge settled ideas about Indian political history.' Veena Das, Johns Hopkins University