Emotions and Modernity in Colonial India : From Balance to Fervor

"With this pioneering project, Margrit Pernau brings the 'history of emotions' approach to South Asian studies. A theoretically sophisticated and erudite investigation, Emotions and Modernity in Colonial India maps the history of emotions in India between the uprising of 1857 and World War I. Situating the prevalent experiences, interpretations, and practices of emotions of the time within the context of the major political events of colonial India, Pernau goes beyond the dominant narrative of colonial modernity and its fixation with discipline and restrain, and traces the contemporary transformation from a balance in emotions to the resurgence of fervor. The current volume is based on a large archive of sources in Urdu, many being explored for the first time. Pernau grounds her work on such diverse sources as philosophical and theological treatises on questions of morality, advice literature, journals and newspapers, nostalgic descriptions of courtly culture, and even children's literature. This close look into individual experiences, practices, and interpretations reveals the myriad emotions of the day, and the importance of these micro-histories in presenting an alternative account of colonial India." -- Oxford Scholarship Online Emotions and Modernity in Colonial India investigates the experiences, interpretations and practices of emotions in India between 1857 and the First World War. It is based on a large archive of sources in Urdu, many explored for the first time. These sources range from philosophical and theological treatises on questions of morality to advice literature, from journals to newspapers, from children's literature to nostalgic descriptions of the courtly culture, from sermons to psychological essays. Modernity for long has been viewed as a process which went along with a growing control over emotions - whether this control was regarded as linked to capitalism, to the modern bureaucratic state or interpreted as a process through which external control mechanisms moved inside the subject. As the case studies of this book show, this discipline has to be viewed together with the transformation from the ideal of balance and harmony to a desire for strong, visceral and even indomitable passions, showing the youthfulness and vigor of the community. Men (and a little later also women) increasingly strove for an experience of these strong emotions and attempted to inculcate them in others as well, and they devised new languages and practices to bring about these feelings. 'Emotions and Modernity in Colonial India' investigates the experiences, interpretations and practices of emotions in India between 1857 and the First World War. It is based on a large archive of sources in Urdu, many explored for the first time, showing the transformation from the ideal of balance and harmony to a desire for strong, visceral and even indomitable passions, which the contemporaries took as a sign for the youthfulness and vigor of the community