Notions of Nationhood in Bengal: Perspectives on Samaj, c. 1867-1905 (Philosophy of History and Culture)

This book opens fresh ways of rethinking colonial nationalisms, qualifying derivative, political and modernist paradigms. Introducing the category of samaj (cultural entity), it shows how indigenous socio-cultural origins were reconfigured in modern Bengali-Indian nationhood to conceptualise unities and mediate fragmentation. This book reopens the debate on colonial nationalisms, going beyond ‘derivative', ‘borrowed', political and modernist paradigms. It introduces the conceptual category of samaj to demonstrate how indigenous socio-cultural origins in Bengal interacted with late-colonial discourses to produce the notion of a nation. Samaj (a historical society and an idea-in-practice) was a site for reconfiguring antecedents and negotiating fragmentation. Drawing on indigenous sources, this study shows how caste, class, ethnicity, region and community were refracted to conceptualise wider unities. The mapping of cultural continuities through change facilitates a more nuanced investigation of the ontology of nationhood, seeing it as related to, but more than political nationalism. It outlines a fresh paradigm for recalibrating postcolonial identities, offering interpretive strategies to mediate fragmentation. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One. Nationalist Ideologues, Ideas and their Dissemination Chapter Two. Recreating a Jati ChapterThree. Samaj and Perspectives on Unity Chapter Four. Caste, Class and Internal 'Others': 'Lower Orders' in Bengal Chapter Five. Contiguous Ethnicities Chapter Six. Sub-Regional 'Essences' and the Regional Self Chapter Seven. FromRegion to Nation:The Idea of India Conclusion Bibliography Glossary Index Intends to open fresh ways of rethinking colonial nationalisms, qualifying derivative, political and modernist paradigms. Introducing the category of samaj (cultural entity), this book shows how indigenous socio-cultural origins were reconfigured in modern Bengali-Indian nationhood to conceptualise unities and mediate fragmentation By Swarupa Gupta. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.