Imagining India

by Inden, Ronald

• ISBN13: 9780253213587
• ISBN10: 0253213584
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-02-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

"An important book, a major work, that must be read and absorbed by those involved in scholarship, or any critical enterprise." -- The IndependentHow does the Western world represent India? To what extent is knowledge of the people and institutions of the Indian sub-continent based on the West's own desires for world hegemony, and fantasies about its rationality? In this controversial and widely-praised book, Inden argues that the West's major depictions of India as the civilization of caste, villages, spiritualism, and divine kings -- and as a land dominated by imagination rather than reason -- have had the effect of depriving Indians of their capacity to rule their world, which has consequently been appropriated by those in the West who wish to dominate it.First published in 1990, Imagining India is required reading in many university courses. This edition contains a new introduction.

Author Biography

Ronald Inden is Professor of South Asian History at the University of Chicago.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	v
Author's Preface to the Second Impression	xi
Introduction	1	(262)
Plan of the Book	4	(3)
Knowledge of India and Human Agency	7	(42)
Essences	7	(15)
Science's Imperial Metaphor - Society as a Mechanical Body	7	(5)
Indology as Natural Science	12	(9)
Metaphysical Malaise at Science's Summit	21	(1)
Agents: Systems of Overlapping Classes	22	(14)
Agents Simple and Complex	22	(5)
Form `Society' to Polities	27	(2)
Imperial Formations	29	(4)
Knowledge as a Scale of Forms	33	(3)
Orientalist Discourse	36	(13)
Bias, Power, and Knowledge	36	(2)
Commentative Accounts	38	(3)
Explanatory or Interpretive Accounts	41	(2)
Hegemonic Accounts	43	(6)
India in Asia: The Caste Society	49	(36)
The Orients	49	(2)
Empirical, Real India: The Ruling Ideas	51	(15)
Oriental Despotism and the Asiatic Mode of Production	51	(3)
Conquest and the Unmaking of India	54	(2)
Caste as Race	56	(10)
Romantic India	66	(8)
The Loyal Opposition	66	(3)
Caste as Idea	69	(5)
Dissenting and Changing Views	74	(11)
Hinduism: The Mind of India	85	(46)
Male Manager, Female Jungle: European Science and Indian Religion	85	(4)
Psychic Origins	89	(8)
Utilitarian and Anglican Distortions	89	(4)
Romantic and Rationalist Dreams	93	(4)
Brahmanism, the Aryan Mind in the Tropics	97	(12)
Vedic Sacrifice as Displaced Materialism	97	(4)
Upanishadic Mysticism as Misguided Idealism	101	(4)
Sankara, Hero of the Imagination	105	(4)
Hinduism, Symbols for the People	109	(8)
The Theistic Creeds and Image-worship of the Laity	109	(6)
The Animistic Cults and Blood Sacrifices of the Peasants	115	(2)
Medieval Decline, the Dravidian Mind Triumphant	117	(5)
Jungians and Structuralists: Today's Variants	122	(5)
Critical Summary	127	(4)
Village India, Living Essence of the Ancient	131	(31)
Idyllic Communities	131	(3)
Organic Inside, Atomic Outside	134	(9)
Marx: Asiatic Communes and Rural Mentalities	134	(3)
Maine and the Aryan Village Brotherhood	137	(3)
Baden-Powell and the Dravidian Severalty Village	140	(3)
Caste's Political Economy	143	(6)
Fixed Share Payments (Fajmani)	143	(2)
Councils and Headmen	145	(4)
Nationalist and Post-Independence Depictions	149	(8)
From Early Ancient Tribal to Late Ancient Socialist	149	(2)
Neo-Hegelian Anthropology	151	(3)
Neo-Marxist History	154	(3)
Critique	157	(5)
Divine Kingship, the Hindu Type of Government	162	(51)
Nation State, Natural State	162	(3)
Absolute Monarchy, Instrument of the Caste Society	165	(7)
Utilitarian Despotism	165	(4)
Political Disunity, Priestly Tyranny	169	(3)
Clan Monarchy, the Post-tribal State	172	(8)
Oriental Feudalism: Tod's Rajputs	172	(4)
From Feudal to Tribal	176	(4)
Imperial Monarchy, Western Order in the East	180	(8)
Administrative Despotism	180	(5)
From Ancient Unity to Medieval Anarchy	185	(3)
Imperial Death and National Rebirth	188	(10)
One or Many, Contract or Dharma?	188	(4)
Bureaucracy Above, Democracy Below	192	(6)
Independence and the Discovery of the Third World	198	(15)
From Administrative Unity to Cultural Integration	198	(3)
Where Caste is King: L. Dumont	201	(2)
Transcendent Brahman, Social Disorder, Sacrificial King: J. C. Heesterman	203	(3)
Segmentary State, Ritual Sovereignty: Burton Stein	206	(5)
Conclusion	211	(2)
Reconstructions	213	(50)
From Patients to Agents	213	(15)
Eurasia's Four Imperial Formations	213	(4)
Castes as Subject-citizenries	217	(3)
Assemblies of the Rural Citizenry	220	(4)
Assemblies of the Urban Citizenry	224	(4)
The Imperial Formation of the Rashtrakutas	228	(16)
Holding Court and Issuing Orders	228	(5)
Ceremonial Baths and Luminous Wills	233	(6)
Kings, Lords, and Officials	239	(5)
Conquering the Quarters	244	(19)
From Tributary Lord to Overlord of the Earth	244	(5)
Displaying a New Overlordship	249	(4)
Commanding and Remaking Time	253	(3)
Recentring the Indian World	256	(7)
Concluding Remarks	263	(8)
Bibliography	271	(15)
Index	286