1st Edition

Constructing Post-Colonial India National Character and the Doon School

By Sanjay Srivastava Copyright 1998
    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    An interdisciplinary and engaging book which looks at the nature of Indian society since Independence and unpacks what post-colonialism means to Indian citizens. Using the case study of the Doon School, a famous boarding school for boys, and one of the leading educational institutions in India, the author argues that to be post-colonial in India is to be modern, rational, secular and urban. In placing post-colonialism in this concrete social context, and analysing how it is constructed, the author renders a complex and often rather abstract subject accessible.

    Introduction: the seductions of capital 1 Practical minds, solid builders, and sane opinions 2 The marble mirage: constructing the Orient 3 The garden of rational delights 4 Secularism, the citizen, and Hindu contextualism 5 The management of water: capitalism, class, and science 6 The order of men: sentiments of the metropolis, settlements of civil society 7 Conclusion: ‘post-coloniality’, national identity, globalisation, and the simulacra of the real

    Biography

    Sanjay Srivastava trained as a social anthropologist and is presently senior lecturer in the School of Literary and Communication Studies at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.

    'Going far beyond the "sociology of education" framework, the study marks a noteworthy intervention in the academic debate on India's tryst with modernity ... an important contribution.' - The Australian Journal of Anthropology