The Oppressive Present Literature and Social Consciousness in Colonial India [Paperback]

Marking a departure from studies on history and literature in colonial India, The Oppressive Presentexplores the emergence of social consciousness as a result of and in response to the colonial mediation in the late nineteenth century. In focusing on contemporary literature in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, and Marathi, it charts an epochal change in the gradual loss of the old pre-colonial self and the configuration of a new, colonized self. It reveals that the oppressive present of generations of subjugated Indians remains so for their freed descendants: the consciousness of those colonized generations continues to characterize the modern educated Indian. The book proposes ambivalencerather than binary categories  such as communalism and nationalism, communalism and secularism, modernity and tradition  as key to understanding the making of this consciousness.

This cross-disciplinary volume will prove essential to scholars and students of modern and contemporary Indian history and society, comparative literature and post-colonial studies.

Prologue to this Edition. Acknowledgements.Introduction. 1. Crushed by English Poetry 2. Tradition: Orthodox and Heretical3. Defining the Nation. Conclusion. Notes.About the Author.Index

[A]n important addition to the growing literature on the social and cultural history of British India . . . [the book] offer[s] a knowledgeable and sensitive account . . . [Its] discussion of nationalism and communalism is illuminating . . . notable for its command over literature in several languages, and . . . nuanced reading of texts. The Journal of Asian Studies

[A] very intelligent book . . . carefully researched.  American Historical Rlsì