Alternative Indias. Writing, Nation and Communalism.

ALEX TICKELL (EDS)/MOREY, PETER

ISBN 10: 9042019271 / ISBN 13: 9789042019270

Published by Amsterdam-New York, Rodopi. 2005, 2005

About this Item

Original publisher's green paper-covered boards, pictorial frontcover, large 8vo: xxxviii, 238pp., 10 contributions, footnotes & references, list contributors, index. Contributors: Peter Morey - Alex Tickell - Anshuman A. Mondal - Alex Tickell - Elleke Boehmer - Shirley Chew - Amina Yaqin - Ashok Bery - Peter Morey - Sujala Singh - Ralph J. Crane - Sharmila Sen. Very fine copy - as new. Volume 82: Cross/Cultures. Readings in the Post/Colonial Literatures in English.

Seller Inventory # 153632

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Alternative Indias. Writing, Nation and Communalism.
• Publisher: Amsterdam-New York, Rodopi. 2005
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9042019271
• ISBN 13: 9789042019270
• Binding: Hardcover

About this title

Synopsis

The debate over whether religious or secular identities provide the most viable model for a wider national identity has been a continuous feature of Indian politics from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Moreover, in the last thirty years the increasingly communal articulation of popular politics and the gradual rise of a constellation of Hindu nationalist parties headed by the BJP has increased the urgency of this debate. While Indian writing in English has fostered a long tradition of political dissent, and has repeatedly questioned ethnocentric, culturally exclusive forms of political identification, few critics have considered how this literature engages directly with communalism, or charted the literary-political response to key events such as the Babri Masjid / Ramjanmabhumi affair and the recent growth of popular forms of Hindu nationalism.
The essays collected in Alternative Indias break new ground in studies of Indian literature and film by discussing how key authors offer contending, ‘alternative’ visions of India and how poetry, fiction and film can revise both the communal and secular versions of national belonging that define current debates about ‘Indianness’. Including contributions from international scholars distinguished in the field of South Asian literary studies, and featuring an informative introduction charting the parallel developments of writing, the nation and communal consciousness, Alternative Indias offers a fresh perspective on the connections and discontinuities between culture and politics in the world’s biggest democracy.

About the Author

PETER MOREY is Senior Lecturer in English Literature in the School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies at the University of East London. He specializes in colonial and postcolonial literature and theory, with a particular interest in South Asia.
ALEX TICKELL is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Portsmouth. He has published widely on colonial and postcolonial literature.