The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self Under Colonialism (Oxford India Paperbacks)

This study contends that modern colonialism is successful not only because the ruling country subjugates through superior technical and economic resources, but also because the rulers propagate cultural subservience of the subject people. Exploring the myths, fantasies and psychological defenses that went into the colonial culture, particularly the polarities that shaped the colonial theory of progress, Nandy describes the Indian experience and shows how the Indians broke with traditional norms of Western culture to protect their vision of an alternative future.

Ashis Nandy is at Smithsonian Institution, Washington.