Postcolonial Theory and the Making of Hindu Nationalism (Routledge/Edinburgh South Asian Studies Series)

This book tells the story of two strange bedfellows, the Postcolonial Left and the Hindu Right.

It argues that the Postcolonial Left’s relentless attacks on the “epistemic violence” of Western norms of rationality and modernity are providing the conceptual vocabulary for the Hindu Right’s project of “decolonizing the Hindu mind.” The postcolonial project of “provincializing Europe” is widely shared by the Hindu Right, and harks back to the Hindu revivalist movements of the nineteenth century. This book argues that postcolonial thought in India bears a strong family resemblance, in context and content, with the “conservative revolution” that brought down the Weimar Repbulic in Germany before the Nazi takeover.

Both an intellectual history of India through the last half-century and a critical engagement with postcolonial theory, this book will be of interest to scholars of South Asia and the humanities and social sciences at large.

Meera Nanda is a crossover from natural sciences (Ph.D., Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India) to the humanities (Ph.D. Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, USA). She taught the History of Science at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research. She has authored several books, including Prophets Facing Backward: Postmodern Critiques of Science and Hindu Nationalism (2004) and her most recent A Field Guide to Post- truth India (2024). She lives in Connecticut, USA.