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Taking the contentious debates surrounding historical evidence and history-writing between secularists and Hindu nationalists as the starting point, this book seeks to understand the origins of a growing historical consciousness in contemporary India, especially amongst Hindus. The broad question it poses is: Why has History become such an important site of identity, conflict and self-definition amongst modern Hindus, especially when Hinduism is conventionally known to have been impervious to History earlier? Turning to the colonial period as the Indian elite’s originary ‘moment of encounter’ with modern ideas, this book looks at the manner in which three prominent individuals from colonial western India — lower-caste public figure Jotiba Phule, ‘moderate’ nationalist M. G. Ranade and Hindu nationalist V. D. Savarkar — encountered history and religion as emblematic of three varying but not mutually exclusive responses amongst Hindus that contributed to the framing of a modern–historical Indian Hindu identity. While underscoring the importance all three figures accorded the discourse of History, the volume also emphasizes differences in their approaches arising out of the manner in which each chose to negotiate modern ideas of History. History in the case of Phule and Ranade was both accepted and sometimes not, indicating an excess that could not necessarily be ‘contained’ within modern categories of understanding
ISBN - 9780415597500
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Pages : 252
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