The Indian postcolonial: a critical reader

"India has often been at the centre of debates on and definitions of the postcolonial condition. Offering a challenging new direction for the field, this Critical Reader confronts how theory in the Indian context is responding in vital terms to our understanding of that condition today. The Indian Postcolonial: A Critical Reader is made up of four sections looking in turn at: visual cultures; translating cultural traditions; the ethical text; global/cosmopolitan worlds. Each section is prefaced with a short introduction by the editors that locate these interdisciplinary articles within the contemporary national and international context. Showcasing the diversity and vitality of current debate, this volume collects the work of both established figures and a new generation of cultural critics. Challenging and unsettling many basic premises of postcolonial studies, this volume is the ideal Reader for students and scholars of the Indian Postcolonial."--Publisher's description.

The sacred circulation of national images / Partha Chatterjee -- The blurring of distinctions: the artwork and the religious icon in contemporary India / Tapati Guha-Thakurta -- Ray, ventriloquism and illusion / Robert J.C. Young -- Fan bhakti and subaltern sovereignty: enthusiasm as a political factor / M. Madhava Prasad -- Auerbach in Istanbul: Edward Said, secular criticism, and the question of minority culture / Aamir R. Mufti -- Vinayak and me: Hindutva and the politics of naming / Vinayak Chaturvedi / Belatedness as possibility: subaltern histories, once again / Dipesh Chakrabarty -- Of demons and angels and historical humans: some events and questions in translation and postcolonial theory / Aniket Jaaware -- Ethics and politics in Tagore, Coetzee and certain scenes of teaching / Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak / Self, body and inner sense: some reflections on Sree Narayana Guru and Kumaran Asan / Udaya Kumar -- Postcolonial relations: Gandhi, Nehru and the ethical imperatives of the national-popular / Rajeswari Sunder Rajan / Humiliation: the politics and cultural psychology of the limits of human degradation / Ashis Nandy -- The alien face of cosmopolitanism: an Indian reading…