Dialogue and history : constructing South India, 1795-1895 / Eugene F. Irschick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Irschick, Eugene F.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

India, South--History.

India, South.

South India.

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 263 pages : maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Berkeley ; London : University of California Press, 1994.

Summary:

Eugene Irschick deftly questions the conventional wisdom that knowledge about a colonial culture is unilaterally defined by its rulers. Focusing on nineteenth-century South India, he demonstrates that a society's view of its history results from a "dialogic process" involving all its constituencies.

For centuries, agricultural life in South India was semi-nomadic. But when the British took dominion, they sought to stabilize the region by inventing a Tamil "golden age" of sedentary, prosperous villages. Irschick shows that this construction resulted not from overt British manipulation but from an intricate cross-pollination of both European and native ideas. He argues that the Tamil played a critical role in constructing their past and thus shaping their future. And British administrators adapted local customs to their own uses.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-255) and index.

ISBN:

0520084047

0520084055

OCLC:

27814874