'Greater India' and the Indian expansionist imagination, c. 1885-1965 : the rise and decline of the idea of a lost Hindu Empire / Jolita Zabarskaitė. edited by Brigitta Bernet, Lutz Raphael, and Benjamin Zachariah.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Zabarskaitė, Jolita, 1984- author.

Series:

Politics of historical thinking ; 2625-0055 v. 4.

The Politics of Historical Thinking , 2625-0055 ; 4

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

India--History--British occupation, 1765-1947.

India.

India--History--20th century.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 429 pages)

Other Title:

Rise and decline of the idea of a lost Hindu Empire

Greater India and the Indian expansionist imagination, circa 1885-1965

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; Boston : Walter de Gruyter, [2022]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

"This book is the first systematic study of the genealogy, discursive structures, and political implications of the concept of ‘Greater India’, implying a Hindu colonization of Southeast Asia, and used by extension to argue for a past Indian greatness as a colonial power, reproducible in the present and future. From the 1880s to the 1960s, protagonists of the Greater India theme attempted to make a case for the importance of an expansionist Indian civilisation in civilizing Southeast Asia. The argument was extended to include Central Asia, Africa, North and South America, and other regions where Indian migrants were to be found. The advocates of this Indocentric and Hindu revivalist approach, with Hindu and Indian often taken to be synonymous, were involved in a quintessentially parochial project, despite its apparently international dimensions: to justify an Indian expansionist imagination that viewed India’s past as a colonizer and civilizer of other lands as a model for the restoration of that past greatness in the future. Zabarskaite shows that the crucial ideologues and elements used for the formation of the construct of Greater India can be traced to the svadeśī movement of the turn of the century, and that Greater India moved easily between the domains of the scholarly and the popular as it sought to establish itself as a form of nationalist self-assertion."--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Frontmatter

The Politics of Historical Thinking

Preface

Acknowledgment

Contents

Note on Transliteration and Emphasis

Introduction

1 The Discovery of ‘Greater India’ by Indian Scholars and Intellectuals

2 The Institutionalisation of ‘Greater India’ (1920s–1940s): Part I

3 The Institutionalisation of ‘Greater India’ (1920s–1940s): Part II

4 Variations on a ‘Greater India’ Theme

5 The Decline, Revival and Afterlife of ‘Greater India’, c. 1945–1965

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index of Names and Institutions

Notes:

Diss. Heidelberg 2022.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 393-419) and indexes.

Description based on online resource (viewed 21 Feb 2024), publisher-supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

3-11-098606-X

OCLC:

1357015961