Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India, 1700-1960

Prachi Deshpande

Published by Columbia University Press 2007

Creative Pasts

Historical Memory and Identity in Western India, 1700-1960

Prachi Deshpande

In the series Cultures of History

https://doi.org/10.7312/desh12486

Overview
Contents

About this book

The "Maratha period" of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when an independent Maratha state successfully resisted the Mughals, is a defining era in the history of the region of Maharashtra in western India. In this book, Prachi Deshpande considers the importance of this period for a variety of political projects including anticolonial/Hindu nationalism and the non-Brahman movement, as well as popular debates throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries concerning the meaning of tradition, culture, and the experience of colonialism and modernity.

Sampling from a rich body of literary and cultural sources, Deshpande highlights shifts in history writing in early modern and modern India and the deep connections between historical and literary narratives. She traces the reproduction of the Maratha period in various genres and public arenas, its incorporation into regional political symbolism, and its centrality to the making of a modern Marathi regional consciousness. She also shows how historical memory provided a space for Indians to negotiate among their national, religious, and regional identities, pointing to history's deeper potential in shaping politics within thoroughly diverse societies.

A truly unique study, Creative Pasts examines the practices of historiography and popular memory within a particular colonial context, and illuminates the impact of colonialism on colonized societies and cultures. Furthermore, it shows how modern history and historical memory are jointly created through the interplay of cultural activities, power structures, and political rhetoric.

Author / Editor information

Prachi Deshpande earned her M.A. from Jawaharlal Nehru University and her Ph.D. from Tufts University and is currently an assistant professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, she has taught at Rutgers (Newark) and Colorado State.

Reviews

Srikanth Mallavarapu:
recommended for readers interested in Indian historiography as well as those who are interested in the negotiation of modernity and the politics of identity in the Indian context.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Bakhar Historiography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
2. Representing Maratha Power Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	40
3. History, Print, and Education Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
4. Historiography and Nationalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	94
5. Region, Nation, and Maratha History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
6. Maratha History and Historical Fiction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
7. Caste, Identity, and Difference Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 320

eBook

Published: May 8, 2007
ISBN: 9780231511438