Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Indian Millenial Nationalism


Kush Arora has an essay from which I extract these lines: (emphasis added)
It has been argued by historians of the Marxist fold that Indian nationalism rests on, and is born out of the freedom struggle. I have deep reservations against this idea; however, it is very obvious that with the fading memory of colonialism, spoken if at all, in the dense post-colonial theory, no one on the younger side of 30 (60% of India) really cares if we were brought together through collectively opposing the Brits or through sitting round in a circle peeling potatoes in someone’s wedding. What is of relevance is that at the end of it all there has been cultivated a sense of the collective “Indian”.
The Indian Marxists in the US are busy trying to extirpate "India" from California's textbooks -- "“most references to India before 1947 should be changed to South Asia.”".  So inspiring to know that Columbus set out to find a sea route to the fabled South Asia,  and that the inhabitants of America that he and later voyagers found should have been called S. Asians.   It is unclear why America suffers these idiots;  but in India, they are fighting a rear-guard action (I hope) that will end with their permanent extinction from the world of ideas.

Comments (4)

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Re pre '47 India as South Asia - I think some of it (maybe even a lot) has to do with the future of South Asian Studies in US academia. If I recall right, Sanjay Subramanian (the not so famous one, I mean) wrote an essay once where he suggests that SAS be absorbed in mainstream Departments - History, Anthro, Social Sciences (sic). The writing may not yet be clear on the wall but the way things are going in the US (e.g., Wisconsin - impermanent tenure; Texas - proposing something similar; Cal - deep budget cuts), branding South Asian studies as a discipline which engages with a large swath of the world may well be a survival strategy.

p.s. I am not surprised there has been very little chatter on the Internets about the scandal in the South Asian Studies Dept at Berkeley.
2 replies · active 466 weeks ago
What happened at Berkeley, vnm ? I can google it of course, but thought better to get a direct view/
I am not in Berkeley, so my view can only be as direct as yours. But since you asked I'll tell you that charges of sexual harassment have been brought against a recently hired Asst Prof of Tamil Studies.
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Wellsisher · 465 weeks ago

VNM makes an interesting point. UK unis already winding down India studies, by cutting down Sanskrit funding. Not surprising as some long standing unis have shut down heavyweight depts like Chemistry and Maths! U.Exeter, IIRC! The bigger problem for the current cabal is the lack of interest in India/SAS/H grad programs. Few univs -except fancy private ones- have the money, and even those that do, have just enough to keep their current tenured staff employed. Which is why Shelly has been scouring for money from WOGS. The other strategm is to route these scholars thru Foundation/NGO programs in India & keep them paid. The current crop of grads is quite poor & both of Shelly's proteges Audrey Truschke and Ananya Bajpai are mediocre, though they make it up by intemperate rhetoric. State univs maybe the 1st to begin winding down SAS due to a mix of problems -declining funding for humanities, declining college eligible population within state (quite serious) and soon, declining enrollment due to the ever rising cost of college. Added to that STEM and Tech Based Communication studies are now the most popular programs, except at the fancy prvate univs. It's building up slowly. And not going to dissipate any time soon

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