Engaging with a Nation

Representations of India in the 21st Century

Siddhartha Biswas

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9781032779089
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040103531
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Indian & South Asian History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The book looks at the impact that the idea and institution of nationhood have had on the constituents of India in the contemporary postcolonial period. It provides a critical analysis through a variety of perspectives––historical, philosophical, literary, and gendered, and locates the nation and its "discontents", along with its nationalist agenda firmly within the context of the contemporary perceived modernity. The book also engages with the colonial legacy that the 'nation' had to endure for two hundred years. It discusses key themes such as nationalism in the contemporary Indian context, the concept of Hindutva, Islam nationalism, and queer nationalism.

An important contribution, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of India studies, Indian politics, Third World studies, postcolonial studies, gender studies, nation studies, and history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 The Common Man’s Conundrum: The Anxiety of the Postcolonial Individual
• 2 Navigating Memory in Difficult National Spaces: A Study of the Memory Landscape in Kashmir
• 3 Beyond the Bharat Mata: Mother, Nation, and Home
• 4 Voices from the Margins: Problematizing Nation-State’s Uneasy Correspondence with Hijra-Motherhood in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
• 5 Imagined India: Nationalism in the Northeast and Northeast Poetry in English
• 6 Up-Rootedness and Self: Redefining the Refugee Identities and Sub-Nationalism in Siddhartha Deb’s The Point of Return
• 7 Belief Narratives and the Folk Tradition in Gaudiya Vaishnavism: Marking a Grassroots Level of “Nation” as Community
• 8 Hindutva, History and Hindi Cinema: Examining the Representation of Indian Pasts in Select Recent Hindi Films
• 9 Rind posh maal gindane draaye lo lo: The Narrative of India through Hindi Film Songs
• 10 Tracing the Notion of the “National”/“Patriotic” through Bengali and Hindi Songs: An Enquiry Concerning the Dialectic of Tradition/Imposition
• 11 The Bias of the Television and Media towards the Minorities in the Age of Nationalism
• 12 Locating the Communal Fires in the First Monologue of Manjula Padmanabhan’s Hidden Fires
• 13 Sandipan Chattopadhyay’s Bharotborsho: Sexuality beyond Nation-State’s Control
• 14 “Jo Mard Hota Hai Usey Dard Nehi Hota”: Hegemonic Masculinity, Homosexuality and Aligarh
• 15 Women’s Writing as Anamnesia: Resisting the Nation’s Selective Amnesia
• 16 Surveillance and Power: Locating the Citizen-Subject in Surveillance States
• Index