Eugene F. Irschick
Dialogue and History
Constructing South India, 1795-1895
$32.95, £19.95 paperback
978-0-520-08405-6
Available Now
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April 1994, Available worldwide
Categories: History; Asian History; South Asia; Cultural Anthropology
April 1994, Available worldwide
Categories: History; Asian History; South Asia; Cultural Anthropology
"Dialogue and History is an important contribution to the continuing debate about national identity and the process of nation-building in a colonial setting. By rejecting a model that appears to assume almost total powerlessness on the part of Indians, and all power to the British, Irschick's work provides a needed corrective in the direction of much of the recent historiography on the subject."—The Historian
"The author performs an important service in restoring agency to Indian colonial subjects."—Religious Studies Review
"The author performs an important service in restoring agency to Indian colonial subjects."—Religious Studies Review
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 seminomadic. 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.
For centuries, agricultural life in South India was seminomadic. 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.