Rajaram's bull (response to LS)

[Arun Gupta]

The following might be of interest.

-arun gupta

Quote :

"Thus, coercive rule was rationalized through the construction of a body of
"knowledge" about the Indian past and heritage, aimed at demonstrating both
the unfitness of India for the institutions of representative government and
the fitness of Britain to rule India by means of a "vigorous" despotism--a
process now familiar to us as Orientalism (on Orientalist representrations
of India, see among others Inden 1986; Guha 1992a; Prakash 1990).

Central to this construction was the portrayal of India as a society
composed of implacably hostile communities, castes, cultures, and
religions--a portrayal which was used over and over again to deny liberal
democratic reforms."

Original article (which has a much wider scope ) at :

http://www.binghamton.edu/fbc/gaht5.htm

"Beyond Western Hegemonies"

by Giovanni Arrighi (arrighi at jhu.edu), Iftikhar Ahmad & Miin-wen Shih
© Fernand Braudel Center 1997.

(Paper presented at the XXI Meeting of the Social Science History
Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, October 10-13, 1996.)