Print Capitalism

2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-72
Author(s):  
Iqra Shagufta Cheema
Keyword(s):  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
National Consciousness ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
National Imagination ◽  
British Colonization ◽  
British Colony ◽  
Benedict Anderson ◽  
Print Capitalism

Benedict Anderson connects the rise of print capitalism to the rise of nationalism in Europe as well as in the colonies. Print capitalism and nationalism shared a similar relationship in the Indian subcontinent too that remained a British colony for almost 200 years, from 1757 to 1947. Employing Deputy Nazir Ahmad’s novel, Mir’āt al-‘Urūs (1869), I argue that the introduction of print capitalism proved crucial to the rise of Muslim national consciousness and for Muslim women’s education to redefine their sociopolitical role in the new Muslim imagined community under British colonization. Print capitalism, via the possibility of mass-produced books like Mir’āt al-‘Urūs, transformed the Muslim national imagination by making Indian Muslims a community in anonymity. I offer this new reading of Mir’āt al-‘Urūs to trace the interaction of print capitalism, Muslim national consciousness, and new roles for Muslim women in colonial India.

The translation of an imagined community in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura

2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 497-512
Author(s):  
Amelie Daigle
Keyword(s):  
Spoken Language ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
National Consciousness ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
Script Language ◽  
Indian English ◽  
Double Function ◽  
Invaluable Tool ◽  
Benedict Anderson

In Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson describes how sacred script languages (Arabic, Chinese, Latin) were usurped in political primacy by languages based on the spoken vernacular (French, English, German). In this article I examine one instance of these complications through Raja Rao’s classic novel of Indian independence, Kanthapura, a novel written in Indian English that works both with and against Anderson’s concept of nationalism’s linguistic underpinnings. Kanthapura not only proposes a model for Indian English speakers and writers, but performs a rhetorical argument about the necessity for Indian English if India is to cohere as a nation. I argue that the residents of Kanthapura are “translated” into citizens of the nation of India. This movement of translation is echoed by the language of the novel: the largely spoken language of Kannada is translated into the largely written (in India) language of English. English in Kanthapura performs a double function, unifying the nation as a script language while also reflecting the idiosyncrasies of local regional vernaculars. Kanthapura demonstrates that a nativized form of Indian English can serve as an invaluable tool for the development of a national consciousness, and that novels written in Indian English will play a role in determining the shape and identity of the nation.

A Review of Gandhi, Father of a Nation or a Mahatma?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shezan Muhammedi
Keyword(s):  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Indian History ◽  
Parental Roles ◽  
Foreign Intervention

Mohandas Gandhi is a legend among the world’s greatest men. His many selfless acts were able to unite a nation and remove the British from colonial India. Gandhi is responsible for leading the establishment of an independent India, free from foreign intervention. However, was he mistaken to be a mystic, a sorcerer, the father of a nation or a great Mahatma? Were these attributions part of Gandhi’s true intentions or did he use the proclaimed titles as a political tool for the advancement of the nationalist campaign? Academics who specialize in modern Indian history have claimed Gandhi to be the father of a nation and a great soul or more famously known as the Mahatma. An analysis of two works, the first being Gandhi as Mahatma: Gorakhpur district, Eastern UP, 1921‐1922 by Shahid Amin and the second entitled,“Father of the Nation” in Gandhi in His Time and Ours by David Hardiman. Both works make claims as to Gandhi’s self‐righteous and father titles. However, upon further discussion it will be proven that Gandhi sought never to attain such grandiose titles; it was against his intentions. As Gandhi’s influence grew throughout the Indian subcontinent so did the titles bestowed upon him by Indians. He was wrongly associated with deities and parental roles. The accomplishments of Gandhi will forever be admired by mankind as a whole yet Gandhi did not seek to be remembered as a Mahatma or Father.

The Satanic Reformation

2020 ◽  
pp. 83-102
Author(s):  
Joseph P. Laycock
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
Benedict Anderson ◽  
The Church

Members of The Satanic Temple have presented themselves as “nice” Satanists who advance the values of compassion and social justice. This move has earned them scorn from some more traditional Satanic groups, notably the Church of Satan founded by Anton LaVey, which has accused The Satanic Temple’s members of being fake Satanists and plagiarizing everything that LaVey built. This chapter suggests that there is no objectively authentic form of Satanism and that Satanism is better understood as what Benedict Anderson called “an imagined community.” Thus a variety of sources can be invoked to form models of what Satanism is or ought to be. In redefining Satanism, The Satanic Temple and other socially engaged Satanic groups have looked past LaVey to the Satan portrayed by nineteenth-century Romantics. They argue that works by Byron and Shelley represent an older mode of Satanism that is compatible with their values of compassion and egalitarianism.

The Itinerant Library of Lala Lajpat Rai

2020 ◽  
Vol 89 ◽  
pp. 121-139
Author(s):  
Chris Moffat
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
First Century ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Urban America ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Colonial Histories ◽  
First World

Abstract This essay traces the movements of a library from New York to Lahore in the wake of the First World War and then to Shimla and Chandigarh following the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. It explores how this collection of books, assembled by the anti-colonial nationalist Lajpat Rai (1865–1928), intersected with and informed key moments of political struggle in twentieth-century urban America and colonial India. The essay then considers the fate of Lajpat Rai’s library today, its place in twenty-first-century Punjab, and the questions it poses for historians interested in anti-colonial histories, post-colonial presents and the commemorative work (as well as enduring political questions) that bind them.

HOW TO CREATE A NATION? VISUALISATIONS OF COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS FROM THE PREMODERN TIMES TO THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION / KAIP SUKURTI TAUTĄ? BENDRUOMENĖS VIZUALIZACIJOS IR TAUTINĖ SĄMONĖ NUO IKIMODERNIŲJŲ LAIKŲ IKI GLOBALIZACIJOS EPOCHOS

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gábor Kovács
Keyword(s):  
Mental Image ◽  
Pictorial Representation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Imaginary ◽  
National Consciousness ◽  
National Community ◽  
Visual Imagination ◽  
Territorial Unit ◽  
Benedict Anderson ◽  
Territorial Unity

National consciousness, under modern circumstances, takes shape as a picture of a territorial unity, encircled by a contiguous red borderline on the political map, in social imaginary. The map delineating a portion of a geographical territory fenced off from other territories is a typical modern pictorial representation of national community. Modern nation, as it has been described by Benedict Anderson in his seminal book, is an imagined community. Visual imagination construing mental pictures of respective community, of course, was alive in archaic times but the pictorial representation of community was personified; it was embodied in rulers. The geographical image of a political unit was indistinct. What happens to the modern mental image of nation as a territorial unit in the age of globalization? It was a widely shared conviction, in the enthusiastic mood of the 1990s, according to which the image of Net was going to prevail the image of territory in national fancy. Having seen the events of the latest decade this optimism seems to be hasty; a hybrid mental image of nation has been emerging in national consciousness blending archaic, modern and postmodern elements. Moderniomis aplinkybėmis socialinėje vaizduotėje tautinė sąmonė susiformavo kaip teritorinės vienybės vaizdas, politiniame žemėlapyje supamas gretimų sienų. Žemėlapiui, atvaizduojančiam geografinės teritorijos dalį, atitvertą nuo kitų teritorijų, būdinga moderni tautinės bendruomenės reprezentacija. Moderni tauta, kaip savo produktyvioje knygoje aprašo Benedictas Andersonas, yra vaizdijama bendruomenė. Žinoma, vizuali vaizduotė, reikalavusi mentalinių atitinkamos bendruomenės vaizdų, gyvavo senovėje, tačiau vaizdinė bendruomenės reprezentacija buvo personifikuota; ją įkūnijo valdovai. Politinio vieneto geografijos atvaizdas buvo neaiškus. Kas globalizacijos epochoje nutinka moderniam mentaliniam tautos kaip teritorinio vieneto atvaizdui? Tai buvo plačiai paplitęs įsitikinimas. XX a. dešimtajame dešimtmetyje vyraujant entuziastingai nuotaikai, jos sąlygomis interneto tautinėje vaizduotėje tinklo atvaizdas grasino nurungti teritorijos atvaizdą. Regint pastarojo dešimtmečio įvykius, šiam optimizmui, rodos, nesama pagrindo. Mišrus mentalinis tautos atvaizdas iškilo tautinėje sąmonėje ir suliejo jo senųjų, moderniųjų ir postmoderniųjų laikų sudėtines dalis.

“Migrant” Writing and the Re-Imagined Community: Discourses of Inclusion/Exclusion

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Máiréad Nic Craith
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Reading Public ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
Binary Logic ◽  
Ethnographic Interviews ◽  
Print Capitalism ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
Migrant Writing

This article examines changing discourses of exclusion/inclusion between writers of a non-German background and those whose families have traditionally lived in Germany. Referring to the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize, it critiques discourses of difference used in recent decades to describe “migrant” writers in Germany and evaluates some reactions to their writings by the German reading public. With reference to the concept of print-capitalism, the article explores the “new semantic vistas” opened up by migrant writers and the implications of their writing styles for both linguistic and national boundaries. Drawing on original ethnographic interviews with migrant authors, it queries the relevance of binary logic at the beginning of the twenty-first century and argues for greater recognition of the contribution of these writers to the literary landscape in Germany and beyond.

scholarly journals Construction and Deconstruction of Imagined Community—A Comparative Study of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and J. M. Coetzee’s Foe in Light of Nationalism

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 1141
Author(s):  
Wenju Han
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Colonial Administration ◽  
Robinson Crusoe ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
National Imagination ◽  
Post Colonialism

This paper makes a comparative study of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and J. M. Coetzee’s Foe in light of nationalism. Robinson Crusoe and Foe have been studied comparatively from the perspective of post-colonialism and postmodernism. But they haven’t been studied in light of nationalism. This paper argues that Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe contributed to form the nation of England as an imagined community, shaped “Englishness” and Euro-centrism, but J. M. Coetzee’s Foe deconstructed “Englishness” and Euro-centrism, aroused the national imagination of the Africans by rewriting it, so as to expose the fact that Euro-centrism was constructed by language, indict the Dutch and English colonial administration in South Africa and its profound and lasting hurt: the deprivation of the rights of speech, the destruction of their culture, and encourage the Africans to eliminate cultural inferiority and discrimination by creating new voice.

scholarly journals STUDI KOMPARASI: TELAAH NASIONALISME DALAM ISLAM DAN KOMPARASI DENGAN PENDEKATAN BARAT

KOMUNITAS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-132
Author(s):  
Wahyu Rozzaqi Ginanjar
Keyword(s):  
Imagined Community ◽  
Benedict Anderson

Sebagai sebuah konsep atau gagasan, nasionalisme seringkali dipahami secara berbeda oleh para cendekiawan maupun tokoh pergerakan. Oleh karena itu, pandangan akan nasionalisme juga beragam, terdapat golongan yang menerima namun terdapat pula yang menolak konsep tersebut. Tulisan ini membahas tentang komparasi antara pemikiran politik Islam dengan pemikiran barat mengenai nasionalisme. Diawali dengan mengelaborasi pemikiran politik Islam mengenai konsep ummah, kelompok etnis, definisi dari nation, pendekatan Islam klasik, serta pendekatan Islam modern yang didalamnya terdapat golongan yang mendukung  serta yang menolak nasionalisme. Analisis komparasi dilakukan dengan membandingkan pemahaman dan pemikiran antara perspektif Islam dengan Barat mengenai nation, nasionalisme, serta menganalisis pandangan golongan cendekiawan muslim yang menerima nasionalisme dengan menggunakan teori imagined community oleh Benedict Anderson. Hasil komparasi menunjukkan terdapat perbedaan yang mencolok di antara perspektif Islam dengan Barat dalam cara pandangnya terhadap nasionalisme, namun hal tersebut tidak berarti bahwa nasionalisme tidak kompatibel bila digunakan dalam politik Islam.

scholarly journals RAP e Comunicação: comunidades imaginadas globais materializadas em práticas e processos comunicacionais locais

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (27) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
João Vitor Pinto Ferreira ◽  
Carlos Eduardo Marquioni
Keyword(s):  
Hip Hop ◽  
Rap Music ◽  
Imagined Communities ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Musical Genre ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
Historical Contextualization ◽  
Benedict Anderson ◽  
Raymond Williams

O RAP é uma base do movimento Hip-Hop; no artigo, o gênero musical é analisado culturalmente (Raymond Williams) considerando o compartilhamento de significados observado entre os indivíduos que estabelecem uma espécie de “comunidade imaginada” (Benedict Anderson) de abrangência global a partir da música, que conta com adaptações a contextos locais. A partir de contextualização histórica, são apresentados casos de ocorrência do RAP no Brasil que evidenciam – complementarmente às (ou para além das) críticas sociais do gênero (eventualmente confundidas pelo senso comum como apologia ao crime) – casos de manifestações de afeto que permitem estabelecer relações com as origens do gênero musical. RAP and Communication: global imagined communities materialized in local communicational practices and processesAbstractRAP music is one basis of Hip-Hop movement; in this paper, the musical genre is analyzed culturally (Raymond Williams), from the sharing of meanings observed between the individuals that pertain to a kind of global “imagined community” (Benedict Anderson) established from the musical genre that has adaptations to local contexts. Starting from a historical contextualization of RAP music, the paper presents cases of its occurrence in Brazil that materialize affect manifestations, enabling to relate contemporary occurrences of RAP with the origins of the musical genre – complementarily to (or even beyond) the usual RAP’s social critics (typically mistaken for apology for crime in commonsense). Keywords: RAP; hip-hop; culture; imagined communities; communication.

A Brief History of Āyurveda

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. Raghava Varier
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Medicine ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Stages Of Development ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
Healthcare Programme ◽  
British Colonization ◽  
Mainstream Healthcare ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Specific Culture

For over two and a half millennia Āyurveda was the mainstream healthcare programme in the Indian subcontinent. However, what was once seen as indispensable, is now often officially described as ‘alternative medicine’. Moreover, there seems to be a lack of proper understanding of the specific culture from which Āyurveda emerged. This is because existing works on the subject have mostly been mere compilations of Āyurvedic practices and focused on classical texts. This book studies the stages of development in the system of Āyurveda and its practice from proto-historic times until British colonization. Using original Pāli and Sanskrit works, archaeological artefacts, as well as oft-neglected medieval epigraphic documents, M. R. Raghava Varier highlights how centuries of privileging Western knowledge has resulted in the sidelining of indigenous learning—a process that accelerated with the advent of colonialism. Further, he makes use of Jain and Buddhist sources to question the assumption that Āyurveda is a purely Hindu or Brahmanical system, thus providing a historiographical frame for conceptually establishing the notion of Āyurveda.

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