Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India

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His argument is that other than for the Brahmans at the top and their polar opposites, the untouchables at the bottom, the middle was a muddle which was an arena for political contestation.

Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India by Nicholas B. Dirks

Politics in the form of kingship profoundly affected it. Dirks argument in this book is that with political authority in the form of kings removed, colonial understanding of caste started to shape and distort the historical form of caste. The book with all its complicated sociological language and reasoning's was difficult for me to follow.

But I could never get to understand the complicated rhetorical conclusions that Dirks arrives from particular actions of colonial administrators. Yes, the British tried to understand Indian society from the point of caste, an outcome of that being the archives, the census, the classification of criminal tribes et al.

This might have changed an Indian's understanding of caste but how did it change an Indian's particular lived experience of caste. In simple words, in a local Indian village, did this colonial knowledge, change the way caste life was experienced. Yes,there are examples of castes vertically aligned in the ancien-regime who clamored for higher status in horizontal agglomerations. But does this merit the charge that caste was totally transformed. In conclusion this already contested topic is made more difficult by Dirks relentless imputation of motives on the British.

I got the feeling that this book is in a long line of books which reflect current multicultural western world's constant need to move away from the its very European origins of which colonialism was a part. That would be fine as long as biases do not affect scholarship. Nov 24, Roger Green rated it it was amazing.

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Published in , this book gives a nuanced history of the caste system as it was transformed under colonial rule, imbricated within ethnographic and anthropometric data collection, and used in various ways within political agendas - both secular and religious - in postcolonial India. Dirks concludes with an explicit discussion of controversies within academic fields of history and postcolonial studies, tempering pseudo-marxist analyses that we might now call "neoliberal" with critical yet poro Published in , this book gives a nuanced history of the caste system as it was transformed under colonial rule, imbricated within ethnographic and anthropometric data collection, and used in various ways within political agendas - both secular and religious - in postcolonial India.

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Dirks concludes with an explicit discussion of controversies within academic fields of history and postcolonial studies, tempering pseudo-marxist analyses that we might now call "neoliberal" with critical yet porous account of colonial history and its ongoing influences. Jul 02, Zahen Khan rated it really liked it. Though a bit too academic, this is a great book on that most Indian of concepts.

Dirks main contention is that caste, prior to colonialism, was a fluid, guild system but unlike Europe's it was not feudal , whereby guilds were intricately, and circularly, connected in the performance of judiciary, corporate and political duties. The second is that the British, partially in an attempt to make sense of a social system which was unheard of in the newly invented European nation-state, carried out ex Though a bit too academic, this is a great book on that most Indian of concepts.

The second is that the British, partially in an attempt to make sense of a social system which was unheard of in the newly invented European nation-state, carried out extensive ethnographic studies to establish a structure which would ease the administration of their revenue systems. Indians then started to conform to the British idea, making caste the rigid, and hierarchical system it is today. It's not difficult to believe the second view, given colonialism's effects on the colonized and their identity.

Moreover, Dirks does a great job of researching primary and secondary sources to back his claim. The problem is the first one, as there is very little historical material of Ancient India, so the question of caste fluidity and mobility goes unanswered, at least in this book. Dec 06, Nils rated it it was amazing Shelves: In a nutshell, caste is not an age old product of Indian "tradition" but instead was reified for instrumental purposes by 19th century British imperialists to serve as an alternative to the kind of civil society that was demanding democracy and self-determination back in Europe.

Caste, in its timelessness, put India outside of history and thus enabled the indefinite deferral of questions of independence. But the most interesting part of Dirks's account is how he demonstrates the many contradicto In a nutshell, caste is not an age old product of Indian "tradition" but instead was reified for instrumental purposes by 19th century British imperialists to serve as an alternative to the kind of civil society that was demanding democracy and self-determination back in Europe.

But the most interesting part of Dirks's account is how he demonstrates the many contradictory performative uses of the concept of caste throughout the last two hundred years of Indian history, especially in the postcolonial period, where the persistence of caste became an increasing embarrassment.

Like many another great book, it is also an explicit takedown of an earlier titan in the field, in this case, Louis Dumont. Mar 10, Robert Fischer rated it really liked it Shelves: This book is extremely dense, and assumes a fair bit of familiarity with the on-the-ground politics of caste in India.

Given that, though, it's extremely good. It provides a very thorough critique of the idea that caste in India was an eternal system with strong boundaries, instead demonstrating fairly effectively that caste, especially in the four-fold Varna conception, was reified within Indians in response to the application of the British colonial epistemology, especially ethnology, philol This book is extremely dense, and assumes a fair bit of familiarity with the on-the-ground politics of caste in India.

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SearchWorks Catalog Stanford Libraries. Princeton University Press, c Physical description xiii, p.

C3 D58 Unknown. Find it at other libraries via WorldCat Limited preview.

Bibliography Includes bibliographical references p. The Modernity of Caste 3 Two: The Origins of an Idea 19 Three: Social Identity in the Old Regime 63 Five: The Textualization of Tradition: Biography of an Archive 81 Six:

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