Antinomies of Modernity: Essays on Race, Orient, Nation

Antinomies of Modernity argues that concepts of race, Orient, and nation have been crucial to efforts across the world to create a sense of place, belonging and solidarity in the midst f the radical discontinuities wrought by global capitalism. Emphasizing the continued salience at the beginning of the twenty first century of these supposedly nineteenth-century ideas, the essays in this volume stress the importance of tracking the dynamic ways that race, Orient, and nation have been reworked and used over time and in particular geographic locations. Drawing on archival sources and fieldwork, the contributors explore aspects of modernity within the societies of South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Whether considering how European ideas of Orientalism became foundational myths of Indian nationalism; how racial caste systems between blacks, South Asians, and whites operate in post-apartheid South Africa; or how Indian immigrants to the United States negotiate their identities, thes