The need to extend historical scholarship to the postcolonial phase of South Asian societies is increasingly being recognized by academics in different parts of the world. From the Colonial to the Postcolonial addresses this key concern by outlining the historical complexities involved in nations born under the aegis of colonial rule evolving into postcolonial polities. It explores aspects of social and political processes accompanying the transition from colonial to the postcolonial regimes in India and Pakistan. What distinguishes this unique collection is its emphasis on the long-term rather than on the years immediately preceding or following 1947. Deploying a variety of analytical approaches the essays mount a subtle yet rich critique of texts that imagine de-colonization as a process signifying compete cultural and institutional autonomy for the once-colonized. Dedicated to the memory of the renowned historian and anthropologist Bernard S. Cohn, this volume emphasizes the necessarily incomplete or fragmentary nature of the transition from colonial to postcolonial formations. The book brings together a range of distinguished scholars who negotiate the issue of decolonization in different though mutually reinforcing ways–through constitutionalism, law, sports, regionalism, housing, gender, minority issues, Dalit and mass-politics, and class formation. Wide-ranging and topical, this collection will interest students of history, anthropology, gender studies, and political science particularly those concerned with decolonization and the postcolonial experience.
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