Perceptions, Emotions, Sensibilities: Essays on India’s Colonial and Post-Colonial Experiences

In Perceptions, Emotions, Sensibilities Tapan Raychaudhuri delves into the mental world of the colonial middle class in India. He reassesses British rule and dwells on the implications of communal chauvinism in contemporary South Asia. Lucidly written, these essays deal with several topics–the transformation of Indian sensibilities; love and romance in nineteenth-century Bengal; Vivekananda’s trenchant criticism of contemporary Hinduism; the ideals shared by Gandhi and Tagore; a comprehensive appraisal of the Raj; and a disturbing exploration of the affinity between Hindu chauvinist politics and the rule of Nazism. Students of Indian history, as well as those interested in the Raj, colonialism and contemporary politics, will all find this volume, by one of contemporary India’s major historians, an absorbing work.