Since Vasco da Gama’s so called “discovery of India†(1498) the formulation of identities in India has been inextricably linked to Western conceptualizations. Containing contributions by Indian and Western scholars side by side and covering the period from da Gama’s arrival in India to the present day, this book attempts to explore the complicated processes of Indian identity formation from both an Indian and a Western perspective. Not only the history, language and literatures of India, but also more specific aspects of modern India are analysed as markers of this process. Thus The Avatars of Modernity includes studies of multiculturalism, secularism, Indian film, communalism and even the vastu shastra.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Heinz Werner Wessler
Dr. Heinz Werner Wessler, academic officer at the Indological Department, University of Bonn (Germany). He has published on modern and classical Hinduism, Hindi literature, Purana Studies.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lars Kjaerholm
Lars Kjaerholm, lecturer in social anthropology at Aarhus University Numerous field trips to south India and Philippines since 1971. Lars Kjaerholm has published extensively from his various researches in India and elsewhere.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Niels Brimnes
Niels Brimnes, Ph.D. (Cantab.), associate professor in Asian History at the Department of History and Area Studies, Aarhus University. His major field of research is early colonial history in south India and he has published the monograph Constructing the Colonial Encounter: Right and Left Hand Castes in Early Colonial South India (Richmond: Curzon Press, 1999).
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