Asia Annual 2010: Nationhood
and Identity Movements in Asia: Colonial and Post-colonial Times
By- Swarupa Gupta (ed)
This volume tells a new story
of Asian nationalisms, moving beyond stereotypical representations of Asia as
the exoticized/subjugated ‘other’ of Orientalism. It focuses on the interface
between Asian forms of nationhood and identity-movements. Dispensing with
Western prisms of looking at colonial/Asian nationalisms, it rethinks the
relation between the West and the rest, by returning agency to Asians. Using a
multidisciplinary methodology, this volume tracks constellations of unity
predating the colonial modern, and sees how these operate within spirals of
continuity through change. It traces and compares hitherto unexplored
nationalist experiences in West, Central, South, South East and East Asia,
gathered under the rubric of an internally-differentiated model of Asian
nationalism. This moves beyond sectional micro-studies, connecting
intra-regional, inter-regional and transnational/international identities in
Asia. Seeing how pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial identities meld in
specific contexts, this volume contains original thematic essays which fall
into categories of: (1) Nationhood, Place and History; (2) Nationalism and
State-Building; (3) Cultural Nationalism and Linguistic Identity; (4)
Nationalisms in Eurasia; (5) Transnational Identities; and (6) Gender and
Identity-Movements. What emerges is no single, uniform model of Asian
nationalism, but different (from Western/European) forms of nationhood. Multiple pathways lead to discoveries of
non-Western Asian experiences of nationhood through insiders’ narratives
(intra-Asian voices). These make it possible to dream of a new Asia which avoids
the snare of post-colonial inevitabilities of fragmentation, fundamentalisms
and core-periphery problems. Arguing that the continuation of the colonial into
the post-colonial can have positive possibilities, shaping new policies,
spatialities, intercultural dialogue/cooperation, and economic/material
connections, this volume shows how Asia emerges as a key-player in the history
and contemporaneity of nationalism.
Swarupa Gupta, Ph
D. (SOAS, London, 2004) is a Fellow at Maulana Azad Inst. Of Asian Studies
(Ministry of Culture, Government of India) and Guest Faculty Member, Department
of History, Presidency University, Calcutta
ISBN 978-81-7304-960-6 2012 366p. Rs.1150/Pounds
65
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