(For EndNote, ProCite, Reference Manager, Zotero, Mendeley...), Two Homo Hierarchicus: The Origins of an Idea, Four The Original Caste: Social Identity in the Old Regime, Five The Textualization of Tradition: Biography of an Archive, Six The Imperial Archive: Colonial Knowledge and Colonial Rule, Eight The Policing of Tradition: Colonial Anthropology and the Invention of Custom, Nine The Body of Caste: Anthropology and the Criminalization of Caste, Ten The Enumeration of Caste: Anthropology as Colonial Rule, Eleven Toward a Nationalist Sociology of India: Nationalism and Brahmanism, Twelve The Reformation of Caste: Periyar, Ambedkar, and Gandhi, Thirteen Caste Politics and the Politics of Caste, Fourteen Conclusion: Caste and the Postcolonial Predicament, Coda The Burden of the Past: On Colonialism and the Writing of History. P.B, ‘”Sultan among Hindu Kings”: Dress, Titles, and the Islamicization of Hindu Culture at Vijayanagara’, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol.55, No.4, November 1996, [1] Orientalism and religion, Richard King, Routledge, London, 2006, P.98, [2] Fitzsimmons. Many thanks! R.M, Reimagining Otherness: A Post-mortem for the Postmodern in India, 1998 Unpublished Essay quoted from, Lorenzen. You do not have access to this Hatcher does not refer to the debates, initiated by Rao et al (2001), C.A. talked about modernity in an elaborate way. A study of the situation during British colonialism demonstrates that various factors contributed to the construction of Hinduism. Hence, the concept of citizenship did not confer universal rights on all individuals. The caste system in the West disappeared only with the colonial expansion of the West. The history of intensive western cognitive as well as political engagements in matters of caste had started in the early 19th century, with earlier antecedents. An assessment of British colonial interaction with the caste system will further demonstrate that caste is not a British invention. While this is arguably true this is a conclusion invented by Moor as opposed to divulged strictly from Hindu teaching. Castes of Mindis an ambitious book, written by an accomplished scholar with a rare mastery of centuries of Indian history and anthropology. In comparative sociology and in common parlance alike, caste has become a central symbol for India, indexing it as fundamentally different from other places as well as expressing its essence. amount, in any currency, is appreciated. Caste, Colonialism and Counter-Modernity book. Additionally to the orientalists, however, there were other factors that contributed to the construction of Hinduism. 8, No.1, January 1895, P.26, [34] Dirks. Buddhism and Jainism are two religions whose liturgical texts are also in the Sanskrit language however they were not considered by the British to be Hindu. V, Stietencron. Firstly, however an understanding of pre-colonial European conceptions of Hinduism must be achieved. The missionary desire to spread Christianity came from the growth of evangelical Christianity and it was this evangelical trend that was most instrumental in the invention and systemization of Hinduism. E, The Hindu Pantheon, London, 1810, online, accessed  on 1st March 2012, , [15] Moor. Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissance—in the "Age of Reason" of 17th-century thought and the 18th-century "Enlightenment".Some commentators consider the era of modernity to have ended by 1930, with … A brief look at the situation after the period of British colonialism demonstrates further evidence of Hindu invention and also demonstrates the nature of this invention. It demonstrates the invention of Hinduism due to the fact that Hindu nationalism only came to prevalence after an extended period of British colonialism, as opposed to an original ‘Hindu’ resistance. Dirks does not contend that caste was invented by the British. There is nothing new in the phrase “Hindu nationalism,” even if it has come to be associated with the recent emergence of political movements expressing Hindu rather than secular ideology. Mukerji and modernity: D.P. First Published 2006 . As King states, “the predominant Christian perspective among the Europeans classified Indian religion under the all-inclusive rubric of Heathenism. 38, No. This unifying factor can be considered to be one of cultural as opposed to religious similarities for pre-colonial Hinduism. 5.4 CASTE AS THE INVENTION OF COLONIAL MODERNITY OR A LEGACY OF BRAHMANICAL TRADITIONS As we hinted above, two opposing viewpoints see caste differently. As Macdonell states, “Turning to the old law-books, of which the code of Manu (about A. D. 200) is the most representative for our purposes, we are confronted with a society that is already strictly organized on a basis of castes.”[31] Any degree of societal organisation based around caste demonstrates that it was not a purely religious concept adapted for social use by British colonialists. Written for: Robert Bideleux British colonial construction of Hinduism occurred through categorising institutions such as censuses, and Christian Scholars utilised the generalisation of Hinduism in order to create a common religious antagonist due to their missionary nature. The lack of religious coherence within the Hindu group is demonstrated by the fact that they did not view Islam in religious terms. Abdullah, Taufik has written in this respect an exemplary study on the Minangkabau. The early Orientalists, while doing so with honest intentions, were key contributors to the invention of Hinduism. Colonialism lives on in the massive disparities of wealth and control over capital between north and south, in the contradictory institutional legacies that inhabit political, juridical, educational,... JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. This essay will assess the nature of Hinduism and the caste system before, during and after the period of British colonialism in India, while assessing the changes that were brought about by colonialism. These writers often engaged a growing body of assertion and argumentation about the fundamental nature of Indian society and its civil and political institutions, in the context of extensive debates about the colonial project of conquering and ruling India. 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