Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse [Paperback]

Partha Chatterjee (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press (February 22, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816623112
• ISBN-13: 978-0816623112
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #576,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent discussion of Nationalism's underlying assumptions, November 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse (Paperback)

Chatterjee does and excellent job of clearly explaining the underlying causes and assumptions of nationalism. How they originate in the west and based on specific conceptions of time, reason, progress, and science. Since these conceptions are not universal their application through nationalism may not be best served by being universal. Chatterjee further goes to give a clear outline of how he thinks nationalist discourse in the colonial world was formed. I definetly recommed this one if your interested in the subject.

10 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a decent book once you cut through all the jargon, July 20, 2000

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A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse (Paperback)

If it isn't obvious from the title of this book that this is going to be full of postmodern jargon, it becomes clear quite quickly that Chaterjee prefers difficult terms like 'problematic', 'thematic' and 'discourse' without always defining them - he even admits his admiration for Rorty, Barthes, Foucault and Derrida.

Nonetheless, underneath all of this verbiage is a strong and convincing argument about the three stages of nationalism in India: the moment of departure (epitomized by Bankimchandra Chatttopadhyay), the moment of manoeuvre (Gandhi) and the moment of arrival (Nehru). Chatterjee clearly shows how nationalism in India was akin to Gramsci's concept of the 'passive revolution' - i.e. merely a drive towards independence, not towards transforming or breaking up colonial instutions. He argues that, instead of supporting nationalism, we should instead challenge the marriage between reason and capital.

From the title of this book one might expect Chatterjee to draw links to other anti-colonial nationalisms but he doesn't; rather he only discusses India (not even other parts of South Asia). While this approach doesn't really make this book too useful for examining anti-colonial nationalisms in general, for someone like me who has never read a book on Indian nationalism this is a good introduction.