Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. (Paperback)

~ (Author) "When thinking of India it is hard not to think of caste..." (more)
Key Phrases: nationalist sociology, ethnographic state, caste quotas, Tipu Sultan, Great Rebellion, East India Company (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Is India's caste system the remnant of ancient India's social practices or the result of the historical relationship between India and British colonial rule? Dirks (history and anthropology, Columbia Univ.) elects to support the latter view. Adhering to the school of Orientalist thought promulgated by Edward Said and Bernard Cohn, Dirks argues that British colonial control of India for 200 years pivoted on its manipulation of the caste system. He hypothesizes that caste was used to organize India's diverse social groups for the benefit of British control. His thesis embraces substantial and powerfully argued evidence. It suffers, however, from its restricted focus to mainly southern India and its near polemic and obsessive assertions. Authors with differing views on India's ethnology suffer near-peremptory dismissal. Nevertheless, this groundbreaking work of interpretation demands a careful scholarly reading and response. John F. Riddick, Central Michigan Univ. Lib., Mt. Pleasant
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Massively documented and brilliantly argued, Castes of Mind is a study in true contrapuntal interpretation. Nicholas Dirks is a subtle unraveler of the dense, many-layered fabric of India's colonial and modern history as they converge in the idea and practice of caste. Even for the nonspecialist, the results of this gripping book are remarkable to behold. No one before Dirks has examined the ways in which caste gathers from as well as ignores the complex realities and hierarchies of Indian society. Neither reductive nor schematic, the notion of caste that emerges here is genuinely original.
(Edward W. Said )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (November 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691088950
• ISBN-13: 978-0691088952
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #722,019 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Some Major Concerns, June 17, 2003

By A Customer

A lucid and though provoking work, Castes of Mind would be close to THE authoritative work on the construction of caste. However the boldness of Dirks's argument, mainly that British rule is responsible for the state of caste today, raises some serious questions, which are not easily answered. Firstly, the book is heavily focused on Southern India, which raises the question of how did this play out in the North, and with whom. The colonial state was not the only actor, and the role of Christian Missionaries in the construction of caste is instructive: no matter how hard they tried to rid the Gangetic plain of caste, it was met with no avail. Secondly, his use of archival material is rather concerning. One one chapter relies heavily on archival material, whlst the remainder is dangerously rhetorical. And lastly, the epilogue raises serious concerns regarding similar scholarship and other interpretations on colonial rule in India. Dirks dismisses offhand essentially any work which might be remotely classified as 'neo-colonial', although he does not seem to quite understand what this concept means. What is most dangerous however is that Dirks dangerously approaches a moral judgement on the British Raj, which is a taboo in the historical profession.

16 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A poor showing, May 27, 2002

By	Haidar Bhatia - See all my reviews

Well-read in similar works such as B.S. Cohn, Spivak, et. al., Dirks's is the least tenable, and a farcical display of scholarship. Although he argues that 'the British did not invent caste,' after reading the 315 pages one might actually think they did. Dirks seems to ignore the roles of Brahmanic institutions and hegemony and the role of 'collaboration' and 'capitalist development,' (the latter which he seems to dismiss outright) and one might actually conclude that India was, in the pre-British era, caste-less! Embarrisingly enough, he still refers (however naively) to the uprising of 1857 as the 'Great Rebellion.' The rhetoric and culture of domination must be put behind, if any of are to write unbiased (or a close approximation thereto) history. I wonder how long it will take for Columbia and Chicago to realise this.

7 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent !, October 3, 2002

By A Customer

The british did not invent caste but they exploited it to the hilt to divide the pluralistic Indian society.
The thesis of the book matters. The thought provoking nature of the book is more valuable than its contents.
Columbia and Chicago are doing a valuable job of undoing or atleast explaining the british (and german) rape on indian history.
A thinking that an objective history can be written, like conducting a laboratory experiment where an observer is independent of the thing that is observed, is a major fallacy . No more attacks of scientific methods on humanities please!