Imagining the Public in Modern South Asia - 9781138391963

Taylor & Francis

In South Asia, as elsewhere, the category of \u2018the public\u2019 has come under increased scholarly and popular scrutiny in recent years. To better understand this current conjuncture, we need a fuller understanding of the specifically South Asian history of the term. To that end, this book surveys the modern Indian \u2018public\u2019 across multiple historical contexts and sites, with contributions from leading scholars of South Asia in anthropology, history, literary studies and religious studies. As a whole, this volume highlights the complex genealogies of the public in the Indian subcontinent during the colonial and postcolonial eras, showing in particular how British notions of \u2018the public\u2019 intersected with South Asian forms of publicity. Two principal methods or approaches\u2014the genealogical and the typological\u2014have characterised this scholarship. This book suggests, more in the mode of genealogy, that the category of the public has been closely linked to .