Making India: Colonialism, National Culture, and the Afterlife of Indian English Authority

Makarand R. Paranjape is Professor of English in the Centre for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was educated at St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi (B.A. Hons.) and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA (Masters and Ph.D.). He is the author/editor of over thirty-five books which include works of criticism, poetry, and fiction, and has also published over 125 academic papers in books or journals published from India and abroad. His latest work includes the two monographs Another Canon: Indian Texts and Traditions in English (2009) andAltered Destinations: Self, Society, and Nation in India (2010).

"It is primarily a reappraisal of many of the figures of Indian modernity with frequent comments on their legacy in postcolonial India. ... This book will be indispensable for scholars of Indian English Literature for years to come." (Rohit Dutta Roy, essaysinhistory.com, 2014) "The book offers a fascinating gateway into the rich tapestry of ideas, aspirations, and narratives which undergird the formation of independent India. As Paranjape shows, India's emergence from colonial rule was not so much a linear historical process but rather the result of multiple, sometimes overlapping and sometimes conflicting, social-political imaginaries. One intriguing feature of his account is the accent on the role played by English speaking and writing Indians - dubbed here 'Indian English Authority' - during successive generations from Rammohun Roy to Tagore, Aurobindo, and Gandhi." -Fred Dallmayr, University of Notre Dame and author of Dialogue among Civilizations and Between Tradition and Modernity: India's Search for Identity. "Over the last two centuries, Indian English has emerged as a medium of expression of the national identity of Indians as distinct from their regional identity. In playing this highly creative role, Indian English drew on what Makarand Paranjape calls India's 'usable past'--a past that happily has not been erased, indeed cannot be erased. The use of the 'usable past', it is argued, has made Indian English a genuinely Indian phenomenon. This most welcome book is an indispensable guide to any one looking for a deep understanding of the Modern Indian mind as it expresses itself in and through Indian English." -Anthony J. Parel, University of Calgary, author of The Machiavellian Cosmos (1992) and Gandhi's Philosophy and the Quest for Harmony (2006).

• I: Introduction.- II:“Usable Pasts”: Rammohun Roy’s Occidentalism.- III: Michael Madhusudan Dutt: Prodigal, Prodigy.- IV:  Bankimchandra Chatterjee and the Allegory of Rajmohan’s Wife.- V:  Subjects to Change:  Considering Women’s Authority.- VI:  Sri Aurobindo and the Renaissance in India?.- VII:  Spiritual vs. Historical Facts: Representing Swami Vivekananda.- VIII:  “Home and the World”:  Colonialism and AlterNativity in Tagore’s India.- IX:  Sarojini Naidu: Reclaiming a Kinship.- X:  The “Sanatani” Mahatma?Re-reading Gandhi Post-Hindutva.​