HINDU PASTS

WOMEN, RELIGION, HISTORIES

01 November, 2015

Vasudha Dalmia

In this collection of essays, Vasudha Dalmia seeks to understand the relationship between language, religion and society in India. She tries to show that the Hindu tradition, which colonialists and nationalists tend to see as monolithic, in fact consists of multiple strands. In her first essay, Dalmia positions the philologist Max Müller’s study of the Vedas within a larger history of European Indology and German interest in Eastern thought. Her other essays look at the history of colonial India, with a focus on pedagogy, the formation of knowledge and the making of law; at components of the Vaishnava Bhakti tradition; and at the influence of vernacular narratives on the modern Hindi novel.

Permanent Black, 374 pages, Rs 895