THE RULER’S GAZE

Arvind Sharma

In 1978, Edward Said’s book Orientalism showed how Western scholarship legitimised colonial rule by creating an idea of the “Orient” as an exotic, irrational and uncivilised place. Almost four decades later, Arvind Sharma, a religious-studies professor, unifies three decades of Saidian studies of India to provide a comprehensive view of how colonial scholarship on India from the mid-nineteenth century onwards created an image of Indian society as backward, uncivilised and in decline, and thus legitimised British rule.

Harper Collins India, 699 pages, Rs 432