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Book Details
Abstract
The human body in modern South Asia is a continuous political enterprise. The body was central to the project of British colonialism, as well as to the Indian response to colonial rule. By constructing British bodies as normative and disciplined, and Indian bodies as deviant and undisciplined, the British could construct an ideology of their own fitness for political power and defence of colonialism itself. The politics of physicality then manifested in reverse in many ways, not least through Gandhi's use of his body as public experiment in discipline, as well as becoming a living rejection of British rule and norms of physicality. This unique collection makes for fascinating reading.
James H. Mills is Lecturer in Modern History at Strathclyde University, Glasgow.
Satadru Sen is Assistant Professor of South Asian history at Washington University in St Louis.
The editors bring together some of the best new scholarship on physicality in modern India in a single volume and provide a balance of materials from colonial and post-colonial India. Included are new writings by established and upcoming writers in the social sciences and humanities, all based on original research.
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cover | 1 | ||
| Front Matter\r | 2 | ||
| Half Title\r | 2 | ||
| Title\r | 4 | ||
| Copyright\r | 5 | ||
| Contents\r | 6 | ||
| Acknowledgements\r | 8 | ||
| Notes on Contributors\r | 9 | ||
| Main Body\r | 12 | ||
| Introduction by James H Mills and Satadru Sen\r | 12 | ||
| Confronting the body\r | 12 | ||
| The body in colonial and post-colonial South Asia\r | 17 | ||
| Bibliography\r | 23 | ||
| Notes\r | 25 | ||
| Chapter 1. Body, Text, Nation: Writing the Physically Fit Body in Post-Colonial India, by Joseph S Alter\r | 27 | ||
| 1.1 Introduction: bodies and bodies of knowledge\r | 27 | ||
| 1.2 Reading the wrestler's written body: articulating somatic nationalism\r | 31 | ||
| 1.3 Yoga: writing and transformation of body discipline into community identity\r | 40 | ||
| 1.4 Conclusion: a materialist reading of the 'written' body\r | 46 | ||
| Bibliography\r | 47 | ||
| Notes\r | 49 | ||
| Chapter 2. 'A Parcel of Dummies'? Sport and Body in Indian History, by Paul Dimeo\r | 50 | ||
| 2.1 Introduction: the body in history\r | 50 | ||
| 2.2 Colonial discourses and the Indian body\r | 53 | ||
| 2.3 Martial body cultures\r | 56 | ||
| 2.4 Colonial sports and the body\r | 60 | ||
| 2.5 Conclusion\r | 64 | ||
| Bibliography\r | 65 | ||
| Notes\r | 67 | ||
| Chapter 3. Schools, Athletes and Confrontation: The Student Body in Colonial India, by Satadru Sen\r | 69 | ||
| 3.1 Introduction\r | 69 | ||
| 3.2 Sport, drill and discipline\r | 70 | ||
| 3.3 The CMS and the Pandit body\r | 75 | ||
| 3.4 Contesting and claiming the India sporting body\r | 80 | ||
| 3.5 Conclusion\r | 85 | ||
| Bibliography\r | 87 | ||
| Notes\r | 89 | ||
| Chapter 4. Body as Target, Violence as Treatment: Psychiatric Regimes in Colonial and Post-Colonial India, by James H Mills\r | 91 | ||
| 4.1 Introduction\r | 91 | ||
| 4.2 Psychiatric treatment in India\r | 91 | ||
| Acknowledgements \r | 108 | ||
| Bibliography\r | 108 | ||
| Notes\r | 110 | ||
| Chapter 5. The Lotah Emeutes of 1855: Caste, Religion and Prisons in North India in the Early Nineteenth Century, by Anand A Yang\r | 113 | ||
| 5.1 Introduction\r | 113 | ||
| 5.2 The lotah emeute\r | 114 | ||
| 5.3 The colonial regime of discipline and punishment\r | 118 | ||
| 5.4 The body behind and beyond the walls\r | 123 | ||
| 5.5 Conclusion\r | 125 | ||
| Bibliography\r | 126 | ||
| Notes\r | 127 | ||
| Chapter 6. The Body at Work: Colonial Art Education and the Figure of the 'Native Craftsman' by Deepali Dewan\r | 129 | ||
| 6.1 Introduction\r | 129 | ||
| 6.2 Representations of the 'native craftsman' at work\r | 129 | ||
| 6.3 On the decline of Indian art\r | 133 | ||
| 6.4 'Native craftsman' as source of revival\r | 135 | ||
| 6.5 'Native craftsman' as source of corruption\r | 139 | ||
| 6.6 Visualizing contradiction and producing the figure of the 'native craftsman'\r | 141 | ||
| 6.7 Conclusion\r | 142 | ||
| Acknowledgements\r | 143 | ||
| Bibliography\r | 143 | ||
| Notes\r | 145 | ||
| Chapter 7. Making a Dravidian Hero: The Body and Identity Politics in the Dravidian Movement, by Nimmi Rangaswamy\r | 146 | ||
| 7.1 Introduction\r | 146 | ||
| 7.2 The body, politics and rhetoric\r | 148 | ||
| 7.3 Suffering, sacrifice and the body\r | 150 | ||
| 7.4 Conclusion\r | 154 | ||
| Bibliography\r | 155 | ||
| Notes\r | 155 | ||
| Chapter 8. Describing the Body: The Writing of Sex and Gender Identity for the Contemporary Bengali Woman, by Srimati Bansu\r | 157 | ||
| 8.1 Introduction\r | 157 | ||
| 8.2 Locating Sananda in multiple spaces\r | 158 | ||
| 8.3 'Sananda' as a product for post-colonial Bengal\r | 160 | ||
| 8.4 Careful answers: renedering sex docile\r | 162 | ||
| 8.5 Marriage: bad practice and mystical necessity\r | 164 | ||
| 8.6 Conclusion: discourse and discipline\r | 170 | ||
| Acknowledgements\r | 171 | ||
| Bibliography\r | 171 | ||
| Notes\r | 172 | ||
| Chapter 9. A Perfect 10 - 'Modern and Indian': Representations of the Body in Beauty Pageants and the Visual Media in Contemporary India, by Shoma Munshi | 173 | ||
| 9.1 Introduction\r | 173 | ||
| 9.2 The Indian media landscape\r | 174 | ||
| 9.3 The booming beauty business\r | 176 | ||
| 9.4 Fitness fever: fat is out, fit is in\r | 178 | ||
| 9.5 The 'perfect 10' body beautiful | 179 | ||
| 9.6 The body beautiful and beauty pageants as a site of identification and contestation \r | 183 | ||
| 9.7 Conclusion\r | 187 | ||
| Acknowledgements\r | 188 | ||
| Bibliography\r | 188 | ||
| Notes\r | 192 | ||
| Chapter 10. Demographic Rhetoric and Sexual Surveillance: Indian Middle-Class Advocates of Birth Control, 1920s-1940s, by Sanjam Ahluwalia\r | 194 | ||
| 10.1 Introduction \r | 194 | ||
| 10.2 Intellectual and political background\r | 195 | ||
| 10.3 Ideological convergence: Neo-Malthusianism and eugenics\r | 197 | ||
| 10.4 National demography and partial citizenship: bodies and difference in India\r | 199 | ||
| 10.5 Disciplining the sexual body\r | 202 | ||
| 10.6 Conclusion\r | 209 | ||
| Acknowledgements \r | 210 | ||
| Bibliography\r | 210 | ||
| Notes\r | 212 |