Autobiography of an Archive: A Scholar's Passage to India
Nicholas Dirks
Abstract
This book uses a scholar's intellectual journey to India to look at how, between 1970 and the end of the twentieth century, the discipline of history turned its focus from high politics and formal intellectual history toward ordinary lives and cultural rhythms. It shows how, during this time, the disciplines of history and anthropology draw closer together, with historians paying more attention to social and cultural factors and the significance of everyday experiences. Through this process, the people, rather than elite actors, became the focus of historic inquiry, and anthropological insight ... More
This book uses a scholar's intellectual journey to India to look at how, between 1970 and the end of the twentieth century, the discipline of history turned its focus from high politics and formal intellectual history toward ordinary lives and cultural rhythms. It shows how, during this time, the disciplines of history and anthropology draw closer together, with historians paying more attention to social and cultural factors and the significance of everyday experiences. Through this process, the people, rather than elite actors, became the focus of historic inquiry, and anthropological insights into agriculture, kinship, ritual, and folk customs enabled historians to develop richer and more representative narratives. The intersection of these two disciplines also helped scholars reframe the legacies of empire and the roots of colonial knowledge. The book focuses on the study of kingship in India, the rise of the caste system, the emergence of English imperial interest in controlling markets and India's political regimes, and the development of a crisis in sovereignty that led to an extraordinary nationalist struggle. It discusses the archives that provided the sources and boundaries for research on these subjects, and shows how they revealed the limits of colonial knowledge and of the single disciplinary perspective. Drawing parallels with the way in which American universities balance the liberal arts and specialized research today, it encourages scholars to continue to apply multiple approaches to their research and to build a more global and ethical archive.
Keywords:
history,
India,
kingship,
colonial knowledge,
anthropology,
empire,
caste system,
liberal arts
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2015 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780231169677 |
| Published to Columbia Scholarship Online: November 2015 |
DOI:10.7312/columbia/9780231169677.001.0001 |
