Read more
This book is a historical study of modern Gujarat, India, addressing crucial questions of language, identity, and power.
It examines the debates over language among the elite of this region during a period of significant social and political change in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Language debates closely reflect power relations among different sections of society, such as those delineated by nation, ethnicity, region, religion, caste, class, and gender. They are intimately linked with the process in which individuals and groups of people try to define and project themselves in response to changing political, economic, and social environments. Based on rich historical sources, including official records, periodicals, literary texts, memoirs, and private papers, this book vividly shows the impact that colonialism, nationalism, and the process of nation-building had on the ideas of language among different groups, as well as how various ideas of language competed and negotiated with each other.
Language, Identity, and Power in Modern India: Gujarat, c.1850-1960 will be of particular interest to students and scholars working on South Asian history and to those interested in issues of language, society, and politics in different parts of the modern world.
List of contents
Introduction 1. Gujarat Society and its People 2. Educational Institutions and Language 3. The Gujarat Vernacular Society and the Press 4. Debates over Gujarati Language and Literature 5. Nationalism and Language 6 The Formation of Gujarat State Conclusion
About the author
Riho Isaka is a Professor of the Department of Area Studies at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo. Her research interests concern issues of language, politics, food, and identity in colonial and postcolonial India, especially Gujarat.
Summary
This book is a historical study of modern Gujarat, India, addressing crucial questions of language, identity, and power.
