Critical Events: An Anthropological Perspective on Contemporary India

by Veena Das

This book identifies critical moments in contemporary Indian history, such as the Partition of India, the Bhopal industrial disaster, and recent widow deaths. It describes the implications of these events for India and analyzes, through them, the nature of Indian modernity.

Genres: Anthropology

240 pages, Paperback

First published March 23, 1995

Reviews

[Riku Sayuj · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very poignant portrayal of some of the most traumatic events for women in modern India. Well analyzed and carefully deconstructed for the most part, it would have been better if Veena could have also shed some light on the comparative aspects of some of these treatments and judgments from an international perspective. The essays on the Bhopal Gas tragedy and on the anthropology of pain are particularly worth reading. The language is obscure and deliberately scholarly as most anthropological works tend to be but with persistence the reader can make out the real empathy from which the scholarship draws sustenance.