Constructing Post-Colonial India

by P.S. Srivastava

An interdisciplinary and engaging book which looks at the nature of Indian society since Independence and unpacks what post-colonialism means to Indian citizens. Using the case study of the Doon School, a famous boarding school for boys, and one of the leading educational institutions in India, the author argues that to be post-colonial in India is to be modern, rational, secular and urban. In placing post-colonialism in this concrete social context, and analysing how it is constructed, the author renders a complex and often rather abstract subject accessible.

274 pages, Paperback

First published November 11, 1998

Reviews

[Lilly Irani · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those interested in contemporary Indian culture debates about theories of globalization, Srivastava's ethnography of the Doon School (an elite school in Uttarakhand) tries to understand the specific values and ethos inculcated in a set of mobile, metropolitan students. Importantly, he pays attention to how their metropolitan liberalism is practiced in the tacit backdrop of a Hindu practices and Othering (stereotyping and contrasting with oneself) of people from rural areas and provinces of India.

It isn't particularly fun to read, however. It tends to lead with theoretical commentary and follow with ethnographic data, making me wonder during the first half of the book how much ethnographic engagement he had really had and whether his interpretations didn't have other explanations. While he theoretically attends to the provincial and service people who form the non-citizenry of Doon School, we never really hear their voices. A project for someone else perhaps.