Guichard - The construction of history and nationalism in India: textbooks, controversies and politics

The Construction of History and Nationalism in India

Most studies on nations and nationalism argue that history, or more precisely a common past, is crucial for the process of national identity building. However, the existence of one or more concurrent narratives for the construction of this identity is often not accounted for, and there are cases where the common past or a collective memory is no longer shared.

This book centres on the construction, elaboration and negotiation of the narratives that have become official history in India. These narratives influence politics and the representation of the nation. Depending on the chosen definition of the nation, over 160 million Muslim Indians are either included or excluded from the nation, and considered as foreigners from inside. The author shows that beyond the antagonism of two representations of history, two conceptions of the Indian nation secular and Hindu nationalist confronted each other during the history textbook controversy between 1998 and 2004. The diverging elements of the two discourses are underlined, and surprising similarities are uncovered. Yet, in contemporary India this convergence remains overshadowed in political debates as the definition of the political has been shaped by the opposition between these two visions of the nation. This book analyzes and questions the conception of the school textbook as a tool of national construction and, more generally, highlights the complexity of the link between historiography, nation-state and nation-building.

Sylvie Guichard received her Ph.D. from the University of Geneva and Sciences Po. Paris. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Legal History at the University of Geneva.

The Construction of History and Nationalism in India

Textbooks, controversies and politics

Sylvie Guichard

LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 2010
by Routledge
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2010 Sylvie Guichard

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Guichard, Sylvie.
The construction of history and nationalism in India: textbooks, controversies
and politics/Sylvie Guichard.
p. cm. (Routledge advances in South Asian studies; 17)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. India Historiography Political aspects. 2. India Historiography
Social aspects. 3. Nationalism India History. 4. National characteristics,
East Indian. 5. Hindutva. 6. Secularism India. 7. Nationalism and
education India. 8. Textbooks India. 9. Textbook bias India.
I. Title.
DS435.G745 2010
954.0072 dc22 2009053031

ISBN 0-203-84857-8 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN: 978-0-415-56506-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-203-84857-9 (ebk)