Book contents
- Visions of Greater India
- Visions of Greater India
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Spelling
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: Looking for India in Asia
- Part I The Knowledge Networks of Greater India
- Part II The Interwar Politics of Greater India
- 6 Connecting Orientalism and Internationalism
- 7 Disavowing Indian Exceptionalism
- 8 A New Nalanda in Bolpur
- Conclusion to Part II: Greater India as a Political Discourse in the Interwar Period
- Conclusion
- Epilogue: The Afterlives of Greater India
- Bibliography
- Index
Epilogue: The Afterlives of Greater India
from Part II - The Interwar Politics of Greater India
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 November 2023
- Visions of Greater India
- Visions of Greater India
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Spelling
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: Looking for India in Asia
- Part I The Knowledge Networks of Greater India
- Part II The Interwar Politics of Greater India
- 6 Connecting Orientalism and Internationalism
- 7 Disavowing Indian Exceptionalism
- 8 A New Nalanda in Bolpur
- Conclusion to Part II: Greater India as a Political Discourse in the Interwar Period
- Conclusion
- Epilogue: The Afterlives of Greater India
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The epilogue sketches, in broad brushstrokes, the afterlives of the Greater India discourse in the postcolonial period, with particular reference to the writings and politics of Jawaharlal Nehru, the academic realm, and the Hindu nationalist imagination. It examines how the Greater India imagination reconfigured Nehru’s understanding of India’s ancient past and future role in global politics. It also shows that the story of the ‘glorious’ spread of Indian culture became a canonized theme in post-independence nationalist historiography and was promulgated by influential historians including R.C. Majumdar and K.M. Panikkar. Yet although the ‘discovery’ of Greater India had opened a new window on the ancient past, it also marginalized histories of connection and entanglement, most notably pertaining to India’s Islamic traditions, that did not fit the master narrative that celebrated an expansive ancient India as Asia’s cultural and spiritual fount. Finally, the epilogue reflects on how the legacies of the Greater India movement are mobilized in contemporary India to bolster visions of Akhand Bharat and position India as a civilizational actor on the global plane.
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- Visions of Greater IndiaTransimperial Knowledge and Anti-Colonial Nationalism, c.1800–1960, pp. 269 - 285Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023