ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; INTRODUCTION: PILGRIMAGE AND POWER; CONCLUSION; APPENDIX; GLOSSARY; BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kama Maclean is Lecturer of South Asian and World History at the University of New South Wales, Australia.
"Kama Maclean provides a nuanced and, at times, revolutionary
understanding of what must be regarded as one of the most important
periodic gatherings of humanity not just in India, but in the
world. As such, she reveals an enormous amount about the modern
history of Hinduism. But in the process she shines new light on the
social and cultural history of British imperialism and Indian
nationalism. Her book is the result of painstaking, careful
research; she draws
on the insights of a wide range of historians, from C.A. Bayly to
Dipesh Chakrabarty, but her voice remains clearly her own."
--William R. Pinch, Professor of History, Wesleyan University
"Pilgrimage and Power explains for the first time how colonial rule
created conditions that helped transform a local religious fair in
India -- the Kumbh Mela -- into a major event on the national
calendar. Maclean combines assiduous archival research and
anthropological insights to produce a remarkable analysis of the
cultural politics of Indian nationalism both during and after
British rule. This is an impressive and significant contribution to
South
Asian Studies." --Dipesh Chakrabarty, author of Habitations of
Modernity: Essays in the Wake of Subaltern Studies
"Carefully researched and engagingly written, Kama Maclean's study
of the Kumbh Mela places this fascinating cultural phenomenon in
its historical and socio-political contexts, with illuminating
results. Like an adept panda, or pilgrim guide, Dr. Maclean steers
readers through the journalistic, promotional, and Orientalist hype
that still regularly engulfs the vast duodecennial bathing fair,
and then sensitively reveals and interrogates the confluence
of actors, agendas, and events that shaped it during the Colonial
and post-Independence periods. Through her spadework and insights,
the Mela becomes a lens by which such important issues as the
interplay of
indigenous and foreign interests in the shaping of modern India,
its political elite, and a new, more homogenous form of Hinduism,
are seen with new clarity." --Philip Lutgendorf, author of
Hanuman's Tale: The Messages of a Divine Monkey
"Kama Maclean provides a nuanced and, at times, revolutionary
understanding of what must be regarded as one of the most important
periodic gatherings of humanity not just in India, but in the
world. As such, she reveals an enormous amount about the modern
history of Hinduism. But in the process she shines new light on the
social and cultural history of British imperialism and Indian
nationalism. Her book is the result of painstaking, careful
research; she draws
on the insights of a wide range of historians, from C.A. Bayly to
Dipesh Chakrabarty, but her voice remains clearly her own."
--William R. Pinch, Professor of History, Wesleyan University
"Pilgrimage and Power explains for the first time how colonial rule
created conditions that helped transform a local religious fair in
India -- the Kumbh Mela -- into a major event on the national
calendar. Maclean combines assiduous archival research and
anthropological insights to produce a remarkable analysis of the
cultural politics of Indian nationalism both during and after
British rule. This is an impressive and significant contribution to
South
Asian Studies." --Dipesh Chakrabarty, author of Habitations of
Modernity: Essays in the Wake of Subaltern Studies
"Carefully researched and engagingly written, Kama Maclean's study
of the Kumbh Mela places this fascinating cultural phenomenon in
its historical and socio-political contexts, with illuminating
results. Like an adept panda, or pilgrim guide, Dr. Maclean steers
readers through the journalistic, promotional, and Orientalist hype
that still regularly engulfs the vast duodecennial bathing fair,
and then sensitively reveals and interrogates the confluence
of actors, agendas, and events that shaped it during the Colonial
and post-Independence periods. Through her spadework and insights,
the Mela becomes a lens by which such important issues as the
interplay of
indigenous and foreign interests in the shaping of modern India,
its political elite, and a new, more homogenous form of Hinduism,
are seen with new clarity." --Philip Lutgendorf, author of
Hanuman's Tale: The Messages of a Divine Monkey
"This book is a dazzling account of the evolution of the modern
Kumbha Mela in Allahabad. The study exemplifies empirical narrative
history, engaging, to some extent, the anthropology of pilgrimage
and postcolonial theory about religion, politics, and the colonial
state. . . For those interested in postcolonial theory, Maclean's
book is a treasure of illustrations, and for those who like their
historiography empirically rich and narratively coherent, this
book
will delight."
--I
roject Muse
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