Provincializing Europe PDF
Preview Provincializing Europe
PROVINCIALIZING EUROPE E D I T O R S SherryB.Ortner,NicholasB.Dirks,GeoffEley ALISTOFTITLES INTHISSERIESAPPEARS ATTHEBACKOF THEBOOK PRINCETON STUDIES IN CULTURE / POWER / HISTORY PROVINCIALIZING EUROPE POSTCOLONIAL THOUGHT AND HISTORICAL DIFFERENCE With a new preface by the author Dipesh Chakrabarty PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD Copyright©2000byPrincetonUniversityPress PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet, Princeton,NewJersey08540 IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress, 3MarketPlace,Woodstock,OxfordshireOX201SY AllRightsReserved Reissue,withanewprefacebytheauthor,2008 ISBN978-0-691-13001-9 TheLibraryofCongresscatalogedtheoriginaleditionofthisbookasfollows Chakrabarty,Dipesh. ProvincializingEurope:postcolonialthoughtandhistorical difference/DipeshChakrabarty. p. cm.—(Princetonstudiesinculture/power/history) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex ISBN0-691-04908-4(alk.paper)—ISBN0-691-04909-2(pbk.:alk.paper) 1.Historiography—Europe.2.Europe—History—Philosophy. 3.Eurocentrism.4.India—Historiography.5.Decolonization. I.Title.II.Series. D13.5.E85C432000 901—dc21 99-087722 BritishLibraryCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailable ThisbookhasbeencomposedinSabon Printedonacid-freepaper.∞ press.princeton.edu PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 For Anne, Fiona, Robin Debi, Gautam, Shiloo INFRIENDSHIP Contents Prefacetothe2007Edition ix Acknowledgments xxiii Introduction: TheIdeaofProvincializingEurope 3 PARTONE: HISTORICISMANDTHE NARRATIONOFMODERNITY Chapter1. PostcolonialityandtheArtificeofHistory 27 Chapter2. TheTwoHistoriesofCapital 47 Chapter3. TranslatingLife-WorldsintoLaborandHistory 72 Chapter4. MinorityHistories,SubalternPasts 97 PARTTWO: HISTORIESOFBELONGING Chapter5. DomesticCrueltyandtheBirthoftheSubject 117 Chapter6. NationandImagination 149 Chapter7. Adda:AHistoryofSociality 180 Chapter8. Family,Fraternity,andSalariedLabor 214 Epilogue. ReasonandtheCritiqueofHistoricism 237 Notes 257 Index 299 Preface to the 2007 Edition Provincializing Europe in Global Times I For all the criticisms that could be leveled at him, Roland Barthes’ idea thatamythworksbymakingthehistoricalseem“natural”hadsomething toit.Ofcourse,by“historical,”Barthesdidnotmeananythingwecould find in books about history, because, for him, such books would them- selvesbelongtomythicsystemsofrepresentation.“History,”inBarthes’s famousessayon“mythtoday,”referredtotheactivityofliving,anactiv- ity that, at least according to Barthes, was all about closing the gap to some degree (for it could never be fully closed) between the word and the world by orienting language more directly toward its referents “out there.”1 When caught up in the activity of living, words would mainly possessdirectandpracticalconnotation.“Europe”wasnotawordthat everbotheredmeinmymiddle-classBengalichildhoodoryouthasIwas growing up in postcolonial Calcutta. The legacy of Europe—or British colonial rule, for that is how Europe came into our lives—was every- where: in traffic rules, in grown-ups’ regrets that Indians had no civic sense,inthegamesofsoccerandcricket,inmyschooluniform,inBengali- nationalistessaysandpoemscriticalofsocialinequality,especiallyofthe so-called castesystem, in implicitand explicit debatesabout love-match versusarrangedmarriages,inliterarysocietiesandfilmclubs.Inpractical, everydayliving“Europe”wasnotaproblemtobeconsciouslynamedor discussed. Categories or words borrowed from European histories had found new homes in our practices. It made perfect sense, for instance, whenradicalfriendsincollegewouldrefertosomeone—say,anobstruc- tionist would-be father-in-law—as being full of “feudal” attitudes, or when we debated—for interminable hours over cheap cups of coffee or teaininexpensiverestaurantsorteashopswherewegenerallyoverstayed our welcome—if the Indian capitalists were a “national bourgeoisie” or a“comprador”classplayingsecondfiddletoforeigncapital.Weallknew, practically, what these words meant without having to put them under anykindofanalyticmicroscope.Their“meanings”didnottravelbeyond theimmediateenvironmentinwhichtheywerebeingused.
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