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Postcolonial Theory and the Challenge of Caste: Nationalism and the Case of “English” in India
Journal
Interventions
ISSN
1369801X
Date Issued
2023-01-01
Author(s)
Chakraborty, Paulomi
Abstract
Colonialism in India that postcolonial studies centrally theorizes is almost exclusively the understanding of colonialism of the caste-Hindu elites. Colonial modernities of caste groups other than the dominant caste-Hindus are not only at variance in priorities and textures but often do not share the latter's articulated anticolonialisms. To demonstrate this difference, I discuss in this paper a site–one out of many possible ones–where caste difference explodes the framework of postcolonial theory: English in India. I further show how vernacularism as the chosen postcolonial response also obscures the caste-privileged constituency of postcolonial theory in the Indian context. Given this difference, from the vantage point of my pedagogy, I argue that postcolonial theory needs disentangling from anti-colonial nationalism to be useful to, hold up to the scrutiny of, and offer more equitable entry points for students with different caste histories. I propose that postcolonial is taught–in and for the Indian context at least–in a tense juxtaposition with caste scholarship, annotating its lacuna and interrupting its intense interlock with nationalism.
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