Edward Said and the Cultural History of British Colonialism in India

Essay from the year 2009 in the subject History - Basics, grade: -, European University Institute (Department of History, Florenz), language: English, comment: This text discusses the role of culture in the history of European colonialism. It takes Said's notion of "Orientalism" as a starting point. It then discusses two very different books that have tried to make Said's notion useful for the study of concrete colonial situations: Christopher Bayly's "Empire and Information", and Nicholas Dirks' "Castes of Mind". Whereas Bayly's concept of an "information order" tries to undermine ideas about a European hegemony of knowledge, Dirks stresses the far-reaching influence European concepts had even on post-colonial notions of caste in India. , abstract: This text discusses the role of culture in the history of European colonialism. It takes Said's notion of "Orientalism" as a starting point. It then discusses two very different books that have tried to make Said's notion useful for the study of concrete colonial situations: Christopher Bayly's "Empire and Information", and Nicholas Dirks' "Castes of Mind". Whereas Bayly's concept of an "information order" tries to undermine ideas about a European hegemony of knowledge, Dirks stresses the far-reaching influence European concepts had even on post-colonial notions of caste in India.