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Passages through India

Indian Gurus, Western Disciples and the Politics of Indophilia, 1890-1940

By: Somak Biswas

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Hardcover | 21 September 2023

At a Glance

Hardcover
310 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
16.1 x 23.7 x 2.6

Hardcover

RRP $169.95

$151.75

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Passages through India analyses the phenomenon of western Indophilia - romanticised engagements around idealised forms of Hindu India - its ideological and affective composition, and its political implications in late-colonial British India. It examines the disquiet with forms of industrial modernity that impelled a set of British and American followers to seek alternative forms of living and being in the personhoods and projects of Vivekananda, Gandhi and Tagore. Their Indophilia became complicit in the production of a respectable idea of India that resonated with the aspirations of India's cultural, social and political elites. Bringing together themes such as intimacy, discipleship and migration, this book argues that Indophile deployments around transnational projects like abolishing indentured labour and global Hinduism, while anti-colonial, were not necessarily emancipatory and that these followers frequently reproduced the very hierarchies of race, caste, class and gender that they sought to transgress.

Industry Reviews

'Biswas explores both the social geographies and the cultural practices of radical devotees in pursuit of earthly transcendence and revolutionary politics, producing a lively account of utopian communities stitched together by spiritual desire and preserved in a rich and vivid archive of letters that testify to the power of affective politics in the making of global history.' Antoinette Burton, University of Illinois
'An elegant account of the mutual but also rival desires that constituted the now classic relationship between Indian sages and their Western followers starting early in the last century. The combination of counter-cultural transgression and conservatism that Biswas describes in such relations makes for a highly original argument.' Faisal Devji, University of Oxford
'Weaving together modern guru-disciple relationships and the journeys of Western figures in pursuit of Indian gurus, this significant work explores a strikingly unusual theme. Each relationship is situated against a broad historical backdrop of contemporary politics and faith, of gender and emotions, in Britain and America as well as in India.' Tanika Sarkar, Jawaharlal Nehru University
'Puts flesh on the bones of the familiar trope of the Indian guru and the Western disciple. It is a useful reminder of the important work of 'white solidarity' in reshaping the global image of India for an anti-colonial project. At the same time, it is clear-eyed about the exclusionary effects of relying on Hindu high culture and a politics of respectability.' Mrinalini Sinha, University of Michigan

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