''The Indian Ideology'' is a 2012 book by the British

Marxist historian Marxist historiography, or historical materialist historiography, is an influential school of historiography. The chief tenets of Marxist historiography include the centrality of social class, social relations of production in class-divided so ...

Perry Anderson Francis Rory Peregrine "Perry" Anderson (born 11 September 1938) is a British intellectual, historian and essayist. His work ranges across historical sociology, intellectual history, and cultural analysis. What unites Anderson's work is a preoc ...

, published by Three Essays Collective. A near-polemical critique of the modern Indian nation-building project, the book consists of three essays originally published in the ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...

'' (''LRB'') in July–August 2012.

Description

Perry Anderson at Fronteiras do Pensamento Porto Alegre

In the first essay, "Independence", Anderson criticises

M. K. Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

's role in the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

, specifically his injection of religion into it to mobilise the masses. In "Partition", Anderson places the blame for the bloody

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

on the Hindu-dominated

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

, arguing that its claim to be the sole representative for all Indians led to the inevitable rise of the

Muslim League Muslim League may refer to: Political parties Subcontinent ; British India *All-India Muslim League, Mohammed Ali Jinah, led the demand for the partition of India resulting in the creation of Pakistan. **Punjab Muslim League, a branch of the organ ...

and the

two-nation theory The two-nation theory is an ideology of religious nationalism that influenced the decolonisation of the British Raj in South Asia. According to this ideology, Indian Muslims and Indian Hindus are two separate nations, with their own customs, ...

. "Republic", the third and final essay, criticises independent India's first prime minister,

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

, and his legacy—a deeply unequal republic dominated by his descendants, where

caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...

and religion remain entrenched in civic life. Asked by

Praful Bidwai Praful Bidwai (12 June 1949 – 23 June 2015) was an Indian journalist, political analyst, and activist. He was known for his left-leaning analysis of India's politics and economics. In Bidwai's memory, his friends, including The Transnational I ...

in an interview to sum up ''The Indian Ideology'', Anderson said the book "advances five main arguments that run counter to conventional wisdom in India today":

Firstly, that the idea of a subcontinental unity stretching back six thousand years is a myth. Secondly, that Gandhi’s injection of religion into the national movement was ultimately a disaster for it. Thirdly, that primary responsibility for Partition lay not with the Raj, but Congress. Fourthly, that Nehru’s legacy to Republic was far more ambiguous than his admirers will admit. Lastly, that Indian democracy is not contradicted by caste inequality, but rather enabled by it.
Praful Bidwai Praful Bidwai (12 June 1949 – 23 June 2015) was an Indian journalist, political analyst, and activist. He was known for his left-leaning analysis of India's politics and economics. In Bidwai's memory, his friends, including The Transnational I ...
.
Interview: 'Respect Gandhi If You Will, Don’t Sentimentalise Him'
". ''
Outlook Outlook or The Outlook may refer to: Computing * Microsoft Outlook, an e-mail and personal information management software product from Microsoft * Outlook.com, a web mail service from Microsoft * Outlook on the web, a suite of web applications ...
''. 12 November 2012. Retrieved on 25 January 2014.

''Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life'' by

Kathryn Tidrick Kathryn Tidrick is an English historian, psychologist and writer. She is a specialist in British colonial history and the history of political institutions in Asia. Her works have received praises from other historians. William Dalrymple called ...

became the centre of a controversy since

called it the most important biography in ''The Indian Ideology''. Anderson's book criticises the statist idea of India created by Indian historians which has made Gandhi into a saint who cannot be criticised. He said in the interview given to The Outlook magazine Gandhi and Nehru in 1946

Reception

Following the essays' original publication, the ''LRB'' received several letters of praise as well as criticism from scholars in India and abroad. When they were collected in book form as ''The Indian Ideology'' by Three Essays Collective, a small

Gurgaon Gurgaon (pronunciation: �ʊɽɡãːw, officially named Gurugram (pronunciation: �ʊɾʊɡɾaːm, is a city located in the northern Indian state of Haryana. It is situated near the Delhi–Haryana border, about southwest of the nationa ...

-based publisher of scholarly material, the work received several reviews in the print and digital media.

Positive

Pankaj Mishra affirms that Anderson has found self-delusion in the Indian claims of uniqueness. While Anderson's critics accuse him of "quasi-imperialist condescension, Orientalist caricature and ignorance" Mishra finds that Anderson can easily slam such accusations, since he has expended even more criticism on the British ruling class. Mishra states that it is difficult to argue with Anderson's findings and is at times unanswerable on the Indian military occupation of Kashmir, leaves readers struck by the evidence of the role of the upper-caste Hindus in Indian politics and displays awkward facts about the roles of Nehru and Gandhi in the

to their admirers.

Mixed

Ravi Palat reviewed of the work as a "sure-footed" survey of the Indian independence movement and modern India, wherein Anderson debunked many liberal myths around the personalities of Gandhi and Nehru and also those around Indian democracy and unity. Palat found Anderson's insights to be incisive and praised his attention to detail. At the same time Palat faults Anderson for his recourse to the "great man" theory and eurocentric prejudices.

Negative

Associate Professor Kavita Philips from the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

writes in ''Social History'' that Anderson's presentation is a polemical survey of modern India. Anderson collects a "dismal record" for India and attributes India's failings to ideological nationalism upheld by both Indian politicians and Indian scholars. Philips observes that many Indian scholars, both right-wing and left-wing, "turned away" from the book and even before its publication the preceding LRB essays received a "storm of criticism" from Indian scholars. Indian historian

Irfan Habib Irfan Habib (born August 10, 1931) is an Indian historian of ancient and medieval India, following the methodology of Marxist historiography in his contributions to economic history. He identifies as a Marxist and is well known for his strong ...

criticised the essays for its selective presentation of facts and even distortion of them, a neglect of the colonial context in which the independence movement was waged, and the bypassing of the role of

in India's partition. He regards Perry Anderson following in the footsteps of the Cambridge School historians such as Anil Seal, for example, in regarding the nationalist movement as the movement of the elites (or higher castes), ignoring its mobilisation of the peasantry and workers, its attack on untouchability, and the fundamental rights resolution adopted by

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

in 1931 in Karachi. Regarding partition, he writes, "even before the 1946 elections, the Congress had agreed to parity with the Muslim League in ministerial positions at the Centre... what more could the Congress do?" He states that the Hindu Code enacted in 1955–1956 effectively overturned two millennia of '' dharmashastra'' ideals in two years, hardly a mark of buttressing Hindu elitism as alleged by Anderson.

Nivedita Menon Nivedita Menon (1960, Poona/Pune) is a writer and a professor of political thought at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. She previously taught at Lady Shri Ram College and the Department of Political Science at Delhi University. Scholarly c ...

penned a stinging critique of the work, and was of the opinion that it should not have even passed the peer-review stage. Sudipta Kaviraj echoed similar views and deemed it to be laden with colonial bias. Partha Chaterjee found the work to be essentially childish and ignorant of developments in Indian historiography. Historian

Ananya Vajpeyi Ananya Vajpeyi is an Indian academic and writer. She is Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. She is the author of the award-winning book "''Righteous Republic: The Political foundations of Modern India''" published by the ...

had earlier critiqued Anderson's essays as a project resembling a "neo-imperial" venture, which she claimed produced a caricature of India's past.

References

External links

''The Indian Ideology''
at Three Essays Collective * The essays on the ''London Review of Books'' website: :#
Gandhi Centre Stage
, 5 July 2012 :#
Why Partition?
, 19 July 2012 :#
After Nehru
, 2 August 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Indian Ideology, The 2012 non-fiction books History books about India Indian non-fiction books