"Contrary to Anderson’s claims, strenuous attempts by the votaries of colonial modernity to shape national imaginings through their key institutions of power—the census, map and museum were never wholly successful in shrinking the mental horizons of the colonized peoples of Asia and Africa. It is a cardinal historiographical error to presume that identities as well as ideas about sovereignty were confined within the territorial framework established by the imperial powers, even if colonial frontiers continue to define the borders of most post-colonial nation-states. This is to unduly privilege what has been called official nationalism of post-colonial states at the cost of the multiple alternative strands of popular nationalism as well as communitarianism and universalism that may have lost out in the final battle for state power." Ayesha Jalal, Self and sovereignty. Individual and Community in South Asian Islam Since 1850
Posted on: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 14:39:38 +0000
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