The "Maratha period" of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, when an independent Maratha state successfully resisted
the Mughals, is a defining era in the history of the region of
Maharashtra in western India. In this book, Prachi Deshpande
considers the importance of this period for a variety of political
projects including anticolonial/Hindu nationalism and the
non-Brahman movement, as well as popular debates throughout the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries concerning the meaning of
tradition, culture, and the experience of colonialism and
modernity.
Sampling from a rich body of literary and cultural sources,
Deshpande highlights shifts in history writing in early modern and
modern India and the deep connections between historical and
literary narratives. She traces the reproduction of the Maratha
period in various genres and public arenas, its incorporation into
regional political symbolism, and its centrality to the making of a
modern Marathi regional consciousness. She also shows how
historical memory provided a space for Indians to negotiate among
their national, religious, and regional identities, pointing to
history's deeper potential in shaping politics within thoroughly
diverse societies.
A truly unique study, "Creative Pasts" examines the practices of
historiography and popular memory within a particular colonial
context, and illuminates the impact of colonialism on colonized
societies and cultures. Furthermore, it shows how modern history
and historical memory are jointly created through the interplay of
cultural activities, power structures, and political rhetoric.
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