Autobiography of an Archive: A Scholar's Passage to India

Nicholas Dirks

Published by Columbia University Press 2015

Autobiography of an Archive

A Scholar's Passage to India

Nicholas Dirks

In the series Cultures of History

https://doi.org/10.7312/dirk16966

Overview
Contents

About this book

A leading figure in higher education reflects on his early encounter with India, its history, and his discipline's turn to the study of ordinary lives and cultural rhythms. Nicholas B. Dirks revisits his early investigations of kingship in India, the rise of the caste system, the emergence of English imperial interest in controlling markets and India's political regimes, and the development of a crisis in sovereignty that led to an extraordinary nationalist struggle. He shares his personal encounters with archives on these subjects, ultimately revealing the limits of colonial knowledge and single-disciplinary perspectives. Drawing parallels to the way American universities balance the liberal arts and specialized research today, Dirks encourages scholars to apply multiple approaches to their research and build a more global archive.

A scholar’s intellectual awakening set against the backdrop of two disciplines and many journeys.

Author / Editor information

Nicholas B. Dirks is the chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, where he is also a professor of history and anthropology. An internationally renowned historian and anthropologist, he is known for his work on the history of kingship and the institution of caste in India, as well as for his writing on the British empire. His major works include The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom; Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India; and The Scandal of Empire: India and the Creation of Imperial Britain. He has edited several books, including Colonialism and Culture, Culture/Power/History: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory, and In Near Ruins: Cultural Theory at the End of the Century.

Reviews

Taut, clear language, which, at times, becomes almost lyrical.

An incredible book, a work that needs to be relished slowly...

Ann Laura Stoler, New School for Social Research:
Nicholas B. Dirks, with his consummate clarity and stylistic finesse, takes the reader on an autobiographical and historical journey to show both how history and culture are imbricated in the making of these fields and more generally to why history so matters to the future visions of the vitality and the openness we must embrace to understand our world today.

Michael S. Roth, president, Wesleyan University:
Autobiography of an Archive is a compelling synthesis of his extraordinary career as a scholar, teacher, and institution builder. Nicholas B. Dirks's account of the interconnections between anthropology and history and his commitment to the internationalization of liberal learning make his book a vital contribution to contemporary discussions of globalization and education.

Akeel Bilgrami, Columbia University:
Nicholas B. Dirks has taken to heart the disciplinary alliance between Anthropology and History that Keith Thomas so fruitfully articulated in theory (and then pursued in practice) a half century ago. In these essays he artfully pursues it himself via an autobiographical unfolding of his own archival path of discovery as a scholar of India. The essays will be greatly admired not only for their knowledgeable, distinctive, and acute grasp of the difficult and well-mined phenomena of kingship and caste and colonialism but also for the sustained and detailed angle of sympathy and regard they present on those oppressed by that phenomena.

Gyan Prakash, author of Mumbai Fables:
Using the conceit of an autobiography, this book dazzles with luminous reflections on the archive of knowledge on India. As a leading scholar of India in the American academy, Nicholas B. Dirks offers original insights on the history and politics of scholarship, on empire and its entailment in the production of knowledge, and on the career of history and anthropology as disciplines. Autobiography of an Archive showcases Dirks at his best as a scholar and cultural critic.

David Szanton, University of California, Berkeley, and editor of The Politics of Knowledge: Area Studies and the Disciplines:
A unique and compelling volume with a great deal of fascinating material and provocative observations. Nicholas B. Dirks's essays will be extremely influential for the large and growing public interested in India.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Introduction: Passage to India Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. Autobiography
1. Annals of the Archive: Ethnographic Notes on the Sources of History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
2. Autobiography of an Archive Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
3. Preface to the Second Edition of The Hollow Crown Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
Part II. History and Anthropology
4. Castes of Mind: The Original Caste Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
5. Ritual and Resistance: Subversion as a Social Fact Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
6. The Policing of Tradition: Colonialism and Anthropology in Southern India Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	132
Part III. Empire
7. Imperial Sovereignty Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
8. Bringing the Company Back In: The Scandal of Early Global Capitalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
9. The Idea of Empire Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Part IV. The Politics of Knowledge
10. In Near Ruins: Cultural Theory at the End of the Century Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
11. G. S. Ghurye and the Politics of Sociological Knowledge Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
12. South Asian Studies: Futures Past Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Part V. University
13. Franz Boas and the American University: A Personal Account Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293
14. Scholars and Spies: Worldly Knowledge and the Predicament of the University Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
15. The Opening of the American Mind Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	321
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	339
Permissions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	371
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	373

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 400

eBook

Published: February 10, 2015
ISBN: 9780231538510