RT Book
T1 Ghostly past, capitalist presence: a social history of fear in colonial Bengal
A1 Bhattacharya, Tithi ca. 20./21. Jh.
LA English
PP Durham London
PB Duke University Press
YR 2024
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1884410316
AB "In Ghostly Past, Capitalist Presence, Tithi Bhattacharya maps the role that Bengali ghosts and ghost stories played in constituting the modern Indian nation, and the religious ideas seeded therein, as it emerged in dialogue with European science. Bhattacharya introduces readers to the multifarious habits and personalities of Bengal's traditional ghosts and investigates and mourns their eventual extermination. For Bhattacharya, British colonization marked a transition from the older, multifaith folk world of traditional ghosts to newer and more frightening specters. These 'modern' Bengali ghosts, borne out of a new Rationality, were homogenous specters amenable to 'scientific' speculation and invoked at séance sessions in elite drawing rooms. Reading literature alongside the colonial archive, she uncovers a new reordering of science and faith from the middle of the nineteenth century. Bhattacharya argues that these shifts cemented the authority of a rising upper caste colonial elite who expelled the older ghosts in order to recast Hinduism as the conscience of the Indian nation. In so doing, Bhattacharya reveals how capitalism necessarily reshaped Bengal as part of the global colonial project"--
NO Includes bibliographical references and index
CN DS485.B44
SN 9781478030713
SN 9781478026464
K1 Religion and science : India : Bengal : History : 19th century
K1 Ghosts : India : Bengal : History
K1 Ghost stories, Bengali : History and criticism
K1 HISTORY / Asia / South / India
K1 RELIGION / Hinduism / General
K1 Asiatische Geschichte
K1 Colonialism & imperialism
K1 HIS062000
K1 HISTORY / Social History
K1 Hinduism
K1 Hinduismus
K1 Kolonialismus und Imperialismus
K1 POL045000
K1 POL054000
K1 Politics & government
K1 Politik und Staat
K1 Asian History
K1 Social & Cultural History
K1 Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte
K1 Bengal (India) : History : 19th century
K1 Bengal (India) : Civilization : 19th century
K1 Bengal (India) : Colonial influence
K1 India : History : British occupation, 1765-1947
K1 India
K1 Westbengalen