Abstract
‹Deep Occidentalism›? Europe and the ‹West› in the Perception of Hindu Intellectuals and Reformers 1890–1930
The present article seeks to understand the counter-hegemonic politics pursued by Hindu elites around the turn to the 20th century. It argues that the West certainly played a central role as a point of reference, but that there have always been successful attempts at contesting its project of cultural hegemony. The first part looks at the intellectual and structural interfaces between ‹Europe› and ‹India› in the 19th century. In the subsequent sections, the representations and ‹translations› of Europe by three Hindu intellectuals of various backgrounds are analysed to demonstrate the broad scope of strategies deployed to contest western hegemonic claims: The popular ‹nativist› approach by Har Bilas Sarda at the same time challenged and presupposed ‹Western› criteria of civilization. Swami Vivekananda instead suggested a ‹universal division of labour›, in which ‹the West› was constructed as responsible for material well-being and ‹the East› as the spiritual teacher of mankind. Benoy Kumar Sarkar refused any ‹exoticising› essentialisation of India and tried to deconstruct European preconceptions and stereotypes about the Orient. Arguably, much of the intellectual effort in ‹provincializing Europe›, so in vogue today, is anticipated in his work.