Close-ups

approaching critical humanities

pp. 307-330

in: , Cultures of memory in South Asia, Berlin, Springer, 2014

Abstract

Cultures of memory in India are community specific. Cultural communities spread across over millennia as heterogeneous biocultural formations (jatis). Each of the jatis has brought forth distinct mnemocultural forms to mark its singularity and distinction from the others. Colonialism disrupts precisely this relation between the jati and culture by stigmatizing jati as a symbol of oppression. Denigration of jati results in the undermining of jati-culture. While analysing the colonial stigmatization of biocultural formations of India, this chapter affirms the need to reexamine jati-culture relation mainly to reconfigure the teaching and research in the humanities in India.