Parsing the Indian ‘identity’

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Review Parsing the Indian 'identity' By : Aditya Adhikari
The Indians: Portrait of a people
by Sudhir and Katharina Kakar
Penguin Books, 2007

In current academic and intellectual circles, this is a time of widespread suspicion of what has been called the 'grand narrative' – those accounts of countries and cultures that claim to be comprehensive. Such narratives, warn critics, not only ignore heterogeneity, but also uphold dominant power structures. This is also a time when the dominant intellectual mood celebrates the mixing of cultures, and perceives identity to be multiple – like masks that can be worn and taken off as the situation demands. To claim that a people have a particular identity is to invite charges that one views culture as fixed and inalterable, and does not allow for the possibility of social change.

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