Aryans, Jews, Brahmins: Theorizing Authority through Myths of IdentityState University of New York Press, 2012 M02 1 - 217 pages In Aryans, Jews, Brahmins, Dorothy M. Figueira provides a fascinating account of the construction of the Aryan myth and its uses in both India and Europe from the Enlightenment to the twentieth century. The myth concerns a race that inhabits a utopian past and gives rise first to Brahmin Indian culture and then to European culture. In India, notions of the Aryan were used to develop a national identity under colonialism, one that allowed Indian elites to identify with their British rulers. It also allowed non-elites to set up a counter identity critical of their position in the caste system. In Europe, the Aryan myth provided certain thinkers with an origin story that could compete with the Biblical one and could be used to diminish the importance of the West's Jewish heritage. European racial hygienists made much of the myth of a pure Aryan race, and the Nazis later looked at India as a cautionary tale of what could happen if a nation did not remain "pure." As Figueira demonstrates, the history of the Aryan myth is also a history of reading, interpretation, and imaginative construction. Initially, the ideology of the Aryan was imposed upon absent or false texts. Over time, it involved strategies of constructing, evoking, or distorting the canon. Each construction of racial identity was concerned with key issues of reading: canonicity, textual accessibility, interpretive strategies of reading, and ideal readers. The book's cross-cultural investigation demonstrates how identities can be and are created from texts and illuminates an engrossing, often disturbing history that arose from these creations. |
Contents
1 | |
The Authority of an Absent Text | 7 |
Who Speaks for the Subaltern? | 89 |
Afterword | 160 |
Notes | 165 |
189 | |
203 | |
Other editions - View all
Aryans, Jews, Brahmins: Theorizing Authority Through Myths of Identity Dorothy Matilda Figueira No preview available - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
a¯rya Ambedkar ancient Arya Aryan myth Aryan past Aryan race Aryan religion Aryanhood authority believed blood brahmin breeding canon caste Chamberlain 1968 Chitpavan Christianity cited civilization claimed Colebrooke colonial commentary Creuzer culture Dasyu Daya¯nand decay degeneration developed discourse divine Dravidians Enlightenment European existence Ezour Vedam German Gobineau Gorres Herder hermeneutic Hindu Hinduism human ideal identity idolatry India Indian Aryan interpretation Jews Jordens Kaufmann language linguistic literature Manu metempsychosis modern monotheism moral Müller mythology Nietzsche Nietzsche’s non-Aryan origin Peshwas philosophical Phule poetry political polytheism present primitive pure racial Rammohan Roy Ranade reform rejected religious revealed Rig Veda ritual Romantic Rosenberg 1937 Roy’s Sama¯j Sanskrit Schlegel scholars scholarship scripture Semitic shu¯dras social society sought spiritual strategy superiority superstition texts textual th Aryan th Veda theory thought Tilak tion tradition translation truth Übermensch Upanishads Veda’s Vedic vision Vivekananda Voltaire Voltaire’s Western worship