The Classics and Colonial IndiaThis extraordinary book provides a detailed account of the relationship between classical antiquity and the British colonial presence in India. It examines some of the great figures of the colonial period such as Gandhi, Nehru, Macaulay, Jowett, and William Jones, and covers a range of different disciplines as it sweeps from the eighteenth century to the end of the British Raj in the twentieth. Using a variety of materials, including archival documents and familiar texts, Vasunia shows how classical culture pervaded the thoughts and minds of the British colonizers. His book highlights the many Indian receptions of Greco-Roman antiquity and analyses how Indians turned to ancient Greece and Rome during the colonial period for a variety of purposes, including anti-colonialism, nationalism, and collaboration. Offering a unique cross-cultural study, this volume will be of interest to literary scholars and historians of the classical world, the British Empire, and South Asia. |
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Aeneas Aeneid Alexander Alexander’s ancient Greece Anglo-Saxon antiquity Arabic Aristophanes Asiatic Bengal Bombay British Empire British rule Britons Bryce Burke Calcutta Cambridge candidates Chaudhuri 2008 Christianity claimed classical College colonial India comparison conquests contemporary context culture Dalpatram Delhi Derozio Dilke discussion Droysen Dutt early East India Company Elphinstone English epic essay Europe European examination Fergusson Gibbon Greater Britain Greece and Rome Greek Greek and Latin Greek and Roman Grote Gujarati Haileybury Hellenism Hindu Hodges Homer Iliad imperial Indian architecture Indian Civil Service Indus invasion Jones Kafiristan Kafirs Kinneir Lakshmi languages letter literary literature London Macedonian Mahabharata modern Mughal nation natives Nehru nineteenth century open competition Oriental Oxford Persian Plato’s poem poet poetry political Porus published quoted race Ramayana readers references remarks Rennell Roman Empire rulers Sanskrit scholars Seeley Socrates style subjects texts traditions translation Urdu verse Victorian Virgil writings wrote