The Avatars of Modernity

by Heinz Werner Wessler and Lars Kjaerholm and Niels Brimnes

Containing contributions by Indian and Western scholars side by side and covering the period from Vasco da Gama's arrival in India to the present day, this book attempts to explore the complicated processes of Indian identity formation from both an Indian and a Western perspective. Not only the history, language and literatures of India, but also more specific aspects of modern India are analyzed as markers of this process.

About the Authors:

Dr. Heinz Werner Wessler, academic officer at the Indological Department, University of Bonn (Germany). He has published on modern and classical Hinduism, Hindi literature, Purana Studies.

Niels Brimnes, Ph.D. (Cantab.), associate professor in Asian History at the Department of History and Area Studies, Aarhus University. His major field of research is early colonial history in south India and he has published the monograph Constructing the Colonial Encounter: Right and Left Hand Castes in Early Colonial South India (Richmond: Curzon Press, 1999).

Lars Kjaerholm, lecturer in social anthropology at Aarhus University Numerous field trips to south India and Philippines since 1971. Lars Kjaerholm has published extensively from his various researches in India and elsewhere.