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Reading the life narratives and literary texts of South Asians writing in and about East Africa, Gaurav Desai builds a surprising, alternative history of Africa's experience with slavery, migration, colonialism, nationalism, and globalization. Consulting Afrasian texts that are literary and nonfictional, political and private, he broadens the scope of African and South Asian scholarship and inspires a more nuanced understanding of the Indian Ocean's fertile routes of exchange.Desai shows how the Indian Ocean engendered a number of syncretic identities and shaped the medieval trade routes of the Islamicate empire, the early independence movements galvanized in part by Gandhi's southern African experiences, the invention of new ethnic nationalisms, and the rise of plural, multiethnic African nations. Calling attention to lives and literatures long neglected by traditional scholars, Desai introduces rich, interdisciplinary ways of thinking not only about this specific region but also about the very nature of ethnic history and identity. Traveling from the twelfth century to today, he concludes with a look at contemporary Asian populations in East Africa and their struggle to decide how best to participate in the development and modernization of their postcolonial nations without sacrificing their political autonomy.

Indic literature --- National characteristics, East Indian, in literature --- East African literature (English) --- East Indians --- Asian Indians --- Indians, East --- Indic peoples --- Ethnology --- English literature --- History and criticism --- 891.1 --- 891.1 Indische literatuur --- Indische literatuur --- Littérature indienne (de l'Inde) de langue anglaise --- Caractère national --- Littérature africaine de langue anglaise --- Indiens (de l'Inde) --- National characteristics, East Indian, in literature. --- Histoire et critique. --- Dans la littérature --- History and criticism. --- Dans la littérature. --- Indians (India)

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During the twentieth century, at the height of the independence movement and after, Indian literary writing in English was entrusted with the task of consolidating the image of a unified, seemingly caste-free, modernising India for consumption both at home and abroad. This led to a critical insistence on the proximity of the national and the literary, which in turn, led to the canonisation of certain writers and themes and the dismissal of others. Examining English anthologies of 'Indian literature', as well as the establishment of the Sahitya Akademi (the national academy of letters) and the work of R. K. Narayan and Mulk Raj Anand among others, Rosemary George exposes the painstaking efforts that went into the elaboration of a 'national literature' in English for independent India even while deliberating the fundamental limitations of using a nation-centric critical framework for reading literary works.

Littérature indienne (de l'Inde) de langue anglaise --- Nationalisme et littérature --- Caractère national --- Identité collective --- Indic literature (English) --- Nationalism and literature --- National characteristics, East Indian, in literature. --- Group identity in literature. --- Histoire et critique. --- Dans la littérature. --- History and criticism. --- History --- Literature and nationalism --- Literature --- Arts and Humanities

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The continual, unpredictable, and often violent "traffic" between identities in colonial and postcolonial India is the focus of Parama Roy's stimulating and original book. Mimicry has been commonly recognized as an important colonial model of bourgeois/elite subject formation, and Roy examines its place in the exchanges between South Asian and British, Hindu and Muslim, female and male, and subaltern and elite actors. Roy draws on a variety of sources--religious texts, novels, travelogues, colonial archival documents, and films--making her book genuinely interdisciplinary. She explores the ways in which questions of originality and impersonation function, not just for "western" or "westernized" subjects, but across a range of identities. For example, Roy considers the Englishman's fascination with "going native," an Irishwoman's assumption of Hindu feminine celibacy, Gandhi's impersonation of femininity, and a Muslim actress's emulation of a Hindu/Indian mother goddess. Familiar works by Richard Burton and Kipling are given fresh treatment, as are topics such as the "muscular Hinduism" of Swami Vivekananda. Indian Traffic demonstrates that questions of originality and impersonation are in the forefront of both the colonial and the nationalist discourses of South Asia and are central to the conceptual identity of South Asian postcolonial theory itself.

Indic literature (English) --- British --- Colonies in literature --- Group identity --- National characteristics, East Indian, in literature --- Literature and society --- Anglo-Indian literature --- Postcolonialism in literature --- Postcolonialism --- Group identity in literature --- Nationalism --- Imperialism in literature --- English Literature --- English --- Languages & Literatures --- History and criticism --- History --- #SBIB:39A6 --- #SBIB:39A75 --- Etniciteit / Migratiebeleid en -problemen --- Etnografie: Azië --- Consciousness, National --- Identity, National --- National consciousness --- National identity --- Post-colonialism --- Postcolonial theory --- English literature --- Literature --- Literature and sociology --- Society and literature --- Sociology and literature --- Collective identity --- Community identity --- Cultural identity --- Social identity --- British people --- Britishers --- Britons (British) --- Brits --- Indo-English literature --- Social aspects --- International relations --- Patriotism --- Political science --- Autonomy and independence movements --- Internationalism --- Political messianism --- Decolonization --- Indic literature --- Sociolinguistics --- Identity (Psychology) --- Social psychology --- Collective memory --- Ethnology --- India --- Civilization.