Imagining India

"An important book, a major work, that must be read and absorbed by those involved in scholarship, or any critical enterprise." —The Independent

How does the Western world represent India? To what extent is knowledge of the people and institutions of the Indian sub-continent based on the West's own desires for world hegemony, and fantasies about its rationality? In this controversial and widely-praised book, Inden argues that the West's major depictions of India as the civilization of caste, villages, spiritualism, and divine kings—and as a land dominated by imagination rather than reason—have had the effect of depriving Indians of their capacity to rule their world, which has consequently been appropriated by those in the West who wish to dominate it.

First published in 1990, Imagining India is required reading in many university courses. This edition contains a new introduction.