Meera Nanda: Postcolonial Theory and the making of "Hindu Nationalism"

[Frederick Noronha]

A important debate coming up here: The author of the book being discussed here is the Goan-by--origin Meera Nanda, the younger daughter of the historian and mathematician, D.D. Kosambi, and granddaughter of Dharmananda Damodar Kosambi, a Buddhist scholar and a Pāli language expert. Her mother was Nalini Kosambi (née Madgavkar). She received a Ph.D. in sociology from the Stockholm University.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANRZTh1eDTI

[Amita Kanekar]

Dear Frederick,

Meera Nanda and Meera Kosambi are/were two different people. Kosambi is dead, while Nanda is alive and based in the US.

Amita

On Sat, Aug 16, 2025 at 2:12 AM Frederick Noronha <frederic...@gmail.com> wrote:

A important debate coming up here: The author of the book being discussed here is the Goan-by--origin Meera Nanda, the younger daughter of the historian and mathematician, D.D. Kosambi, and granddaughter of Dharmananda Damodar Kosambi, a Buddhist scholar and a Pāli language expert. Her mother was Nalini Kosambi (née Madgavkar). She received a Ph.D. in sociology from the Stockholm University.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANRZTh1eDTI

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The past is never dead. It is not even past."
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[Pamela D'Mello]

https://m.thewire.in/article/books/decolonising-ourselves-into-a-hindu-rashtra

On Sat, 16 Aug, 2025, 2:12 am Frederick Noronha, <frederic...@gmail.com> wrote:

A important debate coming up here: The author of the book being discussed here is the Goan-by--origin Meera Nanda, the younger daughter of the historian and mathematician, D.D. Kosambi, and granddaughter of Dharmananda Damodar Kosambi, a Buddhist scholar and a Pāli language expert. Her mother was Nalini Kosambi (née Madgavkar). She received a Ph.D. in sociology from the Stockholm University.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANRZTh1eDTI

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[Rowena Kay Mascarenhas]

Amita, thank you. Yes, two different people.

FN - a mix up there, probably inadvertent. The two Meeras are different people, as Amita says. Meera Kosambi (d.2015) was Pune-based, lived in the house that her father DD Kosambi built (I'm told it is a Goa-style house), and her well known work is on Pandita Ramabai (published when I was at the OUP). 

Meera Nanda writes on postcolonial Hinduism but I didn't have the privilege of our paths crossing, though she is a well known academic in Delhi circles. 

Sounds like a good session, will try to catch it on the weekend! Thanks for sharing. 

Best

Rowena

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 16, 2025, at 5:11 AM, Amita Kanekar <amitak...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/CAHdyfPCJ2hy%2B3Qu7y2uh6cUp9F5-8oyyDuK3KuJzo_uiS7-cuQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[fredericknoronha]

Apologies for the mistake on my part on this. FN

[sammit khandeparker]

There is also a grave misunderstanding as to what ' Postcolonial theory' is. Unfortunately, the misinterpretation is endemic to the academy itself, and as such, it is being perpetuated on every reputable forum. Postcolonial theory is not a theory written after 1947 by intellectuals from the decolonised Global South. Postcolonial theory is a theoretical perspective that argues for the acknowledgement of power operating through culture, through language, and other forms of symbolic expressions.  It argues for reading texts and documents against the grain. As such, the theoretical perspective applies to all the cultural products of all societies.  Prima facie, the author might be in error. 

Sincerely,

Sammit

Dr. Sammit P. S. Khandeparkar 

PhD(Religious Studies) 

https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/3904AE10-4B26-4460-825F-978002E95647%40gmail.com

.

[Frederick Noronha]

Postcolonial theory came up in the context of the experiences of formerly colonised societies, not an abstract vacuum.It was developed largely by intellectuals from the so-called Global South (or Third World), challenging the legacies of colonialism—racial hierarchies, economic dependence, cultural domination, and epistemic violence (dominant groups suppressing the expression of marginalised people).

Postcolonial theory's power lies in its critique of empire and its ongoing recognition of how the colonial logic continues through globalisation, migration, and cultural production.

It is this logic that the Religious Right has incorporated into its own agenda to justify its controversial hegemony over domestic politics in the India of today.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/2114604692.692847.1755404871945%40mail.yahoo.com.

[fredericknoronha]

Dr. Meera Nanda | Postcolonial Theory and the Making of Hindu Nationalism: The Wages of Unreason

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE3Zo0XwMQ8