This article is based on a panel discussion around the notion of national literature, organized at the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation (Piraeus, Greece) on the occasion of the publication of the... Show moreThis article is based on a panel discussion around the notion of national literature, organized at the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation (Piraeus, Greece) on the occasion of the publication of the Greek translation of Konstantina Zanou's book Transnational Patriotism in the Mediterranean, 1800–1850: Stammering the Nation. This paper along with the papers by the 3 other panelists, Karen Emmerich, Vassilis Lambropoulos, and Konstantina Zanou, which all responded to Zanou's book, were published in the literary magazine Χάρτης [Chartis] under the heading "Τι ήταν ο Συγγραφέας πριν γίνει Έλληνας και η Λογοτεχνία πριν γίνει Εθνική;" ["What was the author before they became Greek and Literature before it became National"]. Show less
=========ABSTRACT=========It is tempting to think of precolonial India as a harmonious society, but was it? This study brings evidence from new and unexpected sources to take position in the... Show more=========ABSTRACT=========It is tempting to think of precolonial India as a harmonious society, but was it? This study brings evidence from new and unexpected sources to take position in the sensitive debate over that question. From the investigation of six conflicts in the Deccan region it draws conclusions about group behaviour that put modern clashes in context. Some of the conflicts under investigation appear odd today but were very real to the involved, as the antagonism between Left and Right Hand castes was for about a thousand years. Other conflicts continue to the present day: the seventeenth century saw lasting changes in the relationship between Hindus and Muslims as well as the rise of patriotism and early nationalism in both India and Europe. This book carefully brings to life the famous and obscure people who made the era, from the Dutch painter Heda to queen Khadija and from maharaja Shivaji to the English rebel Keigwin=========NOTES=========First Leiden University Press edition, 2009. Entirely revised from the author’s dissertation Xenophobia and Consciousness in Seventeenth-Century India: Six Cases from the Deccan, 12-Mar-2008. Show less