India conceived by the Orientalists and the Nationalists

Introduction

Nationalism differs from Orientalism as it gives voice to its muted subjects. By nationalism as Orientalism-in-reverse, the study implies that nationalism is a pride in cultural achievements rather than humility, which Orientalism breeds among its subjects. Significantly, the nationalists in their pride of cultural achievements accepted the cultural essences formulated by Orientalism.

The nationalists constructed a hiatus between the “interior” spiritualism that the East represented and the “exterior” materialism that the West stood for. Thereby, it rendered ‘essential’ India in spiritual metaphor and identified the “inner” domain in terms of domestic sphere. To retain the pride in Indian culture, the nationalists asserted spiritualism as an antidote to Western “outer” materialism.

India conceived by the Orientalists and the Nationalists

This dichotomy of the East and the West continued to articulate a distinctive identity structured on the colonial differences. My methodology involves the analysis of M.K. Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj and Jawaharlal Nehru’s The Discovery of India, which are my main texts, since India was a textual subject for the Orientalists as well as for the nationalists

I shall examine the relationship between nationalism and Orientalism and show by way of arguments how nationalism doesn’t negate the Orientalist project as much as it complies with it, and that both are pedagogic disciplines ‘representing’ the Orient. I intend to scrutinize how nationalism is a kind of “Orientalism-in-Reverse” (‘Azm 5). Nationalism differs from Orientalism as it gives voice to its muted subjects. By nationalism as Orientalism-in-reverse, I imply that nationalism is a pride in cultural achievements rather than humility, which is what Orientalism breeds among its subjects. Significantly, the nationalists in their pride of cultural achievements accepted the cultural essences formulated by Orientalism.

India conceived by the Orientalists and the Nationalists

The nationalists did not step outside the Indian past, that is, they accepted the Orientalist formulations of a ‘glorious’ Indian past and its subsequent decline. Therefore, they thought it imperative to eulogise the past cultural ideals that could defend the invasion of “inner” spirituality from “outer” sphere and signified spiritualism as the core of the Indian traditions.

Furthermore, the ‘pristine’ tradition suggested the ‘authenticity’ over the imported colonial knowledge. The nationalists constructed a hiatus between the “interior” spiritualism that the East represented and the “exterior” materialism that the West stood for. Thereby, it rendered ‘essential’ India through spiritual metaphors and identified the “inner” domain in terms of domestic sphere. To retain the pride in Indian culture, the nationalists asserted spiritualism as an antidote to Western “outer” materialism. This dichotomy of the East and the West continued to articulate a distinctive identity structured on the colonial differences.

India conceived by the Orientalists and the Nationalists

Orientalists as well as the nationalists. The first significant challenge to Orientalised India came from nationalism. While agreeing to the notion of an essentialised India, the nationalists transformed the object of knowledge – India – from passive to active. Despite following this concept about India, Gandhi and Nehru “used Orientalism against imperialism” in positioning non-violence and toleration as the strength of Indian culture (Ludden 273). Both these nationalists were a product of Western education.

They had voraciously read European literature and incorporated some of the Western thoughts in their anticolonial discourse. To determine their cultural identity they reflected upon the Orientalist essences of the ancient origins of Indian culture. This implied that their nationalist discourse supported the colonial definition of a ‘timeless’ Indian culture with its trait of toleration and non-violence. Remarkably, Gandhi accepted: “ I have nothing to be ashamed of if my views on Ahimsa are the result of my Western education” (Gandhi, Hindu Dharma 199).+

Apart from the fact that most of the known nationalists were products of Western education, many of them especially Tagore, Aurobindo, Gandhi, and Nehru also belonged to the elite section that entered into the nationalist movement after a sufficient transformation. Gandhi’s reading of the English translation of the Gita and Aurobindo’s introduction to the Upanishads after reading the English translated works of the Orientalist Max Muller (Heehs 176) reveals the Orientalist moorings that spawned nationalist constructions.

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