Critical Events1995
an anthropological perspective on contemporary India
by Veena Das
This book identifies certain critical moments in the history of contemporary India. These events concern Partition, sati, minority rights, the Bhopal industrial disaster, the nature of the Indian state, and various socio-legal issues. Veena Das redescribes these events and their implications within the framework of anthropological knowledge.
Her methodologically innovative attempt here is to produce an ethnography of modern India which is sensitive to both world historical processes as well as the inner life of individuals. She shows the various social transformations that have resulted in new configurations of relations between the local and the global within India.
. The critical events that Professor Das analyses have all instituted new sorts of action, which have in turn redefined...