Modernity and Ethnicity in India-A History for the Present

A History for the Present Dipesh Chakraba rty The rise of the 'Hindutva' movement has caused a backlash against the critiques of 'modernity' and 'secularism' in which Indian intellectuals have been engaged for some time. But we short-change ourselves by attempting to understand ethnic conflicts in India through a grid that has liberalism and fascism locked into an unremitting binary opposition, as though they belong to entirely different histories. Rather than forcing a choice between 'secularism' and religion, we need to explore the links between ethnic conflict and the modern governing practices that the British introduced into India as the historical bearers of 'Enlightenment rationalism '.