Dipesh Chakrabarty's "Habitations of Modernity" (Book Note)

 

"Habitations of Modernity," encapsulates Chakrabarty's intellectual evolution during the 1990s. This period witnessed the emergence of fundamentalist governance in India and a pervasive discourse on globalization in North American academia. While the book primarily addresses the former phenomenon, it acknowledges that globalization, with its universalist underpinnings and complex relationship with postcolonialism, is inherently linked to the aftermath of subaltern studies. In contrast to Chakrabarty's earlier essays from the 1990s, which culminated in his 2000 publication, "Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference" this collection offers a counterpoint. "Provincializing Europe" challenged established modes of post-Enlightenment historical narrative and the discipline of history itself. Like his other works, "Habitations of Modernity" grapples with the challenge of interpreting distinct political frameworks, primarily modernity and history, within an Indian context. This context is both unique and, for Chakrabarty, a valuable vantage point for making broader observations about the human condition. The significance of these reflections, as suggested by Homi Bhabha in his foreword to the volume, hinges on one's belief in criticism as a mode of ethical engagement tantamount to politics. This holds true regardless of the specific conclusions or calls to action it may espouse, and whether it introduces an element of risk or serves as an exemplification of "a practice of doubt".

In Part 1, titled "Questions of History," Chakrabarty engages with two significant criticisms of the subaltern studies as an intellectual and political endeavor. The first critique argues that figures like Ranajit Guha, representing the collective, merely applied methods initially developed by British social historians but infused them with "Third World sensibilities". Chakrabarty refutes this notion by meticulously examining Guha's redefinition of the political. He traces Guha's intellectual journey from Karl Marx to Antonio Gramsci and Michel Foocau, culminating in a thoughtful exploration of the archive and its inherent limitations.

 

The second critique contends that the emphasis on fragmentation and episodic narratives, characteristic of early Subaltern Studies scholars, potentially leads to an overemphasis on indigenous identities. This, when combined with a critique of rationalism, could be interpreted as aligning with Hitler's exaltation of the German Volk. Chakrabarty responds to this characterization of the Subaltern Studies project by delving into the complex relationship between religion and politics. While this approach might have been more comprehensively explored in a lengthier essay (as it is in "Provincializing Europe"), it results in a somewhat abbreviated response to the accusations of fascist associations that it aims to address.

 

Part 2, titled "Practices of Modernity," commences with an essay on khadi and the Gandhian conception of modernity, concluding with a reflection on the governmental origins of modern ethnicity in India. Throughout these discussions, one hopes to see Chakrabarty delve deeper into the subject of women and grapple more extensively with the analytical challenges posed by gender. This isn't simply because these topics are central to discussions of embodiment and lie at the heart of debates surrounding caste and ethnic identity, both historically and in contemporary India. Rather, it is precisely because, despite the significant contributions of feminists like Gayatri Spivak and Kamala Visweswaran, the Subaltern Studies project has not adequately addressed the figure of woman or the critiques offered by feminist scholarship regarding hyper-masculinized nationalism and colonialism, which are integral dimensions of power dynamics.

 

 

Part 3, titled "The Ethical and the In-Human," covers a wide spectrum, from discussing the interventionist potential of narrative to the complexities of interpreting memories of displacement as narratives of "Hindu Bengali nationality". This final section emerges as the most lucid and compelling of the three, primarily because Chakrabarty embarks on a personal journey, seeking to contextualize his own identity as a member of a displaced East Bengali family within the broader framework of one of the pivotal events of postcolonial modernity - Partition. Such introspective endeavors bear relatively little risk, especially given the enduring and enriching influence of personal memory on Partition narratives in recent times.

 

Chakrabarty intricately links his examinations of representations of 1947 and its aftermath with his enduring fascination with history. In the aftermath of the unprecedented violence witnessed in the twentieth century, history confronts the formidable challenge posed by memory. This challenge beckons history to grapple with the presumptive inquiry: "tell me all". Although he doesn't explicitly dissect this proposition, one could argue that memory, with its scrutiny of rationalism, archives, and even the very notion of objectivity, plays the most significant role in provincializing, by subjecting to radical skepticism, the grand narratives of history - be they European, Indian, or a fusion of the two.