000			01536nam a2200193Ia 4500
999			_c68987 _d68987
005			20220131204229.0
008			200204s9999 xx 000 0 und d
020			_a9788172234157
082			_a301 GUP
100			_a"Gupta,Dipankar"
245		0	_aMistaken modernity : India between worlds
260			_aNew Delhi
260			_bHarpercollins
260			_c2000
300			_a225p.
520			_aFrom Hindu notions of dirt, South Asia's preference for women leaders to patronage in democratic politics, Dipankar Gupta resolves many of the paradoxes of contemporary India in this book. In the process, he issues a damning indictment of the"westoxicated" elitist Indian middle class, and shows how unmodern the people of this class are in the very areas in which they are considered to be modern. Modernity, argues the author, is not about technology and consumption, as is mistakenly believed in India, but has to do with attitudes, especially those that come into play in our social relations. It is here that the Indian middle class is found severely wanting. Family connections, privileges of caste and status, as well as the willingness to break every law in the book characterize our social relations very deeply. The past clings tenaciously to our present - traditional India thrives in contemporary locales. A brilliant and chilling treatise on the hypocrisy and vanity of the Indian middle class, and its pathetic attempts to cloak its traditional ways in superficial modernity.
650			_aSociology
942			_cB _2ddc