Life Histories” and the History of Modern South Asia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6002211 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Judith M Brown (0000-0003-0313-9887, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 114 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 587-595 |
| Publication date | 2009-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The American Historical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-8762 • E-ISSN: 1937-5239 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1086/ahr.114.3.587 |
| OpenAlex | W2172105005 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
PEOPLE OFTEN REFER TO MY ACCOUNTS of the lives of two of modern India's "founding fathers," M. K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, as "biographies." 1 However, I do not see myself as a biographer, or these works as biographies, in the accepted sense of tracking and interpreting a life from the cradle to the grave, and, more problematically, of taking the individual as the only intellectual and analytical center of the argument.Readers who look for that sort of account of the life of these two men will find areas of their lives dealt with in passing rather than in depth, precisely because they do not illuminate the core problems that I investigate.(To take an obvious example, those who want a detailed and sensational account of Nehru's relationship with the wife of the last British viceroy will be disappointed.Quite apart from the constraints of historical evidence, what seems to me more significant than its precise physical character is her role as a sounding board and confidante, mostly in lengthy letters, over the early years of independence and most of his prime ministership, and what this tells us about his isolated position and his major concerns.)I see myself not as a biographer but as a historian of a time and region-South Asia from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth centuries-who uses the medium of "life histories," of individuals and groups of individuals, to seek for evidence to probe many key historical issues.In so doing, I share many of the recent disciplinary discontents that have emerged across the social sciences, not just in the study of history, and that have encouraged the "biographical turn" in many subjects. 2 Acknowledging the collapse of many grand narratives of history, and the historical hollowness of some recent theoretical approaches, working in part with life histories enables a more nuanced methodology that allows the historian to shift gaze from the general theme and theory to the particular and precise experience of people and groups, moving from one to the other as each type of focus checks and illuminates the other.Moreover, it is an approach which is particularly productive as we examine some of I would like to acknowledge the help I have received in collecting the material on which this article is based, in particular the family histories of students and colleagues so generously shared, and the interest and skills of the Library staff at Balliol College and of the College Archivist
Argument (complex analysis · Character (mathematics · Independence (probability theory · Political science · Politics · Prime minister · Wife · Anthropological Studies and Insights · History · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · South Asian Studies and Conflicts
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2023 (12) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |