3 Review(s)

This book highlights the present perceptions of the East and the West as seen through the eyes of eminent scholars from India, and in doing so, theorises on identity politics. Identity Politics in India and Europe combines qualitative methods (20 interviews) with historical and philosophical analysis. The first part of the book discusses the history of perceptions between the Europe of Latin Christianity and the so-called Muslim world, starting from the 7th century onwards. The second part is devoted to a discussion on the emergence of modernity and how it changed the identity politics of earlier times. The third part explores the role that intellectual elites have to play. It comprises interviews of eminent scholars and thinkers in India such as Imtiaz Ahmad and Ashis Nandy. These make for an insightful read, especially as subtle ideological differences surface in their responses to a set of common questions. The interviews are set in the historical context of the relations between Europe and the Muslim world and analysed from a theoretical angle, drawing from theories of modernity, conceptions of justice and notions of identity politics. The book will be of great interest to the world of social science academia, especially those with specific interest in the history of transnational politics.