India and South Africa

South Africa and India constitute two key nodes in the global south and have inspired new modes of non-Western transnational history. Themes include anti-imperial movements; Gandhian ideas; comparisons of race and caste; Afro-Asian ideals; Indian Ocean public spheres.

This volume extends these debates into the cultural and linguistic terrain. The book combines the methods of Indian Ocean studies and Comparative Cultural Studies, both committed to moving beyond the nation state. Case studies explore classics and concomitant ideas of civilisation, colonial linguistics and the history of languages, and theatre. Topics include

• the use of classics by colonisers and the colonised in British India and South Africa
• differences between South African Indian English and Indian English
• how the Linguistic Survey of India conflicted with colonial and nationalist mappings of India and its references to African languages
• the rise of 'Hinglish' in contemporary India

• a South African play dealing with African-Indian interactions. This bookw as published as a special issue of African Studies.

Autorentext

Isabel Hofmeyr is Professor of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand and Visiting Global Distinguished Professor at New York University.

Javed Majeed is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at King's College London.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: India and South Africa - Comparisons, Confluences, Contrasts Javed Majeed and Isabel Hofmeyr

2. Gandhi, Carpenter, Schreiner and the Crisis of Modern Civilisation at the Turn of the 20th Century John Hilton

3. Gandhi and Socrates Phiroze Vasunia

4. English in India and South Africa: Comparisons, Commonalities and Contrasts Rajend Mesthrie

5. Dil Maange More: Cultural Contexts of Hinglish in Contemporary India Francesca Orsini

6. 'A State of Affairs which is Essentially Indefinite': The Linguistic Survey of India (1894-1927) Javed Majeed

7. Performing History and Constructing 'Culture': Ronnie Govender's 1949 and the Romanticism of Historical Memory Neilesh Bose