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The Indians

The Indians

Portrait Of A People

Katharina Kakar
,
Sudhir Kakar
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In this bold, illuminating and superbly readable study, India’s foremost psychoanalyst and cultural commentator Sudhir Kakar and anthropologist Katharina Kakar investigate the nature of ‘Indian-ness’. What makes an Indian recognizably so to the rest of the world, and, more importantly, to his or her fellow Indians? For, as the authors point out, despite ethnic differences that are characteristic more of past empires than modern nation states, there is an underlying unity in the great diversity of India that needs to be recognized.

Looking at what constitutes a common Indian identity, the authors examine in detail the predominance of family, community and caste in our everyday lives, our attitudes to sex and marriage, our prejudices, our ideas of the other (explored in a brilliant chapter on Hindu-Muslim conflict), and our understanding of health, right and wrong, and death. In the final chapter, they provide fascinating insights into the Indian mind, shaped largely by the culture’s dominant, Hindu world view.

Drawing upon three decades of original research and sources as varied as the Mahabharata, the Kamasutra, the writings of Mahatma Gandhi, Bollywood movies and popular folklore, Sudhir and Katharina Kakar have produced a rich and revealing portrait of the Indian people.

Imprint: India Penguin

Published: Apr/2009

ISBN: 9780143066637

Length : 228 Pages

MRP : ₹299.00

The Indians

Portrait Of A People

Katharina Kakar
,
Sudhir Kakar

In this bold, illuminating and superbly readable study, India’s foremost psychoanalyst and cultural commentator Sudhir Kakar and anthropologist Katharina Kakar investigate the nature of ‘Indian-ness’. What makes an Indian recognizably so to the rest of the world, and, more importantly, to his or her fellow Indians? For, as the authors point out, despite ethnic differences that are characteristic more of past empires than modern nation states, there is an underlying unity in the great diversity of India that needs to be recognized.

Looking at what constitutes a common Indian identity, the authors examine in detail the predominance of family, community and caste in our everyday lives, our attitudes to sex and marriage, our prejudices, our ideas of the other (explored in a brilliant chapter on Hindu-Muslim conflict), and our understanding of health, right and wrong, and death. In the final chapter, they provide fascinating insights into the Indian mind, shaped largely by the culture’s dominant, Hindu world view.

Drawing upon three decades of original research and sources as varied as the Mahabharata, the Kamasutra, the writings of Mahatma Gandhi, Bollywood movies and popular folklore, Sudhir and Katharina Kakar have produced a rich and revealing portrait of the Indian people.

Buying Options
Paperback / Hardback
Ebooks

Katharina Kakar

Katharina Kakar is a writer and artist based in Goa, where she also runs an NGO-the Tara Trust-involved in education for deprived children. She is the author, with her husbend Sudhir Kakar, of The Indians: Portrait of a people (2007).

Sudhir Kakar

Sudhir Kakar is a distinguished psychoanalyst and writer. He has written seventeen highly acclaimed books of non-fiction, which include, among others, The Inner World (now in its sixteenth printing since its first publication in 1978), Shamans, Mystics and Doctors, Intimate Relations, The Colours of Violence and, most recently , Young Tagore : The Makings of a Genius.

More By The Authors

Intimate Relations

Intimate Relations

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Colours Of Violence

Colours Of Violence

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On Dreams And Dreaming

On Dreams And Dreaming

Sudhir Kakar
Seriously Strange

Seriously Strange

Sudhir Kakar
Moving To Goa

Moving To Goa

Kakar Katharina, Katarina Kakar, Katharina Kakar
Death And Dying

Death And Dying

Sudhir Kakar
Young Tagore

Young Tagore

Kakar Sudhir, Sudhir Kakar
A Book Of Memory

A Book Of Memory

Sudhir Kakar

Encouragement that Made Rudyard Kipling the Writer he was

In the cultural hub of 1880s’ Lahore Kay Robinson has taken over as editor of the Civil and Military Gazette. Assisting him is the young and impressionable Rudyard Kipling, a lonely, impulsive man who dreams of becoming a writer. Kipling’s literary pursuits have been dismissed as fanciful and foolish by his previous boss. But Robinson is […]

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