Of Matters Modern The Experience of Modernity in Colonial and Postcolonial South Asia

"Of Matters Modern" analyses the experience of modernity in South Asia. Arguing that South Asia's experience of modernity has to be understood in a global context, the book explores a wide range of topics: the emergence of 'Assam Fever' in colonial discourse; an experiment with fusion music in early colonial India; The emergence of detective fiction in colonial Punjab; the search for authenticity among nationalist and post-colonial thinkers; the critique of the "Bhadralok" by a "Bhadralok" writer; the experience of modernity in Kolkata during early twentieth century; the emergence of a cosmopolitan 'underworld' in Kolkata during the nineteenth century; the Italian connections of a Bengali poet, Michael Madhusudan Dutta; the ambivalence of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan; and, the construction of Gandhari in "Amar Chitra Katha", a comic strip series for children.