Description
About the Author
Brian A. Hatcher is Professor of Religion at Tufts University. He is the author of Idioms of Improvement: Vidyasagar and Cultural Encounter in Bengal and Hinduism Before Reform and the translator of Hindu Widow Marriage by Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar. He earned his PhD from Harvard University in the Comparative Study of Religion in 1992, specializing in the transformation of religion and intellectual life in colonial South Asia.
Reviews
Against High-Caste Polygamy departs from this pattern, by engaging a range of other rhetorical, interpretive, and explanatory methods. One does find the necessary overview of Hindu legal texts, but readers will discover much more. * Brian A. Hatcher, Packard Professor of Theology in the Department of Religion at Tufts University. *
This magnificent book demonstrates how precolonial Indian forms of textual exegesis and debate foundationally shaped the birth of the modern Indian public sphere. By unearthing the nexus between patriarchy and accumulation of capital, it provides us new intellectual resources to critique 'marital capitalism.' A tour de force-must-read for anyone interested in Indian intellectual and gender history. * Milinda Banerjee, Author of The Mortal God: Imagining the Sovereign in Colonial India *
Only Brian Hatcher could have so elegantly translated a text like Against High-Caste Polygamy. Hatcher's fascinating introduction highlights Vidyasagar's contribution toward an imaginative sociology of Bengal, embellished by an early data-driven perspective, and informed by enormous sympathy for Bengali women trapped in Kulin marriages. Hatchers voice merges with this sympathy, while retaining its analytical acumen. This book is central for understanding women's reform in colonial India and is a tremendous read. * Deepra Dandekar, PhD, Researcher, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin *
A daunting task indeed-to make relevant a late-nineteenth century text on the plight of high-caste Hindu women, subject to, as Vidyasagar writes 'the practice of this hideous and cruel custom' of serial polygamy. Hatcher's seamless introduction and extremely readable translation successfully highlights Vidyasagar's fundamental ethical commitment to women's dignity. He neatly contextualizes the author's Brahmanical heritage that could have predicated an inherently patriarchal viewpoint. * Malavika Karlekar, Editor of Indian Journal of Gender Studies *
The significance of Hatcher's work, an indispensable Vidyasagar scholar of our time, lies in the attempt to make the social reformer's works available to the English-speaking world. * Mahitosh Mandal, Indian Forum *
Book Information
ISBN 9780197675908
Author Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar
Format Hardback
Page Count 192
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 413g
Dimensions(mm) 162mm * 237mm * 18mm