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Book details

Colonial Lists/Indian Power

Identity Politics in Nineteenth Century Telugu-Speaking India (Gutenberg-e)

by Michael Katten

Published 2005350 pagesISBN 978-0-2311-2210-8

In a significant expansion of recent studies of colonial discourse, Katten assesses the early colonial period in southern India as a "dialogic" enterprise. Distinctive forms of identity emerge as indigenous peoples interact with new colonial rulers. For the different groups that Katten explores in careful and meticulous detail, he shows how productive formulations of identity came into being through the working of historical contingency. Using a great deal of Telegu and English material never previously examined, Katten illuminates the way identities coalesced in early colonial India.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.

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What the reading experience may hold

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Themes to notice

Nonfiction

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Content notes

No specific content concerns can be confirmed from the available English catalog information. Consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.

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Reading experience

Balanced tone · Steady pace

A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.

Who it may suit

A good fit if…

Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.

At a glance

This book's DNA

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ToneBalanced
LuminousDark

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Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc

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PeakRelative emotional intensity
Colonial Lists/Indian PowerMichael Katten
Powerful4.5/5

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Before you choose

A quick reading snapshot

Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.

Reading lengthA standard-length read350 pages in this edition
Publication eraModernFirst published or edition dated 2005
Primary categoryNonfictionExplore similar books below
ISBN-13
978-0-2311-2210-8
Language
English
Edition record
OL9853873M
BookenDeX editorial lens

A more thoughtful way into this book

This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.

Good to know

A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.

Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.

Try this reading approach

Read for connection, not completion.

Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.

Three questions to carry with you

  1. Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
  2. Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
  3. How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?

Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.