Autobiography of an Archive: A Scholar's Passage to India

A leading figure in higher education reflects on his early encounter with India, its history, and his discipline's turn to the study of ordinary lives and cultural rhythms. Nicholas B. Dirks revisits his early investigations of kingship in India, the rise of the caste system, the emergence of English imperial interest in controlling markets and India's political regimes, and the development of a crisis in sovereignty that led to an extraordinary nationalist struggle. He shares his personal encounters with archives on these subjects, ultimately revealing the limits of colonial knowledge and single-disciplinary perspectives. Drawing parallels to the way American universities balance the liberal arts and specialized research today, Dirks encourages scholars to apply multiple approaches to their research and build a more global archive.

A scholar’s intellectual awakening set against the backdrop of two disciplines and many journeys.