Find difference between post independence characters of india and Brazil
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like Brazil and India tend to be placed in the position of either rather lazy ap-
prentices of these models or of exceptions or counter examples. This proce-
dure may even be confused with the recognition of a specificity, but is rather
the crystallization of oppositions that replicate – that is, reproduce without
being able to question – the division between centers and peripheries.
The aim of confronting Brazil and India in the way suggested by this text
is to open up fresh comparative possibilities and through them, generate in-
stigating interpretations of these national situations.1
In Brazilian anthro-
pology, India has been accessed through the seminal work of Louis Dumont
(1992) and the analyses that draw on it to formulate interpretations of Brazil.
The path followed here to compare Brazil and India is a different one. An at-
tempt is made to discover similarities that enable us to reposition these dif-
ferences in other terms and choose analytical planes that project these simi-
larities and differences onto a backdrop that is not reduced to - though not
ignoring - the national dilemmas indicated above. But the comparison al-
so involves the questioning of a single model of modernity, based on stud-
ies that seek to show that even in the “center” there were various trajectories,
configurations and narratives of modernity (Velho 1995b; Benavides 1997).
The main consequence is that Brazil and India can also be treated as part of
this plural modernity and, thus, reveal its principles and dilemmas. My hy-
pothesis is that, by modifying our understanding of what constitutes “mo-
dernity”, we also transform its relation with “tradition” – and one knows just
how much the need and tensions involved in conciliating “modernity” and
“tradition” are part of the “national dilemmas” of Brazil and India.
prentices of these models or of exceptions or counter examples. This proce-
dure may even be confused with the recognition of a specificity, but is rather
the crystallization of oppositions that replicate – that is, reproduce without
being able to question – the division between centers and peripheries.
The aim of confronting Brazil and India in the way suggested by this text
is to open up fresh comparative possibilities and through them, generate in-
stigating interpretations of these national situations.1
In Brazilian anthro-
pology, India has been accessed through the seminal work of Louis Dumont
(1992) and the analyses that draw on it to formulate interpretations of Brazil.
The path followed here to compare Brazil and India is a different one. An at-
tempt is made to discover similarities that enable us to reposition these dif-
ferences in other terms and choose analytical planes that project these simi-
larities and differences onto a backdrop that is not reduced to - though not
ignoring - the national dilemmas indicated above. But the comparison al-
so involves the questioning of a single model of modernity, based on stud-
ies that seek to show that even in the “center” there were various trajectories,
configurations and narratives of modernity (Velho 1995b; Benavides 1997).
The main consequence is that Brazil and India can also be treated as part of
this plural modernity and, thus, reveal its principles and dilemmas. My hy-
pothesis is that, by modifying our understanding of what constitutes “mo-
dernity”, we also transform its relation with “tradition” – and one knows just
how much the need and tensions involved in conciliating “modernity” and
“tradition” are part of the “national dilemmas” of Brazil and India.
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