A Postcolonial Imagination? Westerners Searching for Authenticity in India

Abstract

This article looks at contemporary Westerners in the Indian city of Varanasi. The Westerners claim to appreciate authentic India and I argue that this authenticity refers to India's ancient, romanticised past instead of its modern present. I investigate how the Westerners encounter India and Indians and what kinds of subject positions are constructed in those encounters. The article also discusses how the authenticity becomes constructed, especially in regard to the Westerners who are studying Indian classical music in Varanasi. I argue that the Westerners ‘imagine’ India according their own needs and I ask how their understanding of India and Indian people relates to the ‘colonial imagination’.