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In his extraordinarily influential book Orientalism, Edward Said argued that Western knowledge about Orient in Post-Enlightenment period has been systematic discourse by which Europe was able to manage--even produce--the Orient politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively. According to Said, European and American views of Orient created a reality in which Oriental was forced to live. Although Said's work deals primarily with discourse about Arab world, much of his argument has been applied to other regions of the Orient.Drawing on Said's book, Carol A. Breckenridge, Peter van der Veer, and contributors to this book explore ways colonial administrators constructed knowledge about society and culture of India and processes through which that knowledge has shaped past and present Indian reality.One common theme that links essays in Orientalism and Postcolonial Predicament is proposition that Orientalist discourse is not just restricted to colonial past but continues even today. The contributors argue that it is still extremely difficult for both Indians and outsiders to think about India in anything but strictly Orientalist terms. They propose that students of society and history rethink their methodologies and relation between theories, methods, and historical conditions that produced them.Orientalism and Postcolonial Predicament provides new and important insights into cultural embeddedness of power in colonial and postcolonial world.