ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relation between the premodern and the modern in Indian society, by looking at the relation between the village and the city. In this context, it elucidates the variance between Indian society and Western society, by highlighting the thin border between cities and villages in India and how that is different from villages and cities in the West. The chapter shows how Indian society defied the Western canon, and how this difference or defiance eluded the attention of academics, on or in India. It discusses three models of the relation between the premodern and the modern, or more specifically village and city, as available in Descartes, the philosopher; Rabindranath Tagore, the poet; and A. M. Shah, the social scientist. The chapter concludes by exploring how to view the modern public sphere in India that accounts for and has been accounted for in the interaction between the West and India.
