Fil Y. The formation of westernized Hindu political elites in North India (1858-1921).

The thesis is dedicated to the formation of the Hindu political elites in North India during the period 1858-1921 from the time of Government of India Act 1858 until the Indian National Congress session in Ahmedabad when satyagraha tactic evolved from the private initiative of Gandhi to officially accepted national politics. We argue that from this time a new period of westernization which had many anti-western displays began. This research, which is based on numerous and diverse historical sources including official (acts, censuses, gazetteers, minutes) and personal (memoirs, letters, essays, news-paper articles, speeches), reveals the main characteristics of the formation of westernized political elites among Hindus in the region. To achieve this, the research is based on such historical methods as analysis and synthesis, elements of discourse-analysis, biography method and prosopography. The dissertation also uses such methodological instruments as "traditionalist - modernist" gradation of the response of political elites on Western culture proposed by Indian historian B. Parekh, the instrument of dividing westernization into four phases (imitative, assimilative, asseverative, and creative), the civilization approach by Arnold J. Toynbee ("challenge-and-response" frame) and by S. Hantington (three options for a developing nation: rejectionism, reformism, kemalism).