Showing papers in "Indian Historical Review in 2010"
TL;DR: The nineteenth century was a very significant period in the history of modern India as discussed by the authors and it was during this period that the emergence of many intellectual currents in all aspects: religious, social, political, economic and cultural.
Abstract: The nineteenth century was a very significant period in the history of modern India. It was during this period that the country witnessed the emergence of many intellectual currents in all aspects: religious, social, political, economic and cultural. For the colonial power, by the beginning of the nineteenth century, the empire had more or less been won. The job was to keep it, and to use it for profit. Colonialism was not the result of mere Western superiority, but of the unleashing of overwhelming force backed by technology at minimal cost. Technological changes affected the timing and location of European conquests and thus determined the economic relations of colonialism. It made European expansion swift, thorough and cheap. The new ability of Europeans in the nineteenth century to conquer other territories arose from relatively few inventions like iron-hulled steam ships, improved firearms, telegraph, railways and so on. With these tools, Europeans brought about a shift in global relations. The curre...
138 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors deal with the processes and problems related to cultural encounters as reflected in the transmission of medical ideas and practices in colonial India, where pre-colonial experiences serve as...
Abstract: The article deals with the processes and problems related to cultural encounters as reflected in the transmission of medical ideas and practices in colonial India. Precolonial experiences serve as ...
21 citations
TL;DR: One of the predominant features of pre-capitalist relations in the nineteenth century India was that the existence of servitude came to be regulated by the Workmen's Breach of Contract Act, 1859 as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: One of the predominant features of pre-capitalist relations in the nineteenth century India was that the existence of servitude came to be regulated by the Workmen’s Breach of Contract Act, 1859. T...
11 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors make the point that Kukis had contacted the Indo-Japanese forces even before the invasion and later helped them during the War, not only in terms of materials, labour, intelligence services and campaigns but also in term of men of war.
Abstract: In the history of World War II in eastern India the participation of local people is the least attended subject due to the belief that the whole tribal belt was with the Allied forces. This is untrue. Those groups who had directly come into contact with the invading forces were supporting them in various ways. This is especially true to the people of Manipur. This article makes the point that Kukis had contacted the Indo-Japanese forces even before the invasion and later helped them, during the War, not only in terms of materials, labour, intelligence services and campaigns but also in term of men of war. This assistance was, however, located as a separate resistance movement embedded within the larger war. The Kukis joined the War largely to shake off their bondage under the Raj in a desperate ‘way out’. They did it against the constituted colonial authority on their own understanding of the situation in which they found themselves in an unacceptable situation. It was a political action base on a conscio...
7 citations
TL;DR: The scope of pilgrimage as a normative concept as well as a religious practice for the Srivaisnava community from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century is explored in this article.
Abstract: This article attempts to explore the scope of pilgrimage as a normative concept as well as a religious practice for the Srivaisnava community from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century. The Srivaisnavas are a distinct Vaisnava community in South India confined primarily to Tamilnadu and southern parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The community considers Visnu and his consort Laksmi as their supreme godhead and Ramanuja as their spiritual leader. The Srivaisnavas regard the Sanskrit Vedas and the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, which is a corpus of 4,000 hymns composed by the Alvars, the early Vaisnava saints, as their main scriptures. The present day Srivaisnavas are divided into sects. They are the Vatakalai and the Tenkalai. The Vatakalais represent the Sanskritic tradition. Kancipuram in Tamilnadu is their institutional centre and Vedanta Desika (AD 1268–1369) their spiritual preceptor. They give preference to the Sanskrit Vedas over the Dravida Vedas, the Tamil hymns of the Alvars. Therefore, they ...
6 citations
TL;DR: The role played by working class in the 'Quit India' movement in the Madras presidency in 1942 is analyzed in this article, focusing on the articulations of anti-colonial consciousness among the industrial workers in Madras Presidency, interrogating the aspect of the role of the Communist Party of India in the ongoing struggle for India's freedom.
Abstract: The article endeavours to critically analyse the role played by working class in the ‘Quit India’ movement in the Madras presidency in 1942 While focusing on the articulations of anti-colonial consciousness among the industrial workers in the Madras presidency, it interrogates the aspect of the role of the Communist Party of India in the ongoing struggle for India’s freedom The working class undaunted by the repression of the colonial regime had forcefully demonstrated its sympathy and support to the anti-colonial struggle in different locations of the Madras presidency at the most critical point in its trajectory Thus, it attempts to explore the less focused terrain of the working class history, that is, working class involvement in the anti-colonial struggle particularly the facet of industrial workers’ role and also the discreet and distinctive role of the Left forces in the ‘Quit India’ movement
4 citations
TL;DR: In the early historic period, the focus has largely been on stray artefacts rather than documenting other kinds of evidence such as debitage or waste, although more contextual information on craft production from sites excavated more recently as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: While substantial work has been done on Harappan crafts from the point of view of technological processes, spatial contexts and organisation, there is hardly anything that is known about aspects of technology and production in the early historic period. For the latter, the focus has largely been on stray artefacts rather than documenting other kinds of evidence such as debitage or waste, although more contextual information on craft production in the early historic period is beginning to emerge from sites excavated more recently. This, however, is still fragmentary in nature, in contrast to the archaeological evidence on ceramic and terracotta production that we have been able to retrieve from the site of Indor Khera in the upper Ganga plains between the period 200 BCE and 500 CE. This is in the form of tools, such as anvils, socket stones, pottery stamps, bone engravers, stone polishers; firing facilities; lumps, rolls and pellets of clay and terracotta that represent raw material used for various proces...
3 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the dynamics of rural money lending in the Brahmaputra valley from 1881 to 1951 and try to answer how it influenced the agrarian relations and legislative politics.
Abstract: This article examines the dynamics of rural money lending in the Brahmaputra valley from 1881 to 1951. It begins with a question as to why the peasants in Assam borrowed, following it up with questions such as: Which section of the peasantry got involved in this process? To what extent did the local rich peasants participate in the money lending? How and to what extent were the Marwari businessmen involved in the process? Did the money lending lead to the transfer of land from the owner to the moneylenders? Did the arrival of the immigrant peasants from East Bengal accentuate the process? And finally, it tries to answer as to how it influenced the agrarian relations and legislative politics in the Brahmaputra valley. Despite the official claim of credit market operation through the banking sector becoming a success, the importance of usury never became marginal in the agrarian relations even after Independence. Assamese peasants treated the moneylenders with bitter distaste. The moneylenders were known as...
3 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the concluding part of an epigraphical study on maṭhas and medieval religious movements in Tamil Nadu is presented, in which the authors conclude that the maṫhas and the medieval religious movement in the state of Tamil Nadu are related.
Abstract: This is a continuation and the concluding part of our epigraphical study on maṭhas and medieval religious movements in Tamil Nadu published in Indian Historical Review’s 2010 issue, in which we exa...
2 citations
TL;DR: Sikh Studies have witnessed many twists and turns with changes in Punjab scenario and development of numerous Sikh settlements outside India as mentioned in this paper, and there are interesting modifications in the nature and scope of Sikh Studies.
Abstract: With changes in Punjab scenario and development of numerous Sikh settlements outside India, Sikh Studies have witnessed many twists and turns. In recent times, the Sikh past is critically studied not only in Punjab but has reached as far as the western coasts of the Atlantic. With the inclusion of diasporan Sikhs, there are interesting modifications in the nature and scope of Sikh Studies. Growing Sikh concentration from Shimla to Shillong outside Punjab suggests another boundary of research pointing out how the message of Sikhism has been interacting with the wider non-Sikh Indian milieu. It possibly introduces researchers to cultural diversities among Sikhs. While reviewing some of these issues, the article intends to focus on their methodology. Scholars engaged in tracking Sikh trails outside Punjab would look forward to varied textual and non-textual local materials. Punjabi sources are no doubt relevant, but historians are also expected to go beyond them and incorporate methodologies of other discipl...
2 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that modern sanitised brands of Indianism are the heirs of those nineteenth-century Hindus who took pride in every aspect of Hinduism that appealed to Europeans, and the puritanism of the Hindu right is of a non-Hindu origin.
Abstract: Indian Historical Review, 37, 2 (2010): 311–345 amounted to hate’, have repercussions for present-day Hinduism. Put more positively, modern sanitised brands of Hinduism are the heirs of those nineteenth-century Hindus who ‘took pride in every aspect of Hinduism that appealed to Europeans’ (pp. 593, 598). The puritanism of the Hindu right is of a non-Hindu origin, Doniger argues. It is clear that she does not deny that Hindus are fully entitled to redefine and renovate their religious traditions. Rather, it is not only non-Hindu Americans she wants to remind of the endless richness, pluralism and human depth of Hindu texts and practices. Not to be aware of the inexhaustively varied religious history of India and to tire to allow oneself to be inspired by it, she suggests, would be a cultural loss to India and to Hindus wherever they are. And so we are back where we started. Hinduism is world heritage and the story of its creativity must be told again and again in endless versions. The globalised world we live in asks for nothing less. Every new portrayal of Hinduism, if it is genuine, is bound to be limited, selective and personal. It is also, hopefully, inspiring or provoking others in their turn to reformulate and express their own versions. In 1938, not a time for jokes in Europe, Johan Huizinga (my countryman) published his Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. In it he argued that human culture could not do without play and even could be defined as play, that is play around the basic dilemmas of human existence: order versus chaos, individual versus society, life versus death, what is earthy versus what transcends it. To be part of a civilisation means to take part in its play, which also implies taking heed of its rules. Huizinga did not ask the question whether we can participate in the play of cultures that are not our own. Now, at a time when, according to some, not just (as in 1938) national states but entire civilisations might clash, that question cannot be avoided. There is little as serious as the kind of play that is the soul of culture; scholarship, respect, frankness and empathy are indispensible in it. To the degree that we cultivate those assets and bring them to the game, we’ll make unsuspected discoveries, get a great deal sharper than we were as to our own cultural myopias and engage in an intercultural adventure that will deepen our understanding of world civilisations and even of religions. The book under review, partly through its playfulness, many tiny provocations and idiosyncratic choices, fulfils all these conditions. May it inspire never ending debate.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors re-read the narratives of political and administrative achievements of women and their contribution in early medieval India through inscriptional sources (AD 600-1200) and attempted to reread the histories of women in medieval India.
Abstract: This article attempts to re-read the narratives of political and administrative achievements of women and their contribution in early medieval India through inscriptional sources (AD 600–1200). It ...