Showing papers in "Indian Historical Review in 2013"
TL;DR: The authors examines the culture of "formal writing" in the making of colonial law in early British India and examines the use of "questionnaires" and "forms" to construct legal knowledge in the colonial construction of legal knowledge.
Abstract: This article examines the culture of ‘formal writing’ in the making of colonial law in early British India. As part of establishing the Western governmental practices in the colony, the British introduced formal writing practices in the colonial administration. Situating on the debate of ‘continuity and change’, this article argues that ‘formal writing’ marked a significant departure from pre-colonial legal practices in India. This article first focuses on the use of ‘questionnaires’ and ‘formal letters’ in the colonial construction of legal knowledge and identified these as new mechanisms of governance in the oral based pre-colonial domains in the colony. This was the important phase in the colonial governance where the traditional domain and practices of oral communication, correspondence, messages and spoken declarations were provided with a new focus and regularity. Second, this article examines how the natives used the new logic of ‘formal writing’ to write letters and petitions to present themselves...
9 citations
TL;DR: The second phase of Jain-Mughal engagement under Jahangir and Shahjahan saw a materialistic engagement with the Jain merchants who were slowly gaining eminence as the representatives of their community in their interaction with Mughal royalty.
Abstract: This article explores the ‘community–state relationship’ during post-Akbar Mughal rule, a largely marginalised arena in the existing historiography. Contrary to Akbar’s religious–spiritual discourse with Jain ascetics, the second phase of Jain–Mughal engagement under Jahangir and Shahjahan saw a materialistic engagement with the Jain merchants who were slowly gaining eminence as the representatives of their community in their interaction with Mughal royalty. However, Mughal policies of social negotiations with the Jains more or less continued amidst minor hiccups, that is, two banishment orders issued by Jahangir against the Jains. The situational context and content of various farmans issued by Shahjahan, Murad Baksh and Aurangzeb as well as imperial actions argue in favour of a basic continuation in the policies of the Mughal state to negotiate social harmony and to expand its own social base. The ideological underpinning of the Mughal emperors into their relations with the Jains reflects the subtleties...
9 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an attempt to reconsider in the light of the extant sources including the latest archaeological findings in India, Red Sea coast and Egypt, some of the long sustained assumptions about the In...
Abstract: It is an attempt to reconsider in the light of the extant sources including the latest archaeological findings in India, Red Sea coast and Egypt, some of the long sustained assumptions about the In...
8 citations
TL;DR: The British colonial rule in India sought to bring the relatively autonomous forest and hill people under its governance through various policies as discussed by the authors, which evicted adivasis (aboriginals) and reduced them to landless agricultural labourers.
Abstract: British colonial rule in India sought to bring the relatively autonomous forest and hill people under its governance through various policies. Land revenue policies combined with modern agricultural technology played a crucial role in expanding colonial state-making in forest and hill areas. This policy lured many land-hungry peasants from plains to migrate into these areas and bring vast areas of uncultivable land into cultivation. This process evicted adivasis (aboriginals) and reduced them to landless agricultural labourers. Others tried to retain their independence by migrating into the remaining forest tracts, which the British and princely rulers now classed as reserved for the sole use of the state. They were banned from utilising reserved forests in the old ways. Although the intention was to make the adivasis into productive subjects of a modern state, the reality was that they ended up as marginalised and excluded from this process. The colonial project of enclosing land thus enclosed the adivas...
7 citations
TL;DR: The European travelogues have been for a long time used by the generations of scholars as one of the most important, even primary, source of information on medieval and early modern India as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: European travelogues have been for a long time used by the generations of scholars as one of the most important, even primary, source of information on medieval and early modern India. In many case...
7 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that one of the chief purposes the coinage served during the medieval period was its use as a medium of communication to the subjects by the ruling authority.
Abstract: Symbols and rituals with regard to the legitimacy and manifestations of state authority have been the subject of debate in historical writings in recent decades. But most of the works on the subject discuss the legitimacy and authority in the context of visible symbols of power and rituals. So far as symbolism is concerned, it is both visible and invisible. Awrang, chatr, durbash, ‘alam, etc., were the visible symbols of power. But there were some invisible symbols of power hidden in sophisticated Islamic art. Islamic art in various forms and features in the early modern world told something that was sometimes not easily recognised in visible symbols of power.It is argued that one of the chief purposes the coinage served during the medieval period was its use as a medium of communication to the subjects by the ruling authority. Coins spoke to the people in two ways—through the language of inscription as well as through the language of art. The rulers used both these languages to legitimise and glorify the...
5 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the process in which brāhmaṇas acquired a clearer identity as a peculiar social group, constructed networks by migration and the establishment of Brahmanical centres, and established their authority through the connection with kingship at the court and the extension of their influence in rural society.
Abstract: Brāhmaṇas occupied a unique position in the history of South Asia, leaving inerasable imprints on its social and cultural fabrics. We tend to take their presence and authority in the society for granted. However, they and their actions were embedded in the historical context of particular space and time, in which diverse power relations existed among social groups with different economic and cultural backgrounds. What should be studied is a process in which they established their presence and authority. The present study aims at discussing this process and its implications in the context of the regional history of Bengal from the fifth to the thirteenth century AD. What transpires from the discussion is the process in which brāhmaṇas acquired a clearer identity as a peculiar social group, constructed networks by migration and the establishment of Brahmanical centres, and established their authority through the connection with kingship at the court and the extension of their influence in rural society.
4 citations
TL;DR: The authors addressed the fluid, changeable and ambiguous character of religious and cultural identities held by Julahas; claiming different local and sectarian backgrounds, and argued that these blurred boundaries in the Julaha Ansari identity discourse defy their concrete positioning within the framework of India's Islamic landscape.
Abstract: This article addresses the fluid, changeable and ambiguous character of religious and cultural identities, held by Julahas; claiming different local and sectarian backgrounds. The Barelvi, Wahabi and Deobandi schools of Indian Islam provided a polarising platform to the Julaha identity discourse from the late nineteenth century onwards, leading to a wider ‘shift’ towards supra-caste, supra-locally-based concepts of community and collective religious identity, yet this ‘shift’ did not ‘replace’ other forms of collective identities along sectarian, caste, community and regional lines. These ‘blurred boundaries’ in the Julaha Ansari identity discourse defy their concrete positioning within the framework of India’s Islamic landscape. The challenges triggered by a stagnant capitalist transformation under the colonial state and the official records reinforce a static image of the Julaha community, ascribing to it innate conservatism, recalcitrant to change fostered by the ‘modernising impulse’ of the colonial g...
3 citations
TL;DR: The Nuqṭavī Ṣūfī order emerged during the late fourteenth century in Persia under the spiritual guidance of Maḥmūd Pasīkhānī as a political religious...
Abstract: The Nuqṭavī Ṣūfī order, an offshoot of the Ḥurūffiayya sect of Islam, emerged during the late fourteenth century in Persia under the spiritual guidance of Maḥmūd Pasīkhānī as a political religious ...
3 citations
TL;DR: The authors revisited the fall of the Khyber Pass to examine the circumstances that led to its loss, shifting our vantage point from grand schemes of imperial defence to on-ground military decision-making, conceptualised here as sub-imperialism, bringing forth a new perspective on the inconsistencies and contradictions within British imperialism on the North-West Frontier in the late nineteenth century.
Abstract: In 1897 the British were confronted with a formidable revolt in their turbulent North-West Frontier of India. On 25 August they lost the historic and strategically important Khyber Pass to the attacking Afridi tribesmen. The loss of the Khyber was seen as a humiliating defeat and a heavy blow to British prestige. In order to recover this prestige and exact reparations from the Afridis, the British sanctioned the punitive Tirah campaign—one of the biggest and costliest expeditions in colonial warfare. Drawing upon original evidence, this article revisits the fall of the Khyber to examine the circumstances that led to its loss. In shifting our vantage point from grand schemes of imperial defence to on the ground military decision-making, conceptualised here as sub-imperialism, core assumptions about imperial defence are problematised, bringing forth a new perspective on the inconsistencies and contradictions within British imperialism on the North-West Frontier in the late nineteenth century.
3 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the issue of feudalism in Goa from the fifth century AD to the early eleventh century in a larger historical perspective by analyzing the inscriptions issued by the Bhojas, Konkan Mauryas, Badami Chalukyas and Shilaharas.
Abstract: This article deals with some aspects of the history of Goa from the fifth century AD to the early eleventh century in a larger historical perspective. It is a novel attempt to examine the issue of feudalism in Goa. During this period Goa was part of one or the other larger kingdoms of the Deccan and it existed as a feudatory political entity. It was a region that was much sought after due to its geopolitical and commercial importance. The various inscriptions issued by the Bhojas, Konkan Mauryas, Badami Chalukyas and Shilaharas are analysed here with a view to identify and delineate the feudal features that were present in early medieval Goa. They included decentralisation of political authority, system of land grants, sub-infeudation of land grants, absence of large-scale exchange of goods and dominant role of the Brahmanas in the management of land and administration. Such characteristics are noticed in Goa from the beginning of the fifth century AD to the end of the tenth century AD. Subsequently Goa w...
TL;DR: The handling of issues vital to the peasantry of Bengal by Harinath Majumdar at a time that was crucial in the agrarian history of Bengal is discussed in this paper.
Abstract: This article seeks to probe the handling of issues vital to the peasantry of Bengal by Harinath Majumdar at a time that was crucial in the agrarian history of Bengal. Nineteenth century saw the beginning of literati interest in the affairs of the rural world. Harinath Majumdar, founder and editor of Grambarta Prakashika, did yeomen service to the cause of Indian press and the Bengal peasantry. This was the first good journal devoted primarily to issues vital to the rural world and brought about a paradigm shift in the intelligentsia’s approach to matters vital to the countryside. He ventilated the grievances of indigo ryots and other ordinary tillers. This article seeks to examine his handling of agrarian issues and the solutions he offered in a period which witnessed great agrarian unrest in Bengal and considerable adjustments in the social fabric of the region. Among the questions that have been addressed are the issues Harinath raised; his concern for the rightless condition of ryots; his confrontation...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide an intelligible perspective of the early medieval period of Indian history by focusing on the perspectives and voices of texts, inscriptions, artefacts and images.
Abstract: Indian Historical Review, 40, 1 (2013): 145–179 From the foregoing brief discussions on each essay it is perhaps clear that the volume provides an intelligible perspective of the early medieval period of Indian history. The essays relate to wide range of historical issues. The reviewer only feels that an essay on the Indian Ocean network would have enriched the volume further. We all know that early medieval India witnessed large scale interaction and exchange in the Indian Ocean. The vitality of the period to some extent also depended on trade and so regular interactions between merchants both in the eastern and western Indian Ocean perhaps cannot be lost sight of. The choice of the essays demonstrate Upinder Singh’s penchant for studies which are empirically strong with due attention to theoretical and methodological issues. In her thought-provoking introduction she harps on greater attentiveness towards the perspectives and voices of texts, inscriptions, artefacts and images. This book is indeed a welcome addition to historical studies and I am sure it will raise new questions and encourage young researchers to take up this period for their enquiry.
TL;DR: This paper argued that the Rājataraṅgiṇī should be viewed as a whole as the traditional kavya that it is, representing a specific language practice articulative of the poet's vision.
Abstract: This essay argues for moving beyond the binary of ‘cosmopolitan’ and ‘vernacular’ in our understanding of language and expressions of space in early medieval South Asia. Drawing attention to a classic literary representation of regional space which is in the cosmopolitan Sanskrit and not in the vernacular, the paper examines Kalhan.a’s twelfth century Rājataraṅgiṇī for its depiction of Kashmir. It looks at some of the constituent elements of the spatial imaginary constructed in the text, and at the literary and discursive strategies employed in its construction, including the reworking of intertextual traditions from within Sanskrit literary culture. This essay suggests that more than an objectivist historical narrative which modern historians like to believe it is, the Rājataraṅgiṇī should be viewed as a whole as the traditional kāvya that it is, representing a specific language practice articulative of the poet’s vision.
TL;DR: The Worlds of the Indian Ocean as mentioned in this paper is a large-scale survey of pre-history to the eve of European capitalism with a focus on Africa and Asia, from the first bronze-age civilizations of the world from Egypt to China; the period of the Mediterranean expansion and Roman trade and state formation in the Mediterranean, India, Southeast Asia, China, Arabia and East Africa up to the sixth century AD; and also a last chapter (Chapter 15) on the Austronesian expansion into Madagascar.
Abstract: In two hefty volumes and about 623 plus 793 pages of text (respectively), The Worlds of the Indian Ocean goes from prehistory to the eve of European capitalism. Volume I has an Introduction and seven chapters on the first bronze-age civilizations of the world from Egypt to China; the period of the Mediterranean expansion and Roman trade and state formation in the Mediterranean, India, Southeast Asia, China, Arabia and East Africa (Chapters 8 to 14) up to the sixth century AD; and also a last chapter (Chapter 15) on the Austronesian expansion into Madagascar1. Volume II (Chapters 16 to 36) covers the entire Indian Ocean area in three sections, seventh to tenth centuries, tenth to fourteenth centuries and the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, ending with the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean. In this volume there are three chapters on Madagascar (one for each of these periods) and one on the Comores. Tang, Sung and Ming China, the spread of Islam, the dawn of the Swahili culture, India under the Cholas and Delhi Sultanate, Vijayanagara, the merchant sultanates of south-east Asia of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Egypt and Yemen, are but some of the topics included in the second volume. The aim of these two tomes is to show that the Indian Ocean ultimately came to be a spatial entity that lay at the centre of a world economy, uniting not only areas on its coasts, but also regions in the hinterlands beyond. It was only centuries later, in the modern era, that Africa and Asia became peripheries of the European world-system. There are several—though chosen at random—good illustrations of the trade goods discussed, and a series of useful maps. A long bibliography and meticulous indexing by subject, place-name, and proper name, contribute to the encyclopaedic character of the work. Here we find an outline of several centuries of expansions and contractions of interregional trading circuits, an overview in the true sense and not patchwork paraphrases of available secondary sources that have been masquerading as overviews in extant literature on the subject.2 Beaujard navigates through a mass of detail, always exercising his judgement about the credibility of this inference or that conclusion. His bird’s eye view Indian Historical Review 40(2) 355–361 © 2013 ICHR SAGE Publications Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC DOI: 10.1177/0376983613499694 http://ihr.sagepub.com
TL;DR: The Katakarajavamshavali is a Sanskrit text, which has been edited by Hermann Kulke and Gaya Charan Tripathy as discussed by the authors, which is a comprehensive study on the history of Orissa from the early phase to the end of the Khurda Bhoi rule.
Abstract: The Katakarajavamshavali is a Sanskrit text, which has been edited by Hermann Kulke and Gaya Charan Tripathy. It is a comprehensive study on the history of Orissa from the early phase to the end of the Khurda Bhoi rule. It was compiled in the early part of the nineteenth century from older records available in the archives of the Jagannath temple, and/or with the functionaries like Tadhau Karana and Deula Karana who are responsible for keeping records of various nature connected with the Jagannath temple. Its contents are similar with that of Odradesha Rajavamshavali—another important text on the history of Orissa. The main emphasis of this article will be to review the opinion of the two learned editors on this traditional text and to evaluate the historical side of this account. The genealogical and the chronological aspects of this text need to be carefully studied to utilise it as an important source for the history of Orissa. In this article, I have taken into account the nature of Kala (Time Concept...
TL;DR: In this article, Benipuri narrated how Gandhi's image of possessing divine powers were circulated through rumours in his native village of Muzaffarpur, which helped making people more defiant against the colonial authority and hegemony.
Abstract: Indian Historical Review, 40, 1 (2013): 145–179 informative, readable, and the prose is enjoyable as well (For this, the copy-editor of Primus Books should also be commended). Benipuri’s memoir Mujhe Yaad Hai (1978) narrates how Gandhi’s image of possessing divine powers were circulated through rumours in his native village of Muzaffarpur, which helped making people more defiant against the colonial authority and hegemony. Lata has used his Granthavali but seems to have missed this particular aspect which is otherwise an important concern of her book. Despite being a highly professional reference book of history, this penetrative work is equally much interesting for the readers of other discipline.
TL;DR: In this paper, the author takes on the historian's craft of a narrator, where he presents thick details of experiences, practices and lived lives, and unobtrusively lets the diaries speak for themselves.
Abstract: Indian Historical Review, 40, 1 (2013): 145–179 Taken together, the two volumes are fascinating chronicles of not only private lives, but also the larger dynamics of class, culture, gender and race in colonial Calcutta. They are about constructions of British identities, ideas of race and duty, practices of work, petty administration, and experiences of corruption, empire and law. Emotional baggage of passion and affection, friendships and family, gossips and taboos overwhelmingly ride the diaries, and these volumes. Moreover, as Robb says, they reveal how sentiment was modified by sense and sense reinforced by sentiment. Vivid and minute expressions of personal relationships give us a peep into the dynamics of a European household. Robb takes on the historian’s craft of a narrator, where he presents thick details of experiences, practices and lived lives, and unobtrusively lets the diaries speak for themselves. Without any pre-conceived notions and ideologies, this record of everyday is not judgemental. Robb is not concerned much with the anxieties of the colonial state, but the constant negotiations that went on between the coloniser and the colonised in the intimate spaces of the household and in their social interactions. He shows a novelist eye for interesting details, with an amalgam of story-telling and research. At places one desires more analysis, more ‘native’ voices in first person and more of bibis’ enunciations. But then Robb is clear that in this account of the ordinary, his job is to portray a world of lived experiences and relationships through a particular person’s eye, without attempting any ‘cataclysmic’ high social, political or economic history of the British Empire, and it is here that lies the biggest strength of these books.