Showing papers in "Studies in History in 1986"
TL;DR: In the literature on underdeveloped agriculture, where the overwhelming concern remains with the underdeveloped regions, the authors pointed out that plantation agriculture is generally considered to be one of the means by which traditional economies get integrated into the modern world economy.
Abstract: Plantation agriculture is generally considered to be one of the means by which traditional economies get integrated into the modern world economy. Historically, plantation agriculture was an instrument of modernisation, in that it served to open up previously underdeveloped regions, created social overhead capital and monetised primitive economies. Large scale plantation agriculture units which have many characteristics of capitalist organisation in industry,’ create economies of operation by the use of labour saving techniques. Though this is generally accepted, plantation agriculture gets comparatively neglected in the rapidly expanding literature on underdeveloped agriculture, where the overwhelming concern remains with the
23 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse the methods used by historians in their reconstruction of the history of the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms based on the coins found in Central Asia.
Abstract: For the last few years, we have been analysing the methods used by historians in their reconstruction of the history of the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms based on the coins found in Central Asia. A comprehensive study will be published in French by the end of the year. Its title: Analyses de raisonnements: le cas de la numismatique greco-bactrienne et indo-grecque. In the present paper only the main results of our work are given. Apart from some texts in Greek or Latin (and some Indian epigraphic inscriptions) providing us with a general framework for reconstruction, coins are the only source for the historian. They give us the names of ca. forty kings (only eight of them are mentioned in the ancient texts), which the historian attempts to place chronologically and geographically, taking into account that the BIG kingdoms [the abbreviation stands for ’Bactro-IndoGreek’] were in existence between ca. 25U-50 BC in an area that extends today from the southern USSR through Afghanistan and Pakistan up to North-Westem India.
14 citations
TL;DR: Raja Ravi Varma as discussed by the authors was the first of the new Indian artists of British India to bring significantly new connotations to the identity of an artist and of an Indian artist in his lifetime (1848-~906).
Abstract: Raja Ravi Varma was the first of the new Indian artists of British India to bring significantly new connotations to the identity of an artist and of, specifically, an ’Indian artist’, in his lifetime (1848-~906). He was an aristocrat of Travancore with close connections with the royal household. He represents both the Westernisation of painting in India and a new pictorial trend of illustrating Hindu mythology and epics. He died. in 1906, the best known and most successful individual painter the country had ever known; yet, within a few years, his output and image as a painter was subjected to much
6 citations
TL;DR: The reservoir system of irrigation in South India probably had its beginnings in the use of small tanks by the iron-using people of the Black and Red Ware (BRW) tradition as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The reservoir system of irrigation in South India probably had its beginnings in the use of small tanks by the iron-using people of the Black and Red Ware (BRW) tradition. The association of the early phase of the BRW culture with irrigated agriculture may be purely conjectural,’ but one can certainly associate this culture with the practice of irrigation in its later phase-during the initial centuries of the first millennium AD. Thus, from early times, attempts at the utilisation of overground water sources for irrigation were central to the dry zone agriculture of South India. This is not to suggest the prevalence of extensive agriculture in ancient times. Knowledge of irrigation techniques alone does not imply the expansion of agriculture. It is the nature of the utilisation and management of water resources that indicates the potential for expansion. The period from about the seventh to the tenth centuries AD witnessed the growth of such organisational aspects and agrarian institutions under the Pdndyas, leading to the emergence of consolidated agrarian units under the temple-centred brahmadjyas and ürs. The agriculture of the period was characterised by the unprecedentedly wider utilisation and effective management of hydraulic technology. Both the perennial and the inundation techniques of irrigation were extensively used in the areas suitable for them during the early Pandya period. The major part of the Pandya region depended on rain-fed reservoirs
6 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, it was shown that high fertility in an area spawns civilisation, surplus mobilisation being an aspect of distribution rather than of production, and a characteristic rather than a cause of early states.
Abstract: The Bronze Age civilisations of the old world represent early state societies in which small sections of rulers exercised political power based on economic privilege. Such rulers would require at their disposal large stores of grain in order to finance and command effective armies, craft production, or the building of public monuments and defence works. Moreover, in the Indus valley substantial population nucleation took place in at least three large urban centres, and many urban dwellers must have practised non-extractive occupations, relying on food procurement and distribution systems for their dietary needs. But it cannot be assumed that high fertility in an area spawns civilisation, surplus mobilisation being an aspect of distribution rather than of production, and a characteristic rather than a ’cause’ of early states. True, high agricultural productivity is a necessary precondition for the emergence of early states and urban centres. But we need to ask just how ’high’ the productivity in an early state could have been, rather than simply assume that surplus grain was plentiful. Even less acceptable would be an assumption that agricultural prosperity in most of their territory was nature’s gift to the Harappans. Sind, until recently taken to be the Harappan heartland, has often been described as an immensely rich agricultural province. In the recent past this has certainly been so, but much of this prosperity has been based on the
3 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the actual operation of the mechanism of usury and dadni, which became important and highly developed commercial practices during this period, have been analysed and the impact of these (operations on the English trade in Gujarat and Bengal during the seventeenth century has also been assessed.
Abstract: the period of increasing sophistication in existing financial institutions and commercial practices owing to large-scale interaction with European trading companies. In this context, the actual operation of the mechanism of usury and dadni, which became important and highly developed commercial practices during this period, have been analysed here. The impact of these (operations on the English trade in Gujarat and Bengal during the seventeenth century has also been assessed.
2 citations
1 citations
TL;DR: The Chinese and Yugoslov Communist movements, according to Chalmers Johnson as discussed by the authors, could best be understood as a form of nationalism, and the Chinese Communists were swept into power on a wave of mass nationalism following the Japanese invasion in 1937.
Abstract: The concept ’peasant nationalism’ was employed by Chalmers Johnson in his book, Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power,’ 1 in which he questioned the socialist character of the Chinese revolution. The Chinese and Yugoslov Communist movements, according to him, could best be understood as a form of nationalism. The Chinese Communists were swept into power on a wave of mass nationalism following the Japanese invasion in 1937. Their success during the war period was in marked contrast to their experiences in the decade preceding it. The Communists toned down their social radicalism and concentrated on the anti-Japanese movement, and this accounted for their popularity. According to Chalmers Johnson, an elite nationalist movement, by which he implies a ’movement’ limited’to the intelligentsia, may never possess a
TL;DR: The shamanism of his clan of Djelme Uriankhan and the Mongolian people in their glorious past is discussed in this paper, where it is shown that Mongolian shamanism was a self-reliant, elaborate and a far from primitive belief system, and still a living tradition among his people.
Abstract: the shamanism of his clan of Djelme Uriankhan and the Mongolian people in their glorious past. With reference to the Yellow Faith (Buddhism, lamaism) and Christianity, both of which suppressed shamanism, one of his major concerns was to show that Mongolian shamanism was a self-reliant, elaborate and a far from primitive belief system, and still a living tradition among his people. He himself relied in his studies on his own knowledge of the traditions of his people and on some written shamanistic sources.’ i