Showing papers in "Studies in History in 1991"

Between Orientalism and Historicism: Anthropological Knowledge of India

Abstract: Differences and convergences between our two authors should be noted at the very outset. What one had admired about Said from the beginning was his anti-colonialist passion and his affiliation with certain forms of radical politics. Inden is, by contrast, not only far more conventionally academic but also, as our analysis shall try to demonstrate, an exceedingly conservative man, with alarming political consequences for his scholarship. It would be wrong to collapse these diametrically opposed political locatiqns, but it is also useful to ask why it is that Said’s procedures turn out to be so appropriable for conservative, Rightwing positions. Second, one of the most attractive features of Orientalism 2 was its range of erudition and the non-disciplinary character of its knowledge. Edward Said had been

Composition of the Personal Voice: Violence and Migration

Abstract: Migration has often been viewed within a calculus of rational choices with the individual as the locus of decision making. In the context of political turmoils, the decision to migrate to another place is often a strategy of survival in the face of a.nnihilating violence. In this essay I explore the construction of spatial models in thepersonal narratives of women who had to leave their homes in the aftermath of the partition of India in 1947 and the related communal violence: I have elsewhere explored the construction of the narrative voice in the fiction of this period and shown the centrality of the symbol of the female body and its violation as standing for the violation of social and personal s~ace.’ Consequent to this violence in which the most interior aspects of life were the most intruded uponfleeing to another alien space led to a division of the self and the world according to a logic that made the self radically fugitive and the world radically fragmented.2. ’

Villages abandoned: The case for mobile pastoralism in post-Harappan Gujarat

Abstract: In most parts of Gujarat today pastoralism is an important subsistence activity along with millet farming. Specialised migratory pastoralists like Bharvads and Rabaris are responsible for the breeding and herding of cattle, sheep, goats, and camels in large areas of Gujarat. In fact in some areas like the Banni, in northern Kutch, cattle pastoralism is the only form of subsistence. In the eastern parts of Kutch, on the other hand, sheep and goat are more common. Alia Bet, an island at the mouth of the river

Pastoralism as an Issue in Historical Research

Abstract: Pastoral production is a component of the South Asian rural economy that has rarely excited curiosity in historical research. Pastoralists who are mobile and do not live iw substantial houses leave such scant remains at their halting places as to be virtually untraceable in the archaeological record, whereas the discarded remains of those who have village headquarters during one part of the year may not be particularly different from those of the other villagers who do not move with animals. When pastoralists occupy the interstices of a settled region and are controlled only indirectly by states, they find little mention in royal inscriptions or land grants; and in any case it has always been easier to tax peasants than mobile pastoralists. In contrast with Central Asia and Africa, we do not have vast stretches of natural grassland in South Asia which would have provided habitats for large and consolidated pastoral groups; here grassland is confined to small

Transhumance in Western Rajasthan: Trends and Transformations

Abstract: The migration of men and livestock between complementary ecological zones is a frequent feature of arid and semi-arid regions,’ which includes the vast arid and semi-arid tracts of the Indian state of Rajasthan.’ In this paper we have two main groups of objectives, that of (a) enquiring into the factors contributing to the emergence and persistence of pastorally related migration from the western parts of this state, and (b) examining the nature of change in the pattern, composition, and context of the migration process over recent times. In a situation where basic information is rather limited, this paper begins by placing some facts on record. The findings presented here are based on a four year study undertaken between 1986 and 1989. This paper is primarily based on data collected through a survey conducted in 1988 of 45 villages from the following five district~Nagaur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Barmer, and Pali-all of which fall in the western tracts of Rajasthan. Additionally there is also some material based on a few case studies, plus group interviews and discussions.

Nomadic Pastoralists and Sedentary Agriculturists in the Kachi Plain, Baluchistan:

Abstract: Fieldwork in the Kachi plain (Baluchistan) and a comparative study of ethno-archaeological and ethnological material throw light on a number of contrasts between nomadic and sedentary settlements. In many cases, there exists a continuum of variability between one extreme and the other -in the features of those settlements according to the lengt’h, intensity, and number of occupations. However one feaiure-permanent storage structures-is usually sufficient to distinguish nomad camps from sedentary villages. Cereal silos and granaries are constant marks of sedentism, while they are missing in nomad camps.

Precious Metal Flows and Prices in Western and Southern Asia, 1500-1750: Some Comparative and Conjunctural Aspects

Abstract: At the present juncture, monetary history and the history of climate seem to offer to the researcher two of the most exciting points of entry into the early modern period; these are points of entry which, by their very nature, permit one to transcend the compartmentaiised approach decried of late by several scholars, including, in the South Asian case, Frank Yerlin.’ If climatic history has permitted, in recent years, the attempt to unify European and Asian phenomena in the seventeenth century, historians of trade for their part have used #7ows of coinage metal (and other currency media like cowries) to link the history of western Europe to that of Africa and India, and the history of the New World to processes taking place in China.2 In the present essay, a modest attempt is made to extend the ambit of the discussion somewhat by focusing systematically on two areas which are seldom studied together: namely, west Asia and south Asia. One part of the analysis will be aimed at seeing southern and western Asia together in a conjunctural fashion, focusing, in particular, on the issue of flows of coinage metal, while the other will be aimed at a comparative discussion of the principal building-blocks of the historiography in the two cases. The underlying idea, it should be stressed, is not to construct a Braudelian

On the rise of institutions, or, the Church and kingship in medieval Europe

Abstract: quently. Critics of this Weberian position assured me that the European institutions which I saw as being distinctive were historically shallow, being . associated with the rise of capitalism and resting on resources amassed through colonial arrangements and the like. It became necessary, therefore, to consider the developments in medieval Europe, prior to the full blooming of capitalism and colonialism, and to set them against the processes active in India over the long term. My initial probings appeared in Saberwal 1986.’ ’ ’

Narratives, Signs and Social Order: Nagam and the People of Keralam:

Abstract: For the people of Keralam, till the early twentieth century, it was difficult not to encounter snakes. They were almost omnipresent: they were gliding around houses, streets, temples, market places; they were represented in rituals, paintings, stone carvings, idols; they. featured in stories, folklore, fables, myths, parables, proverbs .etc. How did the people of Keralam experience snakes at the turn of the previous century? The serpents was perceived diversely: venerable, vindictive, benign, a physical being, a good omen, an object of analysis, a repository of truth, an arbitrator of justice. In discourses and ritualised practices, the biological snake gets transformed into a sign bearing all the afore mentioned ephemeral qualities and meanings. Subsequently, this serpent-sign forms a relatively autonomous realm, independent of the corporeal being of the snake. And this realm plays several different roles in society. The present discussion is in part an elaboration of these roles. The point of departure, therefore; should be the following question: how was the biological snake placed beyond all phenomenal existence and transformed into a-sign open to appropriation by diverse groups? This question implies others: how were the specific relationships between men and snakes established and how did these relations get .implicated in power relations? But, should not such a discussion be preceded or succeeded by an enquiry into the ’origin’ of these relationships? An ’explanation of why’ such a phenomenon occurred? I wish to state at the outset that the object of my study in not the quest for an explanation of ’origin’ and the search for

Genealogical Patterns as Perceptions of the Past

Abstract: was regarded as fanciful concoction is now being treated more seriously.’ Genealogies claim to be records of succession in the past although their preservation or even invention can derive from the social institutions of the present for which they provide Iegitimising mechanisms. They are rarely, if ever, faithful records of the past reality but they can be memories of social relations. As such they are not records of individuals but of groups and generally those ranked high Succession therefore also relates to transfer of property and status. They change over time and are rearranged if need be, therearrangement being in accordance with the requirements of later times. They may or may not record actual migration, fission or assimilation but ~ where they do so, they incorporate such changes in a genealogical pattern. Myth and history in such perceptions of the past, merges, as doe the present into the past. 2

Pastoral Adaptation to Risk in Dry Regions: A Framework for Analysis

Abstract: Pastoralism, for many, is a profession destined to die. To them the purpose of social enquiry should be to make the process of annihilation less painful and perhaps even slower. Improvement in the conditions of a pastoral way of life may make the transition to sedentarisation more difficult. There are others who argue that there is no linearity between pastoral and sedentary land-use systems. Also, the one does not totally preclude the other. Pastoralists do own land and cultivate in years of good rainfall, in many cases. At the same time, in the given ecological environment any other way of life would not be sustainable because of very low productivity and high variability in the fertility of grazing and cultivation lands. Neither is it correct to assume that cultivation on a large scale would be able to either provide employment or income in a sustained manner in arid environments. The problem of soil erosion has been known to increase with intensive cultivation. If it is accepted that pastoralism is an appropriate ecological and sociological response of communities inhabiting arid regions, then it is necessary for us to understand how the institution of pastoral nomadism and livestock-based economy has survived over the years. It is also necessary to understand the patterns in resource use and risk adjustments so that strategies for strengthening risk adjustment mechanisms can be identified. Historical studies would provide a useful way of understanding the evolutionary basis of risk adjustment strategies. In this paper I deal with the pastoral adaptation to risk only in the contemporary context. I present an analytical framework, followed by issues for further research.

Nomadism and Politics: The Case of Afghan Nomads in the Indian Subcontinent

Abstract: Pastoralism may be described as an adaptative strategy resorted to by human groups in areas where they face a seasonal shortage of grazing resources for feeding their animals. They are thus prompted to gain control of, and regularly move to, complementary pastures some distance away. Pastoralism can therefore roughly be identified as a genre de vie whose territory spans two ecologically contrasted areas such as highlands vs. lowlands (vertical pastoralism), or winter rainfall and summer rainfall zones. Geographers have devoted considerable attention and time to describe this adaptative strategy in every area of the world.’ They have’also extensively dealt with its great flexibility in relation to variability in rainfall and grazing ecosystems, especially in times of drought.2 However pastoralism is not only an ecologically adaptative and selfreproducing strategy, with no problems other than those arising on the one

Landscapes in Conflict: Flocks, Hero-stones, and Cult in early medieval Maharashtra:

Abstract: The problem of pastoralism has not formed a major concern of Indian historiography. Only occasionally do we come across any secondary work that is seized of this problem.’ This paper takes up the question of pastoralism in an area that falls between the Godavari-Krishna river valleys, in the state of Maharashtra today. We are primarily concerned with the later half of the ’early medieval’ priod, roughly between the tenth and twelfth centuries. A variety of sources will be examined to ascertain whether pastoralism was at all in practice in this area. The existing pastoral groups and their practices will be examined in detail before we move on to the

Environmental Change and the Evolution of Pastoralism in South Asia: A Discussion

Abstract: This note is written in response to a request for comment as to how the changing patterns of vegetation and climate in the late Pleistocene and Holocene periods of India may have affected the evolution of grasslands and pastoralism. It must be clearly stated that the brief discussion that follows represents an initial review of what is an extensive yet often inaccessible literature within the separate disciplines of grassland ecology; palacoccology and archaeology; and pastoralist economy and ecology. Rarely are these disciplines brought together into an holistic integrated analysis of how past environments have shaped the evolution of man’s cultural economy. My comments therefore must remain tentative.