scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question

Showing papers in "Studies in History in 2014"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The model of periodization that is nowadays hegemonic in Indian history, squarely based on the colonial model first articulated by James Mill, is both heuristically unsatisfactory and politically dangerous as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The model of periodization that is nowadays hegemonic in Indian history, squarely based on the colonial model first articulated by James Mill, is both heuristically unsatisfactory and politically dangerous. From a heuristic viewpoint, it refers only to the ‘religious’ composition of the ‘ruling class’ (and, by the way, not even the whole of the ruling class). From a political viewpoint, it stresses the divisive elements present in the Indian historical tradition, by implicitly equating ‘Hindu’ with ‘Indian’ and ‘Muslim’ with ‘invader/foreigner’. The present article aims at sketching out a scientifically more inclusive and politically less dangerous new model by building on the assumption that Indian history is part of world history and, consequently, that the main socio-economic developments in the Indian subcontinent are part and parcel of the most relevant socio-economic developments world-wide. The resulting model de-emphasizes the divisive elements of the Indian experience, represented by the separate...

4 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, conversion to Christianity is defined within the social, cultural, and political domains, and conversion to Islam is defined as "a process that occurs in the social and cultural sphere".
Abstract: Religious accessions and conversions have been spawning a great deal of scholarly attention from various academic disciplines. Conversion to Christianity is defined within the social, cultural, pol...

4 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the Indian Ocean circuits shaped the nature and contours of late medieval India and the frequent movement of people, commodities and ideas through the oceanic space particularly after 1500 brought in variegated forms of changes that helped to integrate the far-flung and scattered production centres of the hinterland with the various exchange centres of coastal rim in an intense way.
Abstract: I am extremely grateful to the executive committee of the Indian History Congress for asking me to preside over the Medieval Indian History Section of its seventyfourth annual session. It is a huge and unexpected honour that comes from my fellow-workers. I feel highly elated and humbly thank you for the trust reposed in me. I take this less as recognition of my academic achievements than as a gesture of encouragement from the great national forum of historians in India. In this address, I would like to place before this august assembly a subject on which I have been working for the past several years. As the title suggests, my study looks into the way the Indian Ocean circuits shaped the nature and contours of late Medieval India. The frequent movement of people, commodities and ideas through the oceanic space particularly after 1500 brought in variegated forms of changes that helped to integrate the far-flung and scattered production centres of the hinterland with the various exchange centres of the coastal rim in an intense way. The frequent circulation of goods and wealth of different forms through the maritime exchange centres of India emitted certain type of forces and dynamics that helped to break the relative isolation of the hinterland processes from coastal economy and bridge as well as integrate the vast bulk of production process of terrestrial India with the exchange processes of maritime India by creating subtle channels of connectivity and linkages cutting across various borders of polity, languages and ethnicities.1 The beginnings of these processes were perceptible in a feeble way with the circulatory processes initiated by the Jews linked with Cairo Geniza who established commercial networks from Broach in Gujarat up to coastal southeast

3 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The concept of the minimum living wage represented mineworkers' new reproduction preferences, the compensation for the loss of supplementary earnings and their awareness of a mismatch between their work-efforts and their earnings.
Abstract: Why did workers bargain for a specific amount of wage? This was an expression of reproduction preferences of workers rather than merely any demand and supply calculation. This article brings out how the mineworkers evinced their post-traditional economic propensity, as it was in contradistinction to the ‘subsistence ethic’, in wage negotiations and work efforts. Mineworkers articulated the economic propensity upon the message derived from the self-respect campaign and respectable tastes of consumption. Their economic propensity was an excess for capital’s ‘iron law of wage’. Mineworkers interrogated the latter, and graduated to play the game of wage-work with the rules of struggles for a minimum living wage for a human, ‘civilized’ life. This concept of the minimum living wage represented mineworkers’ new reproduction preferences, the compensation for the loss of supplementary earnings and their awareness of a mismatch between their work-efforts and their earnings. This article takes the historiography of...

3 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the multidimensional activities of the Dasanami Sannyasis, a religious order founded by the disciples of Shankaracharya in the tenth century.
Abstract: The present article seeks to explore the multidimensional activities of the Dasanami Sannyasis, a religious order founded by the disciples of Shankaracharya in the tenth century. As the name implies, the order was composed of the ten sections—Giri, Puri, Bharati, Saraswati, Ban, Aranya, Parbat, Tirtha, Ashram and Sagar; while materials on the first three are abundantly available, those on the last seven are scarce. Although primarily religious ascetics, they were also involved in financial, administrative (both civil and military) and diplomatic affairs. Alignment with state powers strengthened their power and resources. They amassed large tracts of rent-free land. Resources derived from land and monetary privileges sanctioned by the Indian powers helped them to extend their influence in the economy, especially in moneylending and trade. As a result, they began to act as semi-independent chiefs and warlords. The rise of the Dasanamis began to decline after the coming of the British in the Bengal Presidenc...

1 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the presence of many Iranians, in the armed forces of the sultanates of Deccan, as well as in their civil administration, has been investigated.
Abstract: Portuguese sixteenth-century sources provide much information on the countries neighbouring the Portuguese positions in India, chiefly Goa. There are many interesting elements especially on the Sultanate of Bijapur, a little less on that of Ahmadnagar, and only disperse notes on the other sultanates of Deccan, which had scarce relations with the Portuguese. They bear witness to the presence of many Iranians, in the armed forces of the sultanates as well as in their civil administration. Some Portuguese chroniclers were quite sensitive to social cleavages and balance of forces, whilst others only note anecdotic aspects. Even so, they furnish the names of many individuals, and something on their lives, which often complete those provided by the Indo-Persian writers; provided they are compared with the latter, they can be used by researchers with good results. The article also tries to explain why Iranians were more numerous and more influential in the Deccan than in other parts of Moslem India, such as Guja...

1 citations