Showing papers in "Studies in History in 2022"
TL;DR: The authors reconstructs the story of the evolution of Akbar's beliefs and set them out in a roughly chronological order, taking note of the influences he encountered, and then seeking to establish the final beliefs that he came to hold and promote.
Abstract: Akbar is celebrated for his policy of religious toleration, studies of which have also necessarily involved an examination of his own religious views. These led to the proposition, once dominant in scholarly discourse, that he wished to establish a religion of his own, namely Dīn-i Ilāhī or ‘Divine Faith’. This view is now widely discounted, but there still seems to be room for assembling material from various contemporary sources in order to trace the step-by-step evolution of his religious views, taking note of the influences he encountered, and then seeking to establish the final beliefs that he came to hold and promote. The present article draws on various contemporary sources, notably including Akbar’s authoritative spokesman Abū’l Faẓl and the critic but also a close observer Badāūnī, to reconstruct the story of the evolution of Akbar’s beliefs and set them out in a roughly chronological order. Accuracy is sought; definitiveness is not claimed for the result.
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TL;DR: This article showed that before their break, the socialist Jayaprakash Narayan and the statist Indira Gandhi exhibited complementary stands on national issues regarding Nagaland, Kashmir and Bangladesh.
Abstract: When the Gandhian Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) gave the clarion call of Total Revolution, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi responded heavy-handedly by imposing the Emergency in India in 1974–5. This all-encompassing duel has dominated politics and political scholarship since. Their domestic clash has established many analytical prisms for the contemporary public sphere in India, particularly personality politics versus people’s power, single party versus coalition grouping, electoral democracy versus authoritarian dictatorship, and student/youth movements versus generational status quo. Simultaneously, it has also highlighted their differences in a way that has served to bury their affinities and agreements—not only on obscure matters. This article seeks to soften this dichotomy on the basis of their correspondence, and complemented by other primary material, to sketch their consensus in an earlier period. It shows that before their break, the socialist JP and the statist Indira Gandhi exhibited complementary stands on national issues regarding Nagaland, Kashmir and Bangladesh. This national nearness complicates their later adversarial politics on domestic issues, adds dimension to our understanding of the mid-1960s and mid-1970s, and contributes to contemporary understandings of their respective places in narratives of the state against society in India.
TL;DR: Ahuja et al. as mentioned in this paper interpreted an ancient Buddhist site in Telangana to understand Phanigiri and found that it was a place of pilgrimage for the pilgrims.
Abstract: Naman P. Ahuja, ed., Phanigiri: Interpreting an Ancient Buddhist Site in Telangana, Marg Publications and Department of Heritage Telangana, Telangana, 2021, ₹1800.00/$25.00.
TL;DR: Sangeeta Dasgupta, Reordering Adivasi Worlds: Representation, Resistance, Memory, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2022, ₹1695, ISBN 0-19-012791-0
Abstract: Sangeeta Dasgupta, Reordering Adivasi Worlds: Representation, Resistance, Memory, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2022, ₹1695, ISBN 0-19-012791-0
TL;DR: In this article , the authors revisited the important date of 15 August 1947, to preserve the multiple meanings of the day as portrayed in official and public memories, using inputs from archives and oral testimonies.
Abstract: In light of the seventy-fifth year of India’s independence from colonial rule and the Indian government’s announcement that 14 August will be commemorated as ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’, this article connects the histories of the three nations in the Indian subcontinent: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Using inputs from archives and oral testimonies, this article will revisit the important date of 15 August 1947, to preserve the multiple meanings of the day as portrayed in official and public memories.
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors look at the evolution of this discourse from Early Buddhism to the early stages of Mahāyāna Buddhism and subsequently within Maháyána Buddhism.
Abstract: Scholars have long debated the woman question in Buddhism, in terms of the social spaces and gendered attitudes revealed by texts and traditions. In the opinion of some, Buddhism in its essence does not discriminate between male and female forms. It is the cultural baggage of the practitioners that has led to discriminatory behaviour based on the body. But others have questioned this understanding as being too simplistic and essentializing. The discourse around gender has multiple layers and contexts corresponding to developments (both philosophical and sectarian) within Buddhism. This article attempts to look at the evolution of this discourse from Early Buddhism to the early stages of Mahāyāna Buddhism and, subsequently, within Mahāyāna Buddhism. To do so, this article utilizes Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtras, and Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, juxtaposing them to analyse the evolution of the gender discourse in the philosophical world as well as in the narrative world. This study reveals that while Mahāyāna Buddhism philosophically stands upon the concept of Śūnyatā, that is, emptiness, which extends to include the illusory nature of the human body, the narrative literature carries reservations about the female body. Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra employs a narrative device of ‘sex transformation’ as part of the show of the enlightened state of the female practitioner. Despite the claims made by all these practitioners about the emptiness of the body, all these stories end with female practitioners acquiring a male body and immediately receiving their Buddhahood. This study reveals a more complex picture of conversations and interactions between Early Buddhism and Mahāyāna Buddhism.
TL;DR: Jangkhomang Guite, Against State, Against History: Freedom, Resistance, and Statelessness in Upland Northeast India, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2019, 302 pp., ₹1095 as discussed by the authors .
Abstract: Jangkhomang Guite, Against State, Against History: Freedom, Resistance, and Statelessness in Upland Northeast India, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2019, 302 pp., ₹1095.
TL;DR: In this article , the authors analyze the arrival of the brāhman community into Chamba from various parts of the country at different time spans, focusing on how this arrival in periodical waves affected the political and religious milieu of the region, and reveal new information about migration, grants-in-perpetuity, and the brahmanization of the royal house of Chamba between the eighth and eighteenth centuries.
Abstract: The Chamba region in the western Himalayas has attracted the attention of researchers after the decipherment of hundreds of inscriptions spanning the period between the early eighth to eighteenth centuries. This article studies the epigraphs to analyse the arrival of the brāhman. a community into Chamba from various parts of the country at different time spans. The study focuses on how this arrival in periodical waves affected the political and religious milieu of the region. Interactions between pre-existing indigenous elements of polity and religion with the new, dominating brahmanical elements ultimately legitimized the position of the kings within the brahmanical order, in exchange for the land-grants these brāhman. as received. In the epigraphs, we notice the dominance of brāhman. a writers with specific indications of their gotra and sometimes their Vedic affiliations, summarized in this article through tabular data for an easy understanding of their content and context. This analysis reveals new information about migration, grants-in-perpetuity, and the brahmanization of the royal house of Chamba between the eighth and eighteenth centuries.
TL;DR: Ranabir Chakravarti, The Pull Towards the Coast and Other Essays: The Indian Ocean History and the Subcontinent Before 1500 CE, Primus Books, New Delhi, 2020, xiv + 326 pp., ₹1395, ISBN: 978-81-947869-4-8 as mentioned in this paper
Abstract: Ranabir Chakravarti, The Pull Towards the Coast and Other Essays: The Indian Ocean History and the Subcontinent Before 1500 CE, Primus Books, New Delhi, 2020, xiv + 326 pp., ₹1395, ISBN: 978-81-947869-4-8.
TL;DR: Singha as discussed by the authors , The Coolie's Great War: Indian Labour in a Global Conflict 1914-1921, Harper Collins, New Delhi, 2020, 396pp, ₹699
Abstract: Radhika Singha, The Coolie’s Great War: Indian Labour in a Global Conflict, 1914–1921, Harper Collins, New Delhi, 2020, 396pp., ₹699
TL;DR: The special issue on Indian Civilization: Issues and Perspectives as mentioned in this paper seeks to interrogate a concept that has often been loosely used by historians, with specific reference to the Sanskritic brahmanical traditions as providing meaning to Indian civilization.
Abstract: The special issue on ‘Indian Civilization: Issues and Perspectives’ seeks to interrogate a concept that has often been loosely used by historians. Generally understood in terms of continuity from very early times, there has also been a tendency to read this concept in religio-cultural terms, with specific reference to the Sanskritic brahmanical traditions, as providing meaning to Indian civilization. The four essays in this issue engage with epistemological and contextual issues that both complicate as well as clarify the concept of civilization, and especially its usage in the Indian context.
TL;DR: In this paper , the role of archaeological sources can play in the reconstruction of the histories of marginalized communities, and also on the importance of anthropological field methods to understand their material life and culture.
Abstract: It is possible to identify developments from the prehistoric period onward in India that led to the formation of agro-pastoral communities, state society, and a reduction in, as well as transformation of, the hunting-gathering modes of life. The formation of caste societies saw forest dwellers, called Ādivāsis or Scheduled Tribes today, being categorized as outsiders, residing in the fringes of the habitats of caste-based settled communities and complex relationships of exchange and labour developed among them. Within caste societies, the communities that formed the labour class, now categorized as Scheduled Castes, were relegated to the bottom of the social hierarchy. Throughout history, communities such as the forest people and the labouring classes have been marginalized in the process of social formation, with little or no access to political and economic power and resources. Their histories constitute the subject of the archaeology of the margins. This article focuses on the role archaeological sources can play in the reconstruction of the histories of such marginalized communities, and also on the importance of anthropological field methods to understand their material life and culture.
TL;DR: The relationship between British colonialism and Islamic sectarianism, and its consequent impact on the Shias, the largest Muslim minority in British India, was analyzed in this paper , and the intersection of the colonial government's political calculations with the League's political ambitions compelled both to discard Shias.
Abstract: This article analyses the relationship between British colonialism and Islamic sectarianism, and its consequent impact on the Shias, the largest Muslim minority in British India. In the critical decade leading up to independence and partition in 1947, politics in British India were dominated by the Muslim League’s demand for Pakistan. However, leading Shia organizations were opposed to the League’s idea of an Islamic nation and supported India’s independence without partition. Instead, they demanded that the British recognize the Shia as a Muslim minority, and thereby confer statutory protections from Sunni domination. The British government arbitrarily and unjustly ignored Shia entreaties for constitutional protections. Imperial realpolitik required the colonial state to acknowledge the Muslim League as the sole political representative of all Muslims, thus, rendering Pakistan a fait accompli. The intersection of the colonial government’s political calculations with the League’s political ambitions compelled both to discard the Shias. This study of the complex issue of minorities and their uncertain position in the nation promised for all Muslims has relevance for current debates on the nation and nationalism, on minorities and their rights, on sectarianism and majoritarianism, and on the politics of identity.
TL;DR: Chakrabarti as mentioned in this paper , Inscriptions of Nature: Geology and the Naturalization of Antiquity. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2020, xii + 263 pp., US$57.
Abstract: Pratik Chakrabarti, Inscriptions of Nature: Geology and the Naturalization of Antiquity. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2020, xii + 263 pp., US$57. ISBN: 9781421438740.
TL;DR: Sinha as mentioned in this paper , From Dasrajna to Kuruksetra: Making of a Historical Tradition, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2021, pp. 548, ₹ 1795.
Abstract: Kanad Sinha, From Dasrajna to Kuruksetra: Making of a Historical Tradition, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2021, pp. 548, ₹1795. ISBN: 9780190130695
TL;DR: This paper explored one strand of the meanings of this term as exemplified by the figure of Vidura in the Mahābhārata and found that Vidura's actions also represent the praxis of his understanding of dharma.
Abstract: Dharma is one of the significant multivalent civilizational concepts that emerged in early India. I explore one strand of the meanings of this term as exemplified by the figure of Vidura in the Mahābhārata. Admittedly a man of low status, he is also regarded as the embodiment of dharma, elucidating it at several points through the text. The definition of dharma that is expounded proves to be relatively expansive, relying on an inclusive understanding of kinship ties as central to the social order. Vidura is also a figure who dissents peacefully and is proved to be sadly accurate in his predictions about the final cataclysm. Apart from his speeches, Vidura’s actions also represent the praxis of his understanding of dharma. Finally, we consider two instances where the figure of Vidura is retrieved to express other ideas of righteous behaviour.
TL;DR: In this paper , a critical appraisal of archaeologists' classification and typology of artefacts, which lead them to the construction of micro-cultures in early Indian archaeology is presented.
Abstract: This article is a critical appraisal of archaeologists’ classification and typology of artefacts, which lead them to the construction of micro-cultures in early Indian archaeology. The central argument is that these archaeological micro-cultures in Indian civilization are archaeologists’ constructs, based on artefactual classification and typology in time and place. Arguably, early Indian archaeological micro-cultures based on ceramic typology are inconsistent and dubious and fail to represent the nature of particular cultures, as well as the structure of the total culture. Further, the article maintains that archaeologists’ methodologically flawed construction of micro-cultures is ahistorical. It obfuscates historians’ macro picture of the composite culture in Indian civilization.