Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 2, Page 266-279, December 2023.
It is a general belief that when a person undertakes any business enterprise, he calculates profit as his ultimate aim. Profit is defined as the monetary gain made by a person by selling something for more than it costs him. As per the norms of the economic concept of medieval Europe, moral scruples such as greed and avarice were associated with the notion of profit. This in turn acted as a hindrance to pursue profit while undertaking the profession of business. In the sixteenth century, due to Calvinism, the life of business was given a new sanctity. In the context of India, we can anchor the fact that the calculation of profit was an integral aspect of the existence of the community of bania. This can be established with the help of a study of the Ardhakathanaka—an autobiographical memoir. It was written by Banarasidas in A.D. 1641 (V.S. 1698) when he was living at Agra. Banarasidas was a middle-class Jain merchant. While understanding the notion of profit, the present article looks into the aspect of whether religion acts as a restraint or promotes business as a profession. It enables us to seek an insight into the mercantile world of the early sixteenth and late seventeenth centuries. This was also the time when the Mughal Empire was in its heyday. The Ardhakathanaka is an invaluable contemporary source; hence, it has great historical value. Profit being an integral aspect of mercantile life, this feature is explicitly highlighted in the Ardhakathanaka. We get to know about the motives and methods employed by the bania community to earn profit. Despite providing immense, crucial information associated with mercantile life, historians have not highlighted this aspect of the Ardhakathanaka. The article is an attempt to draw the gaze of historians to a primary source providing vital first-hand information regarding the motives and methods in the pursuit of profit during the medieval period.
Category Archives: Indian Historical Review
Hegemony of Exotic Material Culture of the Adis: A Review on Cross-culture Interaction of the Tibetans and Adis
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 1, Page 70-89, June 2023.
One of the tribes of Arunachal Pradesh, the Adis, lacked the skill to produce finished goods they used, yet they obtained them from Tibet by means of long-distance trade. Tibetan material culture adopted by the Adis was borrowed directly through cross-border trade and indirectly from the neighbouring tribes. The exotic goods had multitude of functions in the Adi society. The use of such goods in the Adi society had no relation with the purpose they were actually produced for. Some had different values in terms of utility. The cultural value of such goods got inculcated in Adi society due to their meaning-based application. In due course of time, some got indigenised and carried face value as wealth of the Adis. This paper aims at understanding the hegemony of the Tibetan material culture in Adi society. Focus shall be shed on the overview of the dynamism of material culture with an illustration which is prevalent at present too. It brought changes in the belief and socio-economic life of the Adis. It is significant to bring it to light because the appropriation of exotic materials played a vital role in the historical trajectory of the Adis. The study here is empirical as well as historical. Primarily, oral narratives of the persons who have witnessed this process during the second half of the twentieth century are considered in data collection. In addition, available written accounts are taken into account to theme out this paper.
One of the tribes of Arunachal Pradesh, the Adis, lacked the skill to produce finished goods they used, yet they obtained them from Tibet by means of long-distance trade. Tibetan material culture adopted by the Adis was borrowed directly through cross-border trade and indirectly from the neighbouring tribes. The exotic goods had multitude of functions in the Adi society. The use of such goods in the Adi society had no relation with the purpose they were actually produced for. Some had different values in terms of utility. The cultural value of such goods got inculcated in Adi society due to their meaning-based application. In due course of time, some got indigenised and carried face value as wealth of the Adis. This paper aims at understanding the hegemony of the Tibetan material culture in Adi society. Focus shall be shed on the overview of the dynamism of material culture with an illustration which is prevalent at present too. It brought changes in the belief and socio-economic life of the Adis. It is significant to bring it to light because the appropriation of exotic materials played a vital role in the historical trajectory of the Adis. The study here is empirical as well as historical. Primarily, oral narratives of the persons who have witnessed this process during the second half of the twentieth century are considered in data collection. In addition, available written accounts are taken into account to theme out this paper.
Can an Electoral System Ensure Real Representation? The Poona Pact and Preferable Dalit Representatives
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 1, Page 25-46, June 2023.
This article challenges the traditional view that Dalits† gave up their right to representation when Ambedkar signed the Poona Pact and agreed to joint electorates, which allowed caste Hindus to elect ‘failed’ Dalit candidates of the primaries in the final polls. The article shows that upper-caste Hindus cast their votes for the same Dalit candidates in the final elections who received the highest Dalit votes in the primaries through an examination of the provincial elections in 1936−1937 and 1945−1946. The article argues that Dalit candidates elected either through joint or separate electorates cannot necessarily guarantee the autonomy of Dalit representatives. It contends that only Dalit legislators having the epistemic aspect emphasised by Ambedkar and the empathetic character underlined by Gandhi can be preferable representatives of Dalit interests.
This article challenges the traditional view that Dalits† gave up their right to representation when Ambedkar signed the Poona Pact and agreed to joint electorates, which allowed caste Hindus to elect ‘failed’ Dalit candidates of the primaries in the final polls. The article shows that upper-caste Hindus cast their votes for the same Dalit candidates in the final elections who received the highest Dalit votes in the primaries through an examination of the provincial elections in 1936−1937 and 1945−1946. The article argues that Dalit candidates elected either through joint or separate electorates cannot necessarily guarantee the autonomy of Dalit representatives. It contends that only Dalit legislators having the epistemic aspect emphasised by Ambedkar and the empathetic character underlined by Gandhi can be preferable representatives of Dalit interests.
Book review: Meeta Deka (Ed.), Urbanism in South Asia: Northeast India Outside-In
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 1, Page 193-195, June 2023.
Meeta Deka (Ed.), Urbanism in South Asia: Northeast India Outside-In (Delhi: Primus Books, 2020), viii + 340pp., ₹1,195, ISBN: 9789390022335 (Hardback).
Meeta Deka (Ed.), Urbanism in South Asia: Northeast India Outside-In (Delhi: Primus Books, 2020), viii + 340pp., ₹1,195, ISBN: 9789390022335 (Hardback).
Book review: Suraj Bhan Bhardwaj, State and Peasant Society in Medieval North India: Essays on Changing Contours of Mewat, Thirteenth to Eighteenth Century
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 1, Page 196-197, June 2023.
Suraj Bhan Bhardwaj, State and Peasant Society in Medieval North India: Essays on Changing Contours of Mewat, Thirteenth to Eighteenth Century (Delhi: Primus Books, 2019), 220 pp., ₹995, ISBN: 9789386552235 (Hardback).
Suraj Bhan Bhardwaj, State and Peasant Society in Medieval North India: Essays on Changing Contours of Mewat, Thirteenth to Eighteenth Century (Delhi: Primus Books, 2019), 220 pp., ₹995, ISBN: 9789386552235 (Hardback).
Book review: Santosh Kumar Rai, Weaving Hierarchies: Handloom Weavers in Early Twentieth Century United Provinces
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 1, Page 198-200, June 2023.
Santosh Kumar Rai, Weaving Hierarchies: Handloom Weavers in Early Twentieth Century United Provinces (Delhi: Primus, 2021), xx + 515 pp., ₹1,595, ISBN: 9789390737758 (Hardback).
Santosh Kumar Rai, Weaving Hierarchies: Handloom Weavers in Early Twentieth Century United Provinces (Delhi: Primus, 2021), xx + 515 pp., ₹1,595, ISBN: 9789390737758 (Hardback).
Shifting Narratives of Soil in Scientific Discourses of Colonial Assam Tea Plantations
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 1, Page 129-145, June 2023.
With the establishment of tea plantations in Assam in the first half of the nineteenth century, colonial tea planters and scientists began to examine ways to profitably produce tea for a growing global market. Apart from the visible landscape alterations through mass deforestation, tea monocultures also surreptitiously effected considerable transformation on its immediate physical environment, particularly on the soil. This paper highlights how the question of soil came under the purview of the colonial tea scientists when over the years, consequently and inevitably, these plantations showed a decline in the quality and quantity of tea produced. As a result, the initial conviction in the fertility of Assam’s soil within the tea discourse began to be replaced with discussions that revealed how plantation cultivation of tea itself was at the root of these problems in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
With the establishment of tea plantations in Assam in the first half of the nineteenth century, colonial tea planters and scientists began to examine ways to profitably produce tea for a growing global market. Apart from the visible landscape alterations through mass deforestation, tea monocultures also surreptitiously effected considerable transformation on its immediate physical environment, particularly on the soil. This paper highlights how the question of soil came under the purview of the colonial tea scientists when over the years, consequently and inevitably, these plantations showed a decline in the quality and quantity of tea produced. As a result, the initial conviction in the fertility of Assam’s soil within the tea discourse began to be replaced with discussions that revealed how plantation cultivation of tea itself was at the root of these problems in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Temple Desecration in Pre-modern India and Indo-Muslim States: A Discussion Beyond Historiography
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 1, Page 159-192, June 2023.
Recent articles on temple desecration in pre-modern India and Indo-Muslim states by Richard M. Eaton published in Frontlilne have contributed to the popular Western narratives about India and Indian history. There are many contested areas, misunderstandings and misinterpretations in Eaton’s deliberations on the problem arising out of the conventional historiographic method. Here, an attempt has been made to critically review some of the arguments of Eaton on temple desecration in pre-modern India in a wider methodological perspective, that is, beyond historiography. The historiographic evidence alone in interpreting Indian history may not be enough in view of the complexity of Indian situation, thus necessitating validation of historiography by careful application of contemporary ethnological evidence, circumstantial material evidence and specific Indian contextual situation.
Recent articles on temple desecration in pre-modern India and Indo-Muslim states by Richard M. Eaton published in Frontlilne have contributed to the popular Western narratives about India and Indian history. There are many contested areas, misunderstandings and misinterpretations in Eaton’s deliberations on the problem arising out of the conventional historiographic method. Here, an attempt has been made to critically review some of the arguments of Eaton on temple desecration in pre-modern India in a wider methodological perspective, that is, beyond historiography. The historiographic evidence alone in interpreting Indian history may not be enough in view of the complexity of Indian situation, thus necessitating validation of historiography by careful application of contemporary ethnological evidence, circumstantial material evidence and specific Indian contextual situation.
Book review: Jean-Francois Salles, Sources on the Gauda Period in Bengal: Essay in Archaeology
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 1, Page 201-202, June 2023.
Jean-Francois Salles, Sources on the Gauda Period in Bengal: Essay in Archaeology (Delhi: Primus Book, 2020), xvi + 249 pp., ₹1,095, ISBN: 9789390022847 (Hardback).
Jean-Francois Salles, Sources on the Gauda Period in Bengal: Essay in Archaeology (Delhi: Primus Book, 2020), xvi + 249 pp., ₹1,095, ISBN: 9789390022847 (Hardback).
Education and Communalism in Colonial India: The Context of the 1930s
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 1, Page 47-69, June 2023.
The decade of the 1930s appears to be one of the most tumultuous as well as complex in the timeline of India’s anti-colonial struggle. It witnessed a close interplay of community-based identities and their politico-cultural manifestations. Education was one such important cultural attribute which increasingly pervaded the political domain. Its various manifestations, viz., language, script, textbooks and curriculum, etc., gradually acquired political connotations. Such a process began with the nineteenth-century socio-religious reform movements when in the pursuit of cultural nationalism, education and its symbols were appropriated to create community-specific cultural identities. One of the key objectives of this article is to delineate the process by which this appropriation resurfaced with much more vigour during the 1930s; this time associating itself with the idea of separate nationhood. Thus, the category of education was used as an agency to create and further accentuate sociocultural identities with specific political dimensions. Also, a critical observation of the ideological tussle, associated with the various symbols of education during the 1930s, along with the structures of British colonialism would unravel the process which culminated in the Pakistan Resolution of the Muslim League (1940) and ultimately the Partition of India. This would also reveal that amongst a section of Muslims, cultural alienation preceded political alienation.
The decade of the 1930s appears to be one of the most tumultuous as well as complex in the timeline of India’s anti-colonial struggle. It witnessed a close interplay of community-based identities and their politico-cultural manifestations. Education was one such important cultural attribute which increasingly pervaded the political domain. Its various manifestations, viz., language, script, textbooks and curriculum, etc., gradually acquired political connotations. Such a process began with the nineteenth-century socio-religious reform movements when in the pursuit of cultural nationalism, education and its symbols were appropriated to create community-specific cultural identities. One of the key objectives of this article is to delineate the process by which this appropriation resurfaced with much more vigour during the 1930s; this time associating itself with the idea of separate nationhood. Thus, the category of education was used as an agency to create and further accentuate sociocultural identities with specific political dimensions. Also, a critical observation of the ideological tussle, associated with the various symbols of education during the 1930s, along with the structures of British colonialism would unravel the process which culminated in the Pakistan Resolution of the Muslim League (1940) and ultimately the Partition of India. This would also reveal that amongst a section of Muslims, cultural alienation preceded political alienation.