The Indian Economic & Social History Review, Volume 61, Issue 1, Page 33-66, January–March 2024.
This article broaches a simple question: Was there a politics of commerce within Bengali society in the eighteenth century, or was such politics limited to disputes between the British East India Company (EIC) and the Bengal nawabs? I begin by discussing the literature on markets in eighteenth-century Bengal and argue that the relationship between commerce and politics has been too narrowly defined in this body of work. A one-sided focus on determining the impact of the early colonial state, coupled with an uncritical acceptance of Peter Marshall’s Namierite story about the origins of the British empire, has led historians to downplay ideological conflicts within the EIC and British society. To show why these divisions matter, I build on the recent work of James Vaughn and Spencer Leonard, who have shown that between 1750 and 1770, political and ideological conflicts in both Britain and Bengal had far-reaching effects on the character of the British empire. Through an extended discussion of a dispute over market access in 1778 in the city of Calcutta, I show that petty merchants and shopkeepers often opposed arbitrary impositions by regional elites. To fully understand the motivations behind such challenges, I argue that we need to seriously consider divisions within Bengali society as well: namely, the reproduction of caste hierarchies through differential access to markets (and land).
An elusive quest for a region: Darbhanga Raj, caste and language in late colonial India
The Indian Economic & Social History Review, Volume 61, Issue 1, Page 5-31, January–March 2024.
This essay is an exploration of the contingent nature of identity formation in late colonial India. In the wake of the 1912 separation of Bihar and Orissa from Bengal, two distinct conceptions of the region of Mithila and Maithila identity gained prominence. First, the Darbhanga Maharaja viewed Mithila as a bastion of brahmanical orthodoxy, and this underpinned the claims for Mithila to be converted to a native state with its own ruling chief. Second, by the 1930s we see the consolidation of a movement which proposed the Maithili language as the marker of a Maithila people, one that did not make brahmanical orthodoxy or Hinduism a prerequisite to belonging. Both these discourses accepted the mythic conception of Mithila, and its traditional puranic geography, yet the Darbhanga Maharaja embraced all-India markers of belonging by emphasising Hinduism and presenting himself as the leader of brahmanical orthodoxy in India. The local, in this discourse, found validation by embracing national markers, even as the nation itself remained colonised. On the other hand, the Maithili language movement, which gained momentum in the twilight of colonial rule and in post-independence India, emphasised and embraced the local. This essay therefore charts the gradual shift in the conception of Maithila identity where language displaces religion and brahmanical orthodoxy, as championed by the Darbhanga Maharaja, to become the marker of local identity.
This essay is an exploration of the contingent nature of identity formation in late colonial India. In the wake of the 1912 separation of Bihar and Orissa from Bengal, two distinct conceptions of the region of Mithila and Maithila identity gained prominence. First, the Darbhanga Maharaja viewed Mithila as a bastion of brahmanical orthodoxy, and this underpinned the claims for Mithila to be converted to a native state with its own ruling chief. Second, by the 1930s we see the consolidation of a movement which proposed the Maithili language as the marker of a Maithila people, one that did not make brahmanical orthodoxy or Hinduism a prerequisite to belonging. Both these discourses accepted the mythic conception of Mithila, and its traditional puranic geography, yet the Darbhanga Maharaja embraced all-India markers of belonging by emphasising Hinduism and presenting himself as the leader of brahmanical orthodoxy in India. The local, in this discourse, found validation by embracing national markers, even as the nation itself remained colonised. On the other hand, the Maithili language movement, which gained momentum in the twilight of colonial rule and in post-independence India, emphasised and embraced the local. This essay therefore charts the gradual shift in the conception of Maithila identity where language displaces religion and brahmanical orthodoxy, as championed by the Darbhanga Maharaja, to become the marker of local identity.
Caste, food and colonialism: ‘Outcaste’ domestics in the European houses of Madras Presidency
The Indian Economic & Social History Review, Volume 61, Issue 1, Page 97-131, January–March 2024.
This article argues that in the Madras Presidency, the caste Hindus treated both the European masters and their ‘outcaste’ domestic servants as impure due to their shared practice of beef-eating. This, consequently, fostered a relationship of mutual dependence between them. Although not all servants participated in the preparation of food in European houses, they had to deal with beef in one way or another, such as purchasing and serving it, or simply working with the people who ate beef. Therefore, a willingness to handle beef was one of the essential criteria for employment in colonial bungalows that benefitted the outcastes exclusively. These new employment opportunities under colonialism created an educated ‘higher-class’ among them. This class later played a pivotal role in organising the outcastes and advocating for their rights. Though dependent on each other, the relationship between Europeans and their outcaste servants was not always cordial; there was tension inherent in it. The article further posits that attempts to maintain European racial and cultural dominance did not always succeed in the domestic sphere.
This article argues that in the Madras Presidency, the caste Hindus treated both the European masters and their ‘outcaste’ domestic servants as impure due to their shared practice of beef-eating. This, consequently, fostered a relationship of mutual dependence between them. Although not all servants participated in the preparation of food in European houses, they had to deal with beef in one way or another, such as purchasing and serving it, or simply working with the people who ate beef. Therefore, a willingness to handle beef was one of the essential criteria for employment in colonial bungalows that benefitted the outcastes exclusively. These new employment opportunities under colonialism created an educated ‘higher-class’ among them. This class later played a pivotal role in organising the outcastes and advocating for their rights. Though dependent on each other, the relationship between Europeans and their outcaste servants was not always cordial; there was tension inherent in it. The article further posits that attempts to maintain European racial and cultural dominance did not always succeed in the domestic sphere.
Uncomfortable quilts: textile-based artivism in response to Bangladeshi garment factory disasters
.
Of relics and kings: Cyprus in Franciscan apocrypha of the Trecento
Tamil Esthetic Tradition in a Foreign Genre: A Study of Jeyamohan’s Kaadu (2003)
.
Settlement Patterns: Discernible Trends in the Sub-Regions of Early Medieval Bengal
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 2, Page 280-303, December 2023.
The present study seeks to look for discernible trends in the way settlement patterns took shape in the various sub-regions of Bengal (c. fourth to thirteenth century), broadly corresponding to the modern Indian state of West Bengal as well as Bangladesh. The sources primarily include the epigraphs issued by various ruling dynasties and the thirteenth-century text by Sandhyākaranandi, the Rāmacaritam. The essay has also made a comparison with the scenario prevailing in Assam. Certain pertinent findings on the occupation of people living in largely the marshy and riverine terrain of Bengal and Assam have also been commented upon. Occupations and settlement patterns both being traditional responses to ecological settings and historical factors, many people living in the marshy lands in Bengal and Assam took to fishing and boatmanship in the period under study. Conspicuous presence of the groups of Kaivarttas (traditionally associated with fishing and boatmanship) in both regions, and individuals having names suffixed with ‘-naukins’ in Assam substantiate this fact. Tentative map(s) prepared on the basis of inscriptions show that rural settlements were both nucleated and single farm kinds, regularly interacted at various levels, and for Assam, the possibility of nucleated form is more than what has been acknowledged by scholars so far.
The present study seeks to look for discernible trends in the way settlement patterns took shape in the various sub-regions of Bengal (c. fourth to thirteenth century), broadly corresponding to the modern Indian state of West Bengal as well as Bangladesh. The sources primarily include the epigraphs issued by various ruling dynasties and the thirteenth-century text by Sandhyākaranandi, the Rāmacaritam. The essay has also made a comparison with the scenario prevailing in Assam. Certain pertinent findings on the occupation of people living in largely the marshy and riverine terrain of Bengal and Assam have also been commented upon. Occupations and settlement patterns both being traditional responses to ecological settings and historical factors, many people living in the marshy lands in Bengal and Assam took to fishing and boatmanship in the period under study. Conspicuous presence of the groups of Kaivarttas (traditionally associated with fishing and boatmanship) in both regions, and individuals having names suffixed with ‘-naukins’ in Assam substantiate this fact. Tentative map(s) prepared on the basis of inscriptions show that rural settlements were both nucleated and single farm kinds, regularly interacted at various levels, and for Assam, the possibility of nucleated form is more than what has been acknowledged by scholars so far.
Book review: Sunita Lall, Neeraj Kumar and Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff, BIHAR: Crossing Boundaries
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 2, Page 351-353, December 2023.
Sunita Lall, Neeraj Kumar and Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff, BIHAR: Crossing Boundaries. New Delhi: Primus Books: 2020, 374 pp., ₹1395, ISBN: 9789390022281.
Sunita Lall, Neeraj Kumar and Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff, BIHAR: Crossing Boundaries. New Delhi: Primus Books: 2020, 374 pp., ₹1395, ISBN: 9789390022281.
Book review: Dipesh Chakrabarty, The Climate of History: In a Planetary Age
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 2, Page 349-351, December 2023.
Dipesh Chakrabarty, The Climate of History: In a Planetary Age. New Delhi: Primus Books: 2021, vi + 284 pp., ₹995, ISBN: 9789390737543 (Hardback).
Dipesh Chakrabarty, The Climate of History: In a Planetary Age. New Delhi: Primus Books: 2021, vi + 284 pp., ₹995, ISBN: 9789390737543 (Hardback).
Beyond the Colonial Lens: An Investigation into the Chequered History of Assam Tea
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 2, Page 322-343, December 2023.
This article presents a fresh perspective on tea cultivation in Assam, negating the widely held belief that the British Empire’s introduction to Assam tea symbolised societal advancement and economic growth. This article argues that the primary intention of the British was pure economic that catapulted the destruction of the thick forested areas, marginalised the native population and abolished their kingdoms. Despite this, colonial Assamese elites and mainstream industrialists have glorified the British tea venture. In this attempt of reviewing the history of Assam tea from an alternative point of view, efforts have also been made to analyse how the East India Company’s desire to maintain its monopoly in the Chinese tea trade, the Calcutta Botanical Garden’s desire to uphold the supremacy of the Chinese tea plant, and the military personnel’s quest for new sources of tea played their roles in it.
This article presents a fresh perspective on tea cultivation in Assam, negating the widely held belief that the British Empire’s introduction to Assam tea symbolised societal advancement and economic growth. This article argues that the primary intention of the British was pure economic that catapulted the destruction of the thick forested areas, marginalised the native population and abolished their kingdoms. Despite this, colonial Assamese elites and mainstream industrialists have glorified the British tea venture. In this attempt of reviewing the history of Assam tea from an alternative point of view, efforts have also been made to analyse how the East India Company’s desire to maintain its monopoly in the Chinese tea trade, the Calcutta Botanical Garden’s desire to uphold the supremacy of the Chinese tea plant, and the military personnel’s quest for new sources of tea played their roles in it.